Granny's on Saturday.

Headed up to Granny and Gramps' a day early this week.

Always the last to join us in the car, because he has to bring so much stuff with him!

Granny has to work tomorrow, and Daddy's going up to Brenham.

Max, in a grumpy mood after waking from his nap.

Showing Granny the watch he got for his birthday coming up.  (Apparently it will be from me!)

Still grumpy.

Still thinking about where I want to go on vacation.  Maybe since I missed the last trip I'd like to go to ...

... Louisiana! 

We could expand on what Gabe knows about Cajun culture from Scooby Doo on Zombie Island.  Sounds like a fun idea to me!

Dragon Ball Z.

Gabe is such a helpful big brother lately!  There were some ants on the basketball goal ...

... so he moved Max safely away.

Here's Max, after Grandma tickled his foot, asking her to tickle the other one!

No more rain, so it's back to being too hot to play outside.  The kids spent most of the day playing Dragonball Z (toys, video game, and movie)!

Grandma is back to her puppet-making business.  Gabe was so excited when he had the idea to ask her to make a new one that he ran into her door and hurt his foot!

It's funny to see Max play-fighting with the toys, like the big kids do.

Max doesn't know all the character names (nor do I), but he calls one of them "The Big One" and another "The Purple One."

Daddy and Brian are going to help Buddy start building a pole barn on the Brenham property this weekend.

He's taking a week off in July, and I'm trying to decide where we should go on vacation!

Crawdads.

After a bright and sunny morning, we were pleasantly surprised by another thunderstorm!

Headed to Joe's house in the rain to play with their company (apparently some little girls)!

Gabe and Joe are old enough to travel freely among the three houses and play wherever they want.

Whenever the yard gets wet ...

... out come the crawdads!

Max was impressed.

The kids named the crawdads.  

One of them was dead, so Gabe said that all the other ones were having a funeral.

This one was feisty!

He grabbed the stick and held on!

Dad came home from the farm with an unusual cucumber.

Today Dan joined the ACLU.  He's such an activist now!

Goodnight!

Down came the rain.

When I woke up this morning, it was dark and rainy.  Beautiful!

Max woke up quickly when I carried him outside.

He had important work to do.

Something about a long-overdue date with a rain puddle.

Dragging Buddy along ...

Fidget and the cat went walking with him too.

Mud is wonderful stuff.

Finally so filthy and wet that he went in without kicking and screaming.

Maya came in, excited to tell me that they had found my purple toothbrush that Max threw in the pond long ago.

I asked her if she thought I could go back to using it.  She said, "Yeah, you can, but it's a little dirty."

The pond has dried up twice now, but we still haven't found Gabe's Green Man.

Goodnight!

Diedra's party!

Today the extended family had a party to celebrate the visit of our Aussie cousin Diedra!  Welcome, Diedra!

Aside from the little spill Max and I took on our arrival, it was a lot of fun!

Two little pools of water were set up for the kids ...

There was also one pool filled with dirt (because Aunt Peggy knows what little kids like)!

They started out in the big pool ...

Maya in the little pool ... (And here's Brian having fun, as usual.)

Making dirt castles requires just the right amount of water.

Max with his favorite person, scarfing down chips ...

... and sucking down lemonade (which he calls "lame").  "Mama, more lame!"

Grandma.

Max and Nathan, who sometimes grab for the same thing but don't realize they are fighting yet.

Max with Buddy!

Gabe, playing water games with his cousins.

Gabe's the oldest, so he gets to pull the wagon.

Aunt Susie with cute Cousin Kate!

Cousins Josh, Luke, and Judd, playing near the fish pond.  (Their bigger pond, like ours, was dried up!)

Max loves to swing!

Susie and Diedra.

We had a really nice time.

Goodnight!