A Few Extra June Pictures

 Rub a Dub Dub

 Crazy Bed Head - Buddy looked like a peacock straight out of his crib

 Showing off Nani's beautiful curtains for Buddy's room. I LOVE this fabric and already have a gray quilt that will go with it as he gets big enough for a bed. Hooray!

 She LOVES her brother. She can be a little rough sometimes, but she means well most of the time. Besides, little brothers can be annoying too. :)

 Triply blessed

Father's Day Project 

 

 

 Banana for hair gel. Incidentally, this is one of the many words he can say (banana), and also probably his favorite food. Well, maybe it is tied with hummus.

 Playing outside with his sand table and water table. Every moment not spent outside is time wasted! All of my children have thought this since about 6 months of age.

We are entering the age of bumps and bruises with Buddy. He is fearless, which makes him a bumped head waiting to happen.

Grandmother's House Part Two - Jackson

Jackson is our halfway point to Grand Nene's, which is perfect for visiting Mamaw! We only stopped super briefly on the way to Shreveport, but we had a nice visit on the way back. Good memories with another wonderful great grandmother.

 Great Aunt Martha gave us a gift card to McDonalds for the travelling which worked out very well for the kiddos. Buddy was thrilled to be in a place where no one minded him making a mess and hollering a bit.

 Can you have a happier face than this one? I doubt it.

 Rest Stop just over the Mississippi River. The girls thought it was pretty awesome to go over the bridge. I found myself wondering where the old bridge is that spells out "MISSISSIPPI" in the scaffolding. I remember it from my childhood, but maybe this is that bridge and it has been updated? If so, boo! They should have kept the state name!

 Enjoying a popsicle after the long car ride

 Sweet moment with Mamaw at the park

 That's my little water baby

 Loving Mamaw's back yard

 My little bug sure loves little bugs. She was so excited to find snails in the garden. She also had an entire cup full of roly polies at Grandnene's house.

 Loving on Mamaw. The last picture I have of her with her Mamaw she was a little less than a year old.

 Playing with some of Mamaw's sewing supplies - a doll wig, so cute.

 Getting some sugar

 Sharing some laughter

 Feeding the ducks with Aunt Susan. Claire was very unhappy about leaving Aunt Susan and her ducks and Jacuzzi bathtub behind in order to return home.

 These two little girls loved visiting Aunt Susan at least as much as their Aunt Gini and I did when we were little girls. We thought it was one of the best places on earth and so did Claire and Evie.

 Sweet loving from Mamaw

 Evelynn the brave is a fearless climber

 Sisters tuckered out at their Mamaw's house

 Enjoying a snack with Mamaw 

 Sharing some smiles with his Mamaw

 Posing with Mamaw's grapevines

Little man loves a tunnel to climb through

So happy to be home with his Daddy!

To Great-Grandmothers' Houses We Go (Part One: Shreveport)

One of my bravest feats yet as a mother was taking the kids BY MYSELF on an 8 day trip to see their great grandmothers. 1200 miles later, I can honestly say my kids are great travelers, and it really wasn't so bad. In fact, my confidence is greater with just loading them up and heading out. Now I am ready to start visiting their grandparents with them more often.

There were so many pictures from our trip I am dividing them into two posts.

SHREVEPORT TRIP

 Really all three kids were great on the road. Especially considering how many hours we spent in the car (4 different days of about 7 hours of driving). And we have a car, not a van. And I was BY MYSELF, which meant everyone had to get out when anyone needed to potty. Buddy did get pretty tired of being in his seat, but a little break in mommy's seat was a good treat.

 Enjoying Aunt Susan's "Koozie" bath on our one night stop over on the way down to Shreveport.

 I was trying to get everyone out when we arrived in Shreveport. Claire was seriously sacked out!

 On NeDaddy's oversized porch swing

 Enjoying being out of the car and out in the yard. Love that St. Augustine grass, but boy I do NOT miss that Louisiana humidity!

 Checking out the grand piano

 Claire with her great-great Aunt Ginger - making sweet memories and making me wonder if I have it in me to take the kids all the way to Connecticut for a visit with more of this family. Aunt Ginger lives a loooooong way away. She brought dolls for the girls made by her mother, the kids' great-great grandmother Nana.

 Good ol' A C Steere Park in Shreveport has come a long way from when I was a kid and it was a field of grass with a few slides, swings, and some massive concrete pipes to use as play tunnels.

 Bonding with Uncle Kevin

 No trip to Shreveport would be complete without a pizza from Johnny's. My stomach has grown too accustom to eating only plant based whole food, so I can't say the dairy agreed with me much, but my kids certainly enjoyed it.

 Sacked out on Uncle Kevin

 Visiting my mother's former childhood neighbor, Mary, one of the lovely ladies for whom I was named

 Family dinner with NeDaddy - what a sweet treat!

 Sliding Sisters

A good trip to Shreveport

June: the Middle

More June pictures from before our out of town adventures...

 Playing at Frog Legs - our indoor inflatable play place. This was part of the Terrific Toddler Tuesdays, and we had fun with our cousins there. There was no way to get a picture of Claire, she was so busy. We are pretty sure that this is where we picked up croup, though. An indoor place for lots of little kids is a great way to share germs.

 Something about a pickup truck just calls to a little boy

 Working in the garden with Daddy.

 That's my all smiles Evie Jane

 Sitting on her steps with her favorite "friend" Emily Elizabeth

 Once this was inflated it was pretty hard to get any of them to stay out of it.

 Buddy is quite content to be in the water, but he definitely thought floating around in this was the best part (once he stopped messing with the hose).

 The girls were determined to float too, but mommy wasn't brave enough to really fill the pool to where they could float.

 He is so proud of himself when he gets into a rocking chair. Unfortunately, I have discovered that a kid's rocker should never be near a wall. Not sure when it happened, but there is now a pretty decent hole in the wall just behind where this rocking chair was sitting in the girls' room. Needless to say, this indoor/outdoor rocking chair is now an outdoor rocking chair.

Buddy's new favorite hideout.