It's Raining As I Speak

Found some pics to put up. I have more but I'm starting slow. I got my awesome new computer in the mail today and when I got home from school it was all ready to go! I guess I'll have to give the MIS department on Mango Tree a bonus! I usually wouldn't complain about a slow, loud computer but it was getting ridiculous! Gregory like to say there was a fighter jet taking off in my living room.
There are only 8 more days of school left and I still haven't figured out my summer travel plans yet. Today went by so fast that summer will be here in no time! Here are some summery pics to get you in the mood....

Soph with her new float.


This is the life...of course it's better when they don't try to steal every float you're trying to use!


Soph received a new bathing suit from Katie.


Mike and I at T-Rex. Not sure if I had posted this one yet! What a looker!

Mother's Day

Me and the man that made me a mother! Nice snarl! JK, it was very bright and it was hard not to look like that if you weren't wearing sunglasses!



See what I mean?


My lovies.


Ready for a contract Tyra.


Loving sisters....that were threatened with ruining mother's day if they didn't cooperate.


The mother of the mother looks out onto the water.


Mom took us out for a nice brunch at her yacht club. Thanks mom!


Very hard to balance on that 6 inch board. Luckily my butt is pretty thin.


Yeah, everyone just has goofy faces cause of the sun.


I know. I look good, but really I have no makeup on cause my eyes were killing me so I could actually look better.


Em and I ready to chow down.


Before the tears. Yep, she cried cause she was full, which was weird since she only ate like 5 apricots.

I Told You the Pics Would be up by Sunday! Oh It's Tuesday?

On Saturday we celebrated Sophia's 5th birthday! Thanks to all our notherners who called with birthday wishes. Soph actually talked on the phone to everyone! She was superpsyched all day and we tried our best not to make her cry about anything....believe me that is hard to do. You know the kid cries if I look at her wrong. I started the day off by cleaning and setting up for the party at my mom's house. It was a pool party of course, except this time almost all of soph's friends showed up. This has been the first year where kids are old enough to know how to swim so their parents allow them to come. We had 16 kids there and just as many adults, if not more, so it was a pretty full house. We had all of soph's favs....chick peas, black olives, b-b-q chips and orange soda. After all that cleaning the girls took a nap and when they woke up we headed to my co-worker's son's first birthday. What a site! She went all out for the little guy's big day. I don't have many pics since we could only stay for 45 minutes, but the kids walked away with cute little monkey shirts. After that we headed to Soph's party at 4 whereupon a billion kids showed up to swim!

Mike made a beautiful cake per Soph's request, she wanted a pool cake. She loved it and said it was the coolest cake she had ever seen. Her face was priceless when he pulled the cake out of the microwave for her to look at (keep it in there for safety reasons!).


The birthday girl, enjoying plate after plate of chick peas and olives.


Paige eating poolside.


This is Josiah, the big one year old!


The Read-Pattillo crew, poolside.

Astronaut visit

As part of Space Day I was able to get an Astronaut to come visit Emma and Paige's school. Normally NASA has to arrange the visits and they end up costing the school some money, but I was lucky enough to have a nice woman who works with me put me in touch with Robert Springer, who flew on two Shuttle missions. She knew him from her previous job and he agreed to come out and talk to the 4th and 5th graders. The kids really liked it and the timing worked out well. He showed a video with a bunch of highlights from his missions and he also showed some astronauts repairing the Hubble telescope, which is a similar mission to the Atlantis launch next Monday.

The 4th Grade Team and Mrs. Schrader pose with the Astronaut.


Our kids are listening attentively. At least in this picture.


Here, our astronaut describes lift-off in the shuttle.


Talking to the kids... They really liked it.

You can't see it, but on that red bulletin board in the back there are pictures of the K-1 Star Readers. I think Paige's picture is up there near the top right corner.