4th of July in Louisiana!

My "little" girl, Emma, turned 13 on July 2nd!!!! How can that be possible? We granted her wish and made sure she was able to celebrate it in La. She spent her actual birthday at my parents' house, as well as visiting friends and getting a snoball in Ponchatoula. The next day we went to Dave's mom's house and spent time with grandparents and cousins. Emma made and decorated her own cake at her request. On the 4th, we drove over to St. Francisville for the annual family reunion on Dave's side--HUGE crowd of people. It was a special time for our family as it was Grace's first time meeting her HUGE extended family and their first time meeting her. Of course, everyone loved her and she loved everyone! We drove back to St. Louis Sunday--just in time to get KidsFest rolling on Monday morning. KidsFest is our church's version of VBS, only it's BIGGER and BETTER! It goes from 10am to 3pm Monday thru Friday and though it entails the normal Bible stories and applications, it offers so much more. There were 2 water days where the kids had water slides, water guns, a firetruck hosing the children, shaving cream, etc... The other days had rock wall climbing, moonwalks, games, a visit from a helicopter, motorcycle, and police dog. Gabe and Hayden are campers and Emma is a counselor. I was the morning/afternoon songleader--and these aren't just any songs. They come complete with dancing and movement--I feel like I've been at an aerobics class each day. A funny thing happened this week with Gabe: one of the boys in his group said to him, "Aren't you embarrassed about your mom being up there?" Gabe replied, "That's not my mom." Talk about throw your mama under a bus!!!