Five on (the day after) Friday

Alrighty, so this is not Jennifer, your normal, friendly GTWTS host. This is her husband, and I'm filling in for her, because she is (and was yesterday) out of reach at a pastor's wives' retreat. I'll try to make her proud...

1. This week is the annual Paris, TN, tradition known as the World's Biggest Fish Fry. Woohoo! As many of you know, we live just down the road from the Fairgrounds, so our neighborhood gets lively this time of year. It also means that our schedule is packed full with school activities, ministries and, of course, the CARNIVAL. Like, we can hear it from our front porch. Here's what everything looked like for us this year:

Wednesday: Jennifer spent the day getting ready for The World's Biggest Reading Celebration at Rhea Elementary (Jack's School). She's on PTO, and had to help pick up 800 + T-shirts for teachers and kids, get them organized and distributed and set up for the events on Thursday. It took a while. Fortunately, my mom came into town to help out. We were very grateful. Wednesday Night, the big boys and I went to the annual Christian concert, held every Wednesday night at Fish Fry and sponsored by our local Baptist association.

Thursday: The Worlds Biggest Reading Celebration!!!!! Jennifer got up there about 6:45am to do final set up, mark the fields, etc. Mom and I got up there at about 8:30 for the World's Cutest Kindergarten parade. Jennifer's Mom, Mun, and Aunt Janice were also there:

 After that, Bro. Corey Cain and I spent two hours manning some intense Kindergarten and 1st Grade tug of war action. Intense.

I left after eating lunch with Jack. I didn't think the folks at church would understand if my sermon Sunday consisted of "Sorry, folks. It was Fish Fry this week." Jennifer endured all day. Seriously. She got home around 3:30-4pm. Mom headed back to Memphis sometime around then.

At 5pm, we all regrouped and headed to Grace Episcopal Church for the Paris Community Kitchen. It was our Sunday School class's turn to host this month (our church volunteers once a month). We left there about 6:30, and went straight to the Fish Tent, ate Fish, and rode some rides with the kids at the carnival. 'Bout 9:00, we made it home. Everybody, especially Wonder Woman, was pretty tired:
 

 

Friday: Parade Day!!!!! We love parade day. Every year, lots of our friends come, park by our house, and we all walk together to a particular spot for the parade. This year, Aunt Janice drove up (after driving up and back to Jackson the day before!) and joined us. The kids played, the adults laughed and cheered all our friends in the parade. Twas a good time. After the parade and all our friends (including Aunt Janice :( ) went home, Jennifer headed to the aforementioned retreat, where she still is today.

So, that's the context. Now, here's the rest of your five...

2. Can you tell that Jennifer is the queen of Fish Fry activities? No, not literally the queen. We don't actually have a queen of Fish Fry. we do have a Hostess Princess, who gets to ceremonially throw out the first hush puppy on Wednesday Night (for real), but no queen. If we did, though, it would be Jennifer. She rocks.

3. Since the kids were out of school on Friday, Clayton's had a buddy over since about Thursday night. He met us at the carnival on Thursday, spent the night and went to the parade with us on Friday. Then Jack and Clayton went to his house all Friday afternoon. He came back over and ate with us Friday night, and then Clayton spent the night at his house last night. We love this guy.

4. Jack. I love me some Jack (and some Clayton, and some Andrew). I also love a Ferris Wheel, and I got to ride a Ferris Wheel with my Jack. check out the video:

5. Andrew, on the other hand, is not a fan of carnival rides. Wait, let me change that. He's not a fan of riding carnival rides. He loves watching his brothers ride carnival rides. Seriously, shakes with excitement when they get on and squeals with delight when the ride starts up. Scared to death to get on himself, but loves living vicariously through "his big boys." I think I hear a sermon in there somewhere....

So anyway, that's our 2012 Fish Fry experience. Come and join us in 2013!!