All in a day's work

Accomplished this week . . . . peach pie filling, blueberry jam and cinnamon rolls. I'm making myself so hungry. (BTW - the pie filling and jam were both make with Splenda - so, good for you, right? The cinnamon rolls - not so much - but still, oh so good)

Happy Day/Sad Day

Today was a happy/sad day.

Happy - Joseph and I went to the children's museum

Happy - Gibson and Laurel came over

Happy - We got to watch Laurel while Gibson ran a couple errands

Sad - we told Pat, Gibson & Laurel good-bye as they hit the road for Mississippi (note the sweet message to Joseph from Pat)Happy - our washer & dryer are back in commission in a brand new laundry room! (now is where I tell Melanie that we had spilled bright aqua paint on the laundry room carpet and had covered it up with a rug but now there is a nice new floor . . )Happy - Joseph after he woke up from his nap . . . . saying CHEEEEEEESE

Spelling

Joseph loves the ABCs. Loves, loves, loves them. Every time he sees a letter, he says what it is. If I'm wearing a T-shirt with printing, he'll climb up on my lap and point to the letters and say them. This morning I gave him his milk in a Mickey Mouse cup. (part of our plan to gear him up for Disney next week - we also watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse every morning) Before he would actually drink his milk he held the cup carefully and said all the letters "M-I-C-K-E-Y" . . . "D-O-N-A-L-D." And for those of you who know how much Joseph loves his "guguk" . . . . . well, usually the cup is merely unnoticed vessel for getting that stuff in his tummy. Except for the time when he refused to drink out of the red cup and I had to pour it into the purple cup. . . but that's another story . . .

afternoon at the beach

Joseph and I spent this afternoon at the beach with some great friends.

Gibson Rayner & little Laurel.

We are going to miss the Rayners when they move to Hattiesburg next week! Thanks for including us in your beach playtime.

General Silly Joseph-ness

Joseph singing ABCs

What happens in Vegas . . .

stays in Vegas. Except when you're really excited that you were able to go to the Star Trek Experience before it closes. Then you talk about it, share your pictures and bring your family t-shirts.

Monday

Monday morning we took Joseph to the Children's Museum. It is the largest children's museum in the USA with over 400,000 square feet. They currently have a Curious George exhibit and Joseph loves Curious George so I thought he might enjoy it. I had no idea. That kid went crazy over it. A museum worker was sitting at the doorway with a stuffed George. Joseph sprinted towards her and with a squeal of delight, flung his arms around George and gave him a big ol' kiss. Then ran into the exhibit without missing a beat and explored everything.
The rocket slide was an especially big hit. Joseph didn't need any help going up the steps and sliding down . . . over and over and over and over. . . .

Then we moved on to the Playscape area. . . also a big hit. We played in the water.

Notice all the red balls carefully positioned in a row. Until Joseph saw a cute girl that he wanted to give a gift to. Then he made trips back and forth to give them all to her.

We moved on to the blocks.

And then to the "Thomas the Train" table.

Joseph was none to happy to leave. We'll have to go back and explore some more.
We met Daddy at the Indianapolis airport that evening and all flew back home together (via Jacksonville airport and then another 3 hours in the car).

Sunday

Grandpa, Grandma and cousin Dakota drove down to visit for awhile on Sunday. We had brunch and a late lunch in the backyard.

Joseph brought Grandpa his shoes so they could go for a walk. While Grandpa took the boys for a walk, the girls plus Jon went for pedicures.

Joseph realized that his little ledge was a great place to sit after he found Grandpa sitting there.
Uncle Chris arrived in the late afternoon after a weekend trip to Nashville and picked up Aunt Meggie & Rudy. The house was pretty quiet after Grandpa, Grandma, Dakota, Chris, Megan & Rudy all left. Aunt Neeny, Momma, Joseph and Buckley went for a walk downtown and had dinner at a great tapas restaurant called BARcelona. Uncle Jon took the opportunity to golf.

Saturday

On Saturday morning we went to the zoo. Joseph "petted" a shark. So did momma. Joseph also had a pretty great time seeing real monkeys and feeding a giraffe. The outing pretty much tuckered him out though and he was sleeping before we left.

Megan & Rudy

Natalie & BuckleyWe took another walk downtown in the evening and visited some great shops on Mass. Ave. Then spent some more time in the backyard on a great summer Indiana evening. A great break from the Charleston humidity!

Friday

Aunt Meggie made a special 4th of July breakfast while Joseph and Rudy supervised.

Then we curled up and watched movie.

Jon & Natalie live in Lockerbie Square - a cute, historic area of downtown Indy with cobblestone streets and picket fences. Lockerbie Square had a small 4th of July community parade and potluck picnic. We also could see the downtown fireworks from this small park. There are no pictures of the fireworks because two little arms were around my neck cutting off all circulation to extremities and my hands were occupied covering little ears. In spite of this, the little guy actually fell asleep during the show.

Uncle Jon is so funny.

nothing like a little frosting on a baby nose. . .