The Weekend...

Well, we did make our trip to the zoo, but I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures of the animals - nobody wants to see a photographic procession of what animals we saw at the zoo, right? But I did take a couple of pictures at Joe's Crab Shack afterwards. What I SHOULD have taken a picture of and DIDN'T was all of us in our big bibs for eating our dinner! Oh, well. Judy took a couple of pictures of us looking a little silly in our bibs, so that's okay. We all had crab for dinner, of course. Kellen had the kid's snow crab meal and the adults ordered two buckets; one for each couple to share. The metal bucket came with two mesh nets in it and each net contained two sets of crab legs, a few unshelled shrimp, a sausage, a half piece of corn on the cob, and a red potato, all steamed with garlic butter and sprinkled with their Bay seasoning afterwards. It was so yummy!

After dinner was done, we brought presents for Madison in from the car. The pile in front of her here is what Steve and I gave her; I'm afraid I put away the camera before Bob and Judy put theirs up next to her. Not sure what I was thinking.... But they gave her a new dolly, two new outfits (so cute!), and the most adorable tea set. First, you have to know that when I was pregnant with Madison, we decided to do her room in ladybugs. We had gotten some fabric from Aunt LaNita that was a blue background covered in daisies and ladybugs so I had a diaper stacker, crib ruffle, bumper pad, curtains, changing table cover, and a baby quilt ALL done with this fabric. It was so cute! Anyway, various things that Madison has received since then have been with a ladybug theme. The tea set is in ladybugs! It's a beautiful miniature white tea set with ladybugs on leaves on each of the pieces. It is a ceramic of some sort, so it is breakable and thus only for play under adult supervision, but Madison just LOVES it!
When we were done with the presents, the restaurant staff came to wish Steve and Madison a Happy Birthday (Judy had told the staff) but they let us know right away that they weren't there to entertain us; at Joe's, the birthday people entertain everyone else! So, I know it's kind of hard to see, but Madison is holding two to-go boxes and biting a pair of snow cone cups in her mouth like a bird's beak. With these beautiful accessories, Steve carried her (flapping her boxes like a bird) around the room while we all sang Happy Birthday. It was great fun!
When we went to the family reunion I had purchased a doll house from the auction, but it's really a bit small for Maddi's barbies, so we bought her a few small dolls and some accessories for the house, which she was more than happy to play with on the living room floor as soon as we got home Saturday evening and again Sunday morning before church.
Bob and Judy were also very thoughtful and brought me a box of peaches that they had bought for us, and I had no intention of letting any of them go to waste! So yesterday afternoon I bottled my box of peaches to get 9 quarts. Aren't they beautiful?! And there was about a peach and a half that wasn't going to fill a jar or fit in any of the others so I dropped that one in a bowl with some cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and whipped topping! YUM!