Friday, July 13, 2012

Cute quotes

Because conversations with and between 4 year olds is alway hilarious!

Scene 1:
The girls are obsessed with their birthday. So today they were planning their birthday party - who to invite and where to have it. And that of course segued into creating their wish list for presents. They listed those light up pillow pets, those weird slippers with faces that move. Then Audrey said that she wanted a set of Wonder Pets that she could do rescues with. Which led Brooke to say that she wanted a set of The Haddens to play with.

Scene 2:
We were out for a bike ride (Brooke) and a walk (Audrey) around our street. Brooke and Audrey had made a deal that Brooke would ride for part of the time with the doll in her bike carriage and that Audrey would carry her for part of the time. So after a little while Audrey starts asking if it is her turn yet and if they've gone half way yet. Then Audrey asks me if we've gone half way. I replied well I don't know what half way is. To which she replied Mom you know there are two halves. Clearly she has a better grasp on fractions than many of my former algebra students :)

Scene 3:
We've been discussing the beginning of school quite a bit lately. Today we were discussing uniforms and how the girls are going to be in different classes. So Audrey, with great concern, asks "if we go different places, how will I recognize Brooke?" Oh sweetie.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Fourth of July Festivities

In a very exciting turn of events, we had TWO activities to go to for the Fourth of July!!  As the girls said: It was the most awesome day ever! Boating, Hot Dogs, a Festival, and Fireworks!!

One of our neighbors has a lake house that is about 40 minutes away and they had several of the neighborhood people over for the day. These neighbors have a little boy Ryan who is just a couple of months younger than the girls and will be at the same bus stop as the girls for school this upcoming year.

Then late afternoon we headed over to Port Allen which is right across the MS river from Baton Rouge where they were having a festival to meet some friends for the fireworks.  In a crazy turn of events, these new friends turned out to really be an old friend.  D had met one of his co-workers and his wife and thought that I would really get along with his wife.  So she and I had been texting and emailing back and forth and trying to come up with a time when we could get together.  And during that time, she looked me up on Facebook and realized that we actually went to a summer program together for a month after our junior year of high school.  What a totally small world!  And smaller too because we are now going to the same Sunday school class with them as well.

The girls on the big blue lagoon floaty anchored near the dock
D with all the 4 year olds. 
Taking Brooke for her first jet ski outing.  She loved it!
Taking Audrey for her first jet ski outing.  She also LOVED it!
Heading out for a boat ride - the girls' first.
A better picture of the 4 year olds. They will all ride the bus together next year. Anya will be in kindergarten but Ryan will be in pre-K with the girls.
My three loves at the festival.  You can sort of see that we are seated at the top of the levee.
Me and the girls - I like to be represented on here once and a while.
The whole Hadden fam

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Beach Rewind

Since we are getting ready to go on our second beach trip of the summer, I thought that I should finally finish my posting about our first beach trip.  So here are some more of the favorites from the trip:

Chillin' with Granddaddy
Brooke and Cooper playing in the sand
Me and the girls in the surf
We now rent the luxurious chairs and umbrellas - how did we ever survive without these?
With their cousin John David
With their cousins Cooper and Mitchell - poor Mitchell had two broken arms and so he had limited things he could do at the beach this year.
All the cousins in our red, white, and blue ensembles
The three princess cousins
The girls with Granddaddy and Jane

Me and my sister for the middle generation's night out
The original cousins
Beach Photo shoot - me and my girls!  I LOVE this picture
The Hadden Family photo
Me and D as posed and photographed by the girls

Monday, July 2, 2012

More musings

Getting your car titled here is a ridiculous experience. And after three separate trips, only my car has been done successfully. We are just gonna roll the dice on D's car as his lease is up in a few months. This is the first state we've lived in where you only have a tag in the back. As the lady told me "you can put whatever you want in the front honey." Which really means you can put an LSU plate on your car.

Totally unrelated: We just bought this for all our arts and crafts in our den and I LOVE it
The whole time we were in VA I lamented 'why can't the parking spots be angled. I'm such a better parker on the angle.' So of course here the spots are angled. Turns out, that is super annoying cause I am ALWAYS going the wrong way. Perhaps I should learn to be content with what I have....though I wish I had straight spots.

Not that I am a huge drinker, but it totally cracks me up that you can buy liquor everywhere here.  Target. Wal-Mart. Walgreens. 
 The girls enjoying strawberry daiquiris (clearly without alcohol)

It is hot here. I realize that it is hot almost everywhere but I just want to re-emphasize it. Again. Temps in the 90's with heat index over 100 everyday is too darn hot. And I am such a sweaty person. I am way past sticking to my leather seats. I am sliding around on them. So so sweaty. So so gross.

Speaking of blazing hot. The girls are taking swim lessons right now. They have finished their first week and have one more to go. They LOVE it. Mr. Eric is their teacher and he is super good with them. As an aside I think that he looks like Ludacris. The only downside is that it is outside and I may have mentioned that it is so hot. Especially just sitting there with no breeze and lots of concrete around.

At swim lessons
Oh how I miss being just minutes from a Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. Sigh. I miss my weekly (or more) trips.  I have only been to Target twice here. Such a sad situation.

I recently looked up the school calendar and was SHOCKED to see that school starts August 9/10. (The pre-K divides the first two days up by only the girls go one day and boys the other. ) Dude. That is so early. We basically have a month of summer left. Which is a weird feeling. Cause by Friday the girls and I are definitely tired of just hanging out with each other. August seems far away then. But this year they are going to be going 5 days a week from 8 to 3:30. Wearing uniforms and riding the bus!  When I think about that, August seems way too close. Where did my babies go?
Brooke at the library.  She looks so cute in this picture!
I have made a new friend! Hooray for me! We have had one outing, but it seemed successful.  She is super nice.  Like so nice that I think I may need to improve myself a tad.  I am trying to be much more proactive in the friend making area (Amber I tam taking tips from you!)....which is totally not my thing as I like to wait to be invited to stuff. But as it is a small town,  I am for sure going to have to worm my way in.  Fortunately, our weekends have been busy between our "old" Exxon friends and our very nice neighbors. I think we have hit babysitter jackpot as our neighbors have a daughter about to be in tenth grade and she is awesome w the girls and they have already requested that we go out so they can stay w Kelsey.

Audrey at the library.  She always wants to go sit with the big bear and this day there was this green alligator and a little butterfly.  She was in heaven,
One advantage of hanging out all day together is I get to hear the funniest conversations between the girls. Here is a little snippet that just cracked me up for some reason.  I am sure it will lose something in translation and with all my parentheticals, but I'll try to do it justice:

In the car driving we pass a prison group out picking up trash. Brooke says "oooh. Audrey don't you want to do that one day?" (as an aside, the two worst things are being a litterbug or being a smoker, so those guys in their spiffy orange jumpsuits seem like heroes to the girls). Audrey replies "no Brooke. Remember we are going to be up front and run the state" (last week we went to the state Capitol and saw where the house and senate work and the girls decided that that was going to be their job and that they wanted to have the good seats at the front where the speaker and others that I don't know sit).  To which Brooke replies "no Audrey we can do both!"
In the aforementioned chambers at the state capitol.