memorial day

so memorial day was great fun for us this year. we went out to lake lavon (which may be filthy and a little gross, but it was warm, and the day was beautiful!) for a little picnic with a bunch of friends. i think there were 5 families in all, including 13 1/2 children under 6. and lots of good food and laughter.

ready... set... come on mom, let's go already!

 the kids were ready to go by the time they finished their breakfast cereal.


what makes you think i got into the charcoal daddy was packing?

mostly we spent a lot of time wading in the shallows of the lake, and eating. some of our friends have this little raft that they bring to share. all the kids love it or are scared to death of it, though i guess that's the way with most water toys. we also had plenty of squirt guns and a few other land-activities.  

one of only two pics i actually took at the lake, and the other was worse... i'm just not a good photographer... but yes, this is paul's turn to take some afton boating.

unfortunately we had to leave early to get paul off to school for some last minute preparations for his conference poster presentation (more on that soon), but fortunately, the kids did great and all three had naps in the car as we got paul to school and us back home, where we switched out some of our stuff and reloaded to go up to grandma's house in the afternoon so we could see our cousins again before they moved off to utah (actually, we ended up seeing them one more time before they left this weekend, but we didn't know we'd be able to at memorial day).
we love this country we live in and love to have holidays to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy, and we especially love having a little extra fun time with daddy and our family and friends!