Delightful Tess

As usual, we all had a grand time watching young children rip and roar through various activities while on a visit to Derek and Amy's home in Raleigh. This particular trip had Mom and Dad visiting at the same time. Tess was a highlight of the weekend as we all delighted in watching her squeal and grin at the chaos occurring around her. She just lights up at our antics easily making us act as foolish as possible to earn one. She is finding her voice amidst 3 older siblings/cousins, four family dogs, and the adults. The weekend culminated with her dedication at the church. The rarity of having all of the Rutledge families together made it even more special.

Pappy: (sigh)

Tess: Mmmmmm watermelon. Just a liiiittle closer there, gj.

Uh, hmm. GUS has my watermelon, gj!

Weekend highlights included:

*wrestling with Pappy and Uncle D

*eating watermelon and ice cream

*riding, no sitting in the red wagon

*wheeling around in new big wheels

*addition of new and exciting headgear for Gus (there's not a pic of him all weekend without the helmet!)

*watching Uncle D-man swat hundreds of flies

Goodbye, Fireman's Hat!

Gus-man to the rescue!

Serious discussion

Things that help keep the adults sane:

*refrigerator full of good beer

*Derek's homemade strawberry daquiris

*Roman's Sweet tea vodka

Flies, Beware!

Love you all!

Pigtails

What child doesn't look adorable in pigtails? We've had quite a time keeping any hair accessories on Corinne, yet she seemed to tolerate the pigtails the first day we tried them. Roman and I chuckled as they flapped up and down with her busy running around.

We just returned from a weekender in Raleigh with Derek's family. Mom and Dad joined as well. I'll post those very soon.

Ah, dirt!

The first day back from vacation is always foggy. I'm trying to get too much done, trying to rest and acclimating to the home again. Corinne wanted to play outside early, and I was more than happy to have her entertain herself for a little bit. As I cleaned the kitchen I watched her playing in the dirt outside. Ah, dirt. Thank you for babysitting my daughter. She is having a blast digging into you and oh...

...eating you!

How 'bout a kiss?

The Road Warriors

School ended once again, so Corinne and I kicked off the summer with our annual girls' road trip. First stop was Greeneville to check in with the Bensons. Corinne had her first encounter with the backyard kiddie-pool. Trina is the queen of backyard water areas. After this trip and a birthday 'spray play' party that we attended (prior to the trip) I am set with ideas for keeping cool (and entertained!) for the summer daze.

We also loaded the kids for a trip to Greeneville Zoo. It was funny to watch which areas the kids enjoyed most. Wesley is a regular tour guide. Max just chuckles and moves with the crowd. Corinne enjoyed pushing the stroller and climbing in and out the wagon hundreds of times.

They all came together at the goat pens. After we convined Corinne and Max that these weren't 'those' kinds of cookies, they stopped eating them and fed the goats, too. It was a mere 100 degrees in the shade that day, but no one cared.

Trina, Wesley, and Max.

On the road to Asheville we were able to stop by the Benson's new family denistry office. Hats off to Benson for starting his own practice. The place looks great, and I know things are off to a good start.

Asheville was a quick overnighter to store up for the Kentucky road the following day. Harlan kept everyone on their toes; if we missed, a growl from Corinne told us that we need to find out exactly what he's into.

Harlan is quite the mischievious one. One toss of that curly head and a smirky grin and we
could only shake our heads. He's very liberal with hugs, too!

This was my first Kentucky trip where I was able to get Corinne with many children her age and visit with old high school friends and their children. Most days consisted of a park/swing visit with a water/pool afternoon. Corinne has really taken to the water and fought for the right to swim on her own at the pool. I thought I might deter her a little by immersing her in the water, but no. She was energized.

Corinne and gj dig into the bubbles.

Once again Corinne and Maren were able to play each day of our visit. Jane Layton purchased this blow up pool with a slide and spray.

(Sorry, Corinne, this is one of those 'aw, mom!' photos).

We had to miss Father's Day with Roman, but she called him that morning to wish him love. She was almost able to say 'love you' with the expanding vocabulary she was picking up over the week. She had no problem with 'Pappy' nor 'Sayla'. She even finally acknowledged me as 'mama'. Whew. It was worth the wait. We'll have to get a video of her talking.

As usual, I just love to get away from home for awhile. Get into everyone else's world for awhile. A warm hug for all of my hosts and hostesses this past week. We had a great road trip!

Melanie & Corinne

Memorial Blast

Memorial weekend proved to be a true family vacation with the arrival of our friends, the Bensons. First order of preparation is the large cooler that must be placed on the back porch. Next in line is the grill, yet this year we had the pleasure of cooking our first country ham. The ham was a Christmas gift and we've been waiting for a crew to be around to help us eat it.

Cheers to Trina for keeping the blender out and the mojitos coming!

I got another true taste of life with more than one child while Wesley and Max were in the house. (Hence the early consumption of mojitos all day). All 3 kids woke up running, er flying, depending upon the attire.

Max-man, Superman

Nana-nana-nana-nana......Wes-man!

Sometimes we just can't keep the kid out of us!

The weekend wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the beach. We got to hang out with our friend, Rob from Charlotte, also. Rob is a Wesley-magnet as seen below.

