It's My Birthday!

Ok.  It's not my birthday.  I am totally past the age where you feel the need to announce your birthday to the world at large.  However, Jeremiah's BFF Grant is not.  Today is HIS birthday and I'm thinking everyone including our waitress at Goldstar knows it!  Grant is not known for his shyness and today was no exception!

Here are a few shots from our birthday dinner at Goldstar - his pick of course - because after all, it is his birthday!

Grant and his lovely Mom, my BFF Jodi

Me and my boy

Isn't he cute?

Clearly he gets his looks and his brains from his mother!

To pass the time waiting for our meal, we all tried on Jeremiah's beloved sunglasses.

The fact that he let the rest of us touch the sunglasses is a sign of his love for us!

Are we cool chics or what?

You know, our boys are lucky kids.  Not every mother could pull of the sunglasses look, but we can.

Then our meals arrived and Grant got serious about his hot sauce.

Very serious.  Not kidding. 

Jeremiah is in awe of Grant's toughness.  He can't handle anything spicy!

Jeremiah says that Grant was his first friend.

And to be honest they sure have done a lot together over the years.

From Christmas programs at church

To Easter Sunday in their best.. 

From Halloween...

To beach vacations.

Church camp...

And lots of birthdays.

Getting baptized

And just plain hanging out.

Happy Birthday Grant!  I can't think of a better BFF for Jeremiah than you!

We love you buddy. :)

Shopping and Swimming - You gotta' love summer break!

I don't know about you but I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by!  It's been a little crazy around here, but we have managed to pack in some great summertime fun.  First, our family fun weekend became the extended version and lasted all the way until the next weekend.  Jeremiah ended up going home with my parents after their visit here last weekend and I joined him there last Wednesday.  We were getting ready for our big fundraising yard sale.  My sister was kind enough to let us have it in her yard and my mom, my sister and various wonderfully generous family and friends donated items for the yard sale to help us raise funds for our adoption travel.  Jeremiah and his cousins had a hot dog stand and I totally meant to take picutes of it, but it was too busy!  To say our yard sale was a huge success is an understatement.  Thank You God!

What I really wanted pictures of were the signs Jeremiah  made for his hot dog stand.  He is serious about getting his baby sister here as quickly as possible and about going with me on at least one trip! I tried having my Dad take pictures of the signs but you can't really read them, so to get the full effect pretend you are reading this off of hot pink poster board with black letters done in my son's handwriting.  "Help me bring my sis home."  And he drew a picture of Ethiopia with a heart in it under this.  Then he did a green one that said, "There are 4.5 million orphans in Ethiopia.  Help us save one please!" I have to tell you, it made me teary eyed.  He thought of these all by himself and was so careful to make sure he was neat.  He had a ruler and a marker and was crawling around in the kitchen floor measuring his poster board to make sure his letters looked right.  I sure do love that kid!

After we recovered from the yard sale my friends Jodi and Carol, and her daughters Megan and Emily and I had a great girls day out.  We did some shopping and had lunch and just basically had a great time! 

                                                        Ready to find some bargains!

                                              Looks like a shopping strategy discussion to me!

Jodi bought an awesome new skirt and spent the rest of the day trying to find a sweater to match it!  I'm pretty sure she tried on every orange sweater at the mall. 

Emily's fabulous bargain scarf. 

Who would think they would be on clearance in the middle of summer?

A side trip to the Boy Scout store to get Jodi's son Grant's supplies for boy scout camp turned out to be almost as much fun as finding bargains at the mall. 

Oh, good a fire - it's sooooo cold outside after all.

Megan modeling the newest fashions in boy scout gear.   

All the best dressed boys scouts will be wearing this great hat. 

Who knew the boy scout store was such fun? 

Today we had great fun at Jeremiah's friend Coleman's house.  The boys got in some good swim time and the moms had time to chat without being interrupted a hundred times!

Two boys: one innertube. 

This could be a problem! Actually, later in the afternoon they had three boys in one innertube but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of that feat.

I'm pretty sure the next two pictures were taken as the boys were planning the innertube adventure.  You can almost put words in their mouths.  Jeremiah says, Hey Coleman do you think we could both fit in one innertube?  Coleman ponders for a minute, hmmmmm.

Then says, Dude that would be awesome - I'll go get one and we'll try!

And what's a day at the pool without a little wrestling? 

 

And a little bit of throwing Jack to see how far he flies.

Aaron is more fun than any other pool toy out there!

So happy it's summer vacation! 



Family Fun Weekend

What a great weekend!  My parents came up from Southern Ohio and we had the best time.  Jeremiah climbed out of bed on Friday morning and started asking how much longer until Grandpa gets here?  So, we had to find something to do to entertain ourselves and pass the time so I wouldn't kill him before they got here!  We headed to Florence for lunch with Kristy and Lucy before we did some grocery shopping and last minute straightening up at home.  At this point, we consider Kristy and Lucy as family too!

Lucy and her Mama

No meeting with Lucy is complete without a pic of her with Jeremiah.  I love that they are both looking at each other out of the corner of their eyes in this one - probably because she has a big handful of his hair!  The look on her face is priceless...very sly!  Look how cute I am while I pull your hair really hard.

A shot of Kristy and I on the way out the door!

My parents arrived Friday evening and my Dad brought Jeremiah a new mattress and box springs for his room.  He loves it and said he may never come out of his room!  I have to admit...it's pretty comfy.

Saturday started with a trip to the Bass Pro Shop in Cincinnati.  My Dad is an avid fisherman and the Bass Pro Shop is on his list of the best places on earth!

I thought this stone pillar was very cool - in fact the whole store is pretty cool - very outdoorsy, but they both said you couldn't tell they were at the Bass Pro Shop...

...So, I stood in the middle of the road and took this one.  Don't you just love their matching t-shirts?

Since we were already up North we decided to head to Monroe for some outlet shopping.  Doesn't Jeremiah look thrilled at the prospect?

And no visit from Grandpa is complete without a little, well actually a lot, of wrestling.

Of course, this is Jeremiah's favorite photo  He is winning, but it was a brief victory!

Finally, a rare shot of my mom as we hung around the house after church on Sunday.  She is never in pictures because she is always the one taking them.  She and Jeremiah had trouble keeping their eyes open and smiling at the camera.  Seriously, I took about six shots and none of them have them both looking at the camera with their eyes open.  So, look at Jeremiah in this one...

...And my Mom in this one!

We are so lucky to have such a great family.  Can't wait to add a baby sister to the fun. :)