And The Winner Is...

Click to enlarge.

Jubal

I am so very proud of Jubal for winning the 

Young Georgia Authors writing competition!  

Out of the entire kindergarten class, Jubal won.

He wrote about a dragon throwing him into the lava.

I haven't read it yet, but I can't wait to.

Congratulations to my big boy!!!

Mama sure does love you.

ALL THE TIME.

Easter~2016

Our Easter was great.

  

The festivities began Friday at school for Gentry.

His class had a little Easter party.

He was tickled to get to hand out the treats he, Jubal, and I made.

We made homemade sugar cookies with M&Ms, and 

chocolate-dipped marshmallows with sprinkles.   

We went and had our usual supper with my mama Friday evening.  

She gave each of the boys a Ninja Turtle egg filled with candy.  

They loved it.

On Saturday, Jubal had a birthday party to attend.

He was very excited about going since Brady is a little older than he is.

Brady is very into Star Wars right now, so his party was Star Wars themed.

They had a great time and Jubal was proud to be a part of it.

I had planned to dye a few eggs with the boys Saturday night, but

all of us were just so tired I decided to wait.

Instead, Larson & I loaded the boys in the car and took a ride out 

on some old back roads while the boys chatted away until they fell asleep.

Sunday morning, Jubal woke up bright & early, excited to dye eggs.

He went to wake Gentry up so we could get started.

I love these pictures of their freshly wakened faces and their bed head. :)

No clue why this first pic is red like this.

Putting our vinegar in the water.

Success!

Now to move on to painting them with gold overlay for a pretty shine.

We only dyed six eggs because we filled 60 plastic eggs with candy the night before.

I just feel like that's a lot of real eggs that go to waste.

You can only make so much egg salad.  Ha!

I do enjoy dying eggs with my boys, though.

This year I was able to let them do most of it alone, 

and they had so much fun being big boys.

They're at such a great, fun age right now.

**********

The biggest difference this year is that we spent Easter with my BFF's family.

My sister couldn't make it home from Warner Robins, my mama

didn't feel like getting out in the rain since it rained most 

of the day and she is disabled, and Larson's family didn't come, either.

We had a wonderful time, though, and the boys had so many other kids to play with.

Our friends have their Easter at their pond house in the country 

where there's plenty of room for the kids to run & play.

We didn't let the rain slow us down any, either.

The adults got out there in the rain and hid eggs, and

the kids didn't mind hunting them in the pouring rain. :)

Gentry was super tired when we got there, but snapped out of it when the other kids arrived.

We all ate a huge meal that a king would have killed for,

then the kids got soaked finding the eggs.

We had such a good day.

I'm so thankful for my family even though we couldn't be together this year.

I'm thankful for friends that are just like family and accept us into theirs.

I'm thankful for Jesus dying for my sins.

I'm most thankful, though, that his tomb is empty.

He arose!!!

I hope everyone who reads this had a blessed Easter.

Weekending

While basically everyone we know was celebrating St. Patrick's Day at Shellman's Bluff this weekend, ours started off with Jubal's first ever baseball practice Friday night.

For his first time ever being pitched to by someone or something other than his daddy, he hammered that baseball from the pitching machine.  I'm so proud of him, and I hope that where he is weak that by the time his first season is over, he'll be on top of his game.

He's really good at everything except catching.  He's still very nervous about the ball hitting him.  I know he'll get it, though. :)

I had to work Saturday, as usual, but as soon as I got off I met Larson & the boys at Judd & Mandy's for Hunter's 6-month "Remission Party".  We're so happy he is well right now, and we had an awesome time celebrating his life with him.

They had a HUGE water slide. Jubal was freezing his little booty off.

Me & my BFF's sister, Rebecca.

Sunday, we went out to Tiffany's "Salon Warming Party".  The boys had a blast since we were on a farm, and there were so many play sets & toys for them to play with.  Enough dirt to last a little boy a lifetime. ;)

I'm so proud of Tiffany for finding something she enjoys doing and opening her very own shop.  The party was fun.  We played games, ate until we were all about to have to be rolled out of there, and she got plenty of stuff for her new salon.

This was our gift to her.  A little something to decorate her salon with.

