Friday, July 29, 2011

St. Patrick's Irish Picnic, Day 1

Every year the town we live in has a huge Irish Picnic, hosted by the small Catholic church and school.  This year is the 157th Irish picnic and we've been looking forward to it all year, as has every one.  Today was finally the opening day of the Irish picnic and I couldn't wait to get there and enjoy the festivities.

Bonnie Rose wore her Irish dress for the occasion. Here she is "smiling for the camera."
The star of the Irish Picnic is the BBQ. People come from all over Tennessee and even from surrounding states to buy pulled pork and roast chicken and get a jug of St. Patrick's famous Sauce.
I was pleasantly surprise to find there were a lot of carnival games to play where every one got a prize. Rosie loved the fishing game the best.
She was very happy to win a blow up doggie for her excellent fishing.
There's a picture of them putting more wood on the fires for the pork shoulders they will cook tonight. They will slow cook them all night long and in the morning there will be lines of people there to buy them.

Bonnie Rose also like the "Ducky" game. Pretty much she just likes games with water and was very content to just stand there and play with the ducks for a while.
"William go stand by the fire pits so I can take a picture of them." Poor William. They were too hot to get too close to, but he's a good sport.
William tried playing the tick tack toe game with Rosie but she just kept dropping the balls on the ground and laughing.
The booth people said we were the most entertaining customers they'd had all day and gave us a little prize for the good laugh we gave them.  But most importantly Rosie had fun.
Tomorrow we'll try to get to the picnic early enough to get some famous BBQ. We'll also go hear Uncle Joe's band play and hopefully play some more games. But mostly we'll go to do what every one else goes to do there. Eat  BBQ.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Congratulations New York

I wish I could be there to celebrate with you today.


Friday, July 22, 2011

Date night and a crowded bed

William took me to see Harry Potter on Saturday.
gryffindor and ravenclaw
Rosie, smile for the camera!
She likes to wear mama's scarf. Such a good little Gryffindor.
And on a totally unrelated note, this is why I need a king size bed.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Time with Books

My friend Joy and her babies came for a visit.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Happy Harry Potter Day

Today the final Harry Potter movie was released in theaters around the world. Ten years ago I went to the midnight showing of the very first Potter movie. Wow. Ten Years. I feel kind of sad that it's finally all over. When the last book came out (I went to the midnight release of that book as well) there was the consolation that we still had the movies to look forward to.  I almost don't remember what it's like to not have a Potter movie to look forward to every year.
I look forward to reliving the Harry Potter magic of the books and movies with Rosie some day.

So in honor of 14 years of Harry Potter (the first book was published in 1997) and Ten years of Harry Potter movies, I give you Dobby.
My little House Elf.

Smile for the camera!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Rosie's Smiles

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?
This is the face she makes when you tell her to smile for the camera.
Then she laughs

My perfect little angel is getting so big

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Last Day with Auntie Julie

 On our last day with Auntie Julie we decided to take her into Nashville and show her a bit of the "city life" in this area.

We ended up in the Franklin's Historic District where there is a Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream shop. Julie bought baby her very first, very own, cup of ice cream.  Bonnie Rose was very happy about it.

Then Auntie Julie took Rosie's mama to the Mellow Mushroom for Gluten Free pizza. Julie likes to spoil us.




After a nice walk around the old houses of Franklin, 

in the rain...

 and visiting a few shops...

Rosie drove us to the airport,
 where we played tag for a while and then said good-bye to Auntie Julie.

It was so nice to have Julie come visit us. I love seeing how much Rosie loves to be with her Godmother and I'm so thankful that Julie is a part of our family. 

I feel grateful to Julie for being such a good and loving Godmother to my baby girl and her devotion really touches my heart. Julie even got a tattoo in honor of Baby Rosie. It's one of my favorite tattoos ever.
Julie's Tattoo, on her right wrist and hand

I know that my baby is perfect and wonderful but it just makes me happy when other people think so too. And I'm so thankful for how many people surround my little Angel with love.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Celebrating the 4th

Here are some pictures of our Fourth of July celebrations. 
Julie and I had matching Mickey Mouse in an Uncle Sam hat.
We are very silly.
Girl's Picture!
Julie spent the whole weekend reading to Rosie.
A local church in the area advertised that they were going to have a free fireworks show. They also said they were going to have ponies. I got super excited about the ponies and made us leave like 5 hours too early. The ponies ended up not being there and we had to wait a really really long time for the fireworks show.
Be we did get to play on the play ground while we waited.
Julie took Rosie on her first slide.

Here's a picture of Rosie looking adorable.
Julie and I in the Aloha photo thingy
Rosie's favorite part of the whole day was this little play house. She loved that is was just her size. She spent almost the whole evening in there and loved opening and closing the Rosie sized door.
It made her really happy
Finally it was time for the fireworks. The show started with every one standing up and singing the national anthem and they perfectly timed the first fire work with the last word of the song.
It was a pretty good show and I think we were all glad we stuck around for it.  It's just not the 4th of July without a fireworks show.
There were lots of families and kids around and Rosie loved watching them.
This little baby watched the whole show peeking out from under her blanket.
Rosie did a really good job during the show. She didn't like the noise, but if her ears were covered she liked watching the lights. She watched almost the whole show with wide eyes and then said she was all done right before the grand finale.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Aunti Julie and blowing things up

 Julie is Rosie's Godmother. Her and I were roommates in college and soon found we were bosom buddies.

Julie and I have been a part of every major life event for the last 11 years in each other's lives. I don't know what I would do without her.  Even though I'm the world's worst Keeper in Toucher Julie still loves me. And every time we go months without talking we can just pick right back up where we left off.

Julie lives in New York but came to visit us for the 4th of July.  The day before the 4th we went to a road side fireworks stand to buy our explosives. Julie was rather nervous about all the large things it is legal to shoot into the sky here. I was very pleasantly surprised too. In California most of this stuff is illegal, but here in Tennessee they have stuff that could rival the Chinese New Year fireworks in China!

As you can see, I am quite pleased with our explosive purchases. We bought two different ones that shoot up into the sky and explode like professional ones. So exciting!
 Of course it wouldn't be a holiday with out some decorations. So we hung a bunting on the front door.

It looks very nice from the street. Very festive.

While we were eating dinner that night Julie got to meet one of our neighbors.  Yogi was tormenting this little cutie in the back yard and we had to go rescue him.

He made funny noises at us and then waddled off.  
Here's a cute picture Julie took of our little nerd in the making. She's such a good girl and loves to play on the computer.


Rosie loved having her Auntie Julie around. She was all smiles and goofy the whole time.  She had Julie wrapped around her little finger. She didn't want any one else to read to her or chase her except Julie.
At one point William was playing the "who's this?" game with Rosie, where he points at each person and she says our name. When he got to Julie, Rosie looked at her, paused, and then said with great confidence "BOOK"!  Julie said she'd take and will forever be called book.
Here is the only picture of our fireworks that turned out. Rosie did a very good job at watching them and was only a little scared. She sat behind me with her arms around me and watched with big eyes.