W&L Florabama 2009

This weekend we had our second annual W&L reunion at the beach. This year brought 12 adults and 13 1/2 kids! What a wonderful weekend! I can't believe that we actually managed to get everyone together for a picture. I will add more to this post later - but wanted to get this one up.

These are my college roommates, Michelle, Jenni and Beth. They know entirely too much about me, and still pretend to like me, which fact I count among my greatest blessings. Among the four of us, we have 10 children ages 9 months to 7 years (... and counting). And they are particularly precious children, I might add. Not bad work, ladies.

Waterville

We took Madison, four of her friends, Barclay and her friend Mae to the beach Friday night, then off to Waterville on Saturday (for 6 hours). The girls all had a blast and Kelly, Rob and I earned our keep with 7 very excited 6 and 7 year old little girls - but it really was a lot of fun. We are virtually worthless the next day!

We have NO IDEA who that random guy is in the back of that photo - but he seemed to sum up the genre of the Waterville, USA crowd, quite nicely, so I chose to include him in the blog.

Happy two month belated 7th birthday, Madison!

Sweet Caroline - Farewell to Summer Charms

We spent our last weekend of the summer at the beach with our cousins, the Michaels. We were fortunate enough to witness baby Caroline's first beach steps in the sand. She is such a happy baby, I could watch her all day long!

Mary, Chris and Caroline are very happy to be at the beach (and out of the car from Little Rock)!

Aunt Mary took the girls out to the ice cream boat to get some cool treats on a hot day!

All five cousins got into burying Madison in the sand. (And whacking her on the head with a body board as she was a particularly immobile target).

But ultimately Mac gave Madison some sweet, sandy love.

Beautiful sisters - covered in sand and sunscreen!

... and the moment's gone. Mac decided to dig up Barclay, much to her dismay.

Simple solution: bury the evildoer!

My boys.

Madison and Susu had a happy time.

I swear, I will have a picture of him that looks just like this in 16 years. I could literally gobble him up. He's such a little man.

FYI - I am planning to start a new, ongoing series on "Macisms". Mac is constantly coming up with the darnedest little words and phrases. This weekend, he met a little boy at the pool who asked him if he had been to the Battleship (he had not). Mac, of course, said "yes". The boy then asked him when he went. Without missing a beat, Mac responded, "Tuesday". The little boy then started talking about his recent trip. Again, Mac was having none of it and tells the kid, "I've been two times, I've been on one day AND on Tuesday." Can't make this stuff up, people.

MTV Cribs - McGinley Edition

When I came in to wake Mac up from his nap the other day, this is what I found. That would be diaper cream covering his face, neck and torso. You will notice that we had to take off the sheet, the bumpers and anything remotely comfortable, days prior. He tossed his Bacon, Monkey and Whale Pillow voluntarily. This child will be the death of me.

Yesterday, I gave in and removed the side of Mac's crib, replacing it with the toddler bed conversion panel that I have somehow managed to keep for over 7 years (as we have never used it before). So far, so good. He isn't crawling out without permission (yet) and feels pretty awesome in his new "big boy bed." Rainy day projects - Love 'em like Lizards!!

Summer Fun and Dive Meet UPDATE!!

Well, technically, the "dive meet update" part will come first. As it turns out, Madison actually WON the dive meet on Saturday! She won the 1 meter and the three meter and was the high point winner - which meant a medal. Pretty good stuff. She is quite the proud child!

As for the rest of our summer, we have been involved in a lot of potty training and a good bit of spontaneous dancing. Sometimes those two events collide in a most unusual way.

(please note, Mac's underwear atop Barclay's head)

We also made a trip up to school to take care of some general business. All three kids had to hop on top of the bulldog in the office and insisted on having their picture taken!

This week, the girls are going to gymnastics camp - and got some new (to them) duds to wear. After they got home, all three of them put on a "show" for us. It was mostly a very LOUD screaming rock and roll performance (all three were lead singer and on lead guitar). Also, please note Mac's "microphone".

I have been promising Ashley a picture of one of the new beds we planted around our back patio this summer - so here's a teaser!

Dive Meet

Today, Madison participated in her first dive meet. I am completely impressed. She had never (to my knowledge) been off a high dive before, due to the fact that our club doesn't have one, but when they asked her if she wanted to compete in the high dive division also - she (literally) jumped right in. She did a front dive and a front dive with a half twist (the later without even so much as an attempt during warm ups). Man, am I impressed. She is braver than I am!

I will have to admit to some bribery here ... Mac was pretty bored after the first hour of warm ups and low board - so I resorted to ice cream.

Pretty cool back dive too (yet another dive that is not in my bag). It seems that 7 is a big year for Madison.

What form!

Growing Up

This is my handsome boy on the 4th of July. He is getting too big, too fast. He's gonna be a heart breaker - watch out ladies!

I will try and get some more 4th pictures and some from our trip to Nashville (where we saw the Villere clan) posted soon. We had the tummy bug for the 4th weekend, so no beach - just a lot of yard work!