Thursday thoughts

This morning, we had some workers here, who were working outside our living room door. I was standing there watching them, and Lee, who had asked me to color with him, said, "Mommy, why aren't you prac-ticipating?" I guess I wasn't moving fast enough for him.

Later, he wanted to build with blocks, and I said that I had planned for us to do some work in his new workbook. He sighed in a really dramatic way and said, "That sounds like too much work for me."

He hasn't been able to say his R's until recently. I've been making a big deal out of it when he says a word the right way. Now, he has started rolling his R's, and it is hilarious. He really emphasizes the R's and makes a face with it. My favorite example is when he says "grilled cheese."

For all my picture taking, printing-procrastinating, money saving friends, you should know that Walgreens is running a special this week where you can print 50 pictures for $5. This applies to online orders too. You can upload to snapfish or walgreens and either pick them up at walgreens or have them mailed to you. The online code is FIFTYPIC, and if you print in the store, the coupon is on page 5 of this week's flyer. It ends on Saturday, so hurry!

And because it makes me twitch to have a post without a picture, here is a current picture of Lee's bed. Somehow in the last month, I have lost control of the "friend" situation. Lee sleeps with a blanket at night, and I have always allowed him a couple friends too. With Easter bringing new "friends" as well as Lee digging out some old ones, the number currently stands at 8. He doesn't necessarily cuddle each one at night, but he likes knowing they're there. I'm pretty sure we have a complete aquarium displayed right now, thanks to the dolphin Lee won at the carnival last week. They all have names too, so when we make his bed in the mornings, he calls them by name to put them on his bed. It's pretty funny, but it's going to be hard to sneak a few back into the toy bin.

Monday Fun

Lee has been going to the elementary school for the last two years for a one hour program on Mondays, called Story Hour. Each week, they sing songs, read stories and do crafts. Since he'll start to pre-school in the fall, Monday was his last day to attend. It was bittersweet to me. I'm so proud of how far he has come, but I'm sad that we won't be a part of this wonderful program any more. We have loved it and have met some of our favorite people there. Here is a picture of some of his friends singing.

Mrs. Donna reads the kids a story each week at the end of class. This week, she picked one of Lee's favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar! Look at him sitting up on is knees to get a better look.

This is at the end of class when Mrs. Donna announced we would be playing outside.

Here are the awesome ladies who teach our class. From left to right are Mrs. Donna, Mrs. Mary Lynn, and Mrs. Pam.

When we got home, it was such a pretty day, I wanted to play outside with my camera. Here are some of my favorites.

We have irises blooming!

This tree started sprouting next to a bigger tree in our yard, and it was bothering Mom. So she and Lee transplanted it last week. Lee wants to check on it every day. It makes me think about Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.

Fun with my new camera

Today was the inaugural run with my new camera. It seems to be pretty user friendly, but I have a lot to learn! Hope was the only kid who posed for me today. I had to chase the others around to catch a quick shot.

Parades, Races, Fishing and Partying- OH MY!

This weekend was filled with so many fun activities. I'll warn you now that this post is full of too many pictures and information, but I had a hard time narrowing down my choices!

We started on Friday at the Grand Parade with Mom and the Coffields. The weather was glorious, and the kids loved the parade. We had a lot of fun!

Saturday morning started at the Small Fry Parade, where we watched Paul march with his Pre-school. Lee was thrilled to see him, and Paul was surprised to see us. He did a great job!

After a pit stop at Jack's Java and a visit with friends, we headed over to the Catfish Races. This event is sponsored by the local paper, and it raises money for Adult Literacy. It is always a lot of fun, and it is a big success each year.

While waiting for it to start, Lee stole Matt's cap so he could look like Alvin. I guess that makes Matt Simon!

Matt's catfish raced in the first heat. He shot out of Matt's hands, and then he stalled in the middle.

Matt tried to nudge him along.

It didn't work. He never would move, so Matt's fish didn't win the race.

But his Catfish name won the Grand Prize! Each business or organization names a catfish and writes a tall tale about the fish. Matt chose the name B'Rock O'Haula for his name, and he won!


