Soldier Day Afterparty- June.

After the excitement of Soldier Day, we headed back to Uncle Adam and Aunt Katie's to start the party!

We were up until after midnight on Friday night traveling (we never sleep in the car), and then Soldier Day was at 1pm. With a party immediately following, there was no time for naps, so mama and papa just had to hope we could handle it. I was really tired and for once didn't get really wound up because of it (I left that to Henry and Sadie). I opted instead for a cuddle with GG Grams.

And a book with Aunt Molly. I also decided it was too hot and spent most of the afternoon inside playing by myself. Someone periodically came inside to make sure I wasn't causing trouble. I spent the day lining up Little People under the coffee table, then climbing under it with them and giggling.

It tends to confuse people that I call all women "Mommy," so people kept telling mama that I wanted her. I had to make a special concession and instead ask for "Aunt Mommy" or Aunt Molly. She's my new favorite person and I cuddled her whenever she'd let me.

After suppertime, a big thunderstorm came through. In complete un-Henry-like fashion, Henry and Sadie took the opportunity to dare each other to run out in the rain.

This is the kid who won't wear a wet bathing suit for more than a minute after getting out of a pool, yet he ran around for over an hour in soaking wet fatigues.

Here's a video of the action. Listen to what Henry compares the thunder to.

Mama stripped off my dress so I could run out in the rain, but I didn't want to go.


Not for Henry's lack of trying.
When the storm let out, I did wander out to stomp some puddles.
Papa says I look like a puppy whose arms and legs are really long, but the rest of my body hasn't caught up yet.


Check out this video and see if you notice my limp. To add to our spring of weird maladies and injuries, somehow I managed to sprain my ankle, which is unusual, but not unheard of for toddlers.
It's now been a little over two weeks since I fell down and got my swollen leg. It doesn't seem to bother me much, but I still have a little limp. The only time I complain about it is when I've been sitting for a long time- like right when I wake up or if I've been in my car seat for a while. Then it is stiff for a few minutes. Mama hasn't taken me to a doctor, because I really don't seem to mind it. Plus, she's also become one of those people with crummy health care that doesn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a doctor to say "Call me if it gets worse."

Obviously, it's not bothering me that much.
Back to the party. We moved everything into the garage, where papa was contemplating all things facial hair.
Once I got done jumping, i thought Aunt Mommy's white shirt needed a cuddle from my soggy body.

What's the only thing better than running in the rain? How about throwing ice? Unkie busted open an extra bag he had on hand and let us go at it with all 10 pounds.
Add that on to the fact that we got to stay up way past our bedtimes (with no naps!), and this may have been the best day ever. Thanks for hosting the awesome party, Ohio Turners!

Soldier Day- Henry.

It's been over a year in the making, but this weekend we traveled up to Ohio to welcome back the Ohio National Guard's 16th Engineers Brigade. They've been on active duty for over a year and left for Baghdad last August.

Needless to say, when you haven't seen your PawPaw for 10 months, you have to really dress up for the occasion.

PawPaw got me this uniform, complete with my name and all the appropriate Engineer and Colonel patches. Of course, I've refused to wear it. But mama has been talking up what we lovingly refer to as "Soldier Day." So when the day finally came, I put it on without any resistance.

Sadie also had her patriotic dress on.

We all got flags to wave and therefore, were too distracted to get a picture taken.

It was really quite a spectacle. There was a fire truck with it's ladder over the highway and a big flag hanging down to greet the troops.

There were tons of people waiting for the police and motorcycle escort.

We could barely wait for the big parade to start!

Finally, they were here!

Mama didn't get many pictures because we were all so excited to see PawPaw.

And can you believe that a guy who's been traveling for a week across half the world had the forethought to bring all the kids stuffed bears with very tiny, accurate uniforms to pass out as soon as he got off the bus? The "PawPaw Bear" is now a very popular toy in our house.

I was excited to show PawPaw my uniform, but I did notice that my new Soldier Day tennis shoes weren't like PawPaw's boots.

After we got to visit for a while, we headed inside for the ceremony. PawPaw's name was all over the jumbo-trons that were plastered around what mama now understands is truly a mega church. (That's him: Colonel Tris Cooper- 2nd in command.)

There were lots of speeches by lots of politicians. Many, many thanks to Great Aunt Tia for taking Juner and I out to run around when we started to get antsy. I wish we had a copy of the General's speech that outlined everything the unit had done since last August. Most impressive was the program they started during their first tour in 2005 to train other engineering units to identify IEDs. It's safe to say that they've saved thousands of lives in Iraq because of their work.

We're so glad that all 138 members of the unit returned home safely.

After the ceremony ended, we had nothing to do but party!

Vacation Bible School- June.

After we got back from our big Ohio vacation, it became clear to mama that Henry needed an outlet. Unfortunately, we've been experiencing record breaking heat and mama is a pale, sweaty, pregnant woman from up north. (She's not handling it well.) We're all getting a little stir crazy, so mama started calling around to see which Vacation Bible Schools would take Henry.

First up: a joint venture between the Methodists, Episcopals, and Catholics over at the Methodist mega church. VBS has come a long way from when mama was a kid. No more "B-I-B-L-E." The theme for this VBS was "Galactic Blast" and, to quote the website:

"At Galactic Blast VBS, cadets will voyage into outer space prasing God. Through daily Bible missions, kids will see space like never before, gain a new perspective on our planet Earth, and learn easy "green" earth tips they can practice at home. "

That's a lot to fit into one week.

On Thursday night, there was a big program to show off what the kids had learned during the week. First off, the littler kids sang a simple song. You can totally hear Henry singing in this video! He's really come a long way since his days of standing still with a finger in his belly button.

Then there were the choreographed songs that were broadcast on the jumbo-trons in the church (told you it was a mega church). Henry really put a lot of effort into this choreography. He's still singing this song this week. Our favorite part is the cute little pink girl two down from Henry who cries through the whole song.
Finally the older kids performed another song for us.


Mama loved this song and the dancing.
After the program, there was an ice cream party!

I picked out my socks and shoes. Summery, right?

Papa caught a shot of mama. Looking huge, lady. Lucky there was ice cream there to help with the heat.

Henry had so much fun at bible school, he's begging to go back for more. Lucky for us, we have 2 more weeks lined up, plus two mornings a week at the Presbyterian church for the whole month before the baby comes!

Dino videos- Henry.

We upgraded to AT&T U-verse today. Which means we now have wicked fast internet and can now upload some of the videos that have been piling up.


Here's Juner and Miss Susan counting to thirty- mostly just because we think it's cute when she talks. And when she loses count, she starts over at 4.

And she gives a hand at identifying some of her dinos. As for the lipstick, she thinks it's some kind of food and feeds it to her animals.