From the 2nd to the 25th: Catch Up Post

July arrived and everything went nuts. Still in the throes of our house project, we attempted to finish off some little stuff, move into the addition and entertain a passel of loved ones all at once. And it's hot out. So, here's a wrap-up that will bring us up to Sarah's birthday...for that I have more photos.

July 2nd, Ro, sent away by her negligent parents, arrived in the ATL. We took her out for pizza.

Realizing she'd made a huge mistake, Ro immediately began to look for Better People.

The next day, once Ro resigned herself to being stuck with us (sorry kid, can't pick your family), Kate & Sarah took her to the aquarium.



We celebrated the 4th of July at Steve & Joy's. Jeremiah smoked a couple briskets. It stormed on him. The food was outstanding.


The very next day, also at Steve & Joy's, we threw Kate an unbirthday party with a "jumpy thing", as promised.



It stormed on us again, erasing all evidence of our mad chalk drawing skillz. Or it would have, if we didn't have pictures! (Nice try, Mother Nature!)


Kate got fancy.


Sarah did her Andy Rooney impression -
"Are juice boxes putting the squeeze on your wallet?"
(That wore her out and she passed out cold on top of every book she owns as soon as we got home.)


Once all the sugar was consumed, things got pretty crazy.

Next, The Miami Druekes arrived! Naturally, we went back to the aquarium in celebration.
Also, there was some duck-feeding that took place.


We took the girls to see Enchanted at the Fabulous Fox that weekend, too, but I have no photos of that, you'll just have to take my word for it. It was fun but I had that insipid soundtrack stuck in my head for at least 3 days following the event.

Next up: a visit from the Stolls! (Read more about it here). We took this picture of the crew from very far away so I can print it, cut out their heads and stick them in NJ on Kate & Sarah's giant map of our loved ones. We took a similar shot of the Miami Druekes so we can fit them in FL.


It was back to the aquarium with us for this visit, only we failed to take photos this time. Kate and Lauren enjoyed chasing each other through a tunnel in the River Explorer display near the alligators. Alec was castigated by one of the volunteers for taunting the alligators when he put his hand over the top of the glass. "They can jump very high" said the man. "Then why is the glass so low?" wondered several of us aloud. He had no response.

I must confess that while our visit with these guys was all very fun, the high point for me was when Lauren declared that the smoothies I'd made them were "even better than real smoothies!". You just can't buy that kind of props, you know?


At one point, I know because there's a picture of it on the camera, Lola received some lovin'.



And that pretty much brings us up to the weekend of Sarah's birthday, which I will address separately due to the volume of photographic evidence of the events that transpired.

In closing - Ah! A bear!




The mere mention of Enchanted now has "How Does She Know That You Love Her?" stuck in my head again.