Happy Halloween!

Mamaw came through again by making a beautiful costume for Halloween! It is no secret that Baby A is a huge Elsa fan and he has talked for months about wanting an Elsa dress.  He was so excited and loved, loved, loved everything about being Elsa!


Coco settled for Wolverine. His first choice was Batman the Brave and the Bold, but we didn't find his size. (Am I alone that it pains me to BUY a way expensive costume? What a racket. But, apparently, it is a huge deal to little boys not to have a homemade costume.) It was funny to me how fake muscles made him walk with a strut.



 We trick or treated with our sweet girlfriends.

Millie the Cat



Sofie the Unicorn



Isabela the Ghost (which she made herself!)



Lenny spent the evening at a haunted house/zombie something or other. She definitely doesn't get that bravery from me!



Lizzy was cheering on the Dragons as usual for a Friday night dressed as a girl version of Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

I love these kids!

First Day of School

3rd grade

SENIOR!!!!

6th grade

All three have entered big years of school! Man, these kids are awesome and I am one proud mom. You can see by the picture that Coco has to leave earlier than the girls. An HOUR earlier. But, I'm liking the staggered start times. Granted it is only day one, but I think it will work out well for our family.

All had a good day. They like their teachers and have friends in their classes. This morning was super smooth-I know that won't last! I'm thankful that we have one more week before evening sporting events start up!

Summer Requirements

Summer is here...










diving required.

Swimsuits optional (if you are a little guy).  :)

Swimmers

Our kids are big swimmers.  Liz joined a swim team at age 5 and I don't think we've gone a summer since without someone being a part of swim team.  This year the middles are giving it a go!  We've had a pretty cool spring.  When it was time for swim team evals the temps were barely in the low 60s.  The coaches decided not to have the kids swim, but mentioned they could get into the pool if they wanted.

You know what happened next, right?



(Thankfully the temperature has warmed up a bit in the last few weeks!)

Some Much Needed Time to Slow Down

Baby A found a baby bird yesterday on our sidewalk.  I then noticed the nest way up above in my favorite tree.  Too high for me to get to.  I heard mama and daddy cardinal before I saw them.  I quickly put our cat, Phantom, in my car and went inside to grab our resident animal lover.



She and I sat outside for around 30 min. just watching it all.  Mama cautiously trying to get to Baby.  Daddy keeping an eye out on both of them.  Baby whining and gaping.








Alas, laundry needed folded and I couldn't justify sitting outside longer.  But, I was so glad for that time of quiet this week.



Closing your eyes apparently makes you more quiet as to not scare any birds.

 *We checked for Baby before turning in for the night (and letting Phantom out) and it was gone.  I'm hoping it hopped into hiding or maybe even flew away.

It's Friday Again

Usually I'm SO excited for Fridays, but this is the end of Spring Break, so not so excited today.  We haven't done anything this week.  Yes, a little dull, but I'm proud of myself for not spending any money!  I'm going to try to go the whole month of April.  We'll see...

Here's a look at our week!

I started collecting pretty plates, just a mix, for times when we get together with family for a meal. 


This was my first time hosting Easter dinner. Since most of the family couldn't make it to Grandma Shirley's, Grandma Shirley and Great Grandma Durgin came to our house. Shirley and Aunt Jill came to the rescue once again with providing eggs for a hunt and Easter baskets! The kids did a quick hunt in the rain.


The temps early in the week were springlike which means that Coco starts losing clothes.





Lenny went to work with Jeff on Tuesday because she flew out that afternoon, by herself :), to Mamaw and Papaw's!  She has had a ball getting all the attention and learning to crochet.  We are excited to have her back home Saturday!


After seeing Jen Hatmaker's daughter's hair on facebook and reading their hair care routine, I decided to give it a go on Baby A.  It took 25 min. but it looks awesome!  He made quite the water color paint mess while I did it, but that is ok.  Now, to figure out how I'm going to do this when school starts back up.  Get up 30 min. earlier?  Aiyaiyai.
What we did: spray sections til sopping wet with water, Shea butter from root to tip, pick out with wide toothed comb, after whole head is done finish with curl enhancer




Baby A was thrilled to have to go to Lizzy's practice with us Tuesday night.  I was so surprised and we were both happy to see a net set up that was just his size!  He played for the whole 2 hours!  I'm thinking some volleyball equipment is in order for his 4th birthday!

We had the most low key spring break.  But, it was great just to hunker down at home and not have much of an agenda.  I love slow mornings and the morning sunshine streaming in the windows.  It is always dark when I leave during the week.  Summer is just around the corner!  Thank goodness!

