Happy 7th Birthday, Lauren!

Lauren has been so excited for this day to come! Dad started off the morning with a special doughnut breakfast. Lauren also picked up doughnuts for the entire 1st grade class and her teacher!

Her class went on a field trip to the "Mooseum" today. What a great way to celebrate...after they finished all there Friday tests of course!

After school, all the 1st grade girls joined us for lunch and cake at the mall.

Then it was time for Build-A-Bear fun! Lauren picked out a pink birthday bear.

All the party friends put a heart in Lauren's bear. Ahhhh....so sweet!

Lauren and her friends had a great time!!!

Daddy and Colleen were here for all the fun. Daddy has become at expert post-party clean up. After almost 30 parties, he can clean a party table in a matter of minutes! First, Mom points to the things to save (other than food). Dad saves items, trashes the rest, packs up, and loads the car! Then back to being party photographer (or holding the new addition)!

At Lauren's request, Lyndsey was not at the official party. Mrs. Roberta brought Lyndsey at the very end to make a bear. Lyndsey was so excited to be there, and she never realized she missed the cake!

When we got home, Lauren opened all the birthday presents from friends and family. Meet Lanie, her new American girl.

We were headed out to the lake for the weekend, so Lauren requested a birthday dinner at her favorite Mexican place, San Marcos. They sang to her and brought her fried ice cream!

Lauren was not a fan of fried ice cream, but no worries it did not go uneaten!!

At the Jasmine house...

Things are moving along...

More dead or dying trees have been removed to prepare for the new landscaping. All the wiring is complete for electricity, cable, telephone, audio and central vac system. The insulation team is almost complete. This is Corynne's upstairs room.

The pool has been dug and cemented. It will be surfaced and tiled later.

The drywall men are ready to go in and get started. Colleen and I have spent the last week picking out hardware, granite, and tile.

Spring Band Concert

Tonight was the Spring Band Concert at Trinity PS. It was a very nice night of music. Tyler was in the Beginning Band this year, and he played the trombone. The band played

Themes from "The Hallelujah Chorus"

Those Marching Saints

I think Tyler has enjoyed his year of band, but he has decided to take art as his elective next year :(

Biscuits Baseball

John Mark took the kids to the Biscuit game this afternoon. He uses "to give Mom a break" as an excuse to go. I think that is reason enough because I sure enjoy the peace for a while, but we all know that he really just wants to go himself!!!!

JM caught a ball in the first inning!! Yeah!

Sunday is kids day at the park, so there are special craft activities for the kids and the kids get to run the bases. WooHoo!!!! Then there is always meet-n-greet Moe and the playground.

JM always gets good pics of the girls at the ball park.

We may need those pics if he has another Sunday afternoon at the ball park like today. He knows I do not like the "freedom" he gives the kids at the ball park. Today Lyndsey walked away from the playground without the girls or JM seeing her. They lost my baby!!! Before long there was a page over the intercom system for a John Mark Vermillion. Good thing she found an honest person to help her and knew her daddy's name!

Misc Happenings

Lynsdey needs another bath after this fudge pop!

Lyndsey told the girls after school, "HaHa! I got to ride the horses at the mall without you!"

Tyler is "popping" into maturity!

Sunday morning April 18th. Mom decided the girls needed to learn a new chore because she needed to get the laundry folded before we left for church! Corynne and Lauren had to tackle the t-shirts, socks and underwear!

Tyler, Corynne and Lauren played for the Piano Guild on Friday, April 23. That was one busy hour shuffling 3 kids to competition and back to 2 different schools while trying to minimize their time out of class so we do not miss tests and have to make them up next week. EVERY Friday is a BIG test day at the girls' school. They each have at least 2 tests, sometimes up to 4 tests--not a good thing to carry into the next week :( We were successful, but it totaled 5 round trips for Mom!

Corynne made this strawberry shortcake bathrobe for Lyndsey. She was so excited to give it to her after sewing class last Friday, April 17th.

This week (April 24th) Corynne learned how to use the zipper foot while she made a quick pillow in class. This was the last class until summer camp :(

1st Swim of the Season!

The kids have been asking to go swimming (in our outdoor pool) for weeks now since it has been so pretty outside. I kept telling them no that the water was not warm enough yet. Today I gave in to the demands. They had a blast and there were no complains about the cool water. It helps that the outside temp for today was in the mid 80s!

While they played in the water, Colleen and I enjoyed just sitting out in the warm sun!!!

Going Away!

This weekend was our first get away as a family of 7! We went to Birmingham for a tennis tournament and dance competition. It was nice that for the first time the events were in the same city at the same time, but it still would not have been possible if JM had not been off work! It was a busy weekend starting immediately after picking Tyler up from school. We had to go straight to the tennis tournament, and we barely got there for the "30 minute" check-in time! We all got to see him play his first match and win. Then we enjoyed a fast meal at Dairy Queen before checking into the hotel. We had a fast meal because it was already 8:30pm and the girls were very excited about getting to swim at the hotel!

Colleen's first tennis tournament adventure. She enjoyed the evening :)

Saturday morning, JM and Tyler headed out early to the tennis tourney while the girls and I had a slower morning at the hotel. After winning his 2nd match, Tyler and JM came downtown to see Corynne's group perform 1 time. Then the boys and Lyndsey went back to the tennis tournament where Tyler ended up with 3rd place!!! Yeah!!!

We had to be at the Alabama Theater by noon for Corynne's dance competition. Her dance group performed 2 dances - one ballet and one jazz. Their jazz number, "Walk the Dinosaur" received a High Gold this time. They did a great job!

On Sunday, we took it easy with breakfast and swimming before checking out of the hotel. We decided to go to the zoo for the afternoon.

Everyone except Lauren enjoyed feeding the birds. I have to admit at times they were aggressive creatures!

Then we could not pass up the camel rides!

We ended our zoo day at the little zoo water/bubble park.

Time for a big lupper at The Cheesecake Factory! We were all exhausted from a busy weekend!