Memorial Day Weekend Part 2

Sorry for the delay, these pictures were taken from Matt's phone so I had to wait until I got a chance to get his phone before I could post.

Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend Matt's siblings all had to get back to their daily lives but we were able to stay in Gulfport. We were lucky to have some friends of ours come over to Gulfport as well. Jayce, Emily and their son Cohen joined us Sunday afternoon. We played in the pool and the after supper we took the kids to the beach.

I have to admit I wasn't that excited about the beach, I'm not a big sand fan and with toddlers there is always crying over salt or sand in the eyes.... Needlessly to say it was also the Mississippi beaches that aren't something to get excited about. But I was gratefully surprised at how nice of a trip it was! Our kids love the sand and Cohen had never been to the beach. We went out around 7:00 pm which was great because it wasn't dreadfully hot and the tide was out so the kids were able to walk out a good ways onto the water. The waves were calm and just perfect for our little ones! 

We played for about an hour and a half and the only way we got them away was talk of icecream!

Cohen was practicing for Baywatch most of the time, he loved running in the waves! Mattie Anne loved that she was able lay down and get her hair wet! Lyons liked the sand for the first half but then ended up having a great time in the water as well. I obviously wasn't prepared for that based on a photo of his diaper you can see below. Evans had a great tome in the breeze taking it all in!

I have several pictures below of the beach fun! 

We didn't take pictures of our Monday adventures but we took out the boat and played lots more in the pool!

It was a great time! Emily has much better photos on her blog page if you like to see more!

We had a great full memorial day weekend with family and friends!

Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

Memorial day weekend was extra special this year because we got to spend time with all of Matt's siblings and their families! It is so hard to get us all in the same room together. We all spent the weekend at Matt's parents newly built gorgeous house on the back bay in Gulfport, MS. It was a great time of catching up by the pool, boating, and corralling kids!

Fin and Brown ready for some swimming!

Aunt Lauren and Evans

Evans chillin' in the shade

Aunt Eylse

Mattie Anne in her goggles!

Fin and Brown, not sure what Brown is doing but he looks great!

Brown chillin' in the pool, he was our little fish all weekend!

Fin playing in the truck!

A

AWANA Awards

FBC Laplace started AWANA this year. It was a huge success. It is amazing how many versus these little ones learned!  Mattie Anne loves Cubbies! She couldn't understand why it had to end for the summer, but she is making due! I have put some pictures for Mattie with her vest and completion certificate. Matt took some video that I'll add later.

Those that know the fashion diva that Mattie Anne is would understand that the blue and red vest was a source of contention each week. It never matched what she was wearing and is "just not cute, Momma! "

Children's Choir

Those of you that experienced or have watched the videos of Mattie Anne's last children's choir performance you ate probably getting excited seeing the title of the post. Well, it was a flop! I think I sat too close, she kept wanting to come see me, she sat there with her fingers on her mouth most of the time and ended up only singing the end of the last song, but still not anywhere close to her first performance.  I will add the video when I actually get to a computer. There ate some pictures below. 

For those who have not seen the first videos they are in my you tube account which is linked in the side bar, totally recommend listening!

Backyard Landscaping

Last year we took on the project to redoing the front yard landscaping. We started on the back but got burnt out before we finished, or really even started.... I had dug a trench, planted bulbs, and bought 10 bags of mulch which we stored for a year because it never got put out.
Well, with the excuse of Lyons' Birthday party we decided to finish up that project. My parents came down and helped! It looked great for the party and just a couple weeks later my bulbs bloomed! Though I still don't know what they are, but aren't they pretty!

I never fully appretiated Pillsbury until now...

Before this recent encounter I would have said that I liked Pillsbury.
I would have admitted to appreciating the convience and ease, but not said that I needed the brand or like brands. Well, I was shopping in Win Dixie and saw this red celery looking stuff and thought that must be rhubarb (this in itself is a little odd since I've never eaten or even seen the food). I had a friend in Kansas City that always talked about strawberry rhubarb pies. Luckily the strawberries were on sell and I thought I'd take a stab of making a strawberry rhubarb pie. I went home and got out my Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe, it called for double crust, no big deal I have some frozen pie crusts in the freezer - that's were I was wrong! No pie crusts and a ton of rhubarb and two containers of strawberries.  The strawberries wouldn't have been a problem to get rid of but the rhubarb, I'm not even sure what it is! Well, Betty Crockery has never heard of Pillsbury and has her own recipes for pie crust, what else am I going to do with all this stuff, might as well try my luck at pie dough.... this is now when I discovered my new appreciation for Pillsbury.  I don't have trouble reading, and though I can be rebellious at times, I like to think of it more as strong-willed, I can follow instructions. This is what I hate about cooking.... you can follow the directions, do everything right and still fail. I don't like to fail! Well my pie crust was pretty close to failure, the only disclaimer is that I didn't have a dough roller, which might have been important .... the dough wasn't big enough, I never got it to roll thin enough,  but even thick it cracked, I had to just press the bottom layer into the pan, the top layer didn't meet at the edges, it cracked as well.... but at least I got all the ingredients correct which means it at least tasted good! I have shared some pictures of the creation below, including the lovely mess that the edges not meeting created at the bottom of my oven!
I guess the moral of the story is that as much as I'd like to be Betty Crocker, I think I'm going to settle for that Semi - Homemade lady.