Memorial Day!

We have had such a fun weekend!! Keith and I got to go out to dinner with my old friends Friday night as the lovely little ones slept over at Memol and Beepol's house. We started dinner at 7pm and ended at 11pm! There is just nothing better to me than laughing and catching up with your friends lives and hearing their new "stories" and not having to worry about time or babysitters!! Yesterday, we got to see lots of our old friends at the same time at Chris and Lori's Memorial Day Party!! I love, love, love that Keith has a whole batch of wonderful guys that have married amazing women and have brought us all together into one big happy "brotherhood"!!!! I love these families - yes, we are all families now and that just reminds me how long we have all been friends. (I am saying nothing about age here people!) The kids all had fun too - squirting eachother with spring water and mud, jumping on the trampoline, sliding down the big blow up slide, and coming for periodic hugs. I got lots of gorgeous pictures of my friends and their families - I love that!

Tonight we were going to another party but it was canceled until next weekend - oh darn, another weekend party (!!) Then we decided to cook out and invite friends over but both of us were at a loss as to whom to invite since I just got to spend lots of time with one of my best friends and Keith and I got to hang out with our old crowd last night! I said, "Everyone that I want to see, I got to see and I couldn't be happier!" Keith just laughed and said, "Let's go to W.W. Cousins then!" Of course, this is Riley and Quinn's Favorite place and they call it WWW. Cousins - very cute! So, off we go for burgers and I don't have to cook - Again!! What a great weekend!

Sweetie's Lollypops

Whew!! What a day. My youngest is a massive ball of energy, always asking me to help her do something. (I am now wondering if she learned that by watching me always ask her father to help me do something??) I am glad she asks me though and doesn't just set about doing something on her own because many times it involves some kind of danger. (again wondering where she learned that...)

Today she asked if we could make lollypops. I had bought everything to do this a few days ago but got side tracked by my buddy Rebecca who, besides being able to do everything else in the world, is a fire hooper. HUH?? Well, she hula-hoops and lights the hoop on fire!!! How cool!! She is such an amazing person! So she called me Friday night and said she and her daughter were going hula-hooping in the park and did we want to come. Uh... YEAH!!! And just for the record, I have never been able to hula-hoop. Seriously. Never could keep that hoop going around and around my tummy. So Becky taught me Friday night and it is now my new obsession. Yes, I will be having a party and paying Rebecca to come and teach my girlfriends!! Needless to say, when someone calls and asks if I want to do something new, I am all in and I knew the lollys would wait a few days. So here we are on Sunday afternoon and Riley remembers we were going to make lollys on Friday so of course we need to start NOW!!! (Never mind I have a paper due tomorrow and a take home test to turn in!!!)

Sweet Keith decided to get it all going while I finished my spreadsheet and paper (love that guy!!) and then I joined them and took some pics. (Of course if I had remembered to put my flipin' card back in my camera, I would have had great pics of us hula-hooping on Fri. night! DUH!!) We had fun making the candy. You have to boil the sugar and corn syrup until it reaches 305 degrees! and then put it in an ice bath for 10 seconds. Only Sweet Keith counts in Mississippi-Mississippi's for his seconds so I think it was a little too long. Anyway, then you add the flavoring (we used orange extract) and the coloring. They came out too thick because we decided to jam ourselves into a corner of the kitchen instead of using an open counter and so we were all on top of eachother trying to work too fast because the candy was cooling too quickly and getting hard fast. It is ok, because we can try it again another day!! And you have to be really careful not to touch your skin and stir slow when adding the water based stuff cause it boils immediately! Here are some fun shots! Enjoy!

This Boy!!

I adore this boy!! He has the biggest heart of any boy I know!! He has such love and compassion for others - mostly babies, kids and any "under-dog"! He gets really mad when he sees that there is no JUSTICE in a situation. He plays hard, and almost never realizes when another kid is playing "mean" or teasing him - he just has an innocent heart. This boy gives the BEST hugs (and has actually been told that by several quite attractive "princesses" at Disney World. Seriously, Cinderella hugged him and then went and got her friends and came back to have them all hugged AND get another hug!! (He was 5 for that trip!) He actually made me cry this morning too. He said they were starting shark dissection in school today and he didn't want to do it. Being a boy, I thought this would be VERY cool to him so I was confused. I asked him Why he didn't want to do it (he really seemed to be looking forward to it last week). He said that the teacher talked to them about the dissection process yesterday and told them that they may end up with a shark "mommy" that has a baby or babies in her belly. Well, that was it for Quinn!! He wanted NOTHING to do with dead babies! He said he was sure he would throw-up if he ended up with a momma shark and then he would pass out, and of course, that would be embarassing to him. No wonder he did not want to go to school and do the dissection! Oh - poor kid! I tried to make him feel better and told him to ask the teacher for a boy shark. (How do you tell a shark apart???) I just hugged him and told him to do as much of the dissection as he felt comfortable with. Can't wait til he gets home from school and I can find out what happened. (But I didn't get a call from the school nurse, so that is a good sign!) Well, we can cross out anything in the health care field for him. :)