Goodbye to July

Rhett Gregory spent the night with us last Friday

Life of late has been a blur of witheringly hot days.

Columbia, South Carolina, long ago adopted a tagline: Famously Hot.

Our city has lived up to its name recently as though that were its only job.

It's not a birthday without balloons

The family birthday that we celebrate in July, amidst the scorching heat and soul-crushing humidity and the primal shrieks of a trillion cicadas, is our grandson Rhett's.

He turned four last week.

Rhett is deeply into the states. As in, the United States. The genesis of that interest may or may not have been a large wooden puzzle that I keep in our TV room for the kids to play with.

Someone at church contributed CFA chicken nuggets

I think the puzzle was acquired several years ago for Dagny's enjoyment, but I can't be sure.

It features all fifty states in sturdy wood, brightly colored and removable so that the child can dump them out and then replace them all, learning some geography as he goes.

Rhett has been fascinated with the puzzle for as long as I can remember. And that fascination has expanded to a general and overall love of the states, so much so that his mother used it as the theme for his birthday party.

There's nothing quite like a soft slider roll

Also, nearly all of his gifts were state-themed. 

For my money, the slam-dunk was the gift that Rhett's Aunt Stephanie gave.

Have you heard of Stuffed States? It's just about the cutest thing you've ever seen related to love of our beautiful country.

Lit'l Smokies in the crock pot are a must

Naturally, since Rhett was born and is being reared in South Carolina, our Stephanie bought him the South Carolina stuffed state.

Just seriously adorable.

He also got a variety of state puzzle edutainment type toys, all so clever. I also gave him the book Jack the Cat, about a cat who lived on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

I bought it for him at the Fort Sumter gift shop when we visited there for my birthday last March.

Fritos are costly but necessary

Since he's into fridge magnets (what kid isn't?), I got him the Classic Magnets for New York, California, and Texas -- three states that, three or so weeks ago, he proclaimed to be his favorites.

I think there are new favorites now -- Vermont, New Hampshire, and Nevada have received honorable mention -- but that's okay. He loved his magnets.

We had two parties for Rhett. The first one was on his actual birthday, which was last Wednesday.

He posed in his special t-shirt

At our church we have a snack table that groans with treats both savory and sweet, before every service.

In keeping with that tradition, I wanted to provide the goodies for Rhett's birthday.

I ordered a cake from Walmart. Then I made Lit'l Smokies with grape jelly and chili sauce, barbecue pork to make slider sandwiches on soft rolls, and freshly homemade potato salad. There were also Fritos, to round out the feast.

The Walmart cake had strawberry filling between the layers

We had balloons and someone else had brought chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A, so overall it was quite the festive spread.

Dagny hung with me the night before and all through that sweltering day, to bring everything together and get it all in place.

It was a great deal of work but Rhett was properly celebrated and our church family greatly enjoyed it.

Second official party and an elated Rhett-man

His second party was at the Chericas' house, on Saturday. Stephanie, along with Melanie, traveled down from North Carolina to attend, and of course the rest of us were there.

The night before, Rhett stayed with me and TG at our house, freeing up Erica to clean and decorate without the presence of the birthday boy. We wanted Rhett to make an entrance on his party all put together and ready to go.

For our meal we had hot dogs and cole slaw and baked beans and chips with dip.

Erica had found state-centric party supplies

Chad had made his boy's birthday cake -- chocolate with chocolate icing, from the recipe off the Hershey's cocoa can. 

He remembers his mother creating that same cake for him on his boyhood birthdays, and he wanted to make one for his little son.

Erica had stenciled a big number 4 plus several states in blue on the front of a green t-shirt, and the entire United States map on the back. So of course he wore that along with a birthday boy badge.

Chad the Dad made his boy's birthday cake

We had a great time eating and talking and watching Rhett open his gifts.

Aren't birthdays wonderful? And grandchildren -- a whole new level of wonderful.

And now August beckons. A mere four weeks and change, and it will be September! Let that sink in.

We keep the birthday flame alive

The last of the summer birthdays will be our Mike's, in early August, and Baby Guy's, in late August when he turns two. 

TG and I will be traveling to Knoxville to spend a few days with Andrew and Brittany and Ember and Guy on that occasion, to take him his present and see what new things he has learned since we last saw him.

Then as summer is completely on the wane, we will fête our Stephanie in early September.

Rhett, earlier today, with his Stuffed State

Just as we mark Erica's birthday on the Memorial Day holiday, we mark Stephanie's on the Labor Day holiday.

At the end of September, our Elliot (a/k/a Skippy) will turn two. Can you believe? 

As I said at the beginning of this post, it's all been a blur.

What have you been doing during these dog days of summer? Let me know in the comments.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Thursday

Comments

[Mari]

This post is filled with cuteness! First of all is Rhett - this child is adorable and as always, I love his beautiful eyes. I'm glad he had such a wonderful birthday.
Being a fan of states is a good thing, he'll be way ahead in geography. :) However, you better start talking to him about Michigan so he can add it to his list of favorites. :)
I've never heard of stuffed states, but how cute are they?
It's been so hot here too, but today it's finally a little cooler and we actually got a little rain yesterday.
Now - we are not going to talk about how fast the summer is going, and certainly not even thinking about September. It goes too fast! You just enjoy Summer for now!

[Jennifer]

@Mari ... Yes I'm so proud of Rhett for being obsessed with states. And if you get a chance, look at the Michigan Stuffed State ... it looks weird to me. Not enough like a mitten. Anyway it's supposed to get much, much cooler here too -- the forecasts insist there will be a high in the 70s on Sunday, but I'll believe that when I see it. It's funny how, summer being only one-third (or so) over, it seems when August comes that we're peeking around the corner at fall! You won't catch me complaining ... it will be hot here until Thanksgiving, hahahaha! xoxo