Cohen's 1st Party

One year old Cohen. With the cake, the presents, and people.
 

            

Happy Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Cohen.

One year old today. 

What a wonderful year!

Back up

Oh my, I missed a birthday post. Jennifer's birthday was in June. We use the same plans for everyone's birthday- dinner out, Gambinos cake, and gifts. 

So here's to commemorate Jennifer's 30th birthday. 

Cohen and Me

Cohen and me spent the day together today while his parents went boating.

He will be 1 year old in 2 weeks. So we spent the day singing Happy Birthday to You and having him hold 1 finger up. I want him to be ready for his big day.

We took a walk outside thru the subdivision cause I like to look in new houses being built. It kept us occupied for a little while. 

He sure does eat a lot. Lunch, snack, snack, and dinner. 

Miss Priss came over to play and stayed while her mom went to tan and get her nails and toes done. 

They don't look too happy, but they were playing good together and I was trying so hard to get a good picture of them together.  I kept interrupting them to look at me for pictures. And Miss Priss was clean when her mom brought her, but she had a snack with Cohen.  And we had a food accident. 

Fun time went by fast and their parents came home and I was sent on my way. 

A Little Pageantry

A weekend of fun with Brooklyn in a 2 day pageant. One on Friday night and the second part on Saturday.

Here she is waiting for the 0-11 months at The Red White Blue Pageant on Friday night.

     

Then her on stage.

   

She did good. Except if she would only smile for the judges. She is a wild child sitting out in the audience, laughing and screaming. But once on stage she freezes. But that's ok. She will learn. She placed 2nd out of 12 contestants.

And the casual wear on Saturday.

She is a cutie. If only she would smile for the judges, again, we could breathe a sigh of relief. But not.She looks at them, rather stares at them. But no smile.

On stage with 12 other contestants.

Saturday was 5 pageants with competition only once. With 5 directors of the 5 pageants and 10 judges and awards in each 5. She place 2nd in two, 3rd place in the other 3, and prettiest hair in one. And a lot of gifts awarded. She received a crown, a trophy, a little charm bracelet with a crown charm, a little silver necklace with a pearl droplet, a set of child nail polish, bubble bath and lip gloss, and a toy fishing pole. The fishing pole was her favorite of all.  She did good, and was already the queen in our eyes. 

It was a long morning for her. She was exhausted at the end.

Summer Week

A summer week with just me and Cohen. Usually the little one goes to the grandma's house. But we are not your usual ordinary people, so I go baby sit for a week. He will start daycare the following Monday. 

We did make time for crawling races with Brooklyn. 

St. Jude Benefit

Baby Brooklyn was in a St Jude Benefit Pageant. As her pawpaw says, "she doesn't care if she wins or not at her age right now." So right now it's all about her mom's wants.

All proceeds from this pageant went to St. Jude's. So a little fun and pagentry for us and a way to care and help and give to other children. It's a win win for all.

St Jude's unique mission ...

… to find cures for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases through research and treatment. And no family ever pays St. Jude for anything.

Today was her second pageant in her short little age of 8 months.

You can see her first one here.

Today she got 2nd Runner Up and Prettiest Eyes.

There were 8 in her age division.

. 

She is clapping for her win.
Yayy Brooklyn

Enough pictures.
Let's go.

She is still a Princess in my eyes.

gin

Fathers Day

One day is set aside to celebrate fathers for the year.  Our day was Saturday, not Sunday. With our celebration, we also added other milestones to the dads' day of celebration.

First we stopped at the cematary to place flowers on my father's grave in remembrance and celebration of his life as a dad.

We met for lunch for the routine birthday lunch for Jennifer's birthday and included honoring the fathers in the celebratory lunch. So one birthday and 3 fathers get their recognition.

Of course there is cake. We split the cake up in several ways to honor other milestones for the day.
First, for the birthday girl.  And then the fathers, Larry, Brandon, and Chris  for father's day. Then for Julie as a congratulatory for her first job after her masters degree in counseling. She starts July 24. We included Cohen for recovery from a medical procedure for tubes in his ears that he had on Friday. Trent was included just for being there after 5 nights of 16 hour shifts that ended Saturday morning at 7 am.  Brooklyn was celebrated for just being herself at the moment which was her screaming as loud as she could for attention we guessed, because nothing was actually wrong with her.

The only picture I have of the day:

gin

The Role of the Mawmaw

Mawmaw to the rescue.. I kept Cohen all day long while his parents were at the lake and Brooklyn joined us for a few hours while her parents took in a movie date and dinner

Breakfast, lunch, and supper. Bottles, naps, and snacks. Playtime, squeals, and fussyness. Stroller rides, rocking chair, and lullabyes. Bath time and bed time.

A full day that was non-stop and I think I actually wore them out.

     

gin

Summer Starts

The end of May starts the official beginning of summer, or so "they" say. So the end of May, pool, BBQ, and family is all synonymous with summer.

We didn't spend the holiday with family (sniff sniff). I opted to work in exchange for another day off.

But, fun must go on.

It's never too early to teach the youngest ones how to begin the summer. These cell pictures were texted to me so I could be in on the fun.