We have begun our year a little early. The kids were not too happy! They think they should be able to watch Hannah Montana and Sponge Bob all day and play Webkinz when the get tired of the tv.  Um NOT!

As it is sweltering hot here, Andre' and I decided to begin school early so when we get to the beautiful days of September and October, we can visit the park and play outside. The children do not yet see the wisdom of this idea - I am sure they will get it come fall!

My sweet mama gave us a membership to our local zoo and aquarium and we have been able to visit each this summer. Thursday the kids and I met my sisters and neices & nephew at the aquarium. We got to see the oil spill in the Mississippi River - boy did it smell ! (fyi There was an accident on the river that caused several barrels of oil to spill - the boat sank) So the hazmat guys were out there cleaning up, it was an amazing site and really impacted us all. The aquarium was wonderful, as always. My favorite attractions are the jelly fish, they look so peaceful and graceful. Oh and the sharks! The sea otters are adorable, we got to catch the show and see them playing with their toys - too cute. And oh my goodness, the penguins were misbehaving! One of them was diving at the corner of the exhibit and pulling on the rubber seal - and causing the tank to LEAK, just a little bit - a few table spoons worth! You should have seen the staff member run for help, unfortunately the help took too long and the kids got tired of watching the penguins, so we had to move on. I would love to know how they fixed it - I suppose they got a diver to make the repair, would have been neat to watch.

After the aquarium we walked through the RiverWalk Mall. The kids enjoyed running in the rain between the aquarium and mall. (The adults did not!) Geoffrey and Cade splashed in so many puddles their pants were soaked to the knees, not to mention the state of their shoes and socks - boys - sigh - . We told the kids we would only go into the mall with the understanding that we were not buying ANYTHING! They agreed to only tell us "This is neat or that is cool" NO "I wants!" I am very proud to announce they did just as we asked. We took them into Brookstone and they had a blast (so did we!) sitting in the massaging chairs and the leg massager - oh boy how wonderful! We wandered through the toy store and made it just in time to see the fudge show. If you have never seen fudge being made, oh what a treat. And in New Orleans it is done New Orleans style! The staff of the fudge shop sing and dance and get the crowd involved. Crowd involvement is very very important, you see - the bigger you open your mouth to participate and sing along - the bigger your free sample! We sang and danced and enjoyed fresh, warm peanut butter fudge. MMMM so yummy!

We made our way back to my sisters house where she had prepared a delicious beef stew for dinner. After many laughs and hugs we headed back home. It is so nice to live close enough to family to be able to spend time with them - I love getting the cousins together.

Monday morning it is back to the grindstone!