End of Year Carnival

So about a month of ago, the Gap Cowboy's teacher came up to me after school one day...said she needed to talk to me....Should have ran....should have ran big time....She asked me to head the end of year Kindergarten Carnival. At first I was honored, out of all the mom's and room mom's this year they picked me. WOW! Right?? Nope, I was the only mom who had a first time Kindergartner so I knew not what I was getting myself into so they knew I would say yes!
Well in keeping with tradition of my family I did the Carnival BIG...I "one upped" everything! I was going to make it all so memorable for my kid.
Well we did just that and although I have been so exhausted we had a wonderful time and the carnival turned out wonderful. I had help though, some fabulous mom's that knew what they were doing! We also had a bounce house all the way from Kansas and petting zoo and horse drawn carriage rides and a horsey-go-round. So fun and all the kids were so cute and thankful!
The best reward for all my hard work, my little boy came up to me after it was all said and done and said: "Mom thanks for all the hard work you did for me and my class! I loved it all and had so much fun!" And that my friends is why I go BIG and get in over my head; he is over 4ft tall, blue eyes, and brown hair and just as sweet and cute as can be, he is my boy and I made his day!

Bowling first....

Gap Cowboy's teacher, the taller one, he loves her!
She has been really good for him!

The Clown!

The Cowboy's picnic!

Hot dog time!

The bounce house, thanks Nancy and Jake!

The Cowboy's best buddy!

The Cowboy's first and only school bus ride this year. They don't bus here so this was a special treat for him!

Dear Mom

My Grandma taught me the value of a good poem. These I dedicate to my mom and mother-in-law.

To my Mom:

Mothers are the place that we call home.
On them we rest our heads and close our eyes.
There's no one else who grants the same soft peace,
Happiness, contentment, sweet release,
Erasing nighttime tears with lullabies,
Restoring the bright sun that makes us bloom.


To Jay's Mom:

You are the other mother I received,
the day I wed your son.
And I just want to thank you,
For the loving things you've done.
You've given me a gracious man,
with whom I share my life.
You are his lovely mother,
and I his lucky wife!
You use to pat his little head,
And now I hold his hand.
You raised in love a little boy,
and then gave me the man.

Nashville!!

I have no idea how I missed this but today is the first day I have heard about the awful flooding in Nashville. As soon as I caught wind of the floods I called my friends who live there and made sure they were ok, which thankfully they are, then I started to go threw the pictures. I am stunned that such a beautiful place that we JUST visited last August is now under water and seriously damaged. The Opryland Hotel we stayed in was evacuated and the 1st floor under water, the beautiful gardens all under dark greenish gross water. That hotel was sooo nice, so splendid! I am so sad! Then to see the Opry Mills shopping center and the The Grand Ole' Opry itself under water! We just posed for pictures and walked and drove around that whole area, now under water!

Here are the before and after (some pics are ones I took on our trip and the others are from Yahoo)...

This is an aerial view of the Opryland Hotel with the water finally receding.

This is the first floor, they are reporting is under water now. It was so beautiful!

This is a view of inside of the Opryland hotel gardens, they are all over the hotel and so beautiful and fun shops all over too.

The above picture and below picture were taken last August, we had so much fun here! Very odd to look at these pictures with the water, hard to believe!

I don't have a picture of this area from before but Carson and I got lost and came out onto these very steps to figure out where we were. It is so crazy to see this now!

This is a view of the Opry Mills shopping area and the General Jackson Showboat. We just saw this river boat and the loading area, would have loved to have gone on it but there wasn't enough time!

Walking around the Opry Mills Shopping area outside!

The Grand Ole' Opry! The Opry building is the taller middle building in the picture.

Here is my little family in front of the Opry building and sign. It was really cool to walk around since I grew up listening to some of the country greats. I hope they haven't lost all the archives and history from this building!

Tulips and a Cop Car

It is tulip time! I was so excited last year to come across black and white tulips (to match the house). I have been even more excited to see if they were really black. Well the finally came out today and the moment of truth....not black (even thought they may look like it) they actually look like a deep red or maroon rose. Pretty but not black as their name "Ebony Queen" would suggest. Slightly disappointed but not so disappointed because I still have tulips that are very beautiful and unique!

Ebony Queen

I just love this Candy Cane looking tulip!

The perks of having a cop for a neighbor...

I had no clue they have made these cars pretty high tech...there are bars on the window. The boys are sitting on a plastic seat and the floor has a drain so the cop can spray out his car and the water drains out. WOW!

The first and I hope the last time these boys are in the back of a police car!