I raced the fish for the Quota Club and won our heat. So between Matt and me, we won 3 gift certificates! We were so excited!!

We left the Catfish Races as soon as we raced our fish, so we could make it to our next event...the Junior Fishing Rodeo. This was Lee's first time to go fishing, and he loved it. The fish were not biting much today, so Lee didn't win a prize. But since he seemed to like it so well, we'll plan to take him fishing again soon.

Daddy helped him cast to avoid other fishermen, but he wanted no help reeling it in!

Then it was time for a break! The event lasted 3 hours, so we packed snacks and drinks.

Our last event of the day was not Fish Fry related. It was Paul's 4th Birthday Party! He had this awesome slide, a pinata and a pony to ride!

Hayes was the last kid to bat the pinata, and he was the one who sent the candy flying!

Lee was thrilled with all the candy!

See??

Paul had a John Deere themed party. It was so cute! After he blew out the candles, he took the tractor off the cake and licked the icing off of all the wheels. He was so funny.

Hope got to party too!

Her mommy said no to the cake and ice cream though.

She loved playing with Uncle Matt's whiskers.

Paul's Pawpaw offered the kids a pony ride at the end of the party. Lee worked up the nerve to ride after some of the other kids had a turn. He loved her.

We started the day at 10:00 and got home at 7:15, so it was a l-o-n-g day, but we all had so much fun. We don't know what we're going to do with ourselves now that Fish Fry is over. We'll start longing for swimming pool weather now!

Tiny Passenger

Mom came for a visit this week to enjoy some Fish Fry activities with us. She has a new puppy, Daisy, so she brought her too. Lee loved her and wanted to ride her in the back of his gator. Mom agreed, and Lee and Daisy both loved it. Daisy even whined when Lee would stop. We were afraid Buzz might think Daisy was a snack, so we introduced them right away. Buzz sniffed her and then was quickly bored with her. Thank goodness!

Fish Fry Fun

It's time for the World's Biggest Fish Fry in Paris. We kicked things off last night by going to the fish tent and carnival. We had a blast!

After standing in line at the Fish Tent for an hour, we enjoyed a delicious catfish dinner. We told Lee that when it was his turn, he should tell the ladies who were serving, what all he would like on his plate. So when it was his turn, he told Judge Vicky, "I would like a corndog, please." Wrong place, kid. She thought it was a hoot. He got some fish and fries and loved it.









The carnie told Lee that he wasn't tall enough to ride the giant slide alone, even though some of his friends, who are younger and smaller, were zipping right through. So Mawmaw was a trooper and rode with him. He loved it, even though he wanted to do it by himself!

I got the pics out of order. This was actually the last ride of the night. Earlier, we ran into Lee's friend, Harrison, and his parents wanted them to ride this dragon roller coaster together. Neither boy was going for it. So at the end of the night, we told Lee he could ride one more ride, and this is what he chose. He LOVED it and rode it more than once....much to his daddy's dismay!

We took a break from the rides to play this fishing game. Lee was a little disappointed, because he thought he was going to get to catch a fish and keep it. He did get a stuffed dolphin that is pretty cute for a carnival toy.

On to the airplanes. He liked this fine, but he was so tired by this point, we thought he was going to fall asleep in there.

Ahhhh...race cars! This was Lee's favorite ride of the night. Notice how he chose the red car, like McQueen! This went in circles, but as it rounded each end, it slung the car around. Lee laughed hysterically every time, even after riding it for the 20th time! His friend, Jackson, rode a few times at the end with him. That made it even funnier. Jackson's daddy was having a hard time getting him off too.

He's all smiles!

I told Matt that we need one of these at our house.

This is a strawberry ride, comparable to the tilt-a-whirl. We rode with a little boy who was around 8. He was spinning us so fast, and Lee was laughing so hard. The more Lee laughed, the harder the boy spun us. I didn't think either of us would be able to walk straight when it was over.

We started off the night on the carousel. Lee liked it fine, until he rode the bigger rides. Then he was hooked.