InstaFriday

Wow!  It's Friday again?

I am so happy about today!  The rest of the school year flies after spring break.  I've made it!  Bring on the warm weather (although I see rain and cold are still in our forecast for another week), baseball, and a new adventure-which I will share with you soon!

With all the busy, I was glad to get some time today to slow down and redirect my focus.  This post by Missy was what I needed.  I'm also looking forward to spending the evening at church with my people.

Apparently, I didn't get out my camera much this week.  But, I hope you enjoy the shots I did take!


Lizzy and I spent all.day.long at a tournament Saturday. We got home at midnight. But, it wasn't all bad. They won their pool and ended up finishing 3rd. AND we met Aunt KeeKee and Uncle Jeff for a late dinner afterwards.
I can't resist pancakes for lunch at school. Weak I know.
Even though these last two pictures don't show it, I have been good with my food choices this week! We were thrilled to get a package this week from Mamaw with a chocolate egg in it! All the way from Muncie, Indiana! This is the best chocolate ever! I try to encourage the kids to eat the shell so I get the inside chocolates! Jeff uses extreme will power and doesn't touch any of it. His loss and more for me! Lenny had an orthodontist check up. Oh, how I remember my time in the orthodontist chair. Don't you? We had Coco's parent teacher conference this week. This picture was outside of the classroom and explains a lot about our little boy! The eyebrow. Oh my. He has made such gains this school year, but there are still gaps that we need to fill. :( It is hard. He and we were blessed to have an awesome teacher this year who is going above and beyond to try to figure our sweet boy out and set him up for success. I would certainly appreciate your prayers that he will have the right teacher next year. It is going to be key. Baby A's hair is getting long. We haven't cut it in 10 months! I think it still looks great!
I love the light in our bathroom in the evenings. Delish.  And I think Baby A needs more personality.  Jeesh.  This kid knows he's the bomb diggity!

I doubt that you are as excited as I am about the upcoming week (unless of course you are teacher too and have spring break!), but I hope it is a great one anyway!

The Magic City

After we spent our morning on UM's campus, touring, walking, playing, walking, and eating, we loaded up and headed north to Birmingham.

My first trip to Birmingham was in high school when one of the most influential teachers to so many kids ever, took around 12 of us rural, middle class teenagers to UAB for spring break.  Can you imagine?  Stuck in a 15 passenger van with teenagers for 10 hours?  Yikes!  But, it was that trip, and the one I would take the next year with him that changed the direction of my life!  



And thank goodness my fashion sense changed, too!

We visited UAB to learn more about science.  We visited labs, drove up to NASA in Huntsville...and sitting here trying to remember...guess the academic stuff really made an impression!  Ha!  What did make an impression was the history of the city.  The hot seat of the civil rights movement.  Now, that made an impression.

My mom went with us my senior year and I can remember visiting the Civil Rights Institute and seeing the tears stream down her face.  It was, and is, crazy to me that she lived this time period.  That it was one generation removed from me.  I loved getting to see first hand some of the places that I had learned about like the 16th Street Baptist Church and the bus station where freedom riders would have traveled through.  

So, when we decided to take the kids with us, I knew I wanted to take them to the Civil Rights Institute.  The girls really soaked it up and the boys are still too young to appreciate it, but I'm glad they were exposed to it anyway. 

After that, we took a quick trip to see the Vulcan.  Lizzy and I didn't venture up (I was too cheap to buy more tickets.  I thought it would be free.  Wishful thinking!).  Jeff and Littles went up and came right back down.  He said the view was just as good from the bottom and the kids weren't that excited about having gone up.  It's definitely worth a trip to the park, just don't bother with buying tickets to go up in the statue.  :)  



During this time my old buddy and roommate, Seth, had texted seeing that we were in town.  He and his wife, who lived on my hall and played basketball our freshman year, were staying in Montevallo for the night on their way to the beach.  I was so glad our paths crossed!  We met them for dinner at Milo's, which I had never had, but apparently Seth has to have it every time they are in Birmingham.  His kids are the cutest and I hope we are able to visit them in Nashville this summer!


Don't Seth and I look the same as we did in 1995? :)

Then we headed back to Motown to see if any of Jeff's teammates had shown up for the game.  The kids had fun playing and Jeff was able to watch a bit of the game and hang out with our friend, Morgan.

What a full and FUN day we had!  The kids were so worn out.  Who am I kidding?  Jeff and I were worn out, too!

We enjoyed a little more baseball and play time the next afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather!  We all got some sun on our faces and the outside time was just what the doctor ordered!  


Sweet memories with our little family were made in the place where our family began!