It was fun being with family & friends all weekend.  The weather was gorgeous, and we even got the yard spring ready.  I love my little family & all of my friends!

Let's Play Catch Up

I just realized that I haven't even posted about our Valentines Day excursion to see Laney & GiGi yet. I will get on that as soon as I download the videos off of Larson's phone. I've been meaning to do it, and keep forgetting.  I have a couple of pictures, but Larson has all the good ones on his phone.  It's already past St. Patrick's Day, and I still haven't posted anything about V Day.  Crazy!  I must do better. Ha!

I'm going to do a little catching up today, though.  Just the little things that we've had going on lately.  Nothing extraordinary, just every day life, but that's what I love.  My every day life with my people.

First up, we took the boys for their semi-annual dentist appointment.  That trip always calls for a visit to Chuck E Cheese's.  We asked if they wanted to go there or Get Air Savannah and they picked CEC.  Old habits die hard. ;)

Gentry got Hadley a pretty little butterfly ring with the tickets he won.  He is so sweet & thoughtful.  Jubal got him a dinosaur skeleton.  Afterwards, I had an eye appointment so the boys went and did a little shopping at Target to pass the time.  

It was a fun day together.

I got these pictures from Mrs. Diane last week.  Gentry & Hadley.  Always together.  I hope they always have a wonderful friendship, even as teenagers.  It wouldn't hurt my feelings if they ended up together as adults. ;)

Lastly, this year's Rattlesnake Roundup was different for me.  I woke up with a terrible ear ache, and I had to work so Larson took the boys, including Jubal's best buddy, Garrett, and they rode in the parade together.  After lots of candy & fun, they came back to see me for a minute or two, then they left to go to the festival.

We met back up when I got off work, and went home to put the water slide up for the boys since it was 85° outside on March 12th.  Wow!  It's going to be a hot summer, I think.

**********

Jubals' first baseball practice is tonight at 6.  It's not a typical time, but the Rec Dept. is trying to fit it all together right now.  We'll find out his team name tonight, too.  I'm so excited for him, seeing how excited he is.  I'll post more about that when he plays his first game. :)

Birthday Parties

We've been to two of our special girl {friends} parties this past week. Miss Hadley turned four & Miss Gwen turned six.

Hadley had a small family party on Thursday night since they were leaving Friday to take her to Disney World for her birthday.  Gentry & Jubal both love Hadley, and she is my best friend's granddaughter, so we love getting to spend time with them when we can.

Hadley asked Gentry for some princess clothes.  This was his version. :)

We had a good time eating pizza & ice cream cake.  The weather was still nice outside, so the kids got to play for awhile after the party.  

My sweet Gentry never wants to leave "his" Hadley, but we made it home about 9.  It was a fun evening.

**********

This past Saturday was the boys' friend, Gwen's birthday.  It was at a skating rink.  Neither of my boys have ever had skates on their feet.  Jubal swore he knew how to skate and has even asked for skates for his next birthday.

Bless their hearts, they couldn't even stand up with those things on, even while holding onto us or the wall.  Gentry did do well with his walker, but Jubal refused to use one or hold our hands.  He was bound & determined he was going to learn to skate.  

By the end of the party, and after many hard falls, bumps, and bruises, he was skating without holding on to the wall or anything.  I'm so proud of my persistent little guy!

Not long after this pic Gentry told us to get those things off of him & he never put them back on. Ha!

I was only able to get one picture of Jubal.  It was the one second he was using Gentry's walker, and not on the floor.  Ha!  I forgot to take any later when he was doing it on his own because he was with Gwen and his other friends, and I was tired so I went to sit down. ;)

Gwen had a rather large party, with lots of kids, and just as many adults.  We had pizza & cake, and went back out for Jubal & Ian to skate some more.  Jubal didn't even want to stay to watch Gwen open her gifts.  He was too excited to continue his mission of learning to skate.

We had a great weekend party hopping.  Busy, but fun.  My boys enjoy being on the go.  This mama likes to stay home sometimes, though.  Looks like it's going to be quite a few years before I get to stay still for any length of time, and I'm okay with that.  

Maybe it will keep me young. ;)