Summer Celebration

Since our neighborhood pool opened we've been spending our days soaking up the sun and splashing in the pool. Our new schedule consists of waking up, eating breakfast, packing a lunch and heading to the pool for a few hours. These kids work up quite an appetite swimming, especially Nathan now that he's a super swimmer (with the help of arm floaties). He's all over the pool all by himself now, which is good because Kathryn keeps my arms pretty occupied.
I bought Kathryn a bathing suit with built in floats, but she refuses to step into it. She prefers bikinis.
This is where we are going to spend the rest of our days in Alabama.
It's so much more fun this summer now that Kathryn is big enough to run around and play.
These kids wear themselves out at the pool. Even Nathan. He has even been taking naps!
Nathan loves the pool so much that he even asks his daddy to take him back up there after he gets home from school.
These kids will definitely fit right in in Florida!
Cracker break.
Ray-Ray and Boomba, Southern Belles.

Still Playing Catch-Up

I have one more part to our Georgia trip to catch up on before I can move forward. A couple of weeks ago when everyone went to South Carolina, Steve and I stayed at Paw-Paw and Lady's house to babysit their kids, Mace and Lily. That seems like a fair trade to me. I would be willing to do that anytime. Aside from spending hours beer shopping (Steve), we also went to a Braves game.

Lady got us some really good seats through GE, 18 rows behind the Braves dugout.

Then the relaxation came to an abrupt halt once this party crew pulled in the driveway.

Poor Mace. Kathryn kept him on her radar at all times. She can't help it. She just loves "Puppy" so much.

Sitting at the "party table" having lunch. When Lady got this Toy Story 3 table for Nathan, he was so thankful for his "party table."

I made Paw-Paw keep that hat at his house because I didn't want to risk anything taking the place of his Tennessee hat. Especially not a Waffle House hat. Although, Waffle House is delicious.

Kathryn loves shoes so much. She always tries wearing other people's shoes, so I figured it was time for her to get her first real pair of sneakers. She was so thankful for her new shoes and especially thankful for the box they came in.

Grandkids Getaway

Here I go posting out of order again, but just bear with me. I'm continuing with Paw-Paw and Lady's weekend with the kiddos a few weeks ago. They always get along so well. Nate and Kate love to get spoiled and Paw-Paw and Lady love spoiling. He took advantage by immediately asking to go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Their usual Steak 'n' Shake.
They visited Great Grandma Gerken. Nathan and Kathryn always have fun visiting Great Grandma's "house." Nathan and Grandma always play their version of pool together.
Nate and Kate love playing in Paw-Paw and Lady's backyard.





They went to Marietta Square, per Nathan's request.

Now that Kathryn is a big girl, she loves it there too.
She "admires" all the flowers.

Nathan loves the train playground.

Back at Paw-Paw and Lady's house for some relaxation before bedtime.
Except for Nathan. No relaxation for Nathan.

Here's a new report. On her own, Kathryn has begun calling Nathan "Bubby." It is so cute. Nathan always yells at her, "My name isn't Bubby!" She just smiles at him and repeats, "Bubby!" I guess I have Boomba and Bubby.

"Ba-Bee"

Kathryn goes gaga over the pictures of the "ba-bee" on the refrigerator. Now that "ba-bee" has a name to go with her face. Watch the video to see Kathryn calling that baby by name.

Last Day of School

I apologize for the absolute disorder of my blog posts lately. I have just been doing random, out of order posts for the past month, but I that's the only way they're getting done. Hopefully now that school is out I'll be able to get the blog caught up and start fresh in Florida.

Our last day of school was last week. They really enjoyed this school and we hope to find a new school just as great in Florida. I think both kids liked having the run of the school in the mornings and afternoons with the rest of the teachers' kids. Maybe we can find this same set up again. It's kind of asking for a lot to find a school that accepts both ages of kids with open teacher positions though.

Nathan rediscovered this Tennessee hat after he saw Kathryn carrying it around. He immediately yanked it from her hands and has been wearing it ever since. Thanks, Kathryn. I didn't even have to push for it. Now he's even saying that when he's big enough to go to college (he knows about going off to college thanks to Toy Story 3), he's going to Tennessee. All this because he didn't want to share with Baby Sister.
Lucky for Nathan there are two other teachers at school who went to Tennessee. Do we know how to pick a school, or what!?!

Nathan and Kathryn always started their day off with breakfast in my classroom while I got everything ready for the day.
Surprisingly, Nathan always ate his breakfast before he got up to play.
Kathryn usually went straight for climbing on the tables.

The girls always swarmed Nathan. He's already a ladies' man. Actually, here they just wanted his Cocoa Puffs.
Nathan always acted like he was too cool for Baby Sister when he was hanging out with his older friends.
Here he is forcing Kathryn to take a picture with him and Avery Jean.
Kathryn broke free.

Nathan's teacher came and got me so I could peek in at him laughing and having good time with his friends at lunch. He was putting his hat on sideways and making them laugh. I hope you've enjoyed our school year. We certainly did. Here is a slideshow they showed on the last day of school for the parents. Kathryn's class is obvious, as she is in most of the pictures. The second class is my class and the fourth class is Nathan's class. Click here.

Now Nathan looks like he's heading off to college.
Tennessee, of course.

Out of Control

Lady came and kidnapped our kids a couple of weeks ago and took them to her house. I forgot to post about that little vacation. I'm not going to do it all right now, but this will give you an idea of how much fun they have there.

I'll post more from their Atlanta adventures later. I'm off to pack and organize some more!

Other Adventures in SC

Not only did Nathan and Kathryn's grandparents take them to Congaree National Park, but they also visited the capital building in Columbia.
What do you think of that, Uncle Joe?

Nathan's ability to run up and down these stairs puts me to shame when I meet at the Alabama capital with my boot camp once a week. I need to step up my workout!



They also visited a zoo.
There was a merry-go-round at the zoo. Look at that cool kid on the leopard.

They also went to a carnival, but apparently I didn't save any of those pictures to post. Nathan had a lot of fun there though. He wants Paw-Paw and Lady to take him back when he's five years old and bigger... and maybe a little braver. Paw-Paw and Lady assured him they would find a carnival to take him to in Florida, but he only wants to go to the carnival in South Carolina.

Those rare occasions when Kathryn is being sweet makes you forget all about the other 90% of the time when she's being bad.

It doesn't matter where you take Nathan as long as you stay in a hotel.
He'll enjoy any trip as long as he gets plenty of time to hang out in the hotel room.
Lady was the lucky one to get to sleep with Kathryn.