Hand Cramp

Emily had a birthday party this morning at Paint a Piece and Tyler and I took the time alone to go to Toys R Us to see what he might like for his birthday, which is 6 weeks away. This, my friends, is his birthday list.

**Power Rangers**
Jungle Fury Force...
Sound Fury Tiger Ranger
Sound Fury Bat Ranger
Sound Fury Elephant Ranger
Sound Fury Cheetah Ranger

Red Tiger Hand Gear
Jungle Master Megazord
Claw Cannon
Wolf Battle Bike
Tiger Battle Bike
Blue Battle Bike
Jungle Master R/C cycle
Red Thunder Roar Vehicle


**Legos**
Star Wars legos...the following numbers
7666
7668
7667
7669
7672
7659
7658
6212
7656
7661
Mars Mission Legos...once again, I gave up on the names.
7646
7647
7692
7645
7699
7649
7648

More green lego sheets (Like the hard plastic kinds)

**DVDs**
Narnia
Ratatuille
Enchanted?????
Every possible Power Rangers and Scooby doo DVD at TRU


Remote Control Eve and Wall-E
U command Wall-e


K'nex

Some Cars cars that I pretended to write down

All of the new Star Wars vehicle and characters from Clone Wars.

That's it. All he wants for his birthday. Oh, he said he wouldn't mind a few gift cards.

Busted...seriously busted

I have been keeping a secret from my American-Girl-lovin' daughter. I myself own Molly McEntire. I used to keep her out, but Tyler always poked her eyes when he was a baby, so I put her away. She has been kept on the tippy top shelf of Emily's closet until today. I was checking email about 30 minutes ago and I heard a big crash bang and "MAAAMMMAAAA!" Only it wasn't an "I'm hurt" MAMA, it was different. Emily came tearing down the stairs like she was on fire and turned the corner and...she had Molly in her arms. Sheer joy. She said, "I have had Molly all along and we didn't even know it!" I had to explain to her that this was my Molly and she could play with her all she wanted to, but her hair had to stay braided and her clothes had to stay on. She was OK with that, but it has made Christmas seem even farther away for her. Oh, she longs for the day that she has one of her own!

Photographer info

I have had lots of email today asking about our new photographer. It is not a chain. It is called Lasting Expressions and is owned by the nicest man. He and his wife are Christians and really strive to have a Christ-run establishment. It is semi-pricy, more than Penney's. Probably more than Portait Innovations, but I know you can spend tons there, too. If you buy the $250 or higher package, you get the copyrights to your pictures. That in itself is worth the money! They took more than 50 shots and were so wonderful with the kids. Also, they have a HUGE wardrobe of clothing to choose from if you want formal pics done. Tons and tons of strasburg for girls. Not too much for boys, but some for boys under 6. We used the off-white dress in our pictures from them. If you go, let me know and I can give you a referral card!

The most amazing pictures ever...

2 kids and a gun

For those of you that don't know the greatest news ever, my sister is getting married in January. Her dear fiance did not propose until last week, leaving 2 short weeks left of her summer vacation to scramble to do stuff! We have done a good bit (Oh, so much more to get done...) but she has tried to get her registering done this week. She did 2 places herself, but today we tackled Target with Tyler and Emily in tow. Besides the annoyingly loud sighs from Tyler every time we went down another aisle, it was fun. Tyler and Emily loved the scanning gun and would have registered for some good stuff if they had not been monitored. Emily could not understand why Becky did not want the glitter filled froggy tumblers.

On another note, I am in love with a new photographer. Photography is about my favorite thing in the whole world, and it is becoming my kids' as well. I will post the shots from today after Brent sees the slide show. I would like for him to see them first.

