These are a few of my favorite kids

In the last few weeks, we have gotten to spend some summer days and nights with a few of our favorite people, not the least of which have been kids. I have to share a couple of the photos, and I must say that this is by no means all of our favorite kids, just the ones who happened to be mugging for my iPhone on the last roll.


We love to have company. There is something about having overnight guests that takes me back to the excitement of packing my little red white and blue flowered or "flair-dy" as we said it, suitcase and going across town to have a "spend the night party" with friends as a kid. It's better than just spending casual time together, because when you have all talked and laughed until you can hardly keep your eyes open a second longer, then you wake up and share your morning ritual with your sleepy headed friends, you get closer, more like family. Last weekend we got to host two groups of great friends. Among them were Bryan and Ashley Johnson. This is Bryan (his blog, http://abryanphoto.blogspot.com/, has some of the coolest photography you will ever see) reading to his boys, Gavin on the left, and Noah on the right. It doesn't get much sweeter than that.


Well, OK, maybe a little. This is Stephanie Kling (she has an amazing crafting blog, http://birdsandtrees.typepad.com, that helped inspire me to start my blog) holding her nephew Tripp Sommerville. They, along with Steph's husband James, and Tripp's Mom and Dad, Emily and Nelson, were our other group of weekend sleepover friends.


Here are our African friends doing their thang. When they sing and dance, God's grace is everywhere. It is so cool. If you pray, pray for them. They have so many things to learn and so many cultural changes to adjust to, but as you can see, they are still singing!


It may not look like there is a kid in this picture to you, but to me, the good looking guy who outweighs me by thirty pounds or so and is almost a foot taller than me on the left, will always be my little nephew Blake, or Blako Beam. He turned 17 this month and that makes my head spin. I will never forget the moment when my teary eyed brother, Steve, walked out of the delivery room in his yellow disposable hospital apron holding each one of his three kids. Blake is sitting by his Mammaw, the first lady of Arab, Alabama, and my pretty Mamma, Olethia, at the big horse show at the city park where I was bringing home the bacon playing the organ.


This is little Miss Isabella Hardison. We spent a fun evening at the Uncle Dave Macon Days folk music and arts festival a few weeks ago with her sister, Georgia, and their Mom and Dad, Mark and Ashley. If she didn't already have me tightly wound around her little finger, she sealed the deal that night. What is it about a kid's affection that makes us so happy!? I'm a sucker for it. She sat there in my lap while we watched the freestyle buck dancing and clogging competition and we both ate up every knee slappin', banjo pickin', foot stompin' minute of it.

If you do not have kids in your life, I'm sorry. If you do, please don't beat them in the Wal-Mart check out line or yell at them in public. It makes you look so stupid, and they are smarter than you think. I know, it's easier for me because I can usually send them home with their parents when they misbehave, but still, come on people. Lord, please grant us all wisdom and grace when it comes to caring for our most precious gift, your children.