Party Day

Today is Rachel's 6th birthday!  Happy Birthday big girl...we love you!  Today was also the Kindergarten party.  Instead of a graduation they decided to throw a kindergarten luau.  The kids each received a certificate and then there were fun activities to go around. 

Rachel and her teacher, Mrs. Pickett

After school we headed to Dairy Queen for a birthday treat.  There were presents when Daddy got home and then dinner at McDonald's.  I told Rachel she could choose wherever she wanted to eat....and that was the result.  Friday the family comes for a visit and then it's party party time!

Concert Adventures

I'm always up for a concert and if it happens to be free....bonus!  Building 429 was holding a free concert yesterday on the east side - no tickets required.  The lead singer, Jason Roy, is the worship pastor at my cousin Chad's church in Tennessee.  We got to meet him last year while on vacation.  Concert at 7PM; doors open at 6PM.  In my mind that translates to  - Better be there no later than 5PM.  So I decided to surprise Aaron.  I arranged for one of his friends to go with us, and asked his mom not to tell him what was going on, just to be ready by 4PM.  I took Rachel to the neighbor's house to play and told Aaron to get his shoes on.  When asked "why" I told him that it was close to Rachel's birthday and we needed to go take care of something....nod, nod, wink, wink.  So off we went.  When we pulled into Joel's driveway, he was somewhat confused.  So I said, "The surprise isn't for Rachel, it's for you....go get your friend."  I had them in the dark until the promo for the concert came on the radio and I jacked it up real loud.  "Is THAT what we're doing?"  "You got it!"  So after a quick stop at Wendy's we headed to the church.  Pulled in at 5 PM and there was a mostly empty parking lot.  SCORE!  We're 1st at the doors.  Long story - short, they let everyone in early because a storm was brewing.  We ended up front row, center stage, and had a blast!  The boys got t-shirts, I got a CD.  After the concert we got everything signed.  I did a bit of name dropping at the signing table. :)  We grabbed Frostys and headed home happy, and I have been declared one of the coolest moms around by Aaron's friend Joel.

Now we will play "How to entertain a photographer"  You let them go to an event with a full battery and empty memory card and let them shoot away.  Not because they really need a bunch of photos of the band,   (Or in this case, the lead singer, because he's the one I had the clearest view of) but because they will entertain themselves by trying to photograph the stage lighting and effects in different ways at different settings.

Hi! Our names are Joel and Aaron.....and we're VIP's!

Princess Banquet

This weekend Aaron spent Friday night at the church for the Boys turned Men event.  It involved camping, hot dogs, football, bowling and general running around with the guys.  When Aaron started to recount some of the night's adventures I told him it might be best not to worry his mother.  No one was hurt; so all's good.  This evening it was the girls turn to party.  Their event is the Princess Banquet.  It does not involve hot dogs or football.  All the girls dress up in their best party dresses and have a scrumptious meal.  They are escorted in and served by the boys.  My part is setting up the photo equipment and shooting away.  The photo booth is always popular!  Aaron was on escort duty.

All the guys cramming in for their photo

...and when not helping out they were doing this. :)



A little shooting around

Hmmm...was trying to decide between a walk this evening or grabbing the camera for some shooting.  Camera won.  I drove out west of town and had some fun.

Awana Finale

Last night of Awana for this school year.  Rachel completed her 1st year of Sparks and received her book award.  And Dusty and I....we're happy to have survived another year of volunteering. :)

Paul - Thanks for the photo :)

Mom's day at Turkey Run

What is quickly becoming a Mother's Day tradition for our family is to grab a quick lunch after church and head out to a park for some hiking and photo shooting.  This year's destination (after lunch at Steak 'n Shake) was Turkey Run.  This Mommy likes to shoot photos so be prepared....there's a lot of them.

Out on trail #3...the rugged one. :)  In my opinion, you can't go to Turkey Run and not hike trail 3.  It's why you go in the first place.  We've had a lot of rain recently so it was especially muddy and wet.

And we always go to the right to start the loop.  I think it's easier to hike up the creek bed, especially when it's wet and you get to go down more stairs than you go up.  So less of this type of view!

Some of the critters we encountered.

FYI - Dusty's not one of the critters. :)

After hiking trail 3, Aaron wanted to show us a place along the river that he had been at when he went with friends to the park last month.  He claimed it wasn't that far.  So we headed off on trail 4 and after what seemed like 947 steps and 4.5 miles we arrived at a sandy place along the river.  No one around and the kids had fun in the water and looking for rocks and fossils.

Dusty with his 2nd rock skipping attempt.  The first made an obnoxious "kerplunk" sound and skipped nowhere.  He claimed that was his "warm up".

Time to Play with Hay

From last week's playtime with Hayden. :)