SERIOUS STORMS

We'd been expecting the bad storms. Thank goodness for weather tracking and predictions and science and technology! I was home with the kids when the line of extreme storms started to push through our area yesterday afternoon, while Jay was still at work. We texted back and forth as the winds picked up and ERDC lost power. Jay was ready to leave at that point, but the skies quickly darkened and he had to take cover instead. When it went from bright and sunny to pitch black in less than 2 minutes, I grabbed the kids and blankets and flashlights (and our already popped snack - first time brown bagging homemade popcorn - and a book) and headed to the bathroom, closing all the doors around the hallway. (Buster was hiding under James' bed and wouldn't come out, and had been in there since the first thunder clap, and because James' room is the safest of the exterior rooms in our house based on location, I let him stay.) No sooner had we all piled into the tub and started reading than my phone rang with a tornado warning. We read 5 chapters and texted with Jay and the grandparents and some of our local friends while we waited out the end of the tornado warning. Thankfully, all was well in our neighborhood (we never even lost power - just a bunch of branches), though we've heard there was a lot of damage along and north of I-20 (lots of fallen trees, many homes and businesses without power), and obviously other areas of the state were hard hit. It's always scary when a bad storm (and tornado) hits so close to home (it definitely bounced around and touched down a few places in the 'Burg, including a spot within a mile or so of our house), so we are extremely thankful that our family and friends and home made it through this one unscathed!

 Because power is out at school (and so many other locations that Entergy can't get to everyone at once, so it may be out all day), the kids are home today with me. James decided first thing this morning that he wanted to build his Light Repair Truck Lego set (fitting, eh?), so he set to work on that (and completed it all by himself in 20-30 minutes, even the stickers!) and Cora joined him with her own self-made Duplo "set" in some lunch boxes (since he, smartly, won't let her help him with his big boy Legos yet).

Cute little utility truck. This is from the Lego CITY collection that he likes so much.

SCHOOL PORTRAITS, SPRING 2014

 Cute solo portraits this time around! Same deal as usual with the sibling portraits (this was the better of the two, but James was the unsure face in both of them). We're not ordering any of them (we just prefer outdoor portraits, and I think Jay does a great job, for free!), so I just scanned the little thumbnails in for posterity.

3 OR 13?

At the grocery store this evening, as Cora raced toward the book section with her hair up in a high ponytail wearing new summer clothes from Grambot and carrying the hand-me-down big girl purse that Sophie gave her over her shoulder ("Look mama, I'm just like you now! We're the same thing!"), I couldn't help but feel a flash-forward to what she might look like in her early teen years, perusing the teen magazines... Don't grow up too fast Baby Doll!

MINT JULEP

 Just wanted to share the final page of the Mint Springs story from The 'Sip - recipes for Mint Julep!

MINT SPRINGS BAYOU

After reading about Mint Springs Bayou (a site where folks used to hike to pick fresh mint for Mint Juleps) in The 'Sip and finding out exactly how to get there during my long run yesterday, we decided to take the kids for a little adventure this afternoon. The falls were a lot taller than I expected (and slippery, so we had to keep the kids back a ways), but the little hike through the creek bed was totally worth the view (not to mention all the prime splashing spots along the way, where Cora kept asking us if it was time to "rest", AKA "play"). We spent a couple hours walking around and playing in the water and the kids were in heaven. It amazes me that after 7 years of living here, in the small town of Vicksburg, that we still keep finding new places to explore. You just never know what you're going to find until you get off the beaten path...

Walking downhill from the Cairo Museum

View of some of the falls from under the bridge

Checking out raccoon tracks

I think our family actually does better with self timers than photographers...

The view looking down from the falls. There is a separate hike up from below, but it is currently closed off due to landslides. Some day we'll check out the view from below.

Jenny, that thorny plant has leaves now...

Daddy found a frog

Playing in a deeper pool created by a brick "tub" (some type of ruin/remnant?)

