We had several big storms one right after another, and it caused some temporary flooding in some streets and backyards. This is our neighborhood park and pool area.
Crossing on the sidewalk.
Usually there are a few feet of space between this bridge and the water.
The backyards we usually walk through to get to the pool.
The source of the over flow, Bayou Chinchuba.
Usually the water line is below 15 feet on this ruler.
Even though it wasn't raining anymore when we went for our little walk, Ashlyn wanted to use this umbrella because, "some ladies use them to look beautiful."
On our walk I noticed a lot of growth I haven't seen before. Honeysuckles, and blackberries! We started picking some berries and putting them in baskets to make blackberry cobbler. Ellia also came with me off the bike trail on the horse trail to check for more. It was pretty swampy and kindof eerie. I just kept thinking of water moccasins and other snakes. By the time it connected again with the main trail we were done with adventures for the day...plus we didn't really get any extra blackberries.
a few hours worth of rain.
My little swim teamers!
One nice day as I was pumping gas I took advantage of my lovely view. This is the Tchefuncte river in Madisonville where the drawbridge is and all the huge houses have their yachts parked in the river in their backyards.
Time for another Brag Tag. While this place is a bit of a drive, it has potential for a nice family night out. The kids can play and the adults can order from a full Italian menu.
Writing her name in the carpet with a lego...could be much worse!
Ellia helping Quincy color.
Ellia practicing her styling skills on Barbie.
While I was on the treadmill one morning Quincy came clodding over to me in Jeremy's shoes. I was surprised how well she managed them.
Ellia's hair before the big cut.
So cute!!! We both love it!
Quincy got a hold of a marker within minutes of her bath.
Watching Calamity Jane "songs" on dad's phone. They were hooked! A few days later we rented the show and it was so fun watching it with them. It makes me want to watch more old musicals as a family.
Making crawfish alfredo for our Be A Seafood Chef Brag Tag.
Quincy helped with clean up.
Fire Station tour Brag Tag.
Tour of the Food Bank and donation for Brag Tag.
Girls playing school. Ellia really wanted to be "home schooled" for the summer.
Sometimes Quincy just wants her own space.
Global Wildlife Brag Tag. Instead of going on the tour this time, we talked to the parrot for a while, fed the fish and watched the kangaroos. I also let them pick out a prize from the gift shop. Ashlyn picked a baby cheetah figure. For some reason cheetah's are her new passion. On our drive out we saw a mama kangaroo with its joey's legs sticking out of its pouch all crazy. Ellia pointed it out and it was pretty fun to see even if I didn't get a good a picture.
Quincy is a big cereal girl now and can even drink the milk from the bowl!
Since we moved here I have been wanting to take a cooking class. Once Teresa moved here I had the perfect companion to join me. We left the girls at home with Jeremy and Brian and took off for a trip to New Orleans School of Cooking.
In just a few hours we learned how to make Gumbo, Chicken Creole and Pralines. I was surprised that they were all pretty basic ingredients. The key was all in the seasoning, so of course we had to buy that on our way out. Our teacher was very entertaining and told so much history about New Orleans and where the food came from. Of course I only remember bits and pieces, but one thing I remember was her talking about the Natchez Trace. A trail used for so long it wore down the earth pretty deep in some places. People would use it to access the Mississippi, they would take their goods down river to New Orleans, sell everything, even the pieces of the barge they had used, and then walk home to all corners of the Eastern U.S. I knew we had been close before on some of our trips, but it made me want to go again.
While the big kids have their swim lesson, sometimes I let Quincy in the little pool. She is getting so brave! She LOVES her Zebra and has to carry it from the house to the car and then the car to the pool.
Ellia loves helping me with LuLaRoe, and modeling the clothes too.
Ashlyn is getting to be quite the good artist. Once when Jeremy was gone she drew a picture of him and Quincy and then hung it in Quincy's crib so she wouldn't miss him.
It's not too often they all play together...yet.
We took a weekend trip to Vicksburg Mississippi and it was so neat! I wish I could remember more about it from History class, but I learned a lot just being there. Besides the areas that marked war boundaries, we stopped to see some ancient mounds and the Natchez Trace, since I had it in my mind to see that from our cooking class history lesson.
It was pretty impressive how large and steep this mound had been built.
Behind them is a huge flat area that had all been cleared and built up from the regular elevation.
One of the steep edges of the field.
The Natchez Trace trail. While it seems that it was probably a wash to begin with, it was probably still worn down with years of travel. It was kindof eerie to walk along it, and once when I was leading the way and we had seen some old building we were heading to, I ran into a huge spider web and got so freaked out I fell over backward scrambling away. All I could think of was the huge spider webs we kept seeing across the trail on one of our National Park excursions earlier this year, and the creepy spiders that accompanied them.
We stopped at another place along the way. A little town called it is abandoned now but it was once a comparitvely large settlement. The only things left besides a church that has been partially restored and it still used occasionally for celebrations, were two safes and a well.
You can see how years of water have washed the earth right out from under this tree.
Behind the church was a beautiful little old cemetery that was really neat to explore. The sun was peeking through the trees just right and it made everything very picturesque.
Music Class through popcorn picture should be at the end of the month.
We were able to get in to a demonstration for our Music tag, and they showed us a lot of technology that enhances or replicated instruments.
