Minus 1 Family Member, Plus 5 New Ones...

.....Makes for a very large family! Several weeks ago Aunt BeBe bought the buddies a fish tank, and gave them the guppies that used to be in her 1st grade classroom. Well, all 5 of them died (or "went night-night" if you ask Ben and Drew) after only a few days at our house. Being the wonderful Daddy that he is, Michael quickly remedied the situation by bringing home two new "ish-eees".
We named them Fin and Goldie, and I'm sad to say that this past weekend while we were in Montgomery visiting MiMi and Pop, we lost one. But, we now have 5 new additions to our house....or front porch, I should say:
This is what I found this morning while we were watering our flowers. I had noticed the mama bird building her nest a couple of weeks ago, and soon we'll have some new babies to look at.

We had a great time visiting MiMi and Pop. Nana and Papa (my grandparents) were even able to come over from Georgia for a couple of days too. Pop and Michael played golf on Friday, but before they left, they took some time to show the boys how it's done. Mimi got them each their own set of little clubs, and those were definitely a hit!
Then, we took the boys to see their first baseball game. I'm pretty sure they didn't understand what was going on, but they definitely knew there was a "beee ball" (big ball) to watch for. They really had a good time, and when the choo choo train passed by the stadium, they were in toddler heaven.

So now we're home again, and settling back in for a couple of weeks before our next adventure. When we got back our sweet little neighbor brought over some sidewalk chalk for the boys, and it is now the first thing they want to play with after breakfast. They were so excited to play with their "cuh-wurs" (colors) that I just let them go out in their pajamas after breakfast. Ben is holding his chalk and saying "sheeese" at the camera.

Hope you all are having a fun summer too!!! I'm off to begin on my to-do list now that I have a moment. Enjoy the new pictures and thanks for checking in on us!

Today we headed into downtown Nashville for some water fun. Back in 1994 Tennessee had celebrated it's bicentennial birthday, and to commemorate the occasion the state built the Bicentennial Mall. It's this beautiful park that has Tennessee's history carved into granite monuments, a Farmer's Market, fountains that shoot up from the ground, and -- as if that weren't enough -- there is a railroad track that runs above the fountains. Once the boys warmed up to the idea of the fountains, they really liked playing in the water. But the highlight for them was the choo choo train that they got to see and hear while they were playing. They both yelled "hiiiii choooo chooooo" at the top of their little lungs as it passed by them, and were sad when it was "ahhhh done". After that we headed over to the Farmer's Market for some lunch and shopping for produce. Unfortunately for me, the boys were ready for their naps so we had to cut our visit a little short. But we still managed to have a good time. Here are Ben, Drew and Brax climbing the stairs and heading to the Capitol Building.
This is Drew sitting on the granite map of the state, beside our sweet little city of Spring Hill.
Ben, Jay, Avery and Brax play in one of the fountains. I think that sweet little girl had the best time out of all those wild little boys.
I'm not sure if you can see the expressions on their faces good enough to tell what a great time they were having, but they were all smiles until I made them go inside to eat lunch.


Thanks, Laura E. for getting this all together!!! We had so much fun, and we'll have to do it again soon!