Lake Martin

My best friend since middle school, Heather, lives in London. Her parents live on Lake Martin in Alabama. She came home for a month, so the kids and I visited them July 5-7. 

 I hadn't even met Noah. He's a 5 month old CUTIE. Madison is almost 3. We spent the afternoon playing in the lake and catching up. 

 The next morning we went to a restaurant. I cracked up at these Snickers bars!

 They have created a little beach area with sand and toys. 

We floated in the lake 

 And judged the kids on their jumps

 Gosh I miss her!

 The kids had a water balloon fight!

 Mr. Crawford took us out for a boat ride. Lake Martin is beautiful! It's a very clean lake and not over developed!

 Both of my kids fell asleep!

It was so good to see Heather, her kids, and her sweet parents. 

4th of July

The 4th was on a Tuesday this year. We spent Monday night at a friend's hot dog gathering

 Then we basically walked across the street to watch the city's fireworks. 

 I ran a 5k with friends on the 4th. It was so fun! I haven't ran in sweet FOREVER, so I was pretty proud that I ran the entire thing!

 I simply walked to the steam engine parade and met my family there after the race. 

 James, Adelyn, and Thomas

 Seth and me....I'm still sporting my medal :) 

 Myles and James

 Grandpa with James and Emily

 The Abernathy's joined us on the float and helped throw candy to the crowd

 Adelyn and Tatem

 Throw it, James!

 Watch out... James is driving!

 

We spent the evening at the Abernathy's

 Can't get much more American than this!

 Melissa, me, and her neighbors

 Poolside neighborhood fireworks! Their neighborhood goes ALL OUT in the fireworks department. It is quite a show!

 And especially cool to watch while floating on your back

 Or drinking beers by the pool

When we came home, we set off a few more fireworks in our driveway

As always, it was a fun 4th with family and friends!

Father's Day 2017

Seth had been gone several days the week prior to Father's Day and had a flight that basically got so delayed that he was up the majority of the night he was coming home. When I asked him what he wanted to do that weekend, he said "Stay home!". Saturday night, I made a "gourmet" dinner. We enjoyed lobster tail, crab legs, salad, and vanilla risotto. It was delicious!

We simply baked the seafood in the oven! This was a first for us, but it definitely won't be the last- SO easy!

Ready to consume!

Vanilla risotto. I tried to recreate a recipe we had years ago from a 37 Main, a restaurant in Buford. 

Adelyn set the table

Sweet boy!

Ready to dig in with this special guy!

I'm thinking he likes it!

We swam that afternoon and their little faces got some sun

We had to show the kids how to get the meat. I'll need to invest in some proper utensils, as we were using nutcrackers!

She's a big fan of crab legs!

Seth got a salt gun. I can't wait for the carpenter bees to come next spring. They'll be under attack. So far, Seth has had a "blast" shooting the flies :) Seth also got a Star Wars picture, fun socks, and his favorite coffee beans. 

 We followed the meal up with ice cream on the deck

 Before church on Sunday morning, we took our annual picture in front of the apple tree

 They're always WAY more into a silly face picture

 We both need sunglasses!

 We ate at Bourbon Street Grill in Dahlonega for dinner that night with Seth's family. Seth's dad also got a salt gun!

Our family on the square

Happy Father's Day to the best dad around. We love you, Seth! 

James is SIX

James's birthday was Thursday, June 22nd. Kids get SO excited for their birthdays! He's been counting down for over a month until his big day. Seth had to travel and was gone on his actual birthday, so we gave him his big gift on Monday. Poor James had outgrown his old bike- his knees were knocking the handlebars! Hello, growth spurt! He selected this bike and loves the fat tires!

Dad and James cruising down Fast Lane

That face!

On Wednesday night, we did our traditional dinner at Rice for any grandkids' birthday. These kids love their Japanese Sprite treat!

Happy birthday brownie and ice cream after yummy sushi (and "sweet and sour" soup as James calls it)

On Thursday morning, James woke up "in the 5s" and was downstairs by 6:20 a.m ready to PARTY!

He can't wait to use his astronaut backpack water gun!

Nana and Grandeddy got him a VTech smart watch

 Grandma and Grandpa got him a HUGE 1,700 lego set that he loves

James had a swim meet on his birthday evening.  He also got swimmer of the week (both kids did). Kids get the silver swim cap! He was pretty pumped!


On Saturday, James had a karate birthday party!



Mr. DJ is the karate instructor and James thinks he hung the moon. James got to wear a black belt for the duration of the party.

The first activity was dodge ball! Then the kids lined up and did karate kicks.


James got to break a board in half

He did it! :)

Next, they divided into 4 groups (we had 24 kids present!). Luckily, the siblings are Adelyn's sweet girl friends


One group did the tumble track /trampoline

Another group did the bounce house

Emily (our niece)

One group was on the climbing wall

Conner (Seth's cousin's son)

Monkey Myles

The climbing wall is in the gym where Adelyn does tumbling. They built this wall about a month ago and Adelyn is obsessed with making it across. Parts of the wall are slanted towards the floor and it's challenging.

She finally made it all the way across and got to ring the bell! (Seth was with her and I didn't get a picture of her feat!)

The final station was a "grab the tail" game (small karate belts were tucked in the waist of their pants an they had to snatch the other players)



Cake time! Publix did a fantastic job! James strategically placed the Ninja characters on


Ms. Alycia with James blowing out the candle

This was super cool- Mr. DJ slices the cake with his ninja sword

This was the sweetest bunch of kids. Even Mr. DJ commented on how well behaved the entire group was

We came home and opened his wonderful gifts! This is one loved boy!