Practicing skipping stones with daddy

YARD GAME PARTY

We were invited over to Katie and Seth's house to play yard games and eat some gumbo this afternoon, so we packed up immediately after soccer and headed over. On the way there James wanted to know if his buddies would be there, and when we told him we didn't think so, that we didn't know who was going to be there, but that Katie and Seth have a baby, he complained "Ah, but I want there to be a short kid for me to play with!" Lucky for him (and Cora), a group of preschoolers showed up and they made some new friends (and even got to hang out with a school buddy outside of school, which is always a fun treat for them because other than Manu, they never see any of their school buddies for playdates). The weather was great (warm, but not too hot), the yard was huge (and semi closed in, so the kids could run huge circles and still stay in our sights), and we had hours to eat and drink and snack and play games (bocce ball, crochet, washers, and horseshoes). We all had a great time, and the kids were completely exhausted by the time we got home (ALWAYS a win in our book)!

FINAL GAME OF SPRING SOCCER

Little man was FLYING!

High-five from coach daddy!

Kicking it back towards his teammate

Quick instructions from the coach before the second half

Sharing sunglasses with Cora during a water break

The last post-game celebratory tunnel of the season - the kids love this part most!

Happy preschoolers getting their 2014 soccer medals from Coach Jay

Jay's spring soccer team (minus 3 players due to illness!):
Aiden, Brycen, Jackson, Davon, and James (missing AJ, Grant, and Jonas)

OUR LITTLE STARLET

Jay braved dance portrait day as a solo dad (since I was still driving back from the coast), which was no easy feat considering dads and brothers over 3-years-old aren't allowed in dressing rooms... 

So he gave her a shower, washed and conditioned her hair, and got her into her tights and cover-up, then sent her into the fray with two of the older dancers who offered to get her into costume and do her hair and makeup. Yes, makeup... I knew we couldn't get away without it for the recital next week, but I didn't think they'd make the 3-year-olds wear it for portraits. I was wrong. Jay told me that when he asked them to skip her makeup, they almost laughed out loud. Luckily the young girls who did Cora's makeup were happy to keep it minimal for daddy (and mama!) and we think she looked gorgeous for her portraits (I wonder if they'll be willing to help me on recital day, since I have NO IDEA how to apply eyeliner...)

Jay got to help out once the girls were in front of the camera though - he happily kept them in line, got them to smile for the photographer, and apparently even showed them how to pose ;-)

And yes, Cora absolutely LOVED getting to dress up and wear makeup! I have no idea where she gets all this girly stuff from, because it sure ain't from me! But I do kinda love it...

THE HUNT FOR LILAEOPSIS

I was able to get out from behind my computer at work this week and spend 3 days field sampling along the Gulf Coast (thanks to Jay being willing to hold down the fort and the fact that coworkers who would usually be tasked with field work being unable to travel). Christy and I left at 5:30am on Wednesday and returned to Vicksburg at 5:30pm on Friday, traveling through 4 states and covering 1300 miles driving, with about 14 site visits that produced 7 population collections of Lilaeopsis carolinensis and 1 of L. chinensis. I wasn't sure what to expect from the trip (because I'm not a botanist, and I had never traveled with Christy before... and I hadn't done field work of any kind since before James was born about 5.5 years ago), but I had a great time and learned a lot. It was exhausting (we worked pre-sunrise to post-sunset), but we were really happy with our collections and I got to see a lot of the south that I hadn't seen before (even after living in Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida for the past 12 years). So glad I had the opportunity to go, and yet so happy to get home safely to see my family - it's hard being away from home! I have only left James overnight twice (once for a conference for 2 nights when I was largely pregnant with Cora, and once for 22 hours with his grandparents while Jay and I tried to get a good night sleep, when Cora was a year old and had yet to STTN and we desperately needed a little break!) and Cora the one time, so it was really weird being on my own. And while it was nice to just have to worry about myself and not have any chores for a few days, even with Christy's company, I constantly thought of my babies and Jay, wondering what they were up to and if they were all ok and happy. Jay is a trooper, of course, and there was nothing for me to worry about, but I still missed them like crazy. Anyway, here are a few photos from our trip (I didn't take them at every site, though I should have - we saw some cool stuff!):

Christy sampling the pond at Fontainbleau State Park in Mandeville, Louisiana

That's L. carolinensis, the clump in the upper/middle right

This aquatic plant likes ditches...

Beautiful ditches in the middle of state parks and wildlife refuges...

And also ditches in suburban neighborhoods...

And along 2-lane highways in back-country towns...

There it is again - the one that looks like grass (spatulate, jointed grass)

The other species, L. chinensis, was REALLY hard to find. Somehow we finally spotted it at our last site, here at a boat ramp in the Florida panhandle.

This is why it was hard to find... 8cm or less in length.