A Nice, Normal Family

Oh, how I love pictures.  I try really hard to get family pictures made every summer when the boys are here with us, and they humor me and always put their smiles on and act like they love it too.  I'm blessed that way.  Anyhow, this year, a quick mini-session was all I thought my wiggly brood could muster.  So, I called my sweet friend, Tammy at Paxson Photography, and she agreed to take on my family for 30 minutes of fame in front of the camera.  I just love this sweet friend of mine.  I told her to photograph who we really were; silly faces, funny poses, all of it.  Thank you again for capturing my family perfectly.  

I lovingly call this photo shoot (in all it's glorious reality) 

"Remember, as far as anyone knows, we are a nice, normal family."  

I'm pretty sure this one is going above the fire place!  Please notice only Lucy's legs are visible in this little diddy as she (very typically) catapults herself across her brothers for a good laugh…

Tammy did somehow manage to get a great money shot where we all looked at the camera at the same time and smiled beautifully(ish) for a nanosecond…Love it!

And we basically laughed, made crazy faces and practiced our yoga sun salutation poses for the remainder of our photo shoot.  I'm embracing reality people, this is who we really are…

And there you go.  Keepin' it real, ya'll.  Thank you again, Tammy, for another great photo shoot!

Summer Reading

Summer reading time again!  Last year really set the standard high with a combined total for our three boys at 1116 books!  This year, Kayden was NOT going to be outdone, and he set a goal to read 1,000 books by himself this summer.  And guess what?! He not only reached his goal, but ended with 1030 books!  That's a lot of dimes from the library fairy!  Cameron came in a close second at 983 books read.  And this year, Sam was pulling up the rear with a meager 330 books read.  So proud of our super summer readers and the library fairy who helps make it all possible! 

Kayden won overall first place with the most books read by anyone in the summer reading program, so he got the honor of putting a pie in Ms. Jessica's face.  He and Cameron also won a free trip to Rock City for all their hard work.  Way to read, boys!

Please notice Sam's sad face.  He's not sure why he got was this milk carton for a prize…

After the closing library ceremony, we all went back to the Burtram back porch for a pizza dinner and sparkling grape juice toast to great reading.  It's tradition now, you know.

These boys and their dimes

A small token to show how much we love our library fairy…

She now has her own elephant sandwich maker to use for our picnics.  Red, of course.

Now, since my pictures wouldn't upload in correct time order, let's go back to the beginning:

Cameron and Lucy volunteered to help the Science guy with his show.

Lucy was the first to check out this special book donated to the library in her name

 to celebrate her first birthday.  Thanks Kimmie and PawPaw.

Ms. Jessica leads Monday night science with "Sink or Float" density experiment.

Picnics.  Same place. Same crew.  A crowd favorite.

We even added a new crew to our weekly feast of food and books.  Love us some Watsons.  

Weekly prizes.  Free ice cream was this week's treat!

This boy proudly paid for his pizza himself with his free pizza ticket!

And, as it turns out, that milk carton prize at the finale ceremony wasn't so bad after all!  A make yourself a pirate kit complete with treasure map and magical treasure chest.  Love it!

A big thanks again to all our library friends and volunteers for putting on such a wonderful summer program for our kiddos.  The work you are doing is truly making a difference!  

I geek the library, for sure!

Visiting Grammy

We are nearing the end of summer, a time when schedules are a little more flexible than usual, and I heard through the grapevine that Grammy was home alone this weekend.  So…I thought it might be time to load up the kiddos and pay sweet Grammy a visit.  Low and behold, she had a few surprises up her sleeve for the kiddos as well.

She had been to an antique shop and scored this perfect little baby carriage for Lucy, complete with an antique little orphan Annie (with Sandy) doll to put in the carriage.  Lucy knew just what to do with that baby carriage.  Up and down the halls she went pushing her baby.  

Captain Obvious, Sam, reminded Grammy that he needed a surprise too, so he go a little spending money to take with him to the toy store.  What did he buy?  A ninja turtle beanie toy, surprise surprise.  He'd been praying to Jesus and Santa for just such a gift for a whole week.  At least one of them is faithful...

It's always fun to take a walk around the yard and meet all the new animals.

Lucy was less than pleased that she got left behind for the garden tour.

We had lunch with Grammy, and, before we left, I made sure to take some pictures of the little people with their sweet Grammy...

Grammy took the kids to feed bread and apples to all the barnyard animals.  And, Lucy saw no reason why she couldn't crawl right under the fence and join them.

And, what had turned out to be a wildly popular toy in our household these days?  

Why, the antique baby carriage!  Sam adores pushing baby Lucy around in it!

Thank you Grammy for the nice goodies, the yummy lunch, 

and the quality time together.  We love you!

Birthday Rafting

We've been waiting for Evan to turn twelve, so we could book this trip.  White-water rafting on the Ocoee.  He turned 12 in October, and guess what was in the Christmas stockings two months later?  Summertime rolled around, the boys came back to town, and here we are.  On my birthday to boot!  

Amazingly, I am the only one in this group who has ever rafted before, and that was way back in high school.  This was the only only picture I got from rafting, since it's not exactly a camera-friendly excursion.  Was it awesome? Oh yeah!  We made commitment to do this every year; it was such a hit!  Best stocking stuffer EVER!

After rafting, we were told that lunch at the Ocoee Dam Diner was a must, and oh how right they were!   A clever play on words was obviously in use here when we opened the menu and read the sub categories:  Dam Sandwiches, Dam Salads, Dam Specials… If you don't like it, fix your own dam food!  Michael ordered this gigantic burger and ate every bite.

They put a humongous birthday cake hat on me and sang me the dam birthday song.  And, they even paid for the birthday girl's lunch!  Best birthday lunch I can remember in years.  Highly recommended.  We'll be back every year.

Tubes for the Baby Girl

This morning was deja vu' for this momma.  After a stretch of ear infections that antibiotics couldn't cure, Lucy-lu went to get tubes put in her ears. Tubes were such an answered prayer for Sam when he was little, and I'm hoping they provide the same relief for Lucy.  

We showed up at 7:00 am for surgery, and went straight back to the very same room with the very same rocking chair we had when it was Sam's day for tubes.  I even tried to take the same picture pose for comparison.  How's this for exact replica…

Lucy - 14 months                                        Sam - 11 months

And, just like before, there's been a bit of screaming (at first) and crying and whining.  But, lucky for a momma with a very busy baby, some extra snuggle time too.  

I'm On A Boat

When PawPaw said, "We should take the kids out on a boat ride sometime," I said, "How about tomorrow?"  And so began our planning for a morning on the water.  Life jackets on and watermelon in the cooler, we were off for a fun run on Normandy Lake.  In all my years of living so close to such a beautiful lake, I am sad to say this was my first time out on the water.  Now I have boat fever...

I love this picture of the two red-heads.

PawPaw stopped at the beach area to let the kids out for a swim.

And, this might have been the best watermelon I have ever eaten.  

If you judge the fun factor by how fast the kids fall asleep, we hadn't even left our parking space yet when Lucy looked like this.  A fun day, indeed.