Family Supper with Liz & Amy

When we left the Braves game, Amy & Liz came back here to spend a couple of nights, & spend some time visiting with Gran.  That Monday night we had a family gathering here at the house, which, as always, was great fun.  Here is one of the table groups:get-attachment

And the big group picture, taken outside on our front steps. Good, good evening.get-attachment

Elaine Sings at the Braves Game

What a special time we had when some of us headed to Atlanta to hear cousin Elaine Wade sing at the Braves game.  We left straight from June’s birthday party – Andrew, Liz, Charlie, Adam & I – and spent the night, along with Boo, Shea, & Lesley, at Greg & Tabitha’s house, even though they weren’t there.  We knew we wanted to get to the game way ahead of time, so there wasn’t any chance of us missing the National Anthem – the most important part of the day.  Tabitha had taught us when we were down for a game earlier in the year that we could pay for parking ahead of time, so we did that, & the lot we parked in was the one that’s built on the site where Fulton County Stadium was built years ago.  There’s still an outline of the field on the parking lot – here’s Charlie standing on home plate.get-attachment

 

Elaine on the big screen.  She did an amazing job.get-attachment

 

June’s 7th Birthday Party

The party was actually held out at her Aunt Lindee’s house, with the plan being that the kids would all run around outside the whole time, enjoying their beautiful yard.  Of course it rained.  Still, it was great fun after the party moved indoors.  Here’s our birthday girl with her softball cake.get-attachment

And with that sweet Kenna – their moms have been best buds since about second grade. It was a good afternoon celebrating our special Bug.get-attachment

Fintastic

A couple of Fridays ago Adam was here by himself – Charlie’s group at camp was going to the zoo, so he certainly didn’t want to miss that – so we got Little Hope to go with us, & headed up to Fintastic, a great fish store up at Ayrsley in Charlotte.  My friend Jennifer Addie has recommended it to me really a few years ago, thinking that the kids might like it – and she was so right.  I think I read that they have 18,000 fish in the store, plus all the cool aquarium set ups, etc.  What a fun way to spend an afternoon.get-attachment

They had some amazing specimens of sea creatures there. This black sea urchin – I think that’s what it was – was wild, as were the lion fish, cow fish, assorted kinds of eels, sharks – pretty amazing afternoon.get-attachment

Cousins’ first Knights Game

One of our clients at work offered us his tickets to the Charlotte Knights game, so Lindee & I took June and Clara to see their first Big League baseball game.  It may have been Clara’s first baseball game of any kind, although June kept reminding us that she had been to see Adam play T-ball :-).  And June herself is, of course, a softball player with one entire season under her belt, but she told me this was her first time seeing The Real Thing.  As always, being together made the experience just that much better for them both.get-attachment

Lindee’s & my plan was that we would just stay until the girls started getting antsy. I was thinking three innings at the most. After seven innings, though, Lindee herself finally asked the girls if they were ready to head out, since she had to work the next day. The girls agreed, and we did, stopping by the team store on our way home. However, when we walked out of the stadium – which itself is brand new this year, and beautiful – the girls saw the new Romare Bearden Park across the street, with the fountains that changed colors. So that gave everyone a second wind, and we headed over to check it out. Also beautiful. It was a good, good night.get-attachment

Just a regular day

As much fun as we had on vacation, it was still good to get back into the regular-ness of our daily lives.  Wednesday of that week we got home the kids helped me cook lunch, which included brown rice.  Here is Adam helping with the rice measuring.get-attachment

That afternoon we headed to my friend Charlotte’s house. Even though they were out of town, she had very generously called before she left to offer us her pool. There isn’t much the kids enjoy more.  Here are Mason, Adam, June, & Charlie barely containing themselves long enough for me to snap a picture, before they’re back splashing and swimming.  Another good summer day…get-attachment