Prom Queens

It's prom season!

Time for tulle and sparkles and fun. And it isn't just a fun time for the prom goers either. Ohh no! It's a fantastic opportunity for all the parents to snap tons of photos of their favorite people! And our favorite people didn't disappoint us.

Here they are all dolled up, faking the pinning of the boutonniere. Maybe we should teach her how?

Really cute story of how he asked her to prom. She had been waiting patiently for him to ask and finally, on facebook, he says: "Well I have been meaning to ask you something for sometime now and I just didn't know how to ask you. Well here goes can I drive your car? Pretty please with sugar on top!!! ;)"

And if you know Bri, and I say this with all the love in the world, you know that she can be kinda ditzy some times. So, she's all confused about why Justin wants to drive her car when he has his own car, and she asks him "Can you drive my car?"

And he says "Haha you like that lol? Oh and will you go to prom with me? You know it has to be facebook official! :p" and she says "Lol drive my car ?? Hahaa. Well of course I will go to prom with you (:"

She kept walking back into the living room from her bedroom asking us, why did he ask to drive me car? It was pretty cute and so totally Bri. And now she had a date to prom!

We had been having the most beautiful spring weather up until the day of prom. Then Friday hits and it's a dark and rainy day, filled with all the mugginess of a typical Louisiana day. It seemed that our 10 days of spring were over and done with!

But these girls, in their brightly colored dresses made us forget all of that and brought the sunshine back to what was a dreary day.

All of us parents met at Sarah’s house for the picture taking ritual. Her home is absolutely gorgeous and because of the rain we decided to go out back where it is covered for the outside shots. It was a breathtaking out there and I could not wait to finish the inside pictures so we could get back out there.

Wondering who this sassy beauty is? Meet Kayla! She’s Bri and Sarah’s new bestie!! And she is such a poser! I had a blast taking her picture because she is goofy and isn’t scared to show it. She fits in perfectly!

Ahh, a group shot. This wasn’t easy for me, being so short and trying to take pictures of people up higher than me, and the railing didn’t help. The first pictures made them look like they were in a crib!

So, back to Justin. I don’t think I ever mentioned here on the blog that the first time he came to pick Bri up for a date at our house he had a little trouble finding us. Bri had told him to look for Golden Gate, our street. We’re waiting and waiting for him to show up and we see him drive by on the main road. A couple times. So Bri calls him up and tells him he keeps passing us up and so she’s directing him to our street and he passes it again! Finally we flashed the porch light so he could see the house.

Later Bri tells us that he could not find the house because he was looking for a golden gate. A GOLDEN GATE. Like as in a gold gate. Cuute! They’re so compatible.

After taking a few pictures in the house we decided to head on over to the portrait studio and take a few.

Just kidding!! This was the gorgeous backyard I was talking about! You can clearly see the dreary sky, but you can only see a tiny bit of the pond back there. Oh how I wished it hadn’t been raining and the grass wasn’t wet, so we could take pictures on the bridge. Maybe next year for their senior prom it won’t be raining.

Then we have Sarah and Taylor. Duane had to take this picture because every time short me would take it, the patio beam above his head would look like it was going through his head! He is one tall young man!

And last, but not least, we have Kayla and Paul looking sharp in their pinks and reds and stripes and swirls. And their smiles that light up a room. There was no having to tell these two to smile for the camera!

We took some photos of the couples and then some group shots outside and then it was time to turn the girls loose in front of the camera and they did not let us down.

We got funny poses.

Sweet poses.

And how much longer do we have to wait poses.

We all shuffled back in so the kids could get going. It was going to be a long night of fun for them. Dinner at PF Chang’s and then off to Stage One for the big event, a friend’s house after prom and afterwards the girls were all spending the night at Kayla’s house.

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore Bri’s friends. Really good kids. And fun to be around! Love them! Sometimes Sarah even hangs out with us when Bri isn’t home!

So this was the end of the photography session and the first prom is out of the way! I can’t wait for their next opportunity to dress up so I can snap away and give them lasting memories of how much fun they had in High School! These three musketeers are seniors next year so I’m expecting I’ll be pretty busy with the camera. I can’t wait!

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

Yesterday we went to Duane's company picnic and had a lot of fun! There was a crawfish boil and a bunch of activities for both the kids and adults.

We weren't there for very long before it was time to eat! I'm not a big fan of boiled crawfish, it has to do with eating things that still have their eyeballs attached. But Duane and the girls can never get enough of them.

If you've never been to a crawfish boil, you've never been to Louisiana. If you really want to experience it though, springtime is the time when you want to visit.

There was a ton of crawfish, potatoes and corn on the cob.

I ate a hot dog.

I can't actually say that eating boiled crawfish is quite the experience, since I've never technically done it myself. Duane peels them for me. But if you're a true native, you have no issues with the process and you dig right in.

First you have to remove the head.

You do this by holding both ends of the crawfish and twisting it so the tail separates from the head. Then you pinch the end of the tail and pull the tail meat out with your hand or your teeth. At least I think this is how it works!

