Boom Pa's Birthday Bonanza

Yesterday was my dad's birthday. The kids and I decided to bake the cake...but no just any cake. We chose to make the Raines Family Strawberry Cake. My dad's mom used to make it all the time growing up and it was just the best thing you ever tasted. After not having it for many years, my Aunt Glenda brought back the greatness when she moved back to Dallas for a short time last year. But then she moved to California and we were without again. Never fear, though, the cake team is here! Jackson, Maddie and I are quite the triple threat when it comes to dessert making.

Jackson helped out with all the ingredients--he even measured out three tablespoons of flour all by himself.


Madison really wasn't so into baking the cake, but when she heard the mixer was about to come out she ran over! She did really well and didn't let any batter cover our kitchen walls.

But the best part was getting to lick the bowl clean. Even Lila got in on that action! She definitely approved and kept asking for "ma!"

And here you have it--our version of the Strawberry Cake! I was pleased, especially with it being our first time.

So we took our cake, ice cream, present and swim gear and drove over to Gigi and Boom's house. See that bandage on J's hand? Less than 5 minutes after we got there he got stung by a bee. Poor guy. It hurt like the dickens, but he was alright and even felt good enough to take a few pics with the fam.

I was so proud of Lila for staying in the picture without me having to hold her! Now to just get everyone to look at the camera. Baby steps...I know.

There was a little swimming. I guess these two ninnies were such fast little fish that my camera couldn't quite keep up!

After swimming and dinner it was time to have the cake. Before Boom could blow out his candles, though, Madison did it for him! Just look at her face!

So they all pretended together--thank goodness Boom is 58 and not 5. I'm not sure a 5 year old would have taken too well to a little munchkin blowing out his candles!

Happy Birthday, DAD!! We hope you had a great day.

Go Mavs!!

We were all pretty excited about the Mavs before Game 6 last night. Jared and Jackson got new shirts and wore them all day.

Looks like the shirts worked! Dirk played well (finally!) in the 4th quarter and the Mavs won! Who hoo!! We were all pumped about the win! We just may go to the victory parade next week.

Sweet & Sassy

Today was my first time to go inside a Sweet & Sassy store. Madison was invited to a birthday party there and was very excited about it all week long! We talked about everything that she would get to do there--hair,makeup, nail polish, dress-up, etc. Over and over and over again!

After she picked out her princess dress, she waited very patiently to have her hair and make-up done.

Three sweet princesses all waiting for their turn to be pampered.

She got her nails painted hot pink...

and her hair put up in a cool up-do...

and then it was time to jam to Hannah Montana! Actually none of the little girls would dance, no matter what we did to entice them. They were just so mesmerized by the older girls doing their dance moves. My last idea to get Maddie to bust a move was to bribe her. I told her that if she danced I'd give her a hershey's kiss when we got home. The girl was a dancing machine for the rest of the time.

At the end all the princesses got introduced at the end of the show and received crowns and certificates. Such a fun party!

Her Wedding

This is how Madison was dressed the other day when she was at Gigi's.

Wearing one of Gigi's fancy tops (it worked as a dress) and some shiny black heels! She said she was ready for her wedding. Her hair was all down and she had lipstick all over those sweet lips. Oh, my!

Tiger T-ball

Jackson began his baseball career on Monday night. Practice began with meeting Coach Patrick and all of his teammates.

After some stretching to get all good and warmed up, it was time to start practicing throwing and catching. Since Daddo wasn't there yet, Boom stepped in to play with J.

A few minutes later we looked up and saw Daddo walking across the field! He made it! Just in time to throw grounders to the J man. They practiced fielding using the alligator chomp:)


Jackson did good catching, throwing and fielding--it's amazing the difference a year makes.

Is this guy ready for some ball or what?

At long last, it was time to hit! Jackson squared up next to the tee, got his game face on...

and rocked that ball!

Then he took off and ran the bases like Elvis Andrus. I was so proud, and it was only practice. I am going to be going bananas when he hits it during an actual game!

At the end of practice it was time to choose a team name. Jackson suggested the Tigers and said that they could "roarrrrr!" All the other kids agreed that sounded like fun, too.

Gooooo Tigers!!!

Sunday Funday

Sunday we tried to be in the water as much as possible. It was pretty darn hot outside, so after church we headed over to Gigi's for some good swim time.

Much to the two munchkins liking, Gigi had some new swim gear for them. Flippers, goggles and snorkles! Jackson really reminded me of Scuba Steve.

Lila grabbed the big bubble wand and had fun just trapsing around with it unopened.

After splashing in the water for a while, she decided it was time to try out the slide. The girl is a big fan of playground slides so I was hoping that would be the case with the pool one.

Smiles all around! The girl loved it...

so we decided to take the plunge and go all the way down it!

Madison followed suit and got in her regular 25 times:)

Meanwhile, Scuba Steve puttered around the pool attempting to use all his new gear.

Then we finished off the afternoon with a little baby pool time.

After some good naps for most of us in the house, it was time to go over to Memaw and Poppy's for a cook out. Lila got in for a little bit, Madison did lots of jumping to Poppy and noodled around the pool, and Jackson played catch with Uncle Scott.

He was very intrigued when Uncle Andrew threw a pass to Uncle Scott and he caught it mid-jump over the pool. Oh the things he is going to learn from his uncles:) Thank goodness they don't still have their trampoline and can show him how they used to pull it over near the pool and jump in from it.

While the rest of the crew was still swimming, Uncle Andrew and Lila had a sweet little moment. I'm pretty sure she was telling him how much she likes his new girlfriend.

Thanks again for letting us come over to swim!

Friday Night

This past Friday night we were sort of running out of things to do. You know that's the case when your four year old asks to wash the car.

After I agreed to letting him do so, he excitedly changed into his swim attire and then proceeded to put on his rain boots. Guess there was a lot of water involved, so why not?

Madison was not so into washing the car in 98 degree heat (who could really blame her?) and she opted for watching a movie from inside her princess tent.

I kept running in between the two...

and kept Lila well stocked on goldfish. She was happy as clam to supervise Jackson's work from the comfort of her high chair...just as long as those goldfish kept coming!