Summer Happens!!!!

Summer is here, but where are the slow, lazy days that come with it? We have been busier than ever, but having a BLAST!!!! I have just returned from a State Tennis Tournament in Mobile where it was HOT HOT HOT!!!! My playing was not so hot, but I had lots of fun with the girls on my team!!!! Then, I left Mobile and joined Will in Orange Beach at one of our friends houses on the bay. We had a relaxing 2 days to spend without children. It was VERY nice. The oil made it's first appearances, we could see tar balls up and down the beach Saturday morning and then the lifeguards started riding down the beach telling everyone to get out of the water. I forgot my camera on the beach, but the normally beautiful horizon was replaced with orange boom as far as the eye could see. And skimmer boats going back and forth and helicopters flying overhead. I pray that this spill will get under control very soon. It's so sad to think what may happen to the most beautiful beaches in the world!!!!

Back home we've played outside alot, but now that's it's nearing 100 degrees and 97% humidity everyday, that's coming to a close.

You see this little guy below: we are dealing with LOTS of discipline issues right now. 3 1/2 is ROUGH - his VBS teacher (who was also his Choir teacher last year) will also be his Sunday School teacher next year, so she's getting to know him WELL - she has her hands full, but I'm also dealing with it DILIGENTLY at home - no one said motherhood was easy - it's exhausting!!!!!!!

The park is always fun, but now you have to go at 5:30 in the morning to enjoy it!!!!

The pool - now that's the place to be!!!!!

We are right in the middle of a busy VBS week, with swimming in the afternoons on most days and nothing on our schedules at night (except for my Thursday night Bible Study on Esther - Beth Moore - it is FABULOUS!!!!!)

Summer time at it's best. We've enjoyed watching fireflies out the windows at night and reading lots of books from our library!!!! The grasshoppers still get tended too nearly daily, it's fun watching them get bigger and bigger and seeing the wonderment(is that a word?) in the children's eyes when they catch one!!!!

Oliver, Critters and More

A few weeks ago (the Sunday night after we got back from the beach) the children had their church choir program AND their preschool end of year program ON THE SAME NIGHT, as usual of the last 3 years!!!! We went to the church program first and let Wilson sing there. When they walked into the sanctuary, he saw me, started crying and REFUSED to go on stage with the rest of the choir. SO, I convinced him to go up there if I went with him. He did, and after much probing and dirty looks and threats, he stood tall and sang his little heart out!!!

THEN, my mom and dad and Will and Henderson RUSHED off to the preschool to get the boys in the class ready to sing their songs there. I stayed behind and watched Emma Claire's class sing!!!!

And boy did they sing! They have a WONDERFUL class of musicians and she has a very LOUD cousin (Patton, 2 to the right of Emma Claire). He cracked me up!!!!! He was belting out singing at the top of his lungs, bless his heart.

As soon as they were finished singing, Emma Claire and my sister Katie and Will's parents RUSHED over to the school where we totally MISSED Wilson and Henderson singing. The good news though, without MOMMY in the crowd, BOTH of them sang their little hearts out and didn't miss a beat. I'm the one to blame.

Well, SUMMER time is here and we are living it up! Playing outside, swimming, watching long movies in the cool basement, VBS, you name it we are doing it!!!!


We have unknowingly harvest black grasshoppers. I should have shown them to you a few months ago, the children found one of our daylillies COVERED with thousands of itty bitty black grasshoppers. And they are still there - and growing. They started out less than a centimeter big and by the end of the summer they'll be huge - like 4 inches long HUGE!!!! All 3 children run out to look for them and catch many of them, even Henderson has gotten good at catching them. We always let them go and thankfully none have gotten in our house YET!!!!

Does this picture not just scream SNAKE!!!!!!

There are the little things...

We also have 2 hermit crabs, Willie on the right and Sandy on the left.

Emma Claire got pinched by that huge purple claw on the first day, so she's a little skiddish of them, but Wilson, well, let's just say it's only a matter of time!!!!

Will caught a frog on Saturday and he stayed in the aqaurium for awhile, but later Emma Claire and I looked out the window and saw Wilson holding him by the back of his neck - he just can't help it, he's ALL BOY!!!! He was soon let go, back to his family!!!!

Last week was also filled with OLIVER shows. Emma Claire was a workhouse kid and in the children's ensemble. Chandler and Mallory were pickpockets.

This scary looking man, is my brother-in-law, Stan, who did a fabulous job in his first ever acting job as FAGIN!!!!! Isn't the makeup wonderful???? You can see a better picture of Stan in my beach pictures!!!!

It was a wonderful week, but rehearsals until 11:30 each night last week and still up at 5:00 each morning about did me in!!!!! To say I was exhausted last night was an understatement!!!!

This week is a short week for me, as I'm headed to Mobile for a State Tennis Tournament on Wednesday, then to Orange Beach with Will for a rare trip without kids!!!! Too bad the oil has beat us there, but the time alone will still be nice!!!!

Election Day!!!!

Vote Today!!!!

Vote Tuesday!!!!

He's my Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa. He's been teaching Sunday School and WALKING THE WALK for as long as I've known him. He's the REAL DEAL. Please learn more, and vote Tuesday!!!! (fellow Alabamians)!!!!

More, I just can't help it!!!!

I'm still wishing we were at the beach! These are pictures of our final day and night! We all got out of the sand and pool and got dressed for a night at Pier Park!

The final day was filled with as much beach as we could get!!!! Can you tell my camera was set on a 1600 manual setting - everyone is GLOWING!!!!

Grandaddy Bud rarely makes it on the beach, so this was a TREAT!!!!!

(This is where the fair skin and red hair that Wilson has comes from!!!)

He even got in the water!

Will loves to play in the sand AND the water, so that's perfect for the children (and me)!!!

Some neighbors of our had this fun game set up that they let the children play!!! The only bad thing was they had this horrible tent, so hands were washed WELL when the game ended! ha ha!!!!

Okay, enough of the brightness, back to a better camera setting!!!!

At Pier Park, Henderson watched Wilson on the airplanes, and REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to be on one with him. How do you explain to a 2 year old that he's just not tall enough?

Sweetness.

Henderson DID get to ride the carousel with his daddy and Wilson!!!!

Again, bad setting, but there's just something magical about this picture!!!

Another LARGE family picture taken by an innocent bystander!!!!

Emma Claire chose to do the bungee trampoline, but I couldn't convince her to do a flip - maybe I should have taken a turn and shown her how to do it!!!!

Pushing the stroller was a highlight of the evening!!!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!!!!!

Or shaved ice in Emma Claire's case, she doesn't eat ice cream.

On the way out, we saw these teeny tiny turtles in a kiosk. Aren't they the cutest things EVER!!!! The only thing that kept me from buying one is the fact that after we checked out on Saturday morning, we were spending the day at Shipwreck Island and the poor things would have suffocated in the car.

SO,

we bought hermit crabs AFTER Shipwreck and I'll save those for another post!!!!