My, oh my, oh May!

A smorgasbord of snapshots...

The month started out with a bang when Gramma showed up.

Or at least a *PING*PING*.
That's the sound of Kathleen having this done to her ears!

Grammy & Grampy got in the game.

Kathleen's handmade residence for most of May.

The girls' fuel-efficient independent transportation during the month of May.

May's musical musterings

Both the violin and piano recitals in one day--

--within a couple of hours of each other.

May clowning

THEN
After Jimmer took off with Gramma and hung out for a week,
Nici, our former au pair, jetted to our country from South Africa,
and we both flew out to Gramma's to retrieve Jimmer -- releasing him from the shackles of...perfect weather, perfect fun with Gramma & Mr. Merle, perfect one-on-one time for once, and perfect freedom from school and siblings.

With the likes of these two personalities meeting for the first time, it took a grand total of one second to warm up to each other.

Card games led to toe wrestling which led to...
snowball fights.

...and scratching around for coin droppage.

Fast friends, I tell you!

Back at the ranch...

Car appreciation day in May

Enjoying May weather!

Pretzel making in May

South African sisters - Nici's sister (now an au pair in NJ) came for a Memorial Day weekend visit to the Lonestar State.

They bought boots,

Dressed up,

Danced with cowboys,

Visited our pink capitol,

Bounced through Lake Travis,

Ate grub overlooking a lake at sunset,

And engaged in pre-dinner thumb wrestling.

As you can see, the kids really had a tough time warming up again to Nici after her 10-year absence!

Much in May.
Then there was June!

2nd Annual Block Party :: August Birthdays

Since there are 9 people in 7 neighboring homes on our short side of the block with birthdays in August, we figured it was good reason to celebrate!

The birthday crew









We love our great group of neighbors...and the big bunch of kiddies that come along with it!






Our little cupcake will be celebrating her "real" birthday soon!

Nature's summer goodies

Let me just say that it's been a stellar year for fruit! We're loving the STRAWberries, blUEBERries, PinEaPpLe, grAPES, and it's already a fabulous year for our Texas PEAches too.


I can't even tell you how many WATERMELONS we've had this year.

I'm hoping it's a good year for our PEcan tree as well!

Big Birthday

I was asked to take photos at my neighbor's birthday party last weekend.

I loved being given free reign to capture an entire evening with my camera (...although I'll spare the innocent party goers by not posting their photos).

And I loved being the chief guacamole tester.


I also instituted my new motto:

"Will work for food...and fresh garden produce."

Final storms from Hurricane Alex blew off just in time to bring us a breezy, comfortable Texas evening.

This neighbor is one of the most generous and humble friends.

Just one of many examples: She lets all the neighbor kids decorate her Christmas tree and make gingerbread houses in her kitchen.

It took me a number of years living next to her and spending lots of kiddie playtime with her family to find out some fun background info (only thanks to her dad, Chief).

As a young lady

she diligently swam laps in this pool


and graduated from high school with a swimming scholarship.

She also became the first female to wear this mascot uniform at TCU.

I love hearing these little tidbits of information about my friends. It adds such a fun historical dimension to their personalities.




Another beautiful evening at Chief and Tootsie's...celebrating with her friends and family.

My family.

Okay, it's her family.

But it's my adoptive Austin family.

I guess I should inform them of this.

A festive party is great fun, but a good neighbor and friend is a treasure.

May We Cake & Caffeine

According our cute neighbor,


who is May We Cake?

and who is Caffeine?


Hint:




We call him Way Way...
because that's his name.

I just don't know how to draw the characters.

He sure is a little character!