My favorite spring flowers!

A young lady that I tutor.  She was born in Savannah and has that same southern accent that the boys have.  I love to hear her talk.  Her dad is a pilot and she has promised to take me to Europe with them this summer, if I don't make her read!  Every week I have to bribe her with something to get me a ticket on that plane.  Now, I have to bake her dad some cookies and I have to promise to take her to get something to eat while we are in Europe.  She wants to go to MacDonalds - yep, think I can handle that.

Miss Priss walking by herself.  The boys were wanting me to read a favorite book that I used to read to Martha.  "The Giant Jam Sandwich"  They have tons of questions as we read the book.

Buck 'n Bubba's!

Oh the fun we had at that place when Martha was in high school!  We would go every Wednesday night cause that was family night.  When it first opened, you would have to catch a shuttle over to the front door as there were so many people/cars that you had to park your car too far away to walk to the door.  

For those of you who did not grow up in Columbia, Buck 'n Bubba's was a country club that opened at the height of the country dance craze.  Yep, we had the hats!  

Nope, I was not out clubbing tonight.  I was at exercise class and we did the Coper Head Road, Charleston, Charleston Shuffle, Electric Slide, Macarena, and Boot Scootn' Buggie.  Oh, did this bring about memories

The boys were enjoying watching cartoons with Bet Bet- Great-Grandmother.  Know the picture is not that good of the boys but will create a memory for them.  
Anna Claire is sitting with her great-granddaddy.  He introduced her to chocolate this week-end and yes, she like it
The boys loved the elephants and all the animals at the circus.
The motorcycles were a favorite and this one on hire wire was Parker's 
The boys were just amazed at all of the acts - as you can see from their total attention to the ring.

The circus was in town and we took the boys and Anna Claire.  AC was free so that was why we took her.  She was not that interested in the happenings.  She crawled all over Martha, Melinda and me.  She walked between the three of us and tried to pull the hair of the people in front of us.  I asked Martha if her actions reminded her of the time she and I flew with the boys to Calif.  That was the longest plane ride in history.  Parker finally went to sleep on that trip but Peyton stayed awake and moving the whole trip!  Another passenger tried to help us out by holding Peyton part of the way and he even gave him up after a few minutes.  Martha's answer was YES

The boys sat in their seat or stood still while they watched the whole show.  When it was intermission, Parker asked me if it was coming back on.  We did buy the boys popcorn but that was all.  The lights they wanted were $18.

We had the kids while Martha and Chris packed up their house for moving.  They have to be out by this weekend.  Of course we had fun with the boys and we got to see Anna Claire walk by herself.  When she would cross the den, we would clap for her.  She started clapping everytime she walked!

Oh!  the boys got to experience the ice cream truck for the first time!  They knew it was the ice cream truck as we had read about it in books.  They just didn't realize you could really buy ice cream!   They do now.  What fun!  Know the ice cream man will be back-he just doesn't know that the boys don't live here.

This week-end was full with activities with the boys, Anna Claire, and a shower for a good friend, Lea Hardy.  The chocolate fountain was Martha's doing and was enjoyed by all as well as the boys.  Anna Claire loves strawberries and she did get to taste the chocolate!  What she really loved was the chicken salad sandwiches.  She actually ate 1/2 a sandwich. 
This is another shot of the good stuff because as you can see below, there was a disaster.  These were the pig-in-a-blanket dish that ended up in the garage.  Now could it have been Martha making a mistake, of course not, it was my oven - according to Martha.  She seems to think that my oven cooks hotter and faster than her gas oven.
Lea and Amy Lock.  Lea is due in Mid may and the guest took turns guessing her delivery date and the weight of Greyson.  The winner will receive a gift for the nearest correct guess.  Somehow I think Chick-fil-A will be part of the winning gift!  Thank heavens for Chick-fil-A!
The boys kept us well entertained during the week-end.  Anna Claire is trying to walk so she is scooting from place to place and loves to transfer from one piece of furniture to another.  That child eats and eats.  The food she put away is unbelievable.  She is on table food and loves it.  We introduced her to her first burger taste from Rush's.  No french fries. Loved Charles' homemade ribs.  We pulled the meat off into small bite size pieces and she just hummed away.  This is what she does when she feeds herself, hums.  When you are feeding her, she doesn't hum but let her feed herself and she hums away.

