School, Birthdays, Visits and a New Instrument (or three)

Hey, y'all!

What a week.  On Monday, as you already know, Pudge the banjolele joined our happy little family, and I'm proud to report he's fitting in well.

Tuesday was kinda big around here, too.  Someone started second grade.

7:45 am - way too early for certain little girls to get out of bed!

My slightly overwhelmed little girl, waiting for the bus

The Princess much prefers to wait in the back seat of
Da's car.

It was a whole family affair, waiting for the bus to arrive on the first day.
Here's Piggy, hangin' out at the salad bar.

My love and me.  D'aww.

See?  Waiting in the car is fun.  Oooooooooohhh.

She jumped up and flapped when she saw the bus.

I had to snap these pictures quickly while trying to keep Piggy
from jumping on the bus with The Princess.
That was friggin' adorable, lemme tell ya.

A hastily taken shot of our girl on the bus, next to her classmate, Z.

The week flew by, and it was Saturday before we knew it.  This meant a
trip to the Hubbo Family Estate for cousin K's birthday party.  I hate to
say it, but I didn't have a chance to take more than a couple of quick
pics here, as I was chasing The Princess and being her playmate of
choice.  No, I am not complaining.

The theme was My Little Pony, and - true to form - my sis-in-law, Jello,
went all out.  It was beautiful, and the birthday girl was super-excited to
play with her cousins.  Goddaughter E even snuggled with me for a good
long time, which doesn't happen often.  We're so blessed to have such
a wonderful family.

Saturday was also Grumpa's birthday.  It had poured rain all day, and it was
hot and muggy outside, but we were pleasantly surprised by this gorgeous
sunset over our little lake.

Uncle D met us at K's birthday party and made the trek back up to our
little yellow house for a good, old fashioned visit.  Piggy was ecstatic.
He's her boyfriend, and she didn't leave his side the whole time he was here.
There was lots of great music (made by the three of us crazy grown-ups, of
course), and we actually got to sit down and watch a movie, which pretty
much never happens.  All in all, I'd say it was a perfect visit.

Last night, Uncle D took us all out for Mexican, and we had a great time.
Then, this morning (as if we haven't been spoiled enough), we all went
down the street for brunch.  As you can see, it was a very serious affair.

After brunch, Uncle D took off and we headed for our beloved beach.
Hi, Hubbs!

Here's The Princess, doin' her Baywatch babe thing.  :)

Some doofus attached this death trap to one of our swimming piers, and I
am not impressed.  It's obviously someone's idea of a boat bumper system,
but it's in the middle of the swim area and has jagged rusty pieces hanging
off at odd angles.

So friggin' unsafe.  I'm really not happy about this, and I'll be reporting it
to the neighborhood association.  Someone's gonna get hurt, and when
they do, the subdivision will be liable.  Idiots.

After swimming, we headed over to The Grumps' house with all the fixings
for fried chicken.  We spent a wonderful few hours visiting and eating,
and The Princess was all about the birthday boy.  As you can see,
they don't get along at all.

See that beautiful Epiphone acoustic guitar?  That belonged to Grumpa -
he bought it shortly after graduating high school and has just passed
it down to The Hubbs.  Our little family of musical instruments keeps
growing, and we couldn't be happier.  We also found out this weekend
that we will be housing two more instruments here: Auntie G's 12-string
Mexican guitar and The Hubbs' great grandfather's bass banjo uke.

At The Grumps' house this evening, Grumpa looked at The Princess and asked, "Do you have to go to school tomorrow?"  Without missing a beat, she looked right back at him and blew a raspberry.  Best.  Answer.  Ever.  I believe The Hubbs' reaction was something to the effect of, "A truer statement has never been uttered."

It's always super-awesome to spend time with family, and we really made the rounds this weekend.  Hard to believe, though, that Labor Day is coming up a week from tomorrow.  The summers really do fly, don't they?