wow, where have I been loyal blog readers

so much is going on and I need to catch you up

first last month

a friend's daughter got married on the beach in St. Petersburg

actually they got married here on the lawn, the hotel was on the beach

it was lovely, everything was well thought out

the music was good

steel drum for before

and great band after for dancing

the hourdourves wonderful

and the dinner excellent

oh and of course the young couple were adorable

as were her parent's

a great evening with my dates!

 

then a couple weeks later

we celebrated Beth's 28th Birthday

with a bar-b-que in a nice shady state park

complete with presents

and big bubbles

 

then 2 weeks later we celebrated Em's 10th birthday

this is the picture when we got to the park in the rain

before we moved the party to their house

and things starting looking up

we had games

this one is a good one, we use to play it at her mom's parties

there are 2 teams competing

the object is to take a balloon, run to the little chairs

sit down on the balloon until it pops

jump up and tag the next person on your team

who then does the same thing

first team to pop all their balloons wins

I wish I had gotten a photo of their faces when the balloon pops

they had a 3 legged race

it is a wonder no one hurt themselves

(do only grandma's think of things like that?)

and of course a pinata

run by the boys

picking up the spoils

she got so many nice gifts

and handmade cards

we all agreed, it was an awesome party

 

wait, there's more

Miss Em in a school chorus concert

that's her right in the first row, center of photo

they sang, The Star Spangled Banner and We Celebrate America

they also sang, Free at Last, an African American spiritual,

A Song of Peace and the last one was Adios Amigos

kind of covers it

Em and her good friend Carla

still more

there was a science fair at Em's school

there she is in front of her project

here was her "question"

then she and her mom built a solar oven and collected data

are you still with me, good

because this is the best photo yet

Em getting 2 awards at school

one for being on the honor roll

the other for something called Think Win Win

we are SO proud of her

carrots from their garden

so stay tuned

this is shaping up to be a great summer

next up Kayaking the Estero River

and at Kayaking with the kids at Indian Mound Park for Mother's Day

then we will be almost caught up......