Five Brown Kids

  What a super fun year!

Baby Taye turned 25!  We had a little family pizza and pool party. Pauline brought her specialty - banana pudding. Tyrone injured his arm and couldn't be there.  They tossed the ball and raced of course.  Jaxon beat Scotia and Blythe in freestyle and Taye beat them all in the fly.   Taye is a legit grownup with a grownup job and grownup money.  He's responsible and capable and that is so great.  It's been such a pleasure to be the mom of Taye Brown. 

 Blythe competed in her second horse show. ( First Horse Show ) The evening before she was at the barn preparing her horse and putting equipment in the trailer. Then back at the barn at 4:30 am to feed the horses and help get them into the trailer.  Then we all drove to the show and unpacked the trailer there, more horse cleaning and feeding.  Then a quick warm up in the ring. She competed in five events: Walk/Trot Equitation, Walk/Trot Pleasure, Walk/Trot Hunter Under Saddle, Canter Equitation and Equitation Over Poles. The intricacies of these skills is hard to imagine unless you've listened to the coaching week after week.  Way to go Blythe! It ended up being a 14 hour day for Blythe.  Packing and hauling and cleaning and riding the whole day. Horse girls aren't afraid of hard work.

 I love that the landscaping around our house is filling in so nicely.  Scotia has been busy with ferns and flowers and it all looks so good.  The gardenia bushes smell so good. A large jasmine vine crawling up the back deck and a peach tree in the front left corner getting big. Two happy peony bushes. Annual bougainvillea baskets on the back porch. And a little work in process. Done. The deer def like to chew on everything.  But some are still holding on.

 Actually it has been super dry around here.  We finally had a real downpour over Memorial Day weekend and we couldn't even be sad about it, because we so desperately need it.  Taye moved to a new apartment (4 mins from his job!) He came home to grab some comfy couches and a dining table we had stored in the basement. Jaxon helped him move all his furniture downstairs from the old place and then up three flights of stairs to the new place. Blythe won an award at the end of year Horse Riding party.   High point over fences champion.  (This is not jumping) Scotia wrapped up her freshman year of college and moved back home for the summer.  She had a great year but was definitely ready for a little break from all the clubbing.  She ended the year with this styled photo shoot with her sorority.  For Mother's day weekend me and Scotia, Blythe and Jaxon and Mark and his boys all went up to the cabin.  We have jet skis!  The kids played pic...

Last year I helped Mark, at his request, update his living space a little bit.  I thought you would love to see the before and after.  I loved seeing his boys just lounge in this space all Christmas break. Win! After I think the green bookcases are stunning.  And I gathered up all of  Mark's books from all over the house and put them all in one spot organized by topic of course. Getting him to buy curtains that skimmed the floor and were the right color was a challenge but I did it! The plant does have a basket now. Before