We let the boys play in the backyard because it is fenced in.  I kept a close eye - well sort of.  I knew they were having great fun throwing their pool toys into the bushes and trying to get them out.  They had tired of using the slide as a launching pad by slamming the toys up the slide so they were flying off the top into the air.  I looked out on them and saw a flower bucket on top of the house.  When I asked the boys how they got the green plastic bucket on the roof, Peyton looked at me and said:  "Mimi, we have a little problem"  Charles could not believe that they had gotten the bucket up there.  He had not seen them launch their toys off the top of the slide.

I had foot surgery back in November, so the boys have watched progress from a boot for 3 months to finally tennis shoes.  They have delighted in seeing Mimi's boo-boo and loved to touch the scar and scream with delight.  They have been warned many times not to step on Mimi's boo-boo or sore foot.  Well, they wanted to see the scar one more time as I was putting them to bed and screaming with delight.  Again, the warning not to step on Mimi's bad foot.  Parker looked at me and asked:  Step on this foot, while pointing to my good foot, and.....before I could answer him, he jumped on my good foot with both of his feet and just stood there with the biggest grin on his face.  Oh, gotta love 'em.

When the boys were little, I taught Peyton to rub heads.  He and I would put our foreheads together and rub out heads back and forth.  He would remember this each time I went to Calif. to see them.  Parker never really got into it.  Well, Miss Priss and I have learned to rub heads and she remembers this each time I see her.  She only does it with me.  She has learned to give sugar and will share her sugar with anyone.  

We were so busy this week-end that I did not have time to take pictures.  Unbelievable.  They will be back Thursday night because we are going to the circus.  Martha will leave them , all 3 of them, with us as she and Chris will finish packing their house.  They have to be out the following week-end.  Do they know where they are going?  Nope.  That is part of the excitement.  Seems as they will be spending several weeks with their friends that moved from Calif to Atlanta.  

Ok, Ok, Martha is coming in this week-end and I hope to get instructions on how to add pics without having to post every time I want to add pics and a post.

In the mean time:  The kids had a great time at Anna Claire's party.  She received many gifts for the Annabelle basket foundation and we hope to pass them along this week-end.

Martha had the kids decorate their own cup cakes and that was a great hit with the kids.  They had such fun adding all of the icing and toppings. Parker had tons of M & M and Peyton just decided to eat out of the chocolate container.  At lease I think that is who is doing what.  When I can't see their faces, I can't tell who is who - oh heck, there are many times that I can't tell who is who when I am looking them full in the face!  Here are some more pics to view.

North meets South!

Martha's neighbor is her photographer and we have gotten to be good friends since Martha and Chris moved in.  Sara and Drew have 4 kids and the boys love playing with Jaxson and Ava.  Her older daughter, Alexe loves to play with Anna Claire.  Sara and Drew are from Michigan and I love to tease Sara about being a Yankee every chance I get.

Ex: In the fall or spring when everybody else still has their heat on, you can usually find Sara and Drew entertaining their friends on the front porch with the door wide open.  I tell Sara you can tell she is a Yankee because only they think it is warm outside when all of us Southerners still have the door closed and the heat on.

We have discussed language, like ya'll, food, and dress codes.

Well, Saturday at Miss Priss' birthday celebration, we introduced Sara and her kids to grits! And low and behold, she has not eaten black-eyed peas either.  When I showed Sara the pot of grits, her question was: "Do I just dump them on the plate?  Well of course.  I asked her how she liked them and she said they were pretty good but the texture needed getting used to.  When I told her that you eat grits after you have been sick, she kind of turned up her nose at that one.

Martha nor I bothered to tell her that the pot of grits that we cooked also had milk, cream cheese, butter and cheese as added ingredients.  Can you imagine her surprise when she buys a box of grits and tries to cook them the first time!  Oh, my - sounds alike another chance to tease her

Snow?  The boys were out Sat. afternoon enjoying the sunshine and their trucks.  24 hours later Newnan was burried in 4in. of snow.  

We left about 15 min before the storm hit.  We were driving out as it began to snow.  We should have stayed to enjoy the boys first real experience with the white stuff.

Martha talked me into leaving my camera with her and now we are suppose to get several inches of the white stuff.  Told Martha that by the time it snows again this much I will be too old to take pictures!  Hope she enjoys my camera!

The boys loved the chocolate fountain!  They had chocolate all over them and everything they touched.  Missed one of the boys and found him in the bathroom where he had climbed up on the sink and was trying to wash the chocolate off his arms, face, and hands.

Anna Claire wasn't too sure what to do with her cake but it didn't take her long to figure it out.

The cake ended up all over her and in her hair!