A Baby Shower & A Birthday Party

While Will was at the Alabama/Arkansas game a couple of weeks I go, I partied hard ... at a baby shower and a second birthday party that is.

Saturday morning, we had a baby shower for my friend Kaisha who is expecting baby #3 to arrive next week!

Decorations.

The cake. Yum ... strawberry cake from Edgar's Bakery. The. Best.

The expectant mom ... sitting down as per doctor's orders. {We're lucky she was able to get out of bed to come to the shower.}

The gifts. The cutest tutu onesie ... she made it.

and a bucket full of baby fun. {Another cute gift idea: hot pink tin bucket with ribbon and name. fill with goodies of your choice.}

Kaisha the party hostesses.

After the baby shower was over, I headed to my nephew's second birthday party with a carnival theme.

Here is the birthday boy. The bounce house was a big kit with all the kids.

Little Miss Ava loved the duck pond and she was soaked by the end of the day. Doesn't she have the cutest curls EVER?!?

Uncle Jon & Aunt Ashley. The sno-cone machine was a hit too.

The older girls loved the face painting.

My sweet Claire played hard at the party. She fell asleep on the way home as she crashed from her sugar high.

The birthday boy and his mommy.

Me and Claire.

The scene. It really looks like a carnival.

Hula hooping.

Uncle Jon, the clown.

Popcorn cupcakes. Aunt Ashley always has good cake ideas. Mini marshmallows are very handy.

Time to open gifts. Ian had LOTS of help!

The drum set was a VERY popular gift.

Pardon the mess ...

I'm redecorating a little bit. I've been fooling with this for a while tonight, trying to get everything just so.

I'll finish cleaning up tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Claire-isms

I love this sweet little girl so much. She is turning out to be quite the little character. She says the funniest things and Will and I are always like, where did she come up with this stuff?

Well, I finally figured out a few things ... it took me while though.

Claire: "Hey, what's the big idea?"

This one really stumped me. She said this for months before I figured out where she heard this. It's from Sid the Science Guy on PBS Kids.

Claire: "What's next?"

Every morning, I have to go through our entire day with Claire ... every move we are going to make. Each time I tell her something that we are going to do, I hear "what's next?" until we get to bedtime at the end of the day. I finally figured out that she heard this on Dora (you know, when Dora and Boots are consulting the map).

Claire: "Oh my gosh!"

I instantly knew where she heard this. Sadly, from me. I'm trying to do better ... and trying to teach her to say "oh my goodness" (like the orphan on Annie). Little ears are always listening.

A most fun girls' night out

I have been dying to go to Sip N Strokes since it opened here this summer. Well, I finally managed to find a painting I liked on a night I could go, and rounded up a couple of girlfriends to go with me. We had a blast. I made this picture for Claire to hang in her room. The color matches perfectly and she loves ballet!

My painting buddies, Ashley and Krystie.

The artist in action ... not really. Just me trying to paint.

Ashley with her masterpiece.

All three of us with our finished pieces of art. It was neat to see how everyone's painting turned out so differently, even though we all got the same instructions.

Menu Plan Monday: October 5-11

**No recipe links this week. If something is really good, I will post the recipe in next week's post.

Monday: Grilled cheese, vegetable or tomato soup

Tuesday: Beef Stew, hot muffins or cornbread

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Chicken soup, apple slices, hot bread

Friday: Birthday party for Claire's friend Cooper at Chuck-E-Cheese

Saturday: Cheez-It Chicken, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus

Sunday (lunch): Elegant pork chops, strawberry salad, dinner rolls

Sunday (dinner): Leftover buffet

Check out other menu plans here.

My Little Pumpkins

Happy October!! We finally got some cool weather just in time for October. I'm glad the kids will get full fall usage of these little pumpkin shirts I made for them.



Here is a better picture of Claire's shirt.



And here is a better picture of David.

If you were wondering, I get all of my embroidery appliques from here and here.

Blog Update

Will said I needed to update the blog. Really?? I also need to download pictures from my camera, wash about 5 loads of laundry, unload the dishwasher, feed the chickens, slop the pigs (just kidding on those last two ... but you get my point). Sometimes, many times, the blog falls to the bottom of the priority list, especially since I don't have a laptop and I can't blog while I watch TV. Y'all know I watch a lot of TV.

So, without further adieu, here are some recent pics we had made by my friend Jadie, photographer extraordinaire.