It's obviously very hard to pick some photos from the trip because we were gone for TWO WEEKS and have LOTS of photos. BUT here are some to show some of the highlights! :0)

Fun at Pat O's! :0)

Caleb prayed that God would protect him from the jelly fish! He did this all on his own and it was ADORABLE! (and it worked)


Caleb became a swimmer on this trip! Went from not even getting into a "big pool" without a ring and vest to SWIMMING in the shallow end and jumping off the diving board (with vest). It was amazing!


love the family traditions.....Caleb always looks forward to riding the tractor with Uncle Chuck!
We found THIRTY-SEVEN hermit crabs! It was a blast and such a huge HIGHLIGHT of the trip!
We went to the Insectarium in New Orleans and it was great...and perfect for Caleb!

Brandon ate meal worm salsa and the kids and I ate chocolate chip and cricket cookies!

We all went to the aquarium together too and it was so much fun. Caleb LOVED petting the sting rays and "baby shark" (I'll find those photos soon)!

Seeing friends was one of the BEST parts!

for those that don't know...this is HUGE for Georgia!
Caleb swimming!


The absolute best part though was getting to spend so much time with Dadaw. Just watching the kids play with him was great. :0)

Maybe this will help make up for the fact that I bailed on my Sister today.
See, I was planning on cleaning and getting work done but my Sis called and invited us to hang out.
I would much rather do that than get stuff done!
SO, I made myself at least clean the bathrooms and straighten up, hear from the Hubs, and then head out.
Get gas.
Get lunch.
Finally we were ready.

...
And then the heavens opened up and the storm came down!


My Sis had told us it was "POURING!" there but that didn't concern me. It was THERE afterall, not here.
Driving down 1604 and heading to I10 in torrential rain though with my 3 year old screaming "The rain is tooooo loud!" with her hands over her ears and crying...well that did stop me. I pulled over (people driving 30 miles an hour on the interstate was nerve wracking anyway) and gathered my thoughts.
Then I made the call that upset my wonderful family.

SO...I'm hoping the fact that I am FINALLY POSTING will help my Sis forgive me and maybe even make her grin...slightly. ;0)
then I'll be off to clean and work.


Here is what we have been doing since Easter!
Fiesta time was at the end of April. It was super fun. We had fun at school and then Pops came to town. We had been planning for a YEAR to do the Flambeau Parade. We had bleacher seats and even a hotel room.
It was.....well, disappointing. To all of my San Antonio friends, please don't take it as an insult BUT when you are used to "REAL parades" (as referred to by me) where they throw you goodies...then just watching people drive by is...well...VERY boring. The floats weren't amazing. No amazing costumes. Just people in pretty dresses waving.
Dull.
Very dull.


So, we checked that off of our list of "things we need to do someday" and we won't be doing it again.
But hey, we tried.
We had a blast with Pops regardless. :0)

Then May brought my birthday.
THE BEST BIRTHDAY I HAVE HAD IN A LOOOONG TIME!
It really was.
The first half of the day was with my Hubs and kids. EAting out for brunch and picking up new (and free!...used but nice!) sofas. YEA!
Then I got to head out to the outdoor beautiful mall to do some serious shopping.
I shopped solo for a while and then friends and my Sis starting meeting up with me. We shopped, they watched me do a fashion show from the dressing room of Ann Taylor Loft. They were the perfect audience...filled with "OOOOOh, that's Perfect!" and some "Oh, that looks great. You NEED that!" :0)
Clothes were purchased and I was happy.

Then we walked over to PF Chang's where the rest of the crew met up. We had 12 people total. I was surrounded by new friends, tried and true friends, and of course my Sis. It was absolutely perfect. I was in a state of bliss. We hung out and enjoyed ourselves for almost 3 hours!

THEN... (yes, it wasn't over yet!)
My Sis and I decided we didn't want the fun to end so we went to run an errand to Target.
Which led to ice cream at Marble Slab.
That led to (Sis)= "hmmm....I don't REALLY have to go home yet. Let me call home."
and "Nope. I can stay." and me suggesting "Cool! Wanna go see a movie?"
Yes, it was 10:00 pm by this time on a Sunday night.... but heck, time with my Sis on my birthday...couldn't let it end! :0)
We went and saw "The Soloist".
Great movie.
Perfect, absolutely PERFECT day.
We walked out of the theater at 12:10.
My birthday was officially over and I had enjoyed almost EVERY SINGLE minute of it to the max! :0)

