Partying With Uncle Steve!

**Yes, this post is crazy late in getting published. I had it uploaded and apparently never hit the "Publish" button! Sorry to the grandparents for making you wait so long to see these pics!**

For Nicholas' birthday, Steve set up a bounce house in his back yard. Coolest uncle ever, right?



And of course, Steve was happy to get in and bounce with us.



He even let Nicholas climb on him for a ride!



The two of them played together a lot.



Rachel loved the bounce house too.



And so did Daddy.



And even Granddad came in for a little while!



But mostly the two kiddos spent all of their time jumping around and acting crazy.



It was especially fun to see Rachel in the bounce house. She likes to get in them at other places but a lot of times she gets bumped into and bounced around a lot because there are always lots of kids crammed in these things. But here, it was just Nicholas and her and she felt confident and safe so she bounced a lot. And had a really good time!







Rachel seemed to really enjoy playing with my Dad today. They were really cute together.





But when it was time to take a break, Granddad and Grandmama were happy to keep her occupied.



Oh no! Sadly, all good things must come to an end.



But Nicholas and Rachel volunteered to climb in the deflating bounce house to try to help squish some of the air out of it to prepare it to be put away.



Eventually, the bounce house was out of steam and so were the kiddos.



Granddad pushed Nicholas around on Uncle Steve's super-duper heavy duty hand truck.



Finally it was time to open presents from my side of the family.





So excited!





We went out to eat some good Cajun seafood for dinner then headed back to Steve's for birthday cake.



I ordered the cake from out of state with short notice so all I could get was a Transformers cake. It isn't Nicholas' favorite theme but it did have a Transformer robot on top of the cake which he thought was totally cool.



Especially when he got to lick the icing off them.



Happy 7th Birthday, sweet Nicholas!

A Fun Day With Cousins

Whenever we are in Baton Rouge, we always make sure to stop by my brother's office to let the kids play on the playground equipment. Nicholas was excited that his cousins got to come along with us this time.

Rachel had fun playing on the rings.



But then she got her arms stuck through them and wasn't quite sure how to get down.



She decided that climbing up into a fort might be a little safer for her.



J. is a great climber and was showing Rachel how to do it.



Once she was ready to come down, Rachel decided to do a little daredevil act at the top of the slide just to make sure Mommy was awake.



Happy and brave little girl!



A. and her Daddy snuggled up in a swing chair and promptly fell asleep. Isn't this a sweet picture of the two of them?



I think Stuart felt touched by it because he tried to snuggle in the same chair with his little girl too. But Rachel didn't want to sit still so she whined and squirmed to get away until Stuart finally got her laughing by hanging her feet over one of the bars of the swing until she was almost upside down.



Rachel had fun but I don't think it was the touching moment that Stuart was hoping for.



Rachel loves her Aunt D. and thought it was so much fun having Aunt D. push her on a swing.



Nicholas preferred the giant tire swing under a fort.



But he had to try to figure out a way to make it swing while upright on its side. That boy just can't do things the simple way.



This picture cracks me up because here we were at this cool playground with several big expensive forts complete with tunnels, slides, climbing walls, swings, etc and the kids chose to spend about 30 minutes digging in the dirt and gravel of the parking lot. It's like Christmas morning when they open up the big expensive present you got for them and they squeal and laugh about playing in the empty box it came in.



A little more play time before we had to go.



Uncle Steve is great with kids and I love watching him play with mine. I wish they got to spend more time with him. I know they would have so much fun together.



The kids were still having fun but it was really hot and humid so we bribed them to leave by offering to take them to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream.



Rachel seemed to enjoy hers.



She REALLY, REALLY enjoyed hers.



And she apparently decided to carry some of it home with her.



I love this picture of the four cousins!



Nicholas has a pretty good understanding A.'s medical problems. He loves her and prays for her every night. Several times during our visit, I noticed him go over to talk to her and gently touch her. He initiated this completely on his own which just warms my heart. She is so quiet that I could easily understand how an excited 7 year old boy could just run right past her and not think twice. But his heart tugged at him and he felt the need to show her that he loves her.

A 50th Anniversary

Today is Stuart's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. 50 years - wow!

Stuart and his brother planned a little surprise dinner for them. We had to hit the road early this morning so we could get to Baton Rouge in time for the surprise.

Stuart made these two incredible framed collages that read "50". He made it out of 50 pictures from his parents' earlier years up to today. He spent a lot of time on them and it really shows. It was truly a labor of love.



Stuart's brother did most of the planning in Baton Rouge. He reserved a private room at Juban's for the dinner. Juban's is special to us because we had our wedding rehearsal dinner there as well as a surprise one year anniversary dinner there.



Steve told his parents to meet them there for dinner but they didn't know that we were driving in for the occasion.

We all waited quietly in our private room for the guests of honor to arrive....well as quietly as we could with four young children who were so excited they were about to burst!

Finally, they walked through the door....SURPRISE!



Nicholas couldn't wait to give hugs!



Donna had set up Alyssa's speaking device with a recording of Jessica saying "Happy Anniversary" which would play anytime Alyssa hit the button.



The lovely couple got a personalized menu congratulating their anniversary.



Wine and flowers. I was able to find a copy of the couple's wedding announcement and found out the type of flowers in the wedding bouquet and Steve had a similar arrangement ordered for the table.



The food at Juban's is just incredible. Just take a look at this Halleluah Crab standing at attention. It was so flavorful and delicious!



Happy 50th Anniversary!



We all headed back to Stuart's parents' house. They graciously invited us to stay with them even though our stay was completely unannounced. We did make the offer a little more enjoyable with a joint present of a new TV!

50 inches for 50 years...



50 years - Congratulations! We love you!