As most of you know, I jet from one assignment to another most days. I jump from elementary schools to wrecks to sporting events to everywhere in between. Wednesday, I photographed an ACT camp, some road work and construction on a local college campus.

It was the assignment for 5 o’clock that was the kicker (and byfar the best art): I spent some time with contestants from this weekend’s Miss Hospitality event at the local bowling alley Wednesday night.

Mary Catherine McDonnieal, Miss Lincoln County, celebrates after bowling a spare Wednesday night during the Miss Hospitality "Bowl Night" at Champion Lanes in Hattiesburg. (Erin Parker / The Hattiesburg American)

Cierra Sherman, Miss Woodville, celebrates after bowling a strike Wednesday night during the Miss Hospitality "Bowl Night" at Champion Lanes in Hattiesburg. (Erin Parker / The Hattiesburg American)

Tiffany Moak, Miss Pike County, bowls Wednesday night during the Miss Hospitality "Bowl Night" at Champion Lanes in Hattiesburg. (Erin Parker / The Hattiesburg American)

More images can be found at the Hattiesburg American Web site, and you can be sure I will be posting some images from the Friday and Saturday night portions of the competition.

For whatever reason, I’ve always been drawn to this fountain. It’s unique for my city, and I had a chance to snap a few photographs of it this afternoon while I was near it on assignment.

When I was a kid, I remember spending HOURS at a local baseball/softball complex during the summertime. I played on church teams from the time I was in first grade until my sophomore year of high school, which led to numerous nights at the ballpark, countless dinners from the concession stand and one ice-cold Coca Cola after every game, win or lose.

This week, I have already spent about five hours at the new baseball complex photographing the Dixie Youth Baseball South State Tournament. (Whew! Long name!) While I captured a lot of fantastic game action, one of my favorite images from the evening was snapped during the downtime between games.

I knew I had to find a feature image, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to shoot for it. Sure, there were lots of kids warming up. Sure, parents were sitting in the stands cheering. Sure, there is a huge mister machine, and some kids were bound to be around it. But when I walked out from one of the four fields, I noticed a little girl hanging wooden stars on the back of the bleachers before her brother’s game started.

The following image of her is my favorite from the evening:

Maggie Hogan, 8, hangs stars for the Petal team before the Petal-Marion County game Monday night at Tatum Park. (Erin Parker / The Hattiesburg American)

More photos from the tournament can be seen at the Hattiesburg American Web site. (Click it! The link takes you directly to the photo gallery!)

I photographed this health fair assignment yesterday and last year. Both times, I have doubted the amount of art I could take from the event, and both times, I have been surprised by the numerous quality photos I brought back. One of my photos from last year is actually in my portfolio.

The following image was one of the first I took yesterday and one of my favorites.

Dr. Glenn Braswell from the Family Dentistry in Petal uses a flashlight to check 4-year-old Jayde Coghlan's teeth Thursday afternoon during the Petal Kid's Health Fair at the Center for Families and Children in Petal. Dental, developmental, vision, scoliosis, height and weight, hearing, fitness and asthma screenings were offered, as well as free immunizations. (Erin Parker / The Hattiesburg American)

More photos can be seen at the Hattiesburg American Web site.

And what did we do?

We spent it at the beach, of course.

Hope y’all had a wonderful Fourth and have enjoyed the past week! I’ll be back to regular posting Tuesday.

One of our family traditions for the Fourth of July was to bake a Tea Cake sugar cookies and share them with neighbors for the holiday. Last year, I made these cookies by myself, and shared them with my co-workers and my boyfriend’s family when we got to the beach beach. Since it took so long to complete the process by myself last year, I enlisted some friends to help out.

My friends, who I learned had NEVER ROLLED COOKIE DOUGH before, got into the rolling, cutting and baking process easily, and we had a fantastic time.

One of my favorite photos of the night was taken right after the handoff of cut cookie dough to pan.

Lucy wanted in on the action, too!