A Page Is Turned: Tractors, Shrek, and Pictures in the Park

Whew! Whirlwind weekend full of fun and family. Take that, alliteration! We had a great weekend and I think it's safe to say we are all WORN SLAP OUT. I meant to get this up yesterday and just got BUSY. Such is life, huh?

Saturday morning we headed north to my Aunt Sue and Uncle Mike's house. They have a family gathering twice a year for my dad's side of the family. Dad is one of six children and four of the six get together fairly often. (One lives out of town and works on the weekends and the other passed away before I was born.) There's a lot of eatin', a lot of swingin', and a lot of playin' for the little ones. It's fun to watch my boys play with my cousins' children. Most of my cousins are older than me - our sometimes-babysitter, Susana, is the child of one of my first cousins and she was 12 when James was born. A few of our cousins, though, have children right around the same ages as mine. Saturday we had "Big Will" who is finishing first grade, Kate will be 5 this summer, James will be 5 in the fall, and "Little Will" is almost 2.5. Our Will couldn't keep up, but James had a BIG time playing with the older two.

Around 3pm we decided it was time for us to move along. Will went home with "Nayna and MoMo" - Anna and Lance - and James had a date with Mama and Daddy. We headed to Perry for a little errand running, a quick stop by our house, dinner at our second favorite Mexican restaurant {the first favorite is in Macon}, and a night at the theater seeing Perry High School's Spring Musical - Shrek the Musical. The precious girl who is completely responsible for James' MAJOR crush on Ariel from last year's The Little Mermaid was Fiona in Shrek. She's a senior so it was her last production, but I will be SHOCKED if she doesn't hit it big in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed the show as did the boys, but James was worn out from his earlier playing and was a little sleepy. We lucked up and got fourth row seats, so that kept him interested in the show, but he was ready for it to be over so he could get in the car and hit the hay.

Meanwhile, Will had a spend-the-night with Anna and Lance. He visited Lance's parents, relaxed in the tub, and went to bed late with Lance. Anna got booted to another room.

Sunday was another busy day! After church and Sunday School we had a quick lunch at Mom's - Happy Mother's Day! - and family pictures in the park. I can't wait to see how they turned out. We packed up the boys and headed off to Grandmama's after that where I fell asleep sitting up in a chair! Never have I ever! That's an Eddie thing to do. After I woke up I rounded up my people to try to get everyone home for a short nap before it was too late. The boys gave me my sweet gifts - a robe and two pairs of earrings! - and off to dreamland we went. James requested we watch Jaws 2 - YES! - and he and I snoozed while that played and Will and Daddy snoozed in the rocker in the den. When everyone woke we ordered Olive Garden takeout for dinner. It was wonderful!