happy memorial day!

there was tons of food, plenty of friends, enough alcohol and just the right amount of kids…

what more could i have asked for?

(besides lounging in a pool while one of the guys served us girls drinks, i mean)…

jasper started out dressed!  i swear!

but she didn’t stay clothed long!  as soon as the kids ate, they were climbing into their swim suits like miniature tasmanian devils!

and after their suits were on, they started loading up the water pistols.  it was Serious Business.

and the hunt was on!

oops, looks like jasper lilith is getting the brunt of it…

wait, no…  now it looks like someone else is about to get some too!

(i mean, look at that face!  someone is going down!)

must be cool-down-break-time-water-gun-loading-time…

i bet it was that time all over america today 🙂

looks like she is on the hunt again 🙂

and off she goes!

i did say this was Serious Business, didn’t i?

until dessert time anyway 🙂

happy memorial day!

a campground filled with… toys?

“mommy, close your eyes!”

(what every mother wants to hear their kid say, right?)

“i want you to see something!  close your eyes and give me your hand, ok?”

(well, it’s usually better when they want you to see what they did…)

“don’t worry, i will lead you and i won’t let you run into the wall.”

(ok,  i’m sold…  so i close my eyes…)

and open them to see this!

her animals are all in a line because they are waiting to get into…  wait for it…

the campground!!  ha!

each little book is a tent and yep, there are the same amount of books as there are animals… yeah, i counted.

once her handiwork was duly appreciated and discussed, jasper moved on to putting each toy into their own little “tent”…

needless to say, clean up was fun that evening…

but it was worth it – do you see the little piglet poking her nose out of the toot & puddle book?  yep, totally worth it.

“what do you want to be when you grow up?”

jasper has wanted to be a veterinarian since before she could actually pronounce  the full word 🙂

of course, she also wants to be a painter, a photographer, a scientist, a farmer and an astronaut so…

pre-k graduation… oh, bleep.

did they have pre-k graduations back when we were kids?   i don’t remember but i know they sure have them now.

my proof?  jasper has “graduated” from pre-k…  it’s official…  she is a kindergartener.

they even had graduation hats!!!

see?

now why would they do that to us mothers?

a smiling, happy 4 year old!

“mommy, is it time for my graduation yet?”

jasper picked her dress out (and her cowboy boots) several days before…  at 7 am…  she came in one morning, all dressed up, and woke me up to show me what she was going to wear on her “special day”.

i didn’t even see the cowboy boots until later though…  you know, when i was actually awake 🙂

i was…  unenthusiastic about the boots but when i asked about them, i could tell there was no quarter; she felt like she HAD to wear them!  far be it for me to say she shouldn’t!

lots of “hi, jaspers!” and “bye, jaspers!” and she was busy waving to them all 🙂

it was very windy (like tornado watch windy, in fact) so jasper quickly went into her Feel The Wind Stance.

a piece of a cake and a happy face!

congratulations, jaspernator!

“mommy, you look like a zombie.”

that’s what jasper tells me once i put my swim cap on…

thanks, kiddo.

my first 0lympic triathlon (but probably not my last) was yesterday morning.

we were up before the sun and as jasper gets into the jeep, she goes, “aww, the moon is still up!  where’s the sun???!!!”

it was a very intense and fun experience – i felt STRONG after i ran across that finish line some 3 hours later.

(but let’s be frank:   i’m glad to be done with all that training!)

jon and jasper were my cheerleaders and jasper cowbelled with the best of them 🙂

thanks to the both of them for getting up at o-dark-hundred hours, driving for over an hour, hanging out while i do my thing and then making sure to cheer me on each time i came back to my transition spot and then the finish line – you two were all the audience i needed.

and now on to the next race!

happy mother’s day!

from myself, jasper lilith and my mom – happy mother’s day to all of us out there!

when jasper dresses herself.

the girl likes her colors, that is for sure!

pink and red with one white sparkle shoe and one black sparkle shoe…  throw in a hello kitty fedora and a paul frank bag?

and you have a jasper!  just another 4 year old girl that has to dress herself or else the world will end (in fire and brimstone, apparently)…

she calls those shoes her “panda shoes”…

jasper also likes to combine one red sparkle shoe with a black sparkle shoe and when she doesn’t feel like wearing two different shoes?

she wears two different socks.

ok…

she found that hat and put it on her head with a happy sigh, “it’s perfect for my outfit, mommy!”

and so she wandered around target, garnering plenty of compliments, in her fedora 🙂

in fact, she was so pleased with herself, i had to remind her that we weren’t actually buying the hat; just wearing it while we were in the store!

her response when i reminded her? 

“i know this already, mom.”

got it, kiddo.

what goes in the lockbox?

we brought a fireproof lock box home to fill with Important Papers and Things.

jasper overheard us talking about what needed to go in the lock box and what was Important and when i next looked in the box?

i found jasper lilith’s version of Important Things.

my fav?  the little book that she has had since she wasn’t even one yet – we might not read it anymore but here is proof that she has good memories of it 🙂

bubbles! bubbles! bubbles!

bubbles, anyone?

you gotta love a girl that loves her bubbles!

crawfish, sac-au-lait, poor man’s cornbread and crowns…

it’s too bad that i only have pictures of the crown factor though…

the first thing on our natchitoches agenda?  crawfish!

we got there, got out to say our hellos and then we all piled back into the car again to head out for crawfish.

a table full of those little red devils and we ate them all!  i didn’t get any pictures – hands busy doing other things that involve red mud bugs and messiness – but trust me, they were beautiful, bountiful and very tasty!

and then it was home to relax and digest.

the serious girl…   accompanying The Princess Crown is always The Princess Wave and a semi-british sounding, “cheerio!”

in honor of the royal wedding, jasper’s class at school made crowns and flags of england.

i suspect her teacher was a Royal Wedding Watcher of the first degree 🙂

the less serious girl 🙂

the next night, arnetta and i fried up a bunch of sac-au-lait that jon had caught when we went camping.  we had piles of fried fish!  i tested out a hot water cornbread recipe (the recipe was called poor man’s cornbread) and we also made up a batch of remoulade.

oh, it was good!  i was really pleased with the fried cornbread.

of course, again, my hands were a bit too busy for the camera but i had a homer simpson, “d’oh!” moment when it occured to me to take pictures of our feast…  too bad that simpson moment came the next day.

jon has started shaving his head and arnetta caught a shot of me giving him a helping hand.

does jasper look happy to you?  no?

we were changing the rules of the game, jon and i!  trying to make it a bit more fun for us adults and jasper does not appreciate it!

“guys!  guys!  that is not how you play!  let me show you.”

her exasperation was almost as funny as our made-up rules!

jasper and i also squeezed in a visit to oona and olivia:  “mommy, can we visit my friend olivia?  she lives in natchitoches too, you know.”

since a visit to oona is, like, totally, the bomb, i couldn’t say no!

‘course, now jasper lilith needs a pink trampoline, “just like my friend olivia!”

we got a lot done and a lot eaten over the weekend and it was over to quickly – it always is, isn’t it?