I clearly thought it was hilarious when I stuck a pillow up my shirt the other day to mimic mama's belly (no, I'm not just gaining weight over the summer), which is housing my little brother, due on August 19. I call him Gummy.

The corn grew! We certainly didn't have a big harvest, but we did get corn.

Three whole cobs. Well, it gives us something to shoot for next year. They are also not the prettiest cobs, as the ants had started to rob us of the kernals by the time we decided to pick the cobs. Dada didn't like the corn - it was a little chewy - but mama liked it a lot because it tasted like the corn she used to eat in Zimbabwe.

Pop rocks? What are pop rocks, mama?

Whoa, they make noise in my mouth....
Mmmm, yummy.

The whole family was excited to go to the beach for the Fourth of July. Mama and dada had been working their tails off and they were ready for four days of sun and fun on the beach. Well, Friday ended up being pretty ugly - rainy, windy, blah - it was the last of the effects from Hurricane Alex that made landfall in Mexico earlier that week. But we made the most of it and overall, it was pretty nice having the beach to ourselves. Uncle Chris came down to visit and he is my "best buddy."

Saturday morning we woke up and it was soooo pretty out -- bright sun shiny skies. Dada and Papa went to the beach to set up the canopy so that we could all go down and spend the day, but when they walked on the beach, they found that there was oil on the beach. Not huge globs, but enough so that their shoes and the tires on the golf cart got stained and gross. Everyone is bummed out -- Ga and Papa, because their beach is nasty, and mama and dada because they couldn't go down to the beach the rest of the weekend (not with baby gummy in mama's belly and me being only 4 years old). Our friends JB and Becky let us use their pool, but it just wasn't the same. The oil is getting worse, and huge blobs are washing ashore. There are news stations that say that it isn't tied to the Deep Water Horizon, but everyone here says that it just can't be a coincidence. We all hope the oil is cleaned up soon so that we can hang out on the beach again.

We decided to celebrate the 4th one day early and bought lots of fireworks to set off on the 3rd. I went with dada and Chris, and convinced them to buy all the "vehicle" fireworks -- like a fire truck where the ladder rose up when it was lit up, an aircraft carrier where the planes shot off the back when it was lit up, a race car that took off down the road, a green tractor, and my favorite, this fancy red plane.
Waiting for the sun to go down to light up my vehicles.
I really liked watching my vehicles get fired, but I am still not a huge fan of "adult" fireworks because they are loud.

My first 4th birthday presents came all the way from Chicago from Grandma and Grandpa. I was so happy to start getting presents.

Who knows where my grandparents find this stuff, but I got a very cool set of, um, Asian?? construction wind-up vehicles.
I also got a cool pair of binoculars, and a flashlight.
Probably my favorite thing, though, was this gummy snake. Seriously, this is a huge long gummy. I begged and begged to eat some all day long, so mama had to cut me off inch long sections. Mama "forgot" the snake at the beach when we went back to Katy, so we'll see if I remember it is there when we go back.

We are all still enjoying delicious treats from the Farm each week. Look how beautiful all this produce is -- Eggplant, heirloom, cherry and roma tomatoes, cucumbers, different color bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, potatoes and the sweetest melon you have ever tasted (even if it did have seeds).

I am an Apple kid -- I have been really digging playing on dada's Iphone, and Ga's brand new Ipad. I like the monkey game and Carl, and love playing the Cars matching game. I have gotten really good at dragging things across the screen.

Admiring a tomato from the garden. Look at that bright red beauty!

Funny looking purple heirloom, yellow heirloom, and plain ole delicious roma.
When tomatoes taste this good, there is nothing better than eating them like an apple. Yum.

I am my mama's boy - love having whooped-cream shot right into my mouth. Unlike fingers in the cool whip container, whooped-cream in the mouth = no evidence!

School round up!

