'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for birthday parties galore! 

Two sweet girls celebrated their birthdays this weekend. (The second party will be featured in upcoming blog.)

Sweet Madeline celebrated her 4th birthday.

Madeline's mother, Amanda, and I have worked together for years. In fact, we were both pregnant at the same time and Chloe and Madeline were born only a week apart. However, Chloe and Madeline have only had one brief meeting when our family happened to run into their family as we were arriving and they were leaving the zoo.

I am happy to report that the girls got along famously! (I've always wanted to use "famously" in a sentence.) Since there were actually four people expecting in our office at the same time, people would jokingly say that there was "something in the water." Well, you could tell that these two were spawned from the same water. 

They had the best time jumping on the trampoline...

...and torturing playing with kitty.

And oh, the belly laughs (my favorite kind)!

 
Then, it was time for pizza and cake! I loved the colorful theme!

I had to throw in this one. The girls' fake smiles were so cute! Can you tell that they've posed for a picture a time or two?!

I so wish that this last picture wasn't blurry. This one was my favorite from the day.

The girls had a great "first" meeting. We had to assure each of the girls that they would be meeting again soon as Chloe was leaving. It was so sweet.

Happy Birthday, Madeline!!!

Marathon Weekend

It feels like everything fell on the same weekend...work brunch/bridal shower on Friday, dinner with Chris' grandmother on Friday night, consignment pick-up and an attempt to get Evan's hair cut on Saturday morning, Caylin's 8th Birthday party Saturday afternoon, dinner and Auburn football with the R's on Saturday evening, a powerful service on Sunday morning, and Life Group on Sunday evening...Whew, I'm tired just thinking about this past weekend! I'm still recovering!

Sorry, I didn't do a very good job documenting our weekend and several prime photo-ops were missed, but here is a glimpse into our fun-filled weekend!

For our Friday work brunch, I made a Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip, a recipe that I found through pinterest {here}.

Helpful Hints:

- If you don't add chili sauce, definitely salt and pepper to taste. This was my first time trying this recipe, and it was a little bland.

- I would only use 7 to 9 ounces of artichoke hearts. The artichokes were a little overwhelming.

- In addition, I doubled the mozzarella cheese that the recipe called for. I will add an additional cup of shredded pepper jack to the recipe next time! Because hey, cheese makes everything better:)

Also, I just wanted to throw this in. Chloe begged to go to work with me on Friday, so I let her tag along in the morning. Apparently, she thought that there was going to be an actual wedding at work! I guess I didn't explain the bridal shower well enough. She had a blast there anyway, hopping around my coworkers offices and cubicles:) She even got a little surprise from one coworker...

War Eagle!!!

On Saturday, we attended Caylin's 8th Birthday party!

And as always, Jennifer had the cutest party spread to go along with the picnic theme!

Momma wasn't on her "A-game" and we missed our opportunities to take a picture with the birthday girl becuase we were too busy having a great time as you can see...

Chloe found the tire swing.

And, Evan had fun running around, literally.

 

Yes, the kids are playing croquet in the background. Jennifer always thinks of unique ways to keep the kids occupied.

 

He did stop for a second to give me a sweet smile:)

Afterward, we headed over to the R household for burgers, wings, dogs, yummy sides courtesy of Marie, Auburn football, and quality time with friends.

Chris and Zach have been friends since they were children and I couldn't help but smile when I was going through my pictures of the weekend.

It was so cute to compare the picture above of Chris and Zach to the picture below of Evan and Matthew.

In honor of the first weekend of fall (even thought it may not feel like fall), I decided to make a Pumpkin Crunch Cake, another recipe that I found on pinterest {here}, for our Life Group meeting on Sunday evening.

My picture doesn't look quite as good as the photograph on the recipe.



I also had a little fun with my macro lens.

We had a busy weekend, but thus is life, and I'm filled with the Spirit and a sense of family and fellowship. Who could ask for anything more?!

I thought that I would end this blog post with babies in sunglasses.

:)

War Eagle!!!

We finally got the chance to watch our Auburn Tigers play in their first home game of the season, Auburn vs. Louisiana-Monroe. This was my first game in 6 years, and the first game EVER for Chris and the Littles, so we were excited!

I was too busy enjoying the company, so this was one of the only shots I got of the tailgate.

Chris, Chloe, and Evan enjoying their first game...



 

We got caught in gameday traffic, so we weren't able to stop by a store for our gameday accessories, but luckily, we found a vendor in the stadium that sold AU temporary tattoos and spirit shakers, so here we are showing our school spirit! (I grabbed a couple of extras, so that we wouldn't be unprepared at the next game.)

 

 

Chloe was disappointed that she didn't get to meet Aubie the Tiger, Auburn's mascot. I didn't know that it was a priority in her gameday experience, or, I would have made more of an effort to find his meet-and-greet spot before the game. Maybe next time. However, after the game, we passed by an inflatable Aubie...

 

 

My poor children are so "deprived."

