Grandparents' Day

Luke's school had a grandparents brunch a few weeks ago.  Luke was lucky enough to have all 4 of his grandparents attend.

 

Claire was there too.  One of the other moms snapped this cute picture of those two eating.

 

 

Before the brunch, Luke's class did a little performance of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle, Twinkle".  When Luke saw his grandparents, he refused to participate.   See below.

 

 

He finally stood with his RiRi (Will's mom) and kind of sang along.  In his defense, I took him to the doctor at lunch that day and he had a double ear infection.  He was just not feeling 100% that morning and seeing all of his grandparents and his mommy and not being able to go to them was hard on the little boy!

 

I was disappointed though because his teachers had told me that he was the best performer when they practiced in the weeks leading up to the performance.

 

Here is a video Will took of Luke singing (with motions) the "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

 

 

Mother's Day

I got to spend yesterday with my three favorite peeps.  And all I really wanted was a good picture with my 3 kids.  But that simply was not in the cards for Mother's Day 2012. 

Attempt #1.  Notice that Luke was not even in this picture.  He was too busy throwing money in the fountain in the hotel lobby.

Attempt #2.  We tried another spot where he could not see the fountain and he still was not happy.

Attempt #3.  This is the best one we got.  Notice that Luke is not smiling, but at least he is not crying AND all 3 are looking at the camera.

Attempt #4.  Still no smiles from Luke.  David has lost interest.

Attempt #5.  Maybe outside will be different?  No, no it won't. 

Maybe next year.

Luke was ALL SMILES when we got to the church nursery (at Will's parents' church).

We did get an excellent picture of Will's mom with all her grandchildren.

There are a lot of really good articles about parenting on the Internet right now.  For your reading enjoyment:

Motherhood is a Calling by Rachel Jankovic

How to Miss a Childhood by Rachel Macy Stafford

Motherhood as a Mission Field by Rachel Jankovic

Don't Carpe Diem by Glennon at Momastery

Water, Water Everywhere

We went to Alabama last weekend for a baby shower. Will took Friday off and we went down Friday morning. We met RiRi and DiDi for a yummy lunch and then took the kids to a nearby splash pad. Claire had a blast playing in the water. David had fun too, but he preferred to stay on the periphery.

The picture below pretty much sums it all up!

Will and Didi were standing in the fountains trying to stay dry!

David found plenty of other things to keep him entertained. He climbed and ran all over the place!

Fashionista

The little shop where I buy most of my fabric and such has a fashion show every year where their customers can show off their handiwork. Claire and my niece Evie both modeled a few outfits this year. That had quite a fun time on the runway!

Here are a few pics from the show.

My mom made these matching dresses for the girls.

These girls love playing with Meme's camera. And, they have gotten pretty good at taking pictures too.

Meme and her girls.

Claire and me.

Sweet Summer Corn

Meme came to stay with us a few nights this week since Will was out of town. The kids enjoyed having her there and I appreciated all of her help!

I had some fresh corn in the fridge that needed to be shucked, so Meme put Claire to work! Claire had a fun time. She even ate a little bit of the corn (after I cut it off the cob).

So cute! Meme asked her what the silks were called and she said "hair". Well, it does look like hair, but that doesn't sound too appetizing! Good thing we pull them off.

Summer Grandparent Visits

The kids have gotten to spend some quality time with their grandparents this summer.

I remember going to my Meme and PawPaw's house growing up and spending weeks at a time with them. (It seemed like weeks to me ... it was probably just a few nights.) I got to play dress-up with my mom's old clothes, pick fruit and vegetables out of their garden, play in my Meme's flour drawer, ride the tractor and eat lots of ice cream. They had an awesome garden and lots of great home cooked veggies in the summer. (Think fried everything.) I remember eating tons of strawberries straight from the garden. (My PawPaw had a big bucket of fishing worms out in his shed that scared me just a little bit.)

My kids have a little different experience as their grandparents both live in town and not in "the country" like my grandparents did. But, they still have fun ... just different fun. And they still eat a lot of treats and come home tired and dirty just like I did.

