Refreshing

We spent the morning with some good friends cooling off at the local splash park on a terribly hot day. This is our favorite summer park. You can see why.

Avi Joy, Andrew, Luke

Our tiny little 9 1/2 month old peanut - lol.

Luke

Avi Joy

Fountain race.

Sarah is very proud that she finally mastered the monkey bars.

Wearing out.

Thanks Natasha and Jamie for a fun time!

Okra

Fresh okra from our garden.....

Coated in self-rising cornmeal, fried in olive oil. A southern summer staple.

I think my grandma Essie would be proud.

Golden Birthday

On July 5th, Sarah celebrated her 5th birthday. As we typically do, we kept the party small and simple. The Perrymans, Hodges, and my parents joined us for dinner and cake. Sarah's special treat was getting to have her first real girlfriend sleepover with Avi Joy. We did our best to keep the brothers out of the mix so that the girls could play dress up, play games, watch a movie, and gab into the wee hours of the night (10:30pm - late for a 4 and 5 yr. old) uninterrupted.

Pickles!

What do you do when your garden gives you heaps of cucs? Make Bread and Butter Pickles! Yesterday was my first time to make pickles and can. I had to make a trip to the store to buy all the proper canning supplies. Then, I had to read up on all the details to avoid food poisoning. It was time consuming, but it wasn't hard to do. We've already been in the pickles this morning. They are oh so good!