A Southern Night Under the Oaks with Sweet Root

The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge holds different SUMMER events throughout the City -- We enjoyed the past two Friday evenings in front of the Shaw Center listening to GREAT music. You bring your lawn chairs, ice-chests, and sit down and enjoy the entertainment! Last week it was a "Mid-Summer Night Dance Party with After 8". This past Friday night it was "A Southern Night Under The Oaks with Sweet Root". The kids even brought their swimsuits to play in the fountains in front of the Shaw Center. Saylor played in the water but Chandler was TOOO BUSY keeping his eyes GLUED to the band. They had face painting.......

Balloon Making..................................

And YOU KNOW the night wasn't complete until CHANDLER made his way up on stage with the band!! He even ended up on the 10 O'clock news that night on Channel 9 - WAFB -- That's our little Rock Star!

Hopefully, they will continue doing these events next month.....we look forward to going back! It was a GREAT, CHEAP, FUN-FILLED family night out on the town! Everyone needs one of those every now and then!! Ooopps! I forgot to mention they also show a movie on a big inflatable movie screen, after the concert -- The first Friday we went, they showed "The Little Shop of Horrors" and this past Friday night the movie was "Big Fish" -- We didn't end up staying for the movies, by that time, WE HAD...had all the fun we could stand for one night and plus the kids were getting tired!

A Wedding and A Family Reunion

Is this the YEAR for WEDDINGS or WHAT??? We attended our cousin, Brandon's wedding this past weekend which makes our fourth wedding within the last 6 months!!! We still have one MORE to go this year in September. And get this...FOUR out of the FIVE weddings are for first and second cousins of ours!! SIMPLY AMAZING! Congratulations to ALL you newly weds out there! Best Wishes to Brandon and Angela who got married this past weekend! I will have to say it was the HOTTESS wedding reception I have EVER been to! South Louisiana HEAT in the middle of July and the air wasn't quite working right...OK it wasn't working AT ALL! Until someone figured out about 1 hour into the reception that the breaker had flipped. So it FINALLY cooled down about the time the reception ended...WHEW!! I think my make-up MELTED off my face and I lost 5 lbs that night :) A side from the air not working, it was a FUN reception and we had a BLAST! I have included a couple of pictures.

On Sunday we had a Family Reunion to attend at Brian's cousin, Lori's home on the Diversion Canal. The reunion was for family on Brian's grandmother's side -- The East Family. It was one HOT day! The kids were lucky enough to play in the water on a slip-n-slide to cool themselves off. We enjoyed seeing and chatting with all of the family members that we don't get to see too often. Saylor ESPECIALLY LOVED playing with her little cousin Abigail. She and Chandler even got to feed Abby. She is the HAPPIEST and CUTEST little baby girl EVER! There was only ONE thing MISSING from the family reunion....Maw Maw Brenice/Aunt Joy's famous Coconut Cake!! After Maw Maw Brenice passed away ....Aunt Joy took over the duty of making the cake for all the family functions.....and sadly we lost Aunt Joy this past February....I guess I need to practice up on my coconut cake making skills, huh??!! We SURELY do miss Aunt Joy! Not only her coconut cakes but her sense of humor, her character, her love and just simply her JOY!

Fishing on the Fourth

This past Fourth of July weekend was GREAT!!! Spending quality time with family is the BEST thing in the world! We went down to my dad's camp in Venice, Louisiana and took a couple of fishing trips! The first TRIP was just Brian, Saylor, Chandler and myself in my dad's bay boat. We went out of Tiger Pass to the rocks where Saylor caught her BIGGEST REDFISH ever!!! Chandler preferred to munch down on GOOOREETOS (as he calls them) but threw in a little fishing here and there - He hasn't caught his FIRST FISH yet, but we are working on that! Another thing the kids really enjoyed doing this past weekend was swimming in the cheap $9.99 pool I bought them from the Family Dollar in Port Sulphur. THE BEST 10 bucks I have spent in AWHILE!! PURE CHEAP entertainment for HOURS! Until the side seam SPLIT....AND we had to DUCK TAPE it back together --- THAT was a REAL pretty sight!! I should have gotten a picture of THAT! I was too busy scrambling to try and keep the water in the pool!!
The next day we ALL went out on Paw Paw Iddo's big 54 ft. Donzi boat -- The crew included: Paw Paw Iddo, Maw Maw Jenny, Pa Pa Don, Mi Mi, Uncle Mike, Saylor, Chandler, Brian and myself. We headed 18 miles off shore to some rigs to try and catch some lemon fish....we DIDN'T catch any lemons but ended up catching some Red Snapper! Saylor even got to steer the boat!
A couple of times the weather looked like it was going to get REALLY BAD....but it didn't, just a light mist as it moved along. We did see something pretty scary but amazing.....a couple of water spouts developed around the waters near us. They never really got THAT CLOSE to us! But it was cool to see them form and dissipate in MID-AIR! Mother Nature at HER FINEST! The weather cleared up and it was SUNNY and HOT the rest of the day!



















I think this was the FIRST year we DIDN'T pop any fireworks for the FOURTH!! BUT, we surely did RELAX and have a good time! Maybe, NEXT YEAR we'll have to do this again for the FOURTH OF JULY!

Happy Birthday America!!