Memorial Day and Mom

We hopped on board the Hayes train (15 passenger van) and headed down to Beaumont for Memorial Day weekend.  Poor James got left behind.  Of course the first thing we did was swim!

Friday night we went to a double wedding reception for my cousin Steve's kids - Sarah and Spencer.  They had it at Boomtown, and it was supposed to rain all weekend, but somehow they lucked out by it only being overcast.  Being so close to the lake, it's no surprise that many kids were swimming in their nice clothes.  Luckily my kids aren't too adventurous at this point, so they stayed by the coloring table and by me.  It's always so fun to see my cousins and to see 2nd cousins together!

Faith (Matt's), Hazel, and Laela (Ashna's)

Thomas (Donny's), Forrest (Michael's), Forrest (Matt's), and Grayson 

Love this idea for a wedding reception in which you expect 100s of kids...

Since a lot of family was in town for the reception and since it was a holiday, we had a Hayes family reunion the next day at the lake.  Again, it was supposed to rain and didn't, so we had a great time jet skiing, eating, and chatting away with cousins.  I have never seen such big crawfish! 

Grayson and James (Sabrina's)

Then we celebrated Mom's birthday, which was on Sunday.  I was fresh out of ideas for something to get her, so I just thought I'd give her a flashback lunch.  She's told me before about how her family moved to Texas at one point because her dad was in the army.  Along the way, her mom, Grandma Paxton, told the kids they could order whatever they wanted when they stopped to eat.  My mom always chose BLTs and lemon pie.  I just thought that was so cute, so I tried to recreate that for her on Sunday afternoon.  I love little learning little tidbits about my family and passing them down - even seemingly insignificant facts like childhood food favorites.  The new generation added an "E" to the BLTs, so we now have BELTs.

 My pretty "Pollyanna" Mama.  

Of course, her cake decorations have all sorts of symbolism, none of which I can remember, but it seemed pretty important at the time when Matt and Dad were figuring it all out.

Happy birthday, Mom!  You don't look a day over 40.