Finally! Play Unplugged made the Mandeville Picayune Newspaper...front page even!
Beautiful patriotic girls.
Jeremy and the scouts took a canoeing trip, complete with camping.
We had a girls movie night, complete with Twizzlers. For some reason the addition of this small treat made it seem so much more like a movie night, maybe it just brought back memories of movie nights growing up.
Some re-enactments at Vicksburg.
I never knew there were so many different types and sizes of cannons and cannon shot.
The area was much more hilly than anything we are used to in the South.
There were some amazing monuments, this one was built by the Illinois infantry I think.
There was also this amazing ship that was brought up from the bottom of the river and partially restored.
Stopping for a break at a local splash pad - it was a very hot and humid weekend.
Cemetary
This is about how much room I get when I share with Ashlyn.
While the motel wasn't super nice, it was a decent price, had a great view, and we got to enjoy the swimming pool the next morning.
Posing on the steps so Jeremy will put a new picture of them on his phone background.
Cemetery for the Battle of Vicksburg. So many graves, so many of them unmarked.
Where the North finally overtook the Southern lines.
Ashlyn wanted her picture with this big fish at the splash pad.
Father's day gifts before church. The girls had the special chair all set up for him.
Radio control boat.
Relaxing on Father's Day.
Trying out the new boat.
She now insists on being wrapped up in a towel and it has to be just perfect.
Little River Oaks Racers at their first "meet" which was just a warmup with their team for time trials. It was a very good idea to do this so the girls and myself know what to expect at the bigger meets. Just hearing the announcer and gun got me all excited! It didn't effect Ellia much, but Ashlyn was a little nervous.
The coaches were in the water to help the younger kids, but they pretty much both swam front, back and breast stroke the whole 25 meters by themselves. Ashlyn got a little nervous in the deep end, so the coach had to sortof hold her up and as Kristy the main coach said, "deliver the pizza!"
Ashlyn kept her arms by her sides in the back stroke and when I shouted to her to "use your arms!" she kept them there but wiggled her hands a little. She was so determined and tried each time so hard. She was scared when she got out the first time but she got the ribbon and was motivated to keep going for more ribbons.
Ellia taking pictures.
Trying out a new spray park with friends.
On swim picture day, Quincy enjoyed playing with her new little Breedlove friend.
Getting our Nature Hike tags. Melissa watched Quincy while I took Makayla and Olivia to help trim trees and bushes on a trail at the Northlake Nature Center.
Makayla was so focused on the work, Olivia was very interested in the plants and creatures, and made a buddy who was teaching her about everything....sometimes the four of them would get pretty far apart and it made me kindof nervous, plus it was a hot night and some of them wore out more quickly than others, but all in all it was a good experience. My girls keep saying they know a trail Jeremy doesn't and they want to show it to him.
Next up was out Jr. Ranger tag. The actual pamphlet was kindof involved for our age of kids so we just played at the visitors center for a while to earn our tags.
The girls did like carrying around the clipboards though and pretending to be scientific!
Ellia and Ashlyn wrote up little reports on Alligators to earn their Insta-gator badges.
Jeremy built this trebuchet with the scouts.
I almost grabbed these and clean them up before I noticed the size order Ashlyn had put them in.
Another swimming day for Quincy while the big girls have their lesson. She is getting so comfortable in the water and even wants to play with her floaty off sometimes.
Earning our Build a Sandcastle Brag Tag. We even had one of the reports come talk to us about the program and take some pictures. He was really getting a kick out of Quincy playing in the water and I was sitting back thinking, "yeah I know she's cute." Then when I went to try to help get her to look at the camera I saw how dirty her face was and was very humbled!
Getting along.
Yes, yes I did get a turkey when bowling. Probably my only one EVER.
Oh and yes, that was my score....BEST I HAVE EVER DONE! Too bad I absolutely did not repeat in the second game and Shane and Monique probably believed all my talk at first about not being a very good bowler. After bowling we went to Copeland's and had fried pasta. I was curious how that would turn out, but it was exactly how it sounds, and pretty dang good too!
Ready to walk to the pool. She won't go without her zebra.
Bathing beauties.
First attempt at my new knowledge from New Orleans School of Cooking. Gumbo! It was super yummy!
Pralines tasted good but the consistency just wasn't up to par.
Picking blackberries. Ok, so this is actually the time Ellia and I went off onto the horse trail.
I was hesitant to take the girls to skate for their Brag Tag, but they both had a lot of fun and we stayed for a long time. Part of it was because we had friends there too. Ella, Alice and William Powell were there along with Peter and Rigby Flamm.
By the end the girls were much more confident. Ellia was the one who tried to avoid falling as much as possible and Ashlyn would fall on purpose and just keep getting up without any caution at all.
Ashlyn making the beds perfectly. When she does this and lays everything out straight, she won't sleep under her covers at night, but lay on top of everything instead.
Just a little snack in between swimming.
First meet against another team. It was raining so there actually weren't as many people there, but it made it go pretty fast and was so fun to see how much the girls had improved over just a few weeks from the time trials. Ashlyn didn't even need to be held up this time! Ellia's times also really improved.
Trying out a new business and earning our Lego Brag Tags from Bricks 4 Kidz.
