Oh and I almost forgot...

The kids loved Grandma's Jack Russells.... and guess WHO LET THE DAWGS OUT!!

PAUL THOMAS!!!

yep he sure did. :/ the dog showing was the one loose the whole time we were there... however the little girl dog who was pinned up is a RUNNER... not sure if they ever caught her while we were there. *sigh* Oh and Paul Thomas also was entertained by Grandma's humming bird feeder hanging on a low branch just above a concrete bench. Just 1" out of his reach!

And just as all Grandmas are.... they don't like to see little boys cry... so shortly after I got onto him for letting the dogs out of the pin... guess who had a cookie to offer? ;)

Vacation in Kentucky

While home in KY visiting David's Grandma Reliford-Sublet's farm we enjoyed time outside on the porch around the time the sun was going down - such a Beautiful time of day. Below is Nora's cousin Malorie (10 yrs.) who had fun eating ice cream with Nora and making "Got Milk?" faces together.

The twins really had a great time too! Olivia continues to steal Uncle Mark's heart each time they are together. ;) The above isn't a great photo but you can see those "rollin hills" in the background - something we do not have here in our parts of Texas.

and here we are just before we left Grandma's house Monday night. Thanks Corrine for the delishious supper -roast, potatoes, and corn from the garden and of course dessert! ;)

Cousins Ethan (wearing the cap) and Lance had a great time playing hide and go seak... I love this one of Ethan in motion ;)

Paul Thomas had fun climbing on what ever he could find to climb on ;) While Olivia spent a lot of time just chillin with her Daddy.

Nora ran out to meet Uncle Mark and his girlfriend as soon as they got there and was already telling them some story before they could walk up to the porch :)

Betcha can guess who Nora's new best friend is... Mallorie :) Oh and I almost forgot photos of all the kids climbing the tree in the front yard... how could I almost forget that! They loved it!!! Especially Olivia and Paul Thomas! :)

Don't worry - someone had a hold of them so they wouldn't fall :)

In the tree Malorie (10) holds Olivia (2) and Paul Thomas (2) on the left - and Nora (5) in the tree on the right. Below stands left to right Ethan (6) and Lance (8).

Ah, good times in Kentucky!!!! :)

Birthday Part 2

I took a few photos after everyone had gone home while we were taking a break inbetween clean up. Here is Nora in her Word Girl shirt that my quilting friend Dixielady in South Carolina made for her.

Nora thought she could use her super power to blow this balloon up if she raised her arm like Word Girl....So cute!

And I bet if you've already read my previous post you are asking to yourself... "where's Olivia?" sorry about that. She was here and running around the whole day... Just wasn't in front of the camera much. This is one I took of her while she went around "cleaning up cake" :P

and of course Paul Thomas loves anything that belongs to his big sister Nora - especially her new princess chair... although the chair didn't love him. He kept tipping over in it.

I love that I captured these here below of David and Nora. She loves to quiz us on addition... and here David is showing her an example. All hours of the day Nora will randomly give us 2 or 3 numbers and ask what they equal... ;) There are long pauses in between so I'm guessing that either she is checking to see if we are correct or she's adding up the next set of numbers so that she knows the answer before hand ;)

and lastly I leave you with this... a photo of the twins playing with the wagon. I admit it... I was TOO wiped out and tired to get up from where I was sitting to go take a better shot. Oh what a day! ;)

Backyard Birthday Bash Part 1

Today we had our 2nd annual "Word Girl" Birthday party. Yep Nora loved her party so much last year that she wanted it to be "all the same except this year with a Word Girl PINATA!"

Well we didn't rent a bouncy thing this year b/c we already knew our gift to the kids was going to be a trampoline.... which they loved! ;) Sorry this is the ONLY photo I have of kids on the trampoline today as I was not the picture taker... uham, that would have been David and he didn't take very many. That is Nora in the purple bathing suit in the center. and I think Olivia is to the right....sitting down. and if you look to the far left you will see Paul Thomas riding piggy back on Diane. :p

I prepared for 23 kids in all - including all the brothers and sisters and little ones ;) but I think we actually only had 12 kids Nora's age come and then there were about 4 or 5 the twins age.. and then 4 or 5 BIG kids.

Sorry I don't have more photos - although Deacon Hector was here again this year with his camera taking photos so I'm really hoping that he can share with me some that he took. Especially of the kids playing "Pin the Sidekick onto the Super Hero" (like pin the tail on the donkey only using Word Girl) and also when they were taking turns hitting the pinata.

My friend Jill made Nora a super hero cape with the same Word Girl shield and the letter N in the center of the back of the cape. Sorry I'm holding it upside down in this photo. I'm sure I turned it around but our photo taker didn't get another shot of it :/

Olivia and Paul Thomas also got capes of their own too... but the photo taker didn't get pics of them wearing them either.

Here are a few I took of David helping the little ones open their gifts. ;)

Danny, Carolyn's dad picked out a Hot Wheel truck for Paul Thomas and it was a BIG HIT! He la,la,LOVED it and knew just what to do with it! Vrrrroooom! VRrrooom! over the packages that were sitting in my lap.

Oh and here are a few more photos that David took... the highlight of the party - the water balloon toss across............actually more like organized chaos. LOL Since most couldn't catch they just took turns throwing to their partner and busting them.

After about 4 or 5 turns for each team... I said, "After this next turn, we can just all throw them at who ever like playing tag" and no sooner than I got the words out of my mouth BOOM! David busted me in the back with a water balloon. :P

Well paybacks are great b/c it didn't take the kids long to scope him out when I yelled to all of them... let's all go get MR. DAVID!!! LOL

Isn't this cute of Paul Thomas in the middle. Taken before the payback of course. ;)

Hope you enjoyed the few photos I have of our great Backyard Birthday Bash ;) Sure wish our family could have been here for the fun!

I do have a few more that I took after everyone went home that I'll post later.