Brownie Bake-off Round 2!

Madie entered the second round of the Brownie Bake-off tonight. She earned an honorable mention and was thrilled to win a new wooden spoon and spatula! I'm not sure her (our!)leavening (sp?) agent did the trick this time! :o) It's been great -- she's a winner for troop 1176!

Karaoke!

Madie loves her new toy!

Madie Knows Her Sports

Madison won first place in her class -- including the boys! -- for Sport Trivia -- A+!!!! She rocks!

Budding Artists

Madison and Chase at the Reflections reception last night. You can see Madie's work above her -- it's the peace sign with dots...Chase did a nice job too with his bullseye family. Click a pic to enlarge.

Brownie Bake-off Round 1

We are so proud of Madie -- and she's tickled pink -- she entered the Brownie Bake-off at the troop level and made yummy !!!!! brownies! Competing against nine (9!) other entries, she came in first place. Now she'll go on the service unit level. They were excellent, I must say.

Church Picnic

Madie and Chase had a great time at the church picnic in Persimmon. You know that Tallulah River water is chilly!

Fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, cakes and pies, yum!

Cabin Fun!

Summer fun in Clayton!

Georgia Aquarium Fun

We had a great time visiting the Georgia Aquarium downtown. The whale sharks were truly amazing :: Huge!

Florida or Bust!

After 10 hours (it's an 8-hour trip) we made it to Grammie and Grandpa's for fun in the sun! Kids loved having a pool right outside the door...and I did too! I sat in my jammies having tea and coffee with Mom and Dad while the kids turned into pruney-fish! Low maintenance -- especially since Mom keeps the cupboard's full and Grandpa keeps the pool clean and the cars full of gas -- a B&B I recommend highly! For 2 1/2 weeks we ate, soaked up the sun and had some great days with friends and family.

Had to go to The Pier in downtown St. Pete -- all about tourists, love it! Expensive candy, cheap seashell jewelry for the kids and yummy lunch (thanks Dad!) at Cha Cha Coconuts! Love the Pier! (http://www.stpete-pier.com/)

It was rainy and cloudy at St. Pete beach but we made the best of it -- spending too much money (ahem) at Caddy's and the kids loved the 'big' waves with Uncle Jack and Danielle, Nicole and friend Leeanna (sp?) Danielle and Nicole in pic.

I got to bowl with my sexy friends and we had great boat rides with Uncle Ed and Uncle Jack; we always love sandbar trips -- it's really the highlight of our vacation.

A little shopping at Beall's and Publix with Mom -- fun as always; we laugh too much. The "kids" look great, all in HS now. Amazing! And we cannot forget the great 4th of July concert! Jack and Ed rocked the house with the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and other great tunes from the 1900's -- next year they're going to try and learn the words before the show. Opening for JackEd was The Plumber (I made that up -- Mike Plumb...Plumbago?) Well anyway...

Kids craft day was fun -- we cut holes and sewed stars -- turned out good, huh?

Okay, what else...we repaired drainage problems at our Fla. house and swam in the canal and posed for pictures and swam with Hayden from across the street and went to visit Claudia (and Mikey and Chase) to see their new house and had dinner with Hugo and Ava and did crafts with Grammie and Grandpa! I'm gonna try and get some more pics up but right now I have to run!

Blog Updates -- Finally!

Well finally I've added new stuff to Keener Days... the new entries go back to March so check it out when you get a minute or two! As always, I hope to keep up better but I make not promises. If you want me to remove you from these update e-mails, let me know. Some of you "opted in" but I added a few of you 'cause I thought you'd want to know!



Our summer is off to a great start -- the pool's open and it's HOT in Atlanta. :o) TBC

Lillies!

I was thrilled to see my lillies pop open this summer -- they were cast-aways from church...Easter Sunday 2008! A little over a year later and they're beautiful! back by the woods behind "the boulders." (Click to enlarge)

Crocodile Dock Rocks!

We had a great week in VBS -- over 700 kids for five days; The kids and I helped the decorating team paint and hang moss the week prior and then it was nothin' but singing our praises and dancing in His name. I was a crew leader for a 2nd grade class and 'bumped' into Madie and Chase all week during our 'rotations.'

We met a lot of new friends and learned that God is Always With Us...Fear Not!