Mike's 41st Birthday Bash!

We started out the evening (Saturday night) with dinner at Red Lobster. I am making him a home cooked meal tonight for his real b.day. We are having grilled swordfish,smashed potatoes, asparagus, and broccoli slaw.
A few photos before dinner arrives. As we were paying (part with a gift card) Mike told the girls to pet the lobster on the gift card. I guess the waitress thought that was cute because she brought a live lobster over to the table and Paige got to pet it. Megan and I missed out because we had run to the restroom...and I had the camera in my handbag so no photos either. Now Megan is going to want to go to Red Lobster for her b.day so she can pet a lobster....plus she loves their popcorn shrimp!


Megan and her friend Mr.Lobster


Back home and it's time to open the gifts! Paige and Megan instructed him to open THE BIG ONE first....it's a "memory foam" pillow.

It's not a birthday until we have a shot of Rowdy's butt in the pictures!

I gave Mike an OH fishing license now he won't have any excuses to not go fishing. I put it in a book "Freshwater Fishing Tips & Techniques" by Gene Kugach. It's a pretty cool little book with lots of good tips.

I also gave him the "Rapala Tournament Fishing" game for the Wii. That way he can practice fishing from the sofa. It's pretty cool he can fish in Minnesota (the fishing capitol of the world), Florida, California (Sacramento River for Stripers and Silver Salmon), Alaska (Kenai River and Half-Moon Lake), Texas, Arkansas, and New York (Niagra River). He can even fish outside of the U.S. in the Amazon, Finland, Mongolia and Africa. He fished for over 2 hours last night. The kids were cheering him on and giving him advice.

The girls made their dad handmade cards, they are getting so good at stamping. Paige's card was from her and Rebel, of course.
The card Megan made say's "DAD you rock!" on the front.

Paige and Megan got their dad some of his favorite Girl Scout cookies and "Game Party" for the Wii. It has darts, table hockey, skill ball, hoop shoot, ping cup, shuffle board and trivia. Looks like they are all pretty thrilled with the cookies...even Rebel is checking them out.

A "Girls Afternoon Out" at Lake Sidney Lanier, GA

Here are some pictures from last week....Monday, 3-23-09 to be precise. The original plan was that Mike and Grandpa would take the girls fishing after lunch. But before lunch Mike was helping Jim do a little painting on the house under the eaves...and the chimney and then he was cleaning the gutters. A few hours after lunch and they were still up on the roof so I asked the girls if they would like me to take them to the lake so we could poke around. They were all for it and it turned out to be a fun "girls afternoon out". I'm pretty sure we had more fun rock hunting and playing on swings then they did up on the roof.

Megan was really into rock hunting, she comes from a long line of rock hunters. She found some good ones with crystals. I had a canvas sack to haul them in and they are now by our front steps.

The lake is about 15 feet below normal, but it is still pretty.

I love how the light looks in the photo above, I think it was because it was late afternoon and the flash did not go off. It has a vintage feel to it.

I really love digital cameras, it is so nice to be able to snap pictures willy nilly and not have to worry about wasting film. Back in the day I don't think I would take so many pictures of my kids swinging on the swings.


Megan noticed a pinecone hanging in the tree behind the swings and she was trying to touch it. I warned her against trying to grab it, because I was afraid she would yank herself out of the swing.

I love their smiles and the feeling "of the simple joys of childhood"....fresh air and a good swing!

Happy 2nd day of April, that is if you survived the pranks of APRIL FOOLS!

When the girls got home Paige and Kylie went up to do their homework and study in Paige's bedroom. The homework part was not unusual, they are really good students but they usually do their homework at the kitchen table. Little did I know that while they were having their after school snack of popcorn they were also planning their April Fools attack (oh and they did all their homework too).
Their first victim was Megan. Paige wrote a "spooky" note to Megan that was from "Ghosty" (Ghosty is the plastic and cloth ghost that Mike bought to go in the haunted house, Megan was terrified of it and would not even go in the den in broad daylight because Ghosty was hanging over the chair). Paige went so far as to color her hand with a red marker so she could put a "bloody hand print" on the paper. Luckily it was a washable marker. Megan was a liitle suspicious becasue of the nice cursive handwriting, other than that she was "fooled".

When I went up to bed last night I found that our bedroom and bathroom had been taken over by a small army of plastic frogs, lizzards and snakes. I took pictures so we could remember the fun and I left them for Mike to enjoy. Then this morning I had Paige exterminate her prank.

What kind of turn down service is this...they must have eaten the chocolates.

More pictures from our visit to the Georgia Aquarium on 3-26-09

Megan and Paige giving me their best fish faces.

Megan, Mike and Paige posing in front of the gift store/exit "Deepo" display. I love how you have to exit the aquarium through the gift shop. They do that at Disney a lot too, dump you off from a ride directly into a gift shop. Put's a new twist on the saying "they gotcha coming and going"!

That's my hand petting the stingray in the touch tank.

Paige wanted her picture with the Bluegill carving, since that was the first type of fish she ever caught (and only so far).

Blimey Megan watch out for the alligator!



We enjoyed watching the Beluga's they always look so happy and serene.