This is taken before her mouth was covered with sand. Did you all know that sand tastes very good? Hmmmm.

Max takes it all in.

This is what fishermen catch after they have kids. Nice Roman, but that's not going to feed the family.

Thanks for such a great weekend, Bensons! Hope everyone had a nice long break from the grind! I'm now doing the countdown for summer vacation! Have a good week!

Melanie

Backyard Birthday

Yesterday, we had some friends over to celebrate my birthday. It was so good to see friends and actually goof around on the weekend instead of rushing around playing catchup so I'm organized for the next week.

(Above) Charlie and Heather with young Melanie prepare for a rousing game of Corn Hole. Anyone familiar with this game? It's basically horsehoes of the lowcountry. It's great for parties because you can throw bean bags with one arm while babysitting your drink in the other.

Corinne tried to devise her own version of the game, though. I do appreciate everyone's patience as she scampered from hole to hole stealing bean bags. Does she look like she's on a mission here or what?

Shawn and Roman watch as Corinne prepares to destroy another game.

She still doesn't understand that the object is to leave the bags IN the hole.

Corinne got to see some of her usual buddies as well as meet new ones. Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating with us! Julie, Leigh Ann, Callie (on the scooter), Jennifer and her husband, Mike, and little Charlie make themselves at home in the yard.

Julie and Callie catching up on Callie's busy day.

The gathering also celebrated Baluha's birthday (the day before mine)...Dave is seated at the table. He brought his infamous garlic mashed potatoes. Dave is also Chloe's boyfriend. He is always gracious enough to watch the furries when we head out on a road trip.

Charlotte walked over with her sister, Melanie, and mom, Anna. They live right around the corner. I just loved watching her figure out that ball!
Corinne enjoyed wearing--I mean, eating--some of Julie's chocolate cupcakes. Julie later confessed to allowing Corinne to lick the icing from the spatula. (Notice her hands as well as her face!) This was definitely the highlight of her evening.

Ed smoked some BBQ for the occasion. It was juicy and delicious! Ed is becoming quite the master smoker! Verbatim here: Great. Take her picture now so I look like a super Dad. :-) Sorry, Ed, I couldn't resist.

Roman and I pushed the parental curfew to hours we hadn't seen since Corinne was an infant. It felt great, though to be around so many friends. Naturally, Corinne didn't get the message that everyone was sleeping in Sunday morning. Oh, well.

Have a great work week!

May Flowers

Gosh, where to start? We've had an active couple of weeks. Gj and Pappy came down for a few days on their way from taking care of the boys in Raleigh. While they were here, we learned some very sad news concerning Roman's uncle Bob. Bob's daughter and husband were killed in a motorcycle accident over the weeekend. They lived in Goose Creek. Our hearts go out to all of you all in your loss. While we hated the occasion, we enjoyed having dinner with Sally, Bob, Sally's daughter, Jessica, her husband, Randall, and daughter, MiRayah. We haven't seem many of them since the wedding. MiRayah is another Guatemalan cousin and kept Corinne very entertained. Sorry about the lack of pics, I need to get with Aunt Sally for those.

Roman did finish the bathroom, for the most part. There are a few cosmetic things that still need to happen, but we've run out of steam. Not to mention shopping time. We're still in need of a dratted vanity light! We can't find one to fit yet. Who said shopping was fun?! I must say, though, that once again, Roman has done a beautiful job of rennovating.

Corinne has been very busy in her little world. She loves shoes. (Girl after Aunt Angie's heart!) Any shoes that are left lying around (and there are plenty of those) she tries to put them on. She loves her little Crocs. In fact, I can't get her to walk around barefoot. If I take her Crocs off she squeals in protest stomping to slide them on herself. She almost has the hang of it.

Over the weekend we headed to Raleigh to celebrate Dave & Allison Jenkins' wedding. Many out of town friends attended, and it was wonderful catching up with old faces. The ceremony and reception were held at an old home that used to be an orphanage. The grounds were just gorgeous.

Speaking of May flowers, every year I have to snap a shot of our front landscaping. The amaryllis make such a statement as spring turns to early summer here. This year the roses decided to challenge the amaryllis and what a War of the Roses it was!

Our visit to Raleigh was also our grand opportunity to meet little Miss Tess. Ah! What a precious little girl. You would hardly know that there is an infant in the house. She looks like a little Owen and sits and watches the boys play. Corinne was excited by her also, and wanted to make sure that she learned the magic of the hanging toys.

Amy's parents, Billy and Elaine, were brave (and kind) enough to babysit 4 children age 3 and under for the afternoon so that we could all go to the wedding. Luckily the weather cooperated and the kids were able to run off steam on the playset.

Owen and Corinne get gritty!

Gus, the "workin'-man", Rutledge scoping for baby jaguars.

The making of a good lawn mower was a hot topic.

Now that we're home, Corinne has been imitating just about everything that Gus did this weekend. Specifically, Zerberts now delight her to no end. She even tried to pull my shirt up in front of a potential babysitter tonight to deliver one!

I always love going on a road trip. Thanks to everyone for a great time! Have a good week!