Graduation Season, Part 2

This past weekend, my youngest sister, Jeri,
graduated from high school.

I was almost 9 years old when she was born, so while
I was living at home I felt like a second mother to her.

When she was a baby I loved helping
my mom out with whatever Jeri might need.

As she got older, I really enjoyed helping her with her schoolwork, especially math homework...I know, I'm a dork :)

When I got my driver's license I took Jeri and her friends places, I picked her up from the after school program everyday my senior year, and I even took her on a few dates with me! I don't know if she always enjoyed
being hauled all over town with me, but I loved it!

All this to say, it was really hard for me to believe that my baby sister is old enough to graduate from high school!

For such a momentous occasion, the whole family packed up and headed to Atlanta for a weekend of celebration.

Me, Anna, Kathleen, and Jeri after the graduation ceremony
Jeri and my parents

The whole family
After the ceremony, Jeri chose House of Lu, a local Chinese restaurant, for her celebration lunch...guess my family has a thing for celebrating graduations at oriental restaurants

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out
with the family and visiting friends.

Aubrey & Papa

Anna reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to Luke,
it was her favorite book as a kid

Aubrey learned some new tricks while we were in Atlanta:

Biting her tongue
Pulling up

Pulling up while biting her tongue

Standing
Standing while biting her tongue...seeing a pattern here?

and riding a zebra (bouncy toy)...thankfully she was not
biting her tongue while bouncing

We are so proud of you, Jeri!

Graduation Season, Part 1

May has been the month of graduations in my family.

Two weeks ago, my sister, Anna, graduated from Auburn
with a masters degree in counseling.

The kids and I headed to Auburn for the day
to celebrate with Anna.

Our first stop was lunch at Fuji, the best Japanese steakhouse ever. When Ryan and I lived in Auburn we went there so often that the waiters had our order memorized.

Anna enjoying the delicious chicken teriyaki

My first attempt at a cookie cake, my decorating skills could use some work, but the cookie was excellent!

Cousins, Mamie and John Stuart, enjoying the cookie cake
After lunch, we dropped Aubrey off at my cousin's house for a nap, while Luke and I were at Anna's graduation.

I was a little nervous about taking a 2 year old to a graduation ceremony, but he was a trooper!

We did leave right after the master's part of the program was over, don't think Luke would have made it through all 2,000 of the Auburn graduates without a meltdown.

Before we left Auburn, we stopped by my cousin's house
to let the kids run around and play.
Mamie & Aubrey

Kisses from Papa
Happy Graduation Anna!

Wordless Wednesday

Aubrey tried the pool out for the first time a couple of weeks ago, when I sat her down in it she was a little uncertain,
but didn't seem to mind it too much...


until Luke started splashing her, and then she was done

Mother's Day & Diggers

My Mother's Day started off pretty normal,
we went to church, and then headed
to our friend's, the Lathams, house for lunch.

After lunch, we were all sitting around watching the kids play, when Mr. Bill decided it would be fun to get his Bobcat out and take Luke for a spin in it.

Luke insisted that this piece of equipment
was most definitely a Digger and not a Bobcat.

Just like with all the giant farm equipment, Luke was a bit apprehensive at first and wouldn't get in the Digger
with anyone but his Daddy.

After some coaxing from Daddy, Luke decided it might be fun to start up the engine and go for a little ride
Reaching for the key

Going to find something to dig up

Who wouldn't love to spend their Mother's Day afternoon watching their son drive around the yard in a Digger?

Wordless Wednesday

Aubrey started crawling a little over a month ago and she is everywhere!

Had to post these crawling pictures of Aubrey...


Because it reminded me of these crawling pictures of Luke

Oh, The Faces She Will Make

Although Aubrey is not yet verbal (other than babbling),
she is quite capable of letting you know exactly what she is thinking from the poignant expressions on her face.

This must be the beginning of her inherent female drama, because I don't remember Luke having such intense facial expressions that are able to change with the drop of a hat.

Of course, she has the normal, cute baby faces:

Happy-go-lucky

The flirtatious glance

Excitement

Shock and Awe

Anger

Then there's the faces that I struggle to put a name with:

Inquisitive/Dumbfounded?

Concentration/Constipation?

Uncomfortable/Distaste?

And finally there's, THE FACE,
which happens to be our most favorite Aubrey face:

The Death Look

The death look is given for an array of different reasons, among them include:

wanting to be held, not receiving nourishment fast enough, being manhandled by her brother,
and just plain being dissatisfied with the
services that her daddy and I are providing.

I have struggled for weeks to capture this look on camera and finally yesterday morning, I wasn't quite fast enough at replenishing her breakfast, so I received several of these "death looks".

After about 3 of them, I ran to get my camera and purposefully delayed putting more toast on her tray
and sure enough, I got another death look
and was finally able to snap a picture of it!

Although this expression makes us laugh every time we see it, we do hope she grows out of it soon, because it's a very demeaning look, it makes you feel like crawling under the table to hide (as is the point of most death looks).

Trip to the Playground, Take 2

Our last venture to the park was quite unsuccessful in the sense that neither Luke or Aubrey had any desire
to actually play on the playground.

So, I decided to try to take them again and force them
to enjoy playing like normal kids do!

We started off by introducing Aubrey to the playground "turf"
Apparently she dislikes turf just as much as real grass...
or she's upset at me for making her wear that sunhat :)

After a few seconds, the crying ceased, but she was
far from being pleased with the situation

Next we decided to give the swings another try.

Her first reaction was, are you kidding me?,
not one of these things again!

Then she relaxed and realized
that maybe the swing wasn't so bad

Finally she started to enjoy swinging!

Luke, for the most part, had a great time
at the park and really loved the big boy swings
As for Aubrey, her one smile on the swing
was the highlight of her time at the park

The car didn't amuse her
She wasn't the least bit interested in the slide; she didn't even crack a smile when I helped her slide down.

She just looked plain miserable
Again, maybe it was the hat...
but I think it's safe to say that
Aubrey is NOT a fan of the playground

Before we left, Luke was intrigued by some girls running around chasing each other (much older girls, I might had),
so he squatted down under the playground equipment
and proceeded to crawl after them