Blankets

All three of our boys have their own blanket. Monday when we were walking out the door Mimi put Jack's blanket on Andrew while he was in his carrier. Once we got in the car Jack quickly noticed that Andrew had his blanket to which he replied, "Hey, get your own blanket Andrew!" My boys are normally very kind to their youngest brother, but obviously they have their limits!!

Here is Clayton with his blanket around 14 months old...
Here is Jack with his blanket (and a cheeseburger) last summer...

Here is Andrew with his blanket last week...

Last Story Hour for Jack

Monday was Jack's last story hour...sniff, sniff. He will be heading to preschool in the Fall at Joyland...sniff, sniff. We had a great year with Ms. Donna and Ms. Pam!
Ms. Donna asked for volunteers to participate in the song Five Little Ducks. Jack was to be the daddy duck. He was not going to do it until Mrs. Katie offered ice cream from McDonalds. He reluctantly stood, but he did not do his part. He stood with the above face for the duration of the song. He finally said "quack, quack" when Mrs. Katie reminded him of the ice cream. Too funny!!
The crew from this year, minus Amber and Jack.

After story hour we headed to McDonald's (where Jack got his promised ice cream). Katie offered to take us on a tour of the back of McDonald's. The manager, Ms. Debbie, even let each kiddo say, "Welcome to McDonald's." Jack actually did it. He giggled through the entire experience.

Our garden with Alex and Gail

Some friends from church are helping us with a garden this year. We have never had a garden before and we really want to learn how. Since Gail and Alex have a farm they graciously allowed us to plant with them. We are excited to see what we will have this summer. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, hot peppers, dill, cilantro, basil, watermelons and squash. Hopefully, we will have pictures to show this summer!!

Fish Fry Carnival

We headed to the carnival Thursday night after the World's Biggest Reading Celebration. We saw lots of our friends there. Clayton and Shannon rode some rides together. They will be moving soon and two little boys that live in this house are going to be heart broken. As we were walking through the carnival I spotted Clayton and Shannon holding hands. It was precious. They are the best of friends. In fact, neither one of them knows what life is like without the other. It breaks my heart to see them separated, but we are going to enjoy these last few weeks with them with everything inside of us--knowing that we will see them again!!

Can you guess who was tuckered out?!?
Jack and Clayton bought these fabulous swords at the carnival. They had the most wonderful evening playing with them...until they broke!!

The Fish Fry Parade

The parade starts on Friday at 10:00 a.m. of Fish Fry week. Christy and I ran along the parade route at 7:30 a.m. and people were already sitting in lawn chairs!! We had to jog around them. Since school is dismissed for the parade we always feel like we have lots of time. Boy are we wrong. Fred and I are usually running around trying to get everything ready to get out the door so we can meet our friends!! Clayton told us Friday, "Whew, you two are really working hard!" Thank you son for noticing! I think it was a first!
We did finally make it to our "spot". All of our friends were there and it was a beautiful day!The O'Neals posed for their final Fish Fry Parade picture! They are moving to Texas. (More details to come on that later...)

Tee was able to come this year! I think he thoroughly enjoyed it!!

Jack sat in his chair and waved at everyone that came by, as if they were waving to him personally. It was precious!
For those of you that don't know, Jeremy does not snack! However, Aunt Janice makes these crackers that are beyond delicious and he could not resist. Seriously, it is the first time in six years that I have seen him snack!!
Our favorite candidate...
This seems to be a common theme with Andrew!!
If you ever find yourself in Paris on the last Friday of the final full week of April join us on East Wood Street. I guarantee it will be a rocking good time!! I heart Paris, Tennessee!

Five on Friday

This week is the World's Biggest Fish Fry! For those of you who don't know about it, it is a really big deal around these parts! In honor of Fish Fry I thought we'd devote our Five on Friday post to our town.

The question is, "What do you love most about Paris, Tennessee?"

1. Fred loves the people, especially our church family. He also loves the summer here. Since we are so close to the lake it feels like vacation all the time, even though we aren't on vacation. Seriously, when we go to the grocery in the summer we see people in bikini tops and cut off shorts buying charcoal, steaks, a bag of lettuce and the beverage of their choice. Vacation, right? Love it!!

2. I love the sense of community here in Paris. Fish Fry is this week and the entire town is a twitter. The city has come by and mowed our bank and cleaned our street. (We happen to live on the road to the fairgrounds.) Not only is the city making an extra effort to make our town look nice, but businesses, homeowners and churches are sprucing up, planting flowers and putting their best foot forward. I just love how our town comes together!

3. Clayton loves Paris because of the carnival and parade. The carnival comes twice a year--for Fish Fry and Henry County Fair. We can hear it from our house. The parade is about two blocks up from our house. Did I mention school is canceled for the parade??? What kiddo wouldn't like that?!?

4. Jack loves story hour and the carnival and the parade and going to Mimi's house. (I think he got a little carried away with Mimi's house since she lives an hour away, but his answer was to cute not to quote.) Since we've already covered the carnival and parade I'll tell you about Story Hour. Story hour is through the Paris Special School District. Mrs. Donna and Ms. Pam lead us each week with songs, activities and stories. Plus you can check out books, backpacks and videos. Did I mention many of his friends attend? Did I mention we go to McDonald's once it's over? Did I mention Monday is his last story hour?!? Sniff...Sniff...

5. Andrew likes all the people that smile at him wherever he goes. For real, it takes us an hour to get four things at the grocery. Of course one of those four things is rice cereal, which he now LOVES!! He actually smiled today when I brought the spoon up to his mouth. Progress.

World's Biggest Reading Celebration

Today was the World's Biggest Reading Celebration at Clayton's school, Rhea Elementary. We were in charge of the grill. Fred and our friends (Corey, Andy, Doug and Chris) grilled 1400 burgers!!


Along with the cook out they also do field day. Clayton and his class got to participate in relay races, obstacle courses, a petting zoo and many other activities.
Jack got to help Mrs. Cindy, Mrs. Kathy and Mrs. Kathy make cotton candy. They made and bagged cotton candy for the ENTIRE school (teachers, students, teaching assistants, staff, etc...A LOT!!)...all day long!!

Andrew...well what can I say?!? He's a trooper! He took his morning nap in the back of the van. Can you tell he's a third child?!?
Clayton's school focuses heavily on reading. So far this year his school has read 414,186 books! Isn't that amazing?!? This morning before they started their day each class gathered in the hall while the Mr. Owens (principal extraordinaire) played this over the intercom. It was precious to see them all "rocking out" to a song about books. God has blessed our family by putting us at Rhea! I'm not an emotional person, but when people pursue excellence and my children are the benefactors...well, I just can't talk about it. I'm getting misty-eyed.