What we did on Emily's 5th birthday

Paula Deen's

Ok, so my friend Julie came to visit from Oklahoma. We went to college together and she used to live in Memphis. She wanted to go to Paula Deen's restaurant at Harrah's in Tunica. So Saturday after Em's party, we loaded up Joy's van and 8 of us made the trip to Tunica, MS. We stopped at the Tunica Outlets first. They are nothing to write home about, but it is just nice to go in a store with no kids, ya know? We spent about an hour and a half there and then went to the casino. We always tease Julie because she is the shortest adult in the world. They carded her at the door. It was hilarious. She was delighted, though! Part of our group went ahead of us to get in line. They were in a line for 5 minutes before they realized they were actually in line for some sort of slot tournament. Once we got in the right line, we only had to stand in line for 30 minutes or so. When we got in, we got the greatest surprise. I don't know if they thought we were a special group of ladies or just wanted to keep us from running everyone else off, but they gave us our own private dining room! It was fabulous. We ate and ate and ate. It was so much fun. As we left the casino, Lisa, Kathy, and Frances played the quarter slots. Kathy and Frances lost, but Lisa won $2.50. We had to get out of that place after that...too smoky. Our ride home was just as much fun, although not as roomy as the way there!!! Too many mashed potatoes!

Girls of Gluttony

Flip Flop Celebration

Emily had her birthday party on Saturday. It was a flip-flop theme. 8 little girls from church came. We made flip flip pillowcases and decorated flip flops. We also did pedicures on 90 little toes. We all had a great time...except Tyler. He just didn't dig the girliness.

Emily's 5th Birthday Party

The troopers

Not everyone at Blueberry Day was as delighted to be there as the Patterson crew. Kathy, who is heavy with child, (You're welcome, dear.)was such a trooper and picked and sweated with the best of them. Abby was not so happy. She loved it the first 20minutes or so, but then she had HAD IT. She went from person to person, but no one would rescue her from this torture. (Anna, one day if you see these pictures and notice you are missing, I will tell you that your mom took you to an all day VBS for your "Spiritual well-being.") Audrey also is not an outdoorsy kind of gal. She said this was a bad day! Betsy loved it and made Audrey stay anyway! Graham Horner, in all of his 2 months, also not a fan of blueberry picking. Go figure!

Blueberry Day!

Our Small Group at church went to a blueberry plantation in Nesbitt, MS today. It was the hottest day of the year and we nearly melted! It was a lot of fun and we came home with 2 gallons of blueberries! Tyler said he wants to have his birthday party there! I am sure most 8 year olds would not enjoy picking blueberries in the hot sun, but whatever...

Day out with Thomas

From the time Tyler was 20 months old, until somewhere before kindergarten, he ate, breathed, and lived Thomas the Tank Engine. We have so many Thomas trains that we could put him through private school for a few months with the money they cost. We have 20 or more VHS and dvds, too. I will never get rid of the Thomas trains, but I have been encouraging him to do through the movies for the clothing sale. He was looking through them today and found his very favorite Thomas movie, A Day Out With Thomas. I think he watched it 500 times during the Thomas years. I dusted off the VCR (literally) and put it in. He, with his big ol' almost 8 year old self, sat and watched every second of it. He remembered every word. It was kind of comforting to hear that music in the background as I did housework. Just like the good old days. He didn't cry for me to rewind it like he used to. He just got up and looked up Power Rangers on the DVR.

Camp 2008

I can't believe camp has already come and gone. Camp being over means that school is closer than I want to admit. Around 265 of us went this year. We (our church) use a 4H camp in Milan, TN. They close down 4H camp for the week of the 4th, so we have used it for probably 20 years. This was my 9th year to go. I missed the summer I had Emily. I did go the summer I was 7 months pregnant with Tyler. That was an adventure! Anyway, my sister Becky and I has the girls going into 5th grade. Emily was with us, too. My kids think camp is the greatest thing. We had the best time and I will post pictures when I get around to it. I have to find the cord to plug all my camera stuff back up. I still have stuff to unpack, unfortunately!

I have been painting the playroom this week. That is the one thing on my summer to do list that I HAVE to do, so I will be glad when that is done so I can move on.

Off I go to unpack more!

Home sweet home!

All 4 of us have been at camp for a week and just walked in the door. I have piles of laundry to do, and fingernails to cut (long, dirty ones gross me out!) but I will post soon...after a good nap, of course!