Yesterday Charlie and Adam came over, as did Mallory and Clara, so they had to ride with me when we took Clara to dance.  When we walked in the dance studio there was a little boy there who is in Charlie’s class at school, waiting while his sister took her class.  He had the ultimate little boy magnet – a video game.  Adam was all over him in a matter of seconds 🙂

After Clara got changed and into her class, we headed across the street to spend the hour at Fountain Park.  Another little boy we’d seen in the dance studio (he also had a video game 🙂 ) was there with his mom, and he showed us how to use my phone to control some of the jets in the fountain.  We never could really get it to work – my phone battery was about dead – but they were so excited watching – and helping – him do it.  Next time.

What a fun time we had here at the house yesterday, when four of the six grands were here to spend the day.  Not long after they all arrived Mallory started working on a treasure hunt for the younger three.  It was SO cute – she did such a good job.  Here they are finding their first prizes – sunglasses for everyone.  Good times.

Addie came by to pick up June and Mason, and soon after that Lindee arrived to take Mallory to a dentist appointment.  That left just Clara here to hang out with me.  That doesn’t happen that often, that it’s just Clara and me, so we got busy cooking.  Here she is measuring out sugar for our chocolate chess pies.  Yum!!!

Andrew’s birthday was last Monday, but we celebrated here yesterday with lunch after church.  Lindee got sick while they were at church, so her family wasn’t able to come, but the rest of us were here.  Happy 37th, Andrew!

Mason wanted to stay and spend the night.  I told him it wasn’t going to be that much fun – we were taking naps and then watching the women’s World Cup soccer championship, but he decided to stay anyway.  It was pretty late after that, but he hadn’t really done anything fun since everyone else had left, so we did get some flour sifted to make some pie crusts before we crashed for the night.  That’s all we got done – just the flour sifted.  Too tired to get into adding any shortening.  That was our fun for the evening :-).  Good times.

Four of the six grands were here again on Wednesday – just a different combination.  They played and played outside – it’s SO nice that the weather is a little cooler.  Then they came inside and we did a science experiment.  I’d read about this on line, and the supplies were pretty easy to come by.  We mixed up these combinations of three different very specific clear liquids – a vitamin C tablet dissolved in warm water was one, and then combinations of hydrogen peroxide, iodine, starch, maybe a couple of other things.  Then they poured them all together, and poured them back & forth between cups, and all of a sudden they turned a bright purple.  They were SO excited – so was I.  I just wish I had enough scientific knowledge to tell them exactly what was going on.  Here is June mid pour, just before the purple appeared…

After lunch we ran June and Mason home, and Charlie & Adam went with us to pick up my new car. I am so excited! It drove great, and it has air conditioning. Woo hoo!

We celebrated Independence Day by heading over to Addie and Lee’s to cook out with them, Lee’s mom & dad Roger and Bennie, and good friends David and Kelli, and all the kiddos. The kids were so excited that they couldn’t wait to dark, so we started on the sparklers soon after we ate :-).

AND we shot fireworks of one kind or another until 10:30 PM. Here are Addie and Kelli lighting giant sparklers for the kids much much later in the evening. It was a great night.

What a fun day we had Monday.  Sherri and Zoee had gotten into town Sunday night to spend a couple of nights, and as one of the grandkids said, It’s always fun when Aunt Sherri is here :-).  Mallory, Clara, June, and Mason came over to spend the day, and that morning we made coconut cream pies.  Here we are working hard on our pie crusts.

That afternoon was Charlotte’s Grandmother/Grandkid pool party. Sherri and Zoee were here to go with us – they fit the bill, after all – and four of my best buds and as many grand ones as were available. I think it ended up being nine kids – sometimes when we all get together it’s much more, but we had fun with all of us who were there. And this is the picture I got – of Mason turning his head just as I snapped the camera. We’ll be back swimming again this summer – maybe I’ll get better ones then.

Saturday Jackson’s Aunt Christy got married at our church.  All of her great nieces, including Mallory and Clara, preceded her down the aisle, all dressed in pink.  OF COURSE my camera batteries died almost as soon as the wedding started, but I did manage to get this sort of picture of Chelsea, who was the vocalist.  I was taking it without a flash, and a lot of times those come out sort of blurry.  It was such a lovely wedding, though, and Christy and Rick both just seemed so happy.

Just now getting pictures downloaded for the past week, which kicked off last Thursday night with Boo inviting me to head up to the Charlotte Hornets Draft Party at the arena.  It really was fun.  It definitely won’t be the last time I go.  I didn’t make many pictures, and the couple that I did make didn’t turn out great, but if you looks closely you can maybe see Dell Curry introducing Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who is modeling the new uniform for next year.  It has sleeves – interesting.  Fun evening.