Back in June, my parents got to keep all four grandkids overnight when my sister and her hubby had a wine tasting at their house to celebrate their 8th anniversary. Here are all 4 playing in the "kids' room". (On a side note, I'm not real sure why my mom still has a Christmas tree up in there.) The kids love to jump on that bed that is built into the floor.

The big kids slept in the bonus room on the pull-out couch. (David still sleeps in the crib at their house ... for a few more months at least.)

These two were still awake when Will and I got there around 10pm. (On another side note, that is my Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bag that Claire is sleeping in. My parents really do save everything!)

These two princesses in their princess pjs.

Mickey waffles are the best. We bought this waffle iron as a gift for my mom the summer before my senior year of high school ... 16 year ago.

David loved the Mickey waffles the best!

Mini bunk-bed. I'm pretty sure that this is not what Meme intended this piece of furniture to be used for.

The next weekend in June, Will's parents came up to visit on a Friday night and brought Breanna and Davis (our niece and nephew) with them. They stayed in a fancy hotel and after dinner, the kids (including David) got to swim at the hotel pool with RiRi and DiDi. (Will and I ran a whole bunch of errands while the kids were swimming.)

Claire got to spend the night at the hotel with her cousins and they got up to swim some more after breakfast and before check-out the next morning. (This is what kind of picture I get when I send my hubby with the camera.)

Claire and David are thankful for all the fun times they get to have with their grandparents and cousins. We are thankful for the free childcare!

Our July 4th Weekend

We headed down the Alabama for the weekend of July 4th for a little help with the kids from Will's parents. We were due a visit too!

Friday night: Will's parents had some of our close friends over for dinner and grilled steak and chicken. We had quite a feast and a total of seven kids (ages newborn to 8) in the house. We enjoyed getting to visit with our friends and family and love of sweet baby Coston. He is precious and it made me really excited about our on little bundle of joy due to arrive in September. The kids had fun too and stayed up until 10am playing DiDi's new Wii.

Claire and David outside before dinner (wearing their July 4th outfits).

Will and his dad chillin' and grillin'.

Saturday: Will's parents took my kids and their other two grandkids to a local park and splash pad with a side of McDonald's for lunch. Will played golf with his friend Courtney. I stayed at the house alone a got a ton of stuff done. I ordered fabric for the baby's diaper bag and car seat cover. I order about 400+ pictures for David's baby book. (Yes, I said David, my two year old.) And, I even painted my toe nails. All while watching HGTV all day long! I was in paradise. We had yummy catfish for dinner (at my request) and hung out at the house the rest of the night.

David & RiRi looking for birds outside their new sunroom.

Claire showing me her donut lips. RiRi always has powdered donuts for the kids. And I sneak a few too.

David ate a few (hundred) donuts over the weekend too. Well, mainly he just liked to carry them around and take a bite then put them back in the container.

Sunday: We went to church with Will's parents, had a huge lunch of roast and fresh veggies (our favorite meal that Will's mom makes) and banana pudding for dessert. We were stuffed again.

(It sounds like all we did was eat this weekend.)

Family photo from Sunday afternoon.

The kids were a little under the weather and very tired by Sunday night, so we stayed home from our local fireworks show and were all in bed by 10pm. I was sad to not see any fireworks on the 4th, but after a long, busy weekend, we needed to rest.

Thanks to Will's parents for a great weekend (as always).

Let it Snow!

We had some good flurries on Saturday morning, but nothing like the heavy dusting that my parents got at their house the first weekend in December when they were keeping the kids for us. {We were in Atlanta.}

Poppy busted out my old sled. {We lived in a subdivision called Hurricane Hills when I was growing up and it had awesome sledding hills ... this sled has some miles on it!}

Please note that my dad is not wearing any shoes. Are you kidding me?!? He never wears shoes, but I would think that barefoot in the snow would cross even his "shoe-wearing" line.

Claire had fun too. Clearly my children were ill-equipped to play in the snow. The fleece jackets were all I sent. I wasn't aware that SNOW was in the forecast when I packed their bags for the weekend!

Clearly, David was not ready to go inside. But it looks like the snow was starting to melt away in the background.

Fun times! Hopefully, we will get another snow this year ... good snow that we can go outside and play in.