A Rainy Night on Heritage Drive

After we got home from celebrating the 4th at Papaw & Memaw's, we had our grand finale in the rain.
We live on a private drive with only 3 houses. The neighbors across the drive have 2 children, Seth is 6 and Ethan is 3.
Perfect playmates for Abbie & Will.
The other neighbors are the grandparents.
We love where we are located. The kids spend lots of time riding their bikes or power wheels around the culdesac.
On this night, they jumped in puddles.

They all crammed under one umbrella and walked around the culdesac.

They got pretty wet, but still had time to stop for a picture.
From the left; Will, Seth, Abbie, Ethan.

Ben watched all the fun from his bedroom window.
He beat on the window and yelled for them.
They were kind enough to climb up and visit him.
Ben will have a playmate soon...the neighbors are expecting a third son mid-September!

The end

Will had a cheerleader.
Ben clapped and cheered when he jumped.

The water was a little chilly so Ben didn't get in.
That didn't stop him from getting almost entirely wet.

Ben thought it was funny to see his daddy in an Elmo ring.
Mommy thought it was funny too, but daddy wouldn't pose for a picture.

Who needs a bathroom?
Will watered Memaw's grass...or deck. Oops!

The Rest...

The rest of the crew spent the day outside in the pool.

Will did a lot of jumping off the ladder.
He started off with little jumps.


And graduated to the top of the ladder jump.
We called it the Papaw jump and a lot of chanting went into getting him to let loose.
Slowly we started losing water wings and increased our jumping skills.

The only catch was that Will does NOT like water in his eyes.
After each jump someone had to greet him with a towel to wipe his eyes.

More 4th of July Fun

On the 4th, we loaded up and headed to Papaw & Memaw's house.
We ate and swam.
And visited with Mya of course.

Will adores Mya.
He's pretty good at making her smile.


We spent far too much time watching and listening to the Hot Diggity Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
It's amazing how much Mya loves it.
She sat in front of the computer in a trance, smiling, moving her hands and feet to the music.
The Manar's learned the words and it was not rare to hear us randomly burst into song after our visit.

Someone Else

There's another man in my life that can melt my heart too.
He's a little older than the last guy I blogged about, but I love him just the same.
Andy does all our landscaping. I simply don't have the patience for it. Nor do I desire to plant and water in the heat.
Nope. If it weren't for Andy we would have no flowers. No landscaping. Just a big blank canvas.
Every year, even though I don't help AT ALL, he plants some of my favorite flowers.
I must admit I do like to look at them.
How did I get so lucky?

This year he planted a few calla lilies.


And every year he plants my all time favorite, zinnias.

Love the flowers, Love the colors, Love them in a vase, Love my husband!

My Heart....

belongs to this guy!
Well, to all my children actually, but goodness this guy can melt my heart!
And boy does he love his swing!
After the parade, Nono & Nona took Abbie & Will to the park to check out the festivities.
Ben kicked back with Andy & I.
Looking forward to the weather cooling off so that Ben can enjoy his swing again.

Ben's favorite part?

Can you guess what it was?


What could have gotten huge claps from this little guy?

Pure excitement!
It wasn't all the loud sirens, the big tractors, the horses, not even his own dad and sister!

It was the Shriner's.
He loved them!

Parade

This year Abbie & Will decided not to drive their jeep in the parade.
Daddy had it all decorated, but at the last minute they ditched it.
Look close....

It's Abbie in the back of the Democrat truck throwing candy.
She really enjoys the parade thing.


And poor Will?
He started off in the parade, but once they arrived where we were sitting he decided to join us.
He hadn't been feeling well. He watched the rest of the parade from the comfort of Nona's lap.
He eventually recovered and was able to collect a large quantity of candy.

4th of July

We had a relatively quiet 4th of July this year.
The kids had fun doing sparklers, we had the Bunker Hill parade, and the Bunker Hill fireworks.
Ben LOVED the fireworks!
He would make a little noise and clap.

Ben waiting for the parade.

Talking to Nono.

AHHHH!!!

ATTACK!
This little monster loves to attack me.
He'll grab my face or my hair and come at me for a huge open mouth, slobbery kiss!
He loves to dive on me, climb on me, play on me as if I'm his own personal jungle gym.
Lately he's taken to biting me, which is not so fun, but so hard to stay mad at him when he looks up at me with his adorable smile.
I will say I currently have a bite bruise on my arm and punctured skin on my leg from his biting episodes, so we're working on it.
I've never had a biter before!
He also loves to grind his teeth. And he knows he shouldn't!
He'll do it and then look at me with his mischievous grin. We're working on that too!


I can think of worse things though.
Bring on those slobbery attack kisses!

Surprise!

What is this?
The last weekend in June we had a surprise party for Nona celebrating her 60th birthday and her semi-retirement.
Nona retired from her long career as a nurse and is now working part time as our church secretary.
She started at the church in January. Abbie, Will, and Ben got to see her 3 mornings a week when Abbie went to school.
There has been a lot of commotion this year between Nono's knee, Rose's health, Jeb's surgery, moving, and of course keeping up with the grandchildren. I'm not sure she's been able to enjoy her retirement yet, but perhaps one is never truly retired.


The party was held at Aunt Katy and Randy's house. There was yummy food and good company. Nona was adamant that she wanted no parties, but I think she may have forgiven us.

Who could stay mad at a face like this?

Or after a yummy Aunt Michele cake?
Happy Birthday and Retirement Nona!