 

On our way home, we passed by Toomer's Corner and the famous Toomer's Oaks. I do have to say that it makes me feel sad to see what is left of them and to know that when Chloe and Evan attend Auburn (crossing fingers) that they will not participate in the same tradition that I did as an Auburn student. Sure, new Oaks may be planted, but it will never be the same.

The most I will say about this season is that I'm glad that we won today, especially on the day that we all attended our first game as a family. I love my Auburn Tigers, win or lose! War Eagle!!!

 



Dreams Can Come True!

It's funny how Chloe can make the smallest request and it seems to happen. Maybe not in the way that one would expect, but in a "round about way."

Like she'll mention how she wants to see one of her little friends and we'll run into her at the grocery store with her family, or, that she wants to go to a certain place and somehow she ends up there, completely unplanned.

Recently, she asked if she could have a kitten. After explaining that we already have two dogs and that Daddy wasn't particularly fond of cats, I thought that the discussion was behind us....

Well, our home was built over 80 years ago, so we have a conventional foundation. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term, it basically means that we have a crawl space under our home. And in that crawl space, we recently discovered that one of the neighborhood cats had had KITTENS!!!

My husband saw the mother cat transporting the kittens to another spot late last week. I'm assuming it was to another home's crawl space, hopefully, the owner's! But it seems that she left one of her babies behind. Since we saw the mother cat digging through the neighbor's trash the day after, we assumed that she was still nursing the sole kitten.

However, earlier today, Chris found the kitten trying to escape the crawl space by sticking her little paw out through a small opening in front of the house, so he drug her out. I wasn't at home to witness this or the events that followed. According to my husband, she looked absolutely pitiful. She was meowing/crying for food, dirty, and covered in fleas, so he decided to give her a flea bath...then another one.

Meanwhile, Chloe was falling in love...

By the time I got home from work this afternoon, this is what I found...

I have to admit that the kitten is pretty cute.

I had a discussion with Chloe about taking the kitten to the Shelter and she seemed to understand.

It was time for dinner, so we went inside leaving the kitten on the front porch. (I was afraid that she may have a flea or two left on her and didn't want to risk bringing her into the house.)

A few hours later, we went to check on her, but she was nowhere in sight. However, the milk and food we left out for her had been eaten. The mother cat must have heard her cries and taken her, but not before cleaning out the food dishes!

Chloe was heartbroken, but tonight in her prayers, she said a sweet prayer for the kitten. We blessed her and prayed that she would have a good life!

(Now hubby needs to get to work on blocking ALL the access points to the crawl space!)

Dino Day

The Littles and I vistited a Dinosaur Exhibit today! Here are a few pictures of our Dino adventure.

(Please ignore the photo quality. Although I brought my SLR camera, I forgot to put my Flash Card back in it, so I improvised with my camera phone:))

Here are the Littles infront of one of the interactive displays.

 

And here they are at the Dino Dig uncovering fossils!

 
We also enjoyed a few of the attractions, like riding a dinosaur...

 

And what can best be described as a Dino playground!

We also got a photo with the T-Rex! (Evan actually posed for a couple with T-Rex, but they all turned out blurry like most of the day's photos:()

This was a nice break from our norm and the kids really enjoyed it, plus there was a wee bit of learning involved!

Biscuits Baseball

This weekend got off to a shaky start! First, there was a foiled attempt for Chloe to attend a Rainbows Field Day because of confusion on my part. Then, Auburn had a disappointing loss.

I was beginning to think that our weekend would be better spent in the sanctuary of our own home, but we had tickets to watch our hometown baseball team, the Montgomery Biscuits, play in the playoffs. We originally purchased tickets to watch the Biscuits play their last game of the regular season on Labor Day, but since the game was rained out, we exchanged them for tickets to their first home playoff game.

Boy, am I glad that we made it out. We were met at the game by Chad, Diana, and Sophia. We always have a great time with these three.

We arrived at the game as the sun was setting, and in true Evan fashion, he was taking it all in. This was my favorite shot of the night.

The Biscuits Stadium sits beside the train tracks and Chloe excitedly watched as the trains would pass.

The kids enjoyed the inflatables at the Biscuits game! Here is a quick picture of Chloe and Evan before our friends arrived!

Chloe just loves spending time with her gal pal, Sophia!

Here are the sweet girls waiting their turns to go into the Bouncy House.

 

And here are my hot dog eating champions!

The girls decided that they would have a rolling race down the hill in the lawn seating section! Don't worry they stopped before hitting the wall:)

Did I mention that each kid got tickets for a free hot dog, soft drink, and SNOW CONE?! It was well-worth the price of admission for Chris and I!

Daddy and Evan enjoyed the snow cones.

Here are a few random pictures from the night.

The evening ended with a fireworks display. I've never been good at photographing fireworks, so I decided to take candid shots of reactions. Sophia did NOT enjoy the fireworks. We couldn't help but be amused at her expense...

And, here are a few cute shots from our evening.

Unfortunately, the Biscuits lost that game and are officially out the playoffs, but, as you can see, we had a great family fun night. I'm so glad that we made it out and for the company!