Annual College Reunion

Every year, I always try to get together with my college buddies & their families. We are all pretty close but it's always so hard to coordinate a time for 8 families to meet one day in one place. Somehow we always manage to work it in for most of us at least (today we were missing one family). Today, they all came to Boiling Springs to the splash park at the YMCA. It was perfect! The kids had plenty of entertainment and a place to run around and the adults had plenty of opportunity to talk & catch up. We always have a great time & it seems like each time we get together we grow in numbers a little bit. This year we have 11 week old Baby Ezra (who belongs to Carl & Heather). We ordered pizza & brought some other food & drinks & had a merry time. The weather cooperated for the most part... we had a few times we had to get out of the pool, but at least we didn't have a wash out like last night.

(for some reason, I'm having a hard time publishing my slide show, so for now, just click this link) BTW... the baby I'm holding is NOT mine... I just happened to be the one to get him to sleep, so I just kept him.

Happy Birthday Carter & America

I can't believe I forgot to post this on Tuesday... Carter turned 6 on July 1st. I guess because we had both boy's party together last month, I thought I was finished for a while. He's my little firecracker boy... in every way, shape & form. Carter is full of energy! He's a good kid but very determined. He doesn't back down and will stand his ground...that will come in handy one day. He also has a great imagination... although his stories are not as frequent as they used to be. He's full of questions... asks about 1,000 per day...loves his sister and is very tender with her... a great reader...great at sports (he gets that from his Daddy)... and is just stinkin cute!

We have a tradition that we take our kids out to eat on their birthDAY and they get to pick the place, so Carter chose Chuck E. Cheese. Let me just say that I'm not a fan of that place, but the kids love it, so it's worth the trip. Positive side of Chuck E. Cheese... all games are only 1 token...that's a lot of game playing. Negative side of Chuck E. Cheese... the pizza is terrible, but we all ate it anyway because we were so hungry. (There's nothing that a little ranch dressing can't make taste good...ha!)

Onto another holiday... the 4th of July. We had big plans for today... until the rain came. We went to a party today hosted by some friends in our Sunday School class. They invited the whole class over to their home on Moss Lake. Carter asked about 1,000,000 questions today in preparation... how many boats do they have, do i have to swim in the water, how fast do the boats go, what color is the boat, where will i sit on the boat, are we eating there, what time are we eating there, what are we having to eat, will there be a bathroom there, how long will it take us to get there, and on & on (get my point?!). Just as we were getting there a big gray cloud lingered over the area. Just as I finally convinced Carter that he could get into the lake & swim, the thunder started and here comes the rain. As much as we need rain, I was almost afraid to pray for it not to rain. We thought it would rain & pass on over like every other storm that comes through our area, but not today. We had a steady rain most of the evening with a few breaks in between. We still had a good time though. The food & fellowship was good, the boys got to ride the jet ski, or "jes-key" as Carter calls it and Kensley loved playing in the mud puddles in the yard. (She fell a couple times and it looked like she had smeared poop all over her butt.) She was SO dirty but having so much fun playing in the rain.

*We did see fireworks last night at the mall. Honestly, it was kind of diappointing after seeing the Disney fireworks.

The Bachelorette

Does anyone watch this show? Man, last night was a huge shocker!!! I can't believe that she let Jeremy go. What the heck was she thinking? Not that Jesse isn't a nice guy, but they don't fit together at all. She always talked about Jeremy being so perfect for her. Who knows? I'm pulling for Jason though... have been since 1/2 way through the show. He's so cute & seems like a great guy. I can't wait until the finale next Monday, but then I'll be bummed & won't have any show to look forward to watching anymore this summer.

Kensley's Disney shirt

The other day I was going to put on Kensley's gown to get her ready for bed & she fought me tooth & nail to not put that thing on. She screamed like I've never heard her before. When I took it off, she kept pointing towards her dresser saying "oofey". I was clueless & opened up the drawer to attempt to get something else. So I pulled out another set of PJ's & she screamed & shook her head and said "no, no, no,no" and kept pointing. Finally I figured out she was pointing to her Disney shirt. It has all the characters on it that are on the show Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she was saying Goofey because he's on the shirt. That's one of her favorite shows that she watches regularly, so I should have known she could do this. But I held up the shirt & she named all the characters ALL BY HERSELF! It was so stinking cute!
(By the way they are mickey, minnie, goofey, donald, daisy & pluto)

12 Years Together

Today is mine & Corby's anniversary...12 years of marriage. That's crazy to think we've been married that long already. Corby was just saying today when we were married 4 years we had Chandler, 6 years we had Carter and 10 years we had Kensley. (There will be no more babies by the way) We dropped all the kids off with my parents this afternoon and Corby & I are enjoying the evening together. We had plans to go hiking at South Mountain Park, but right before we left there was a big weather warning of severe thunderstorms for pretty much the whole area, so we decided not to chance getting stuck on the mountain top in the rain. Instead we went to Gaffney & saw a movie (Get Smart... with Steve Carrell... very funny... good movie) and went to eat at Cracker Barrel. It was nice to have a date and eat meal by ourselves. It's been quite a while since we've been able to do that. Tonight we're going to play some games if we can stay awake... you know you are getting old when you say that. We didn't get our Sunday afternoon nap in today and we were out late last night at the drive-in movies, so we might not make it too long. However, it's been a nice day to spend alone with my husband and be able to enjoy each other's company.

PS... this is Kensley's first night away from Mommy. I'm okay with it, I hope she will be too.