Toddlers and Crayons

What is with toddlers and crayons? There seems to be a fascination!!

Great Day

I cannot believe that summer is coming to an end so soon. Less than 2 weeks left until we are in the everyday routine of school. We sure are going to miss the care free days of summer. Yesterday the kids and I went on a last hurrah with my mom.

Our first stop was at a neat outdoor store called Across the Pond. They have a big area full of fish. The kids had a great time. We also ate dinner at a cafe there. It was yummy. Next we headed up to Fayetteville TN. It is a great little town with the BEST fabric store!!! I have been wanting to update my breakfast room for a while but just couldn't get inspired. I finally found the perfect fabric for curtains. I even got this awesome trim for them. Can't wait to actually make some curtains now and start working on redecorating.
When we got home we had a yummy roast waiting in the crock pot. Nothing better than getting back from a long day and having dinner ready. I also cooked up some fried green tomatoes. I LOVE them!! So good!!!

It was a great day! I love fun outings with the kids and good food.

Mobile Part 2

One of the kids favorite things to do in Mobile was play with the Mardi Gras beads. LeeAnn and Brad have a huge bag full of beads. The kids had a blast with them! I think we need to visit during Mardi Gras next time!

One of the adults favorite thing to do together is play games! We always play Trivial Pursuit. Brad and LeeAnn claim that in 14 years of playing they have never bet Matt and I. I am not so sure. But it all changed on Friday night. They killed us!! Of course they had to take a picture.
Saturday was spent lounging by the pool. It was so wonderful. The girls had a great time playing with the water table.

Ben had a great time doing all his pool tricks!

Brad grilled out lunch on Saturday afternoon. He makes the best grilled burgers. I always look forward to them when we visit!

I love this picture of Ben and Paige watching TV together!

Saturday night we went to dinner at a great restaurant on the bay. It was a great night out (a little hot but not too bad). Dinner was great. All the seafood eaters enjoyed their fish! We of course had to dress Kate and Paige alike. LeeAnn and I have very similar taste when it comes to clothes for the girls!

A family picture!

A beautiful view across the bay!

We got asked several times if they were twins.

After dinner we went down to a boardwalk along a swamp area that is called Alligator Alley. It certainly lived up to its name!

We saw several alligators. Sort of scary how close they were. A guy was feeding them marshmallows which made them come even closer. It was fun though!

Love these guys!

Sunday morning we managed to get everyone up and ready for church. It was great to be able to visit their church and worship with them. We even got all the kids looking cute together!

After church it was time to head home. We were so sad to leave. We love getting to spend time with the Wrights. Thanks for letting us come guys! We can't wait to come back!

Mobile Part 1

When Brad and LeeAnn moved to Mobile 3 years ago we were so sad!! We have all been such great friends for such a long time and we hated that they were so far away. We promised that we would see them as much as we could. That means visits to Mobile as much as we can. It had been way to long since we had been down so we decided to go down for a long weekend.

The trip down as long and late. We left after Matt got done with work on Thursday. The kids did awesome! We rolled into Mobile about 10:30 Thursday night very tired. The Wrights had beds waiting for all of us so we pretty much went straight to sleep.

We all woke up Friday ready for a fun day!! We headed into Mobile to hit the Gulf Coast Explorium. It is a great kid friendly science museum. It was so much fun. We did lots of great things.

Not really sure what the girls are doing here but it is cute.

Ben in front of a giant heart. They had a great exhibit on the human body.

LeeAnn and Paige. Kate practicing her pull ups
The best part of the day for a 4 year old boy - the fart noise maker.
Playing the electric harp.

Silly girls
Sweet Kate! Ben practicing his weather forecasting skills. They had a great area just for little kids. It had lots of fun things to play with and explore including a big boat to play on. And of course a big area filled with balls to play in. Paige figured out how to walk in the balls really quickly. Kate never could figure it out. She kept falling down. The girls had fun riding together in the double stroller. They had a really cool exhibit where you got to design and test your own roller coaster. Ben had so much fun doing this.

After a great morning we headed back across the bay to Daphne. The girls took naps and we relaxed. We love just getting to hang with Brad and LeeAnn. We never run out of things to talk or laugh about. For dinner we headed to downtown Daphne to a great pizza place - Cousin Vinny's. It was super yummy!

Daphne is such a cute little town. So quaint and full of little businesses and huge old trees. I just love it! After dinner we went to a downtown park to let the kids play for a little while. Kate loved swinging under the old trees!

There was lots of sliding

It was a great start to an awesome weekend!!

Sweet

We just rolled in from a wonderful long weekend trip to Mobile to visit the Wrights. It was such a fun trip. Lots of great pictures to share over the next couple of days. But I did want to share this great picture of Ben and Kate that I took on Thursday night late! They love to hold hands in the car. We moved their seats closer together so they could touch. So sweet!!! Love them!!

Retro Kate

Kate was wearing a dress of mine from when I was little this week so I just had to share a picture (in retro form of course)! She looked so cute!! I just love her to pieces.

Kate's First Movie

Over the past month Kate has become really interested in TV. She loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Arthur. She will bring me the remote and ask "TV?" So we figured it was time for her to go to her first movie! My parents took Ben and Kate to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie this afternoon. They loved it! Kate sat memorized for the first half and then wiggled some but overall did great for a 20 month old. Ben loved the movie of course! He was laughing out loud at parts. They also had dinner out with my parents. A fun grandparent day out (and date night for us)!!
Can't believe my baby girl is big enough to be going to the movies!!

First Sleepover

Ben and his buddy Evan had their first ever sleepover Sunday night. They had such a great time. They played video games, ate pizza and ice cream, talked about their girlfriends and stayed up late talking and giggling. It was so cute to watch. They did awesome. We let them sleep upstairs on the futon. We put them down around 8:45 and I think they were finally asleep about an hour later. Not too bad. They had a blast!! Can't believe my little man is already old enough for sleepovers. I am sure they will be having lots more in the future!

VBS 2011

Vacation Bible School was always one of the best parts of the summer growing up. I was so sad this year when our trip to Alaska was at the same time as our church's VBS. I hated for the kids to miss it. Last week our neighbor asked if Ben would like to go with them to VBS at their grandparent's church each night. They live in a tiny little town about 10 minutes away from us. Ben was excited to go and he had the BEST time!!!! Yesterday morning they had a final celebration so Ben and I went to Paint Rock Baptist Church. It is a small country church but we had a wonderful time. Everyone was so sweet and they loved having Ben at VBS. I could tell what a great time Ben had all week.

They did the New York City themed VBS and it was so cool!!
They put on a show for all of the parents with all the songs they had learned all week. I had heard that everyone thought Ben was a great dancer and he put on a show for sure!!
All the kids got their names called out and they got a certificate for coming.

Then we had a fun lunch.

This is Ben and his buddy Evan! They had so much fun. Ben is already excited about going back next year.