My teachers took lots of pictures throughout the school year, and they gave mama the pictures on a disc. Here is a snapshot of what happened during my three year old school year. Above, I'm posing with Ga, who brought me to school every day and even came to some of my school parties.
Halloween -- I was a bat. I look very sad, but I was happy to be a bat. In fact, I asked to be a bat.
The infamous Christmas pageant where I cried my eyes out on stage because I was hot and tired and getting sick, and poor mama was crying in the audience watching me.
Rescue worker day where the firemen came to visit. I still talk about how cool it was that there was a firetruck in the parking lot.
Spring day -- we each got a worm to bring home and release in the yard. I put mine in the garden and still look for him out there.
Umbrella day - my favorite color -- green!
Rodeo day - only in Texas.
Graduation from 3 year old class. I'm moving on up to 4 year old class starting in August, and I'll go four days a week.

This summer I took soccer lessons. It was fun and for the most part, I really enjoyed it. I liked it best when I had Coach Juan as my teacher, and did not behave well the couple of times that mama took me to a different coach. I was much better behaved when dada took me to class.

Here I am with Coach Juan stealing the ball from him. I had some pretty good skills, for a four year old.
Coach Juan had us play the messy monkey game where we picked up cones with our feet. I was a good, neat monkey.
Mama and dada are going to look into getting me into a soccer program that allows a little more running around. This program was more about skills, but what I need to someone to wear me out!

A few weeks ago (yes, mama is behind, give her a break), I graduated from guppie swimming class. In the picture below, I am posing with my teacher Travis. I really like Travis, he was a great instructor. I now say that when I grow up, I want to be a swimming teacher.

Here is my report card. I still need some work on floating on my back, which I will get when I sign up for more lessons in August. I have a couple weeks of summer camp coming up, so I will start back to swimming when camp is over.
Posing, happy me!

Today I started swim lessons at Houston Swim Club. I was nervous when I watched the introductory video last night and told mama that I didn't want to get my face wet, but when I got to the pool today, I was excited. There are three other kids in my group. There is a step on the side of the pool, and I had to wait for the other three to take their turns first. I'm not great at waiting, so when it was my turn to go, I ducked my head under and blew bubbles like a champ (mama and I practiced in the tub last night) to show off. In the picture below, you can see me swimming with my instructor to the play structure. Summer is fun!

Another week's veggies from the farm brought us beautiful white onions, more cute little carrots, patty pan squash, zucchini, a big bag of little cucumbers, a huge bag of green beans, and a bag of delicious little blue potatoes. Every thing tasted so good, especially those little potatoes.

Update on the garden...the Earthbox is going crazy. We went away for Memorial Day weekend and came back to a box full of delicious tomatoes.

The rest of the garden is going bananas too - it looks like the Amazon in there.
The corn is growing...it will be interesting to see if we get any corn, or just plants.
This is one night's tomato harvest. Look at the beautiful heirloom lemon and purple tomatoes right in the center - they look like they aren't ripe yet, but they are perfect. So many delicious little guys in here. Mama is hoping for some of Ga's delicious pico de gallo soon!
And this was the night's zucchini harvest. Can you believe the size of some of these guys? Anyone have any good zucchini recipes? Look at the zucchini with the flower still attached. We also got some pretty yellow squash and four delicious cucumbers, perfect for making white gazpacho.

For Memorial Day weekend, the whole family went down to the beach. Aunt Bridey, Brenden and Marianne were there too.

For those that know me, you are not surprised that I ran, ran, ran for 6 hours straight. I had a blast.
Chris was down at the beach too. It was nice to hang out with him. He gave me lots of rides in the blow up boat.
Speaking of boats, dada rowed out the bait fish for the big rods in his canoe.
Brenden tried to catch a fish, but no luck. He did as much running in the surf as I did.
Nothing better than eating a chunk of watermelon right out of the cooler.
After I went to bed, my cousins, Chris and Mac had a good laugh.
The next day, I was worn out from all the running, and spent a bunch of time just chilling in the blow up boat. After a while, dada took me up to the cabin, fed me lunch, and I fell asleep on the couch while watching a cartoon. That was a first for me.
My family and friends stayed on the beach, but it was certainly more low key on Sunday than Saturday.
Dada's friend Eric came down to the beach and played his bagpipes. It was very cool.
I got my first set of legos the other day, and Brenden and loved to get into the top bunk and make cool things. I like to demand that people make me boats, while I like to make racing cars and trains.