Then we had Mother's Day.
That was great too.
We had Gabriella over two different times and she spent the night with us. It was so wonderful to spend time with her and watch her and Georgia. We have missed her and will miss her dreadfully now. (she's in Germany now) She and Georgia truly do love each other deeply. :0(
Then we've had field trips with Caleb. (also fun!) My favorite part was when one of the teachers asked Caleb "Caleb, do you want to say the prayer?" Caleb said "Yes." and then she put him up on the picnic table where he said the prayer for everyone on the field trip. So adorable. Totally made my heart melt!
and more...
that brings us up to today.
This week will bring plenty more fun stuff with Caleb's "ceremony" at preschool on this Monday, Water DAys at school, then the last day of school.
Then we head out one week from today for our TWO WEEK trip home to Louisiana.

It's a good thing I am posting now because I will have WAY too many photos in the near future!

Thanks for listening.
Thanks for being patient.

:0)

I've tried to take up new habits MANY times in my life.

Good habits.

Eat fresh fruit every day.

Drink 6-8 glasses of water every day.

Read the Bible every day.

Exercise every day.

Journal every day.

the list goes on and on and on

BUT I have finally done one of those things EVERY DAY for the past MONTH!

A month ago today our pastor challenged us to read our Bible for five minutes EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF OUR LIFE.

yep, THE REST OF OUR LIFE.

That's huge.

I took that challenge, prayed a prayer of commitment, and...
I have now read my Bible for AT LEAST 5 minutes EVERY DAY for the past month.

I'm pretty pleased with myself

and mostly

I'm pretty pleased with God and how He is working in me.

So many changes in my perspective
attitude
priorities

Yea God.

So here's to the first month of MANY!
:0)

ALMOST every year we go pick strawberries at a nearby orchard.
Well, nearby for us means about an hour.

It's ALWAYS fun

We've gone many times with the Brouses often with friends as well.

This year we brought some new friends into our tradition.

The fun was as wonderful as always although I don't remember the strawberries being this small before. They were almost ALL really really small.
Still big in flavor and sweetness but definitely little in size.

The kids seemed to approach the strawberry picking very differently than years past or than each other.
This was Georgia's first year that she was more focused on picking than eating.
Her main focus was to attach to a friend (it was a wonderful daughter of a friend of mine... I think S is 7 years old) and either follow her friend around or make her friend follow her!
Caleb was definitely focused on picking.
He picked and picked and picked.
When the rest of us were tired of picking, Caleb didn't want to stop!
He took it pretty seriously too, not eating any of them until he was finally finished picking.
He also was fine with running off to whatever row was calling his name, not needing anyone to go with him or really paying attention to anyone at all! He was just all about "finding the hidden treasures!"

I LOVED that the kids kept saying that "Look, I found the hidden treasure" or "I want to find more hidden treasures", referring to the strawberries with wonderful delight.

When the fun ended we had plenty of little tasty strawberries.

Like every year, it was tons of fun and we are so thrilled that we enjoyed it with some new friends.

Also like every year, I'm now trying to figure out what to do with all of these strawberries!

:0)

As most of you know, my son loves mud.

He's tried many times to impart this love on his sister.

Sometimes it works
sometimes it doesn't.

She often has fun with it...minimally... with limits.
Caleb has no limits when it comes to mud.

Tonight found them playing an interesting game.

Caleb had made mud and Georgia sat nearby on the porch steps.

I watched them from the back and listened to them talking
and giggling.

Upon closer observation I saw what they were enjoying so much...
Caleb was THROWING handfuls of mud (the REALLY GOOPY kind)
at his sister's legs.

She thought it was great!

He of course thought it was the GREATEST GAME EVER!

I was shocked that this new-found game was being enjoyed by both involved.

Caleb then went from throwing it onto her legs and feet to just grabbing two handfuls at a time and smearing it onto her.
She just sat there watching him from up on the step as he gently (he really was being adorably gentle about it!) slathered her feet with mud.



It continued for quite a while and by the end of it, my porch had a good 1/2 inch of mud covering the entire thing.

The kids were covered in much more than 1/2 inch.

But they had fun.
They had fun TOGETHER.

(and I love watching that!)

What they did NOT LIKE was the hosing (and partial stripping) they received before being allowed back into the house!

:0)

Even poor ducky got a mud treatment!



I sure do love these kiddos and I love watching them love each other!