When you remove the head from the crawfish, if you want to savor every drop of spice, you can suck the head before you discard it. Yuck!

Or you can stick it on your finger and terrorize your sister.

After the boil, there was a crawfish hunt for the kids. They did it in 3 separate groups so the little ones had a chance. This was the 11 and up group.

They hid plastic crawfish in the hay and once they get the go ahead, the kids start digging through the hay to find them.

And they win money depending on how many and what size they find. There are crawfish worth $1, $5, $10 and even a $20 crawfish!

Bri came away with $9 and Blaire won a whopping $22.

Then it was time for the chipping contest. Whoever chipped their golf ball into the hula hoop, or closest to it, won the prize. No one got their ball inside the hoop, but the wife of one of the "golfers" at the plant won!

And then we had the egg toss. Bri and Blaire entered as a team and they did really good! In fact we thought they had won, and they were even given their prizes. They were each handed a $40 gift card to Walmart! Bri was excited...that mean a tank full of gas for her car!

And then it was realized that there was another team still in the competition, so they started tossing again. Bri caught the egg, but when she tossed it back to Blaire... this is what happened. No $40 gift card for you!

The final competition was the trike race. All week out at the plant people were voting on who they wanted to see in the race. Each vote cost $1. All the money was going to support the March of Dimes and the top 5 vote getters would be entered in the race.

When we got there Duane only had $10 on him and wasn't one of the top 5. But then Blaire won some money and by the time the race started he had the 3rd most votes, so he picked his trike and was all ready to race!

Then this happened. Twice. He started out backwards on his bike and didn't like that, so he turned around, rode for a second and bit the dust.

He wasn't the only one though. This is the Plant Manager taking his turn on the gravel. They should have had elbow and knee pads!

Duane was determined and kept racing. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop laughing.

And down he goes again!

But he got back on and after scoping out the competition he knew he had 2nd place in the bag.

What a blast we had! They really did a nice job putting on this picnic and we can't wait for next year!

We probably should get a tricycle for Duane to practice on though, because I'm saving up my dollars since I don't want to miss out on seeing him race again.

Cockadoodle Doo!

I am in love.

With a chicken.

Let me back up a bit and explain the whole situation.

On March 30th there was a fire at a warehouse across the railroad tracks from where I work in Denham Springs. A big fire. And we were evacuated. The plant in the upper right corner of this picture is ours. It took a lot of firemen from the area to put out the fire and we couldn't be more thankful to them. The fire was in a warehouse that houses chemicals. A lot of chemicals. And the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Quality are still out there cleaning and investigating 13 days later. They have our road closed and we have to stop at a police car that is stationed on our road every day and let the officer know where we are going.

The road at the bottom of the picture, with the line of cars, is the road I travel when I come in to work. But with the road closed I can't come in that way anymore. So I have to take a different route. And I curse that different route daily. Until last Friday.

I was driving down Range Avenue, about to enter Antique Alley, when something caught my eye.

It was a GIGANTIC rooster. And it looked like it was as tall as me! I know you're all thinking that the gigantic is not the word that comes to mind when thinking of my height, but if you think about a rooster being as tall as me... it would be GIGANTIC!

I didn't have much time to check out this wonderful animal as I was passing by, but I knew it was colorful, made out of recyclable materials and it had to be mine! I called Duane as soon as I got to work and made a date with him to go to Antique Alley on Saturday.

And that was exactly what we did. As we pulled up I found out that the place was called Korner Shop Antiques and it was a small warehouse filled with all things old and wonderful.

There were tables and doors and windows. All kinds of things made out of metal and old wood. And it was cramped in there. I don't think you could possible find anywhere else to put things and if it wasn't colorful, easy to spot roosters that I was looking for I probably would have spent the whole day in there and not seen everything that they had. It was like someone put together a giant jigsaw puzzle of this and that, and the missing pieces of the puzzle were your path through the entire maze.

The first thing we looked at was that big, beautiful rooster I saw the day before. He was outside, as obviously some things were spilling out of the cramped inside. And he was even bigger than I remembered. And Duane's eyes bugged out of his head when he saw just how large this animal was. And her $189 price tag.

So we ventured inside and started looking for all the small ones roosting inside. Each one we found was unique and I loved them all. There were small ones, medium ones, large ones, and of course the extra large ones outside.

I loved this medium sized blue one. And he almost came home with me. But Polibut didn't.

It came down to these 3. It was so hard to choose! The one on the right was mostly orange. The one in the middle was shaped differently than the others. He had a longer neck and bigger feet. And the one on the left won my heart.

These 2 looked so cute together. I couldn't possible break them up.

Oh and there were pigs too! And flamingos and mushrooms and we even saw some bunnies.

But it was a rooster that I came for, so it was a rooster that I left with. Meet Henry.

He's going to make a great pal for Lucy when she finally gets her final clear coat and makes her way out to the barn.