What We've Been Up To...Part 2

Warning: A million pictures below! And sorry about the formatting. I can't seem to get it right.

Here's our sweet girl, crashed on the chair well before naptime.

Mary-Grace and Ava sing to Jacob at his "brownie party", our traditional family birthday party.

We took a trip to Houston for the 4th. Day one included the Children's Museum which is always a hit. As you can see, Mary-Grace painted her own face; this is her absolute favorite thing about the CM.

From Houston, we went north to Cleveland, TX, to Phil's uncle's house. Pat and Cindy were fabulous hosts! We were joined by Phil's mom and step-dad as well as another aunt.

Pat and Cindy live in the boonies on lots of land. They have a swimming pond, a huge garden, fig trees, chicken coops, etc. This was a wonderful experience for our city children!

Here Mary-Grace and Jacob help collect eggs.

And Mary-Grace waters lots of plants. She did this everyday we were there. Poor kid, her mother has nothing green around here. We plan on amending that situation this fall. I will learn to grow something!

Gracie and Ava swing with Grandma while patiently waiting for the grown-ups to take them swimming.

On the morning of the 4th, we left Ava with Grandma and drove down to NASA for the opening of the Star Wars exhibit. It was pretty small, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the ship that Obi Wan flew in "Attack of the Clones". (Sidenote: I cannot believe how well-versed I am becoming in the things of Star Wars:)

Mom, Jacob and Mary-Grace fly alongside R2D2.

The kids insisted that I climb into this shuttle cockpit with them. I had a hard time getting in with my long legs, but I really thought I was stuck when it was time to get out.

We have been to NASA several time over the last year since we bought a membership. Every time we've been, there's been a different exhibit. This one was the coolest! Mary-Grace and I did the bungee/ trampoline jumping thing. SO COOL!!!

Right before we were ready to leave, out walked the Star Wars characters. Here we are with a Jawa.

Gracie was thrilled to meet Padme and her decoy.

And Daddy's being attacked by some stormtroopers and Boba Fett. The kids got the biggest kick out of this!

And of course, we had to meet R2D2 and this other droid (not sure of his name. I believe it's either R4 or R2D3.)

Back at Uncle Pat's, the kids loved swinging out over the water on the rope swing.

Ava really loved swinging with me on the wooden swing. Talk about use some ab muscles I didn't know I had! It's hard to hold yourself and a toddler on that thing.

Then there was fig picking in the rain. My goodness, this was such a hit. Along with their teenage cousins, Ellen and David, these munchkins picked tons of figs.

Post-fig picking there was fig cleaning. Both sides of the sink were full to the tops with figs. They got to clean them, squish them up and make preserves which they wouldn't even taste.

We had so much fun swimming in the lake. I was on the big time lookout for snakes, but thank God I never saw one. Well, except for the one that's a PET. Seriously. I had to pray long and hard to be able to sleep in a house with a snake. Here's David in the pirogue, Ellen on the raft, and Peggy, Bub, Pat and Sally on the rope.

Of course, there was Cajun log-rolling. See who can stand the longest in the rocking pirogue. Pat and Phil did it also, but they actually sank the thing. Here David and Cindy battle it out.

Jacob loved fishing until he caught the biggest bass in the pond and it seriously almost pulled him in.

Mary-Grace and Jacob picked corn from the garden and fed it to the chickens. This was a huge hit.

Right before we headed out, we got a picture of the kids. Thanks for such a fabulous weekend. We can't wait to come back.