Charlie's spend the night party

Jane Gray spent tonight out, so Charlie decided it would be a good time to have some buddies over to play.  We ate dinner at the Browns' house, and though we weren't planning on a spend the night party, it was so late that we decided to give it a try.  This picture says it all - the boys played and slept very hard!

A few of Meg's favorite things

Meg is loving first grade and going to school all day!  Her teacher told us last night that Mrs. Parker told her that Meg could run her classroom.  I don't know about that, but Meg definitely loves school!  She told Mommy not to sign her up for the MAIS swim meet because she didn't want to miss any school!  She loves it!

Friday night lights

These boys and their dads enjoyed a fun Prep vs. OHS game tonight.

Our last Back to School Night for JG

JG is a big sixth grader this year.  Tonight, at Back to School Night, we met all of her new teachers and saw this precious picture she created of herself during the class's study of Pollyanna.

MMA Norman Rockwell exhibit

Jane Gray, Charlie, and I enjoyed the new MMA Norman Rockwell exhibit while Meg was dancing at Ballet Mississippi.  The exhibit was based upon Rockwell's painting depicting the murder of civil rights activists, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney.  It was very moving! In this picture, the children are drawing symbols of peace; both chose to draw pictures of a cross.

Sweet friends

These sweet friends celebrated the end of a great first week of school!

Donuts with MSH

We made one last Krispy Kreme run with Mary Stewart before she heads back to Ole Miss tomorrow.  We will miss her!

Shark week

Apparently, Meg has been watching too much of shark week; she came home from school today with this treasure.

Meg's first full day of first grade

We celebrated Meg's first full day of school with Nandy's Candy snow cones.

Celebrating the first day of school

After the kids' first day of school, which was only a half day, we went out to lunch with some of Jane Gray's friends (which thankfully also included John Woods for Charlie) and then to the pool for a last taste of summer.

Back to school 2014

We have a sixth (Mrs. Waterloo homeroom), third (Mrs. Jones), and first grader (Mrs. Buckley) this year.  It's going to be a great year!

Last night at the beach

We out to eat to celebrate our last night at the beach.  We ate tons of yummy seafood and then stopped for ice cream in Watercolor on the way home.  We ended our vacation with a crab hunt.  It was a full moon, so there were tons of crabs.  It was so fun!

Chocolate fondue

At night, we ate!  We had several delicious meals, but our favorite may have been the chocolate fondue at La Crema, which we ate one night after watching "The Lorax" on the Green at Rosemary Beach.

Barbour beach trip 2014

This year, the Barbours vacationed at beautiful Seacrest Beach.  The weather was beautiful, and we spent most of our time at the beach.  The YOLO board was a huge hit this year.  The kids (and Daddy!) spent hours on it and were able to find lots of sea life - sand dollars, fish, dolphins, and even a sea turtle!  The dolphins swam so close to the YOLO board which thrilled the children.  In the next to last, last picture, Jane Gray and Charlie are pointing to the dolphins.  We also hunted seashells, played in the sand and water, and made lots of sand castles.