Vulcan

Took a weekend trip to Birmingham so Ron could officiate a PFL game and.
Went to the children's museum and to see this famous statue as well.

Vulcan is world's largest cast iron statue.
He was built for an exhibit in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair to highlight the area's growing industrial abilities.
You can see him from all over the city.

From the climbing trail behind the statue.

From front of park.

Closer.

Even Closer.

Here he is in the children's museum!

(I'm pretty sure he has no panties on)

..... (That's what all the kids are pointing at)

Random Anna Lee moment

Ron has an old empire chest. It's huge. The drawers are hard to open. The top 2 drawers have key holes in them. For some reason, he gave me a drawer. The top left drawer is filled with fascinating Audrey items. That rascal child wants. This is what I see early Sunday morning:












The keys are from her animal hospital.
Pretty resourceful.
She did not get the drawer open.
But she tried very hard.

Skateboarding teens

So... Our pool has a bad leak, and it needs to be re-plastered (gunited-ed?) and painted. We let it go this year until we can summon up enough energy to do it ourselves, since the only guy in town who does that type of work sucks.
Which means that the rain water and leaves and debris just sit in a nice squalid puddle at the deep end.

Enough backround?
Fine.

The boys (and Bacon) thought it would be a great idea to empty the pool and skate in it. Three hours of back-breaking filthy work later. A few frogs. Overnight to dry out. They skated for a few minutes and found it was too steep. Meh. Bad idea.
Anyway - pics below.

They also tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to teach Sara how to skateboard.

Doodlebug just drew with chalk and played in the sandbox with her cousin the whole time.

Lee Lee drawing

Anna Lee loves to draw, mostly pink princesses.
With crowns... and yellow hair, and pink circle-sleeve dresses.
And pink glass slippers.
She is showing some talent.
Also learning to write her name. It is so sweet to see her form her letters - backwards, wrong order, etc.

Biscuits Ball game

We have a minor league team here in Montgomery.
They are called the Montgomery Biscuits and are the AA team for Tampa Bay.
The stadium is built on to the old train shed. It is small and fun. No parking issues or lines. There is even a playground and blow-up rides out by third base.
We bought "lawn tickets" for all the kids and girlfriends while they were in town for the 4th of July. Sitting on the lawn means you can take your shoes off, run around, and play bubbles!
Ron bought every one a hat. Princess baby got a pink sparkly one.

Here is the bubble blower we brought along. The Octopus blows bubbles and there are 2 "chompers" that eat the bubbles. That is Meagan, Kyle's girlfriend. Anna Lee could not pronounce her name when she was little, so she is "Bacon" now.

Pink piggy chomper.

Cow chomper. They chompers talk, too.

Wow, fireworks!


High 5 for Big Mo - the mascot.

July 4th / Albert's Birthday

Ron's Uncle Albert was 80 at the end of June.
They had a huge party for him.
3 of Ron's boys (plus some girlfriends) came up. We also had our niece Zoe and Ron's mom.
I made the buttons that everyone is wearing (more on that project later).

Sara had a great time with all her cousins and did not make it into any pictures.

Starbucks called on cutesy size names

Stinky potty

I knew we were in trouble when the bathroom sign in the gas station said
Men / Women.

Pink Darth Vader bust

For Lee Lee, of course.

How much is 2,700 pounds?

$4,424.63
Yikes.



Chest of drawers. From England. I want it.
Dream on...

Choco Taco

Who remembers these?
Wonder if anyone still sells them...

Sara's camp trunk

Sara's camp trunk got wet in the great Alabama flood of last month.

So I peeled the paper lining out. Bleached out the mold, and re-lined it with old maps and modpodge.

I think it came out great.
The lid in from a Southeast US map, the tray is Orlando, the bottom Montgomery.

I circled important locations in red sharpie for her - her camp, the hospital where she was born, etc.

It was a lot harder and more time consuming than it looks.

Before - with liner removed.

In progress.

Top done, bottom in progress.

Tray in progress.

Tray done!

Ta dah!

All ready for camp.