All tuckered out

It was only 6:30 and she had been at the beach for about an hour and was completely worn out! Of course no nap on the way down didn't help!

Lulu is swimming!



Earlier this week Langley declared that she wasn't going to wear her float anymore so she and I worked on her swimming and she has taken off. Of course she scares me to death!! Please disregard Bennett screaming in the background. I'm not quite sure what was going on with that.

C-town 4th of July

The week of the 4th of July the children and I headed up to Centralia to be with Coco & Poppa Jack and all of our cousins. We got there on Sunday and before everyone else arrived on Tuesday Bennett got to go fishing with Poppa Jack. The first went digging for bait but the ground was too dry and hard so they ended up buying worms.

They just went down the road with the golf cart and fished in the neighbors front pond and were successful! Bennett caught his first blue gill.

Of course Parker had to hold it too!

It was about supper time so Poppa Jack cleaned it up and fried it for Bennett to eat.

Sarah, Shannon and Josie were already in Centralia since they were in between homes so the girls got to spend some time together before all the boys showed up! Below Josie made a new friend in Coco's garden.

Parker taking everyone on a tour in Coco's garden.

Josie and Langley building blocks together.

Just a cute picture

Day in Jackson

I finally made the time to take Parker and Bennett to the new Children's Museum in Jackson (it probably opened over two years ago now). Better late than never! After lunch we also went to the Natural History Museum next door where they were having a dinosaur exhibit. I told them to look like the T Rex was eating them and this is the result

The children's museum is very interactive and had a lot of exhibits about all the different industrys in MS. Bennett LOVED the forestry exhibit where he was able to work the machines. We visited it several times!

Of course Parker gravitated towards the emails and even milked a cow (not a real one)!

Pretty sure this might be one of my favorite pictures ever (if only Langley was in it)!

Also in June we celebrated Ruby's 4th birthday with a swim party at the Country Club. Our club pool is great because it has this large 2 ft baby pool that flows into the big pool so all the little ones can play and splash around.

Ruby and Bennett having a snack.

When we first arrived at the Club Langley just said "diving board" so we put her floats on and she went straight for it

And without hesitation

jumped!

Then she was done and went to swim with the other children. It was too funny!

New swimsuit

Look at my new swimsuit! It isn't a yellow polka dot bikini but pink is the best.

We would rather play in the sprinklers than the pool somedays

Bennett is doing front flips on the neighbors trampoline and he is doing them in the pool now!

Langley loves to jump as long as she is the only one on the trampoline.

Parker and Bennett were busying doing something or another so Langley and I enjoyed a game of Candyland.

While the fence was down in the backyard we didn't do much swimming and instead headed to Lake Caroline to visit with Michael and Taylor and ride on the boat (unfortunatley Crissie and Ellis were out of town). My children had never been on a boat before and loved every minute of it!

We even got to go tubing....All of us! Clif and Parker went first and Parker had a blast

Bennett and Taylor went next (sorry no picture) and then Langley and I went.  She loved it too but not so sure I will have the urge to go again.

We enjoyed our visit to in Madison but hope that come again when we can visit and play with Crissie & Ellis.

Josie is 2

 Father's Day weekend we headed to Memphis to celebrate Josephine's 2nd birthday. Shannon & Sarah have made some wonderful friends while they were in Memphis and I know that they will make more in Jacksonville. It was very nice to see some of them again along with their children.

One of their friend hosted the party at their house which was beautiful. All the children enjoyed swimming and behind the pool was a beautifully landscaped hill that Parker enjoyed looking for frogs in while taking a break from the water.

Langley and Bennett loved the ledge on the side of the pool for jumping.

 Owen, Josie & Langley had a wonderful time being silly IN the splash table. 

 Sarah had the cutest decorations from the adorable teapot invitations to the festive party hats. 

I think Josie had a wonderful birthday! 

 We will miss you but look forward to visiting you in your new home!

We have a new artisit in town who offers all sorts of difference classes to children every day! She varies in mediums from clay to paper mache to mosiac to lino (which is shown below). She is very talented and extremely good with children. She also has a pet mama and baby sheep so Parker really loves going to her house for classes. Parker has taken a few classes and come home with some neat art work (later I will post some of her paintings from her regular art class). Below is her Lino (pronounced with a long "i" sound) artwork. Can you guess what it is? I was very impressed with her carving abilities and look forward to her making some neat prints down the road.

Parker's room got a little redo this summer. Her art teacher, Angie Crick, is extremely talented and came over and painted a wall mural in Parker's room. She started after lunch one day and was done by 5. It was amazing how quickly she transformed the room.

She even added some of Parker's favorite critters. She if you can find them all.

Parker loves her new room! Now Bennett keeps asking when we can paint his!

Just a cute photo of Parker helping Bennett play a computer game. I sure hope she will be able to help him with his homework!

In early June some good friends of ours had a Summer Soiree and treated a group of us to a fresh lobster dinner. It was delicious and I can't thank them enough for a wonderful evening. Doesn't this look amazing!?

Clif was out of town at a golf tournament (too bad for him!) so Bennett was my date. He was very intrigued by the delicacy.

He kept collecting all the claws and took this picture himself.

Dinner guests enjoying the evening.

Also in early June Parker lost her other front tooth so here is the first picture we took. Both teeth are coming in nicely but it makes her look so old now!

During June Bennett took swim lessons in the afternoon out at a church member's house who lives near Pillow Academy. Ruby took in the class before him so I would pick her up and take the girls over to play at the playground while we waited for Bennett to be finished. It was a nice time to let Parker and Langley play with their cousin Ruby.

Just a cute picture of Langley.

Parker did a great job of letting the seesaw go up and down cautiously for Langley.

I know that I have posted a couple of camping photos but I have a few more. We had a wonderful time on our camping trip to Jellystone Park even though there were a few issues that developed in the evening with other campers....our children were thankfully asleep. We had a nice tent site that was mostly private because it was the end of the area. The facilities were great and we will definitely come back some day. Below Clif is getting breakfast prepared at our campsite.

Bennett and Langley enjoying playing around at the tent site.

Langley looking for just one more chocolate donut!

Parker stayed very busy along the lakeside trying to catch minnows. Langley, Bennett and I were too busy swimming in the lake!

The splash park was also a lot of fun with two slides and other water activities.

Our last night we participated in the Yogi on the Lake hay ride through the campgrounds. The children really enjoyed seeing Yogi bear (even though they had never heard of him). Langley wanted to keep hugging him and to this day like to call all bears "Yogi bear".