We [heart] Chick-fil-a

July 10th is National Cow Appreciation Day... seriously!

We decided to dress up and celebrate the occassion... seriously!

Not just for the fun of it, but for free dinner. Hey, I;m not above free food! Chick-fil-a was giving away free meals (I'm talking your whole combo) if you came in dressed up as a cow. So we did...

and we got 2 kids meals and two combos... for FREE!!!

This picture is especially for the Howards... all the proof you need that Cameron did in fact participate.

Where were Ryland and Tyndall (Dad and Dianne's dogs) when I needed them?!

My kids wew totally in to it. Sears portrait studio was there taking pictures and they had two baby calves that the kids could pet. Even Jackson was all about wearing his cow ears and looking like cow. It was so cute!

I have to say that me cue girl was hit. Even the managers at Chick-fil-a took a picture of her butt.

We can't wait till next year... it was so much fun!

July 4th

For the 4th of July weekend, we decided to go down to Mom's house. The small town where she lives does a fun parade and a wonderful fireworks show so we thought it would be fun to take a mini vacation.

We left for mom's house Friday morning and when we got there she took me to get a pedicure at a local spa. It was wonderful... definitely a great start to the weekend!

The nest stop was the park... we always end up at the park!

Jackson was very upset when it was time to go!

Friday night we had cheeseburgers for dinner... a pretty typical July 4th meal, I'd say. We also made some fun red, white and blue cupcakes.

The parade was on Saturday morning, and the whole town comes out for it. There is one way in and out of Tega Cay, so it goes up this main drag. The police officers must love it because it actually gives them something to do. Jackson made out like a bandit. He got candy, stickers, a necklace and bracelet, and even a popcicle!

Don't we look cute?

We decided we would have a very non-traditional 4th of July meal so mom and I made a homemade pizza margherita. Since we were making pizza, Jackson and I made a dessert pizza as well that atleast looked like the 4th of July. Jackson saw it in his Turtle Magazine and thought it was so cool that there were strawberries on a pizza.

making the sugar cookie dough

spreading the cream cheese sauce

topping our pizza

Jackson and Caroline decided it was more fun to eat the toppings than to put them on the pizza

Jackson LOVES berries!

the finished product...YUMMY

And here was our delicious, from scratch, pizza margherita. We all reaked of garlic, but it was worth it. When Jackson woke up Sunday morning I herad him messing around in the kitchen. Here is what I walked in on...

It was that good!

Thank you, mom, for such a wonderful time. We felt spoiled all weekend!

I think Caroline's favorite part was Nanny's fridge

and Jackson's favorite part is "his" room

Just Jackson - June

How's that for alliteration?!

When we got home from church on Sunday, Jackson told me that he wanted me to take a picture of him... this is the result!

- We were on a walk and Jackson looked at me and told me I was a human. I told him he was human too and he said, "Mama, I'm not a human, I'm just a kid!"

- Jackon calls the gym at church "the basketball game". A couple Sundays ago we were walking through the gym to get to the other side of the building, and the lights were low because it wasn't being used and Jackson said, "The basketball game is dark and very scary. There are ghosts in here."

-He told me that we needed to get a kitty cat and name it baby Jaguar (that's the name of Diego's pet Jaguar)

-Cameron was putting Jackson's clothes on him for church last Sunday. I had set out a pink golf shirt and and khaki shorts and Jackson told Cameron, "I can't wear that, that's Caroline's shirt."

-Once again we were on a walk and Jackson was singing to himself. He was singing "Old McDonald" but I wasn't really paying attention. The 'things' on the farm were making funny noises, so I decided to pay better attention. There were hugs on the farm with a 'hug noise', 'hug noise' and a 'hug noise', 'hug noise' there. There were kisses on the farm with a 'kiss noise', 'kiss noise' here and a 'kiss noise', kiss noise' there. ANd flowers on the farm with a 'sniff', 'sniff' here and a 'sniff', 'sniff' there.

-Last week Jackson kept saying, "I love Nanny. I make her so happy". I wondered where he got that from so I called mom, and sure enough, when he's with her she tells him that he makes her so happy.

-I was making dinner to take to Chris and Christal and Jackson came up and asked me what I was making. I told him I was making chicken pillows and he looked at me very confused and asked, "for the chickens for sleeping?"

Mom

As we age, we begin to realize

the value of a mother's love

and the enormous depth of

her commitment to us.

No other relationship we form

can ever be as close or profound

as that with our mothers.

-Anonymous

Happy Birthday, mom! I love you - you're the best!!!