Charlie's buddy, John Woods, gave Charlie a Spiderman slip and slide for his birthday. Daddy set it up in the backyard this afternoon and showed Jane Gray and Charlie how to run and dive on it. They got the hang of it pretty quickly. Daddy even added bubbles to make the slip and slide faster!
Much to the delight of his Daddy, Charlie has become very interested in baseball and watching the College World Series. Charlie and Daddy stayed up late watching the championship game, drinking milk, and eating cookies.
Charlie went to the movies with Nana, Grandpa, and Reece yesterday. Jane Gray couldn't go with them because of the Mother/daughter luncheon at church, so Nana offered to take her today. They saw the Tale of Despereaux and had a lunch date at Wendy's. It was just the two of them (which is rare!).
Tonight, the Barbour's Bombers played in the championship game of their softball league. The Bombers lost, but they got a runners-up trophy that the kids thought was really cool; they kept asking to hold it. The kids also had a blast running all over the place with their cousins. They didn't seem to notice the scoreboard at all!
Our church had its annual mother-daughter luncheon today. Jane Gray, Mommy, and 14 of Jane Gray's Fair family relatives were in attendance (including two of her favorites - Emily and Mary Love, pictured here with Jane Gray). Aunt Fair took the picture of Jane Gray and Mommy. You can't see it in the picture, but Jane Gray wrote Mommy's nametag for her - it read "Mom." 
Meg fell down on the driveway this afternoon and skinned her knee. She was so sad and ran immediately to Mommy for consolation (though her sister and brother were hugging all over her). She settled down pretty quickly, and we headed inside for the ultimate consolation - Hello Kitty bandaids. Doesn't she look like such a big girl with a bandaid on her knee?
Today is Charlie's 4th birthday! He woke up this morning and found lots of toy dinosaurs and superheroes and several presents to open, too, including his much-asked for batman watch. After Charlie opened his presents and danced to the "Happy birthday" music of the birthday balloon (still alive from the birthday party at the beach!), he ate a birthday donut, and we headed to church. We had Father's Day lunch at the Hursts' house. For dessert, Mommy made a "cowboy riding a dinosaur" cake per Charlie's request. Charlie was so happy! He requested Wendy's for his birthday dinner (Chick-fil-a is closed on Sundays), so after church, we went to Wendy's. After dinner, we played in the yard. Jane Gray and Charlie caught lots of fireflies and put them in the bug house Wilson gave Charlie. It was a sweet ending to a fun day!
Charlie is turning 4 on Sunday, and we celebrated today with a cowboy-themed birthday party. Charlie invited all of his best buddies, and they had fun in our backyard riding Mo Glo, shooting Wanted posters with water guns, lassoing Charlie's stick horse, decorating party favor bags, and filling the bags with the candy from the cowboy boot pinata. They also ate lots of chocolate horse cake and ice cream, BBQ chips, rattlesnake eggs (jelly beans), trail mix, and watermelon (for seed spittin'). It was such a fun party! Grandpa happily received his $1 million + reward (i.e. lots of hugs and kisses) at the end of the party for capturing Charlie "Pistol," Jane Gray "Mad Dog," and Meg "Sister" Barbour.
Mommy's MOMS small group decided to have a picnic today at Laurel Park. It was very hot, but the kids didn't seem to notice. One of Mommy's best friends, Betsy Brown, was in town and came with her sister, Ashley Maddux, who is in the small group, to the park. Mommy loved watching Charlie play with the sons of these dear friends! The children had fun, too, especially eating Sue Ann Stewart's cookies - they were delicious! Can't you tell? (Sweet Thomas Turner is in the background putting a whole cookie in his mouth!)
Today, we went to the Hope Fruit and Berry Farm to pick blueberries and hang out with our friends, the Oakleys. Wynn and Charlie are the same age, and Wynn is at our table in Sunday school. He gave Mommy and Daddy a pint of blueberries one Sunday morning, and they tasted so good that we decided we wanted to get some more. Deborah and Mommy decided that today would be a good day, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the farm. Jane Gray and Charlie had so much fun picking the blueberries. Meg thought it was fun, too, until she tasted one of the blueberries. From then on, she didn't have a single blueberry in her bucket - the blueberries she picked went straight from the vine to her mouth! Her face was blue by the time we settled down to eat our lunch. After lunch, the kids gobbled up some Pop Ice (it was hot!) and then we headed home, hot and exhausted from a fun day with friends!
We spent Saturday in Yazoo City. As soon as we pulled into Pop's driveway, the children saw the ponies and decided they wanted to ride Mo Glo. Jane Gray and Charlie took turns and had a grand time. Daddy put Meg on, too, but she wasn't sure she wanted to ride Mo Glo; she didn't mind petting the horses on their noses, but she didn't want to get too close. After the horseback riding, we put Meg down for her nap and headed to the pond to fish. We caught a ton of bream! Jane Gray and Charlie baited their own hooks, so we were able to fish a lot. It was hot, though, and after we caught enough for dinner, Daddy, Jane Gray, and Charlie went for a dip in the pond. Jane Gray and Charlie were so cute jumping off the dock together and floating lazily on their backs in the water. When they tired of swimming, they decided to take a canoe ride around the pond. The canoe ride was pretty short because Daddy wanted to check on things in Louise, so we got Meg up and headed to the Delta. We saw lots of rabbits, doves (Charlie shot most of them from the car with his trusty shotgun), and even a crawdad. We picked blackberries and watched cropdusters spraying the fields. It was quite a fun-filled day!
