More birthday parties and vacation...
I know I have not been faithful in updating, but we have been busy busy! I found another picture of Timothy's birthday that has a story behind it. We took him to Applebee's for dinner and when we walked in he saw a bunch of balloons at the hostess station. they usually bring a balloon around to kids during the meal or before they leave, but Timothy was distressed when he saw this particular balloon bouquet because he noticed there was only one purple balloon, and purple is his favorite color. We got him settled down and to the table and he was eating happily until half way through our meal he saw a pig-tailed little girl in the parking lot with his purple balloon. I watched as his eyes went from the girl to the balloons at the hostess station and back again, processing what had unfolded while he had unknowingly munched away at his pizza. I assured him it would all work out, and a while later our waitress was back with a crew of birthday singers and a whole bunch of purple balloons for Timothy. I have to believe that his smile in this picture is one of relief because of the catastrophe that had been avoided!

We headed over to Ohio the Friday after Timothy's birthday, and on Saturday, Grandma and Poppy had a birthday party for Timothy. Mamaw and Papaw, Uncle Doug, Aunt Rachel and cousins Sophia and Olivia were able to join us for the festivities.
We had good food and good fun! Timothy had a Diego cake, plenty of balloons and got lots of fun things and nice clothes.
Here is Timothy's response to me when I asked him how old he is now...

Poppy got a Wii, so we had fun playing Wii Sports at the party too. Everyone got in on it. Here's a picture of Madeline and Sophia giving their best shot at bowling.Madeline and Timothy stayed with Grandma and Poppy for Vacation Bible School and had a great time. On Friday, they even got to go to COSI. I was extremely jealous. They had a wonderful time with Grandma and Poppy, and I was so thankful that Grandma was able to get some good pictures from their day so here are some pictures of the fun the kids had.

When we picked up the kids from Grandma and Poppy's, we headed down to Tennessee to visit Mimi and Papa! We were able to celebrate 4th of July with them. Their church had a wonderful choral/orchestra celebration complete with an appearance by Aaron Tippin and his wife Thea. (That brought back memories for me because the last time I heard Aaron Tippin in concert was when we lived in Georgia and I was pregnant with Madeline.) It was a great show, and the night was wrapped up with a fabulous fireworks display. Sophia and Olivia were down from Ohio, and Madeline was reunited with Cayce, with whom she walked down the aisle at my sister Laura and Brent's wedding. With Cayce's little brother Christopher and Timothy too, we had quite a crew of kids to watch the show. All the kids piled into the back of "Papa's yellow bus" and enjoyed the show. They had a grand time!

Michael brought the Wii down to Tennessee with us and he and Brent participated in a never ending Tiger Woods golf tourney. We rented Mario Party 8 one night and played that also, it was a lot of fun. Perhaps the most fun was seeing mom take on Laura in boxing though!We went out and saw the movie Ratatouille which was really cute. The kids loved it, and I think most of the grown ups did too. Michael and Timothy were both asleep by the end of it though, and Timothy had a hard time waking up for some time after!

Michael and I also celebrated our 10th anniversary by going out to The Melting Pot for a very nice dinner while we were down south. When we got married his army buddies joked that it was appropriate to get married on July 5th because then at least Mike could celebrate one last "Independence Day!" Speaking of Army buddies, we were able to go out to dinner with one of them on Monday night and had a great time catching up with Jeremy who now works for the government as an international trade analyst. I could kick myself because I didn't have a camera on me to take a picture of the guys together, but it was great to see him and as any proud father would, he had pictures of his two sweet little girls who we hope to meet some day!

Last night was the kick off of Madeline's soccer season, and Michael is the head coach of her team - the condors - this year. I'm sure we'll have pictures of soccer games before too long. We're proud to continue the Renfrow legacy =)

-shannon