After school

One of Rhett's buddies rode home from school with us today so they had fun playing for a while. Those boys are hungry after school. They just flew through juice pouches, squeeze yogurt, pretzels, dry cereal and popsicles. I'm scared of what their appetites will be like as teenagers! :) They were so cute sitting on the deck together. Crosby thinks he is as big as them!

A little later, Alexee's neighbor friend invited her over to play. Her mom e-mailed me this picture of how Natalie had fixed her hair. :) The girls have a lot of fun together and do funny things. We've laughed though because Alexee wants to borrow something from them EVERY time she's over there! She comes home with dolls, bracelets, toy cameras, stuffed animals, etc...it's kind of embarrassing. Last week when I took Rhett to Natalie's brother's b-day party I returned a Kroger bag full of things Alexee had borrowed from their house (that seemed like a good opportunity to return them since she wasn't with me to protest).
Rhett's night #2 of homework was to choose an item for show & tell and write a journal entry about it to share with the class. The teacher sent home a brown paper lunch sack with a note that the item has to fit in that bag. Rhett decided to take his stuffed Scooby Doo, but he said can't pack it until tomorrow morning because it's one of the animals he sleeps with at night. Here's what he wrote about it:

______________

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LANE TODAY!

WE LOVE YOU!

He had to work the 3 p.m. - 11 p.m. shift today, but we had lunch together at Panera Bread while the kiddos were at school. (I don't know why I can't ever remember to take pictures of things that don't involve the kids.) We had a "Razorback Red Velvet" cupcake left from when his parents were here to celebrate on Sunday, so we split that after lunch--good stuff! We hope you've had a good day, L!

First day of Gymnastics + other fun

Today was A's first day of gymnastics, and she loved it! We made a quick trip into Academy Sports last weekend to get an outfit, and this is the one she wanted. I'm not sure if it was actually intended for gymnastics or ballet, but she liked it and I think it will work just fine. She was really excited this morning. When I told her to be sure to listen to her teacher so she could learn lots of new things, she said, "Okay, but I know how to do most of the tricks that the teacher knows." :)

On our way!

Skirts aren't allowed for the actual lesson, so she changed into her pink shorts, and off she went!
I didn't get any good pictures at all during the lesson because we were watching through the glass. Plus Crosby was ALL OVER that place, so I didn't get to watch her very closely. He figured out how to open the door between the watching area and the gym floor and he tried 500 times in 45 minutes to get through that door! I think it's going to be so fun for her. There were four more little girls in her class. I'm anxious to take her again.

We hurried home for the kids' lunch and naps, and soon it was time to go pick up R at school. My friend Ali was right behind me in carpool line and she invited us to join them at Orange Leaf, so we did! Here are four of the five kids--Crosby was in the stroller beside me so he didn't make it into this picture.
When we got home, Rhett did one of his two HOMEWORK sheets! This is his first night ever to have homework. One was handwriting (letter D/d) and one math sheet. He took a break to play in the sprinkler in the back yard with A & C for a while. Cooler days are surely just around the corner (I hope!), so we need to take advantage of sprinkler time while we can. Bogart likes to get in on the sprinkler fun too. After this I took all four of them straight to the tub!

These two discovered a mud hole.

I love the contrast of the freshly painted pink toes (for gymnastics) and the mud...it's a TRUE picture of Alexee's personality. :)

Weekend: Zoo & Early B-day

Lane took his test on Wednesday so no studying yesterday (hooray!) and the weather was nice, so we made a morning trip to the zoo. This was the first time for us to only take the smaller stroller with the plan of letting Crosby out to walk around at different points. This made it hard to keep an eye on everyone, but C enjoyed his freedom! Rhett was constantly running ahead, Alexee usually wanted to go somewhere different than the rest of us, and Crosby just wanted to run. He didn't seem to care much about seeing any animals.

Here are the boys at the zebra habitat. Alexee was running a different direction because she was mad at Rhett for pushing the stroller when she wanted to do it. Lane was off chasing her. Oh, here they come. But notice Alexee's expression--still mad.
Family picture with camera on timer on top of a trash can. Alexee still mad and not wanting to participate--closing eyes on purpose.

Here is an example of Crosby enjoying his freedom from the stroller. He was in line with all the big kids to see the giraffes.

Last night I met two of my friends for dinner and a movie. We ate at Bravo and saw Eat Pray Love. It was a really fun girls' night out--good friends, good food and a good movie. Lane and the kids made a trip to Sonic and had a good time together. I didn't take a single picture.

After church today, L's parents came over to play with the kids while Lane and I went out for his birthday. We had appetizers for lunch at P.F. Changs, walked around Home Depot, hung out at Starbucks for a while and then stopped at a sporting goods store to look at jackets and shoes.

We came home briefly and took birthday cupcake pictures then went to dinner at Loca Luna. Lane just requested cupcakes from a local bakery this year--easy enough! I bought an assortment, but he had red velvet.

Lane, his parents & the kids

Happy (early) Birthday, Lane/Daddy!

Baby Boy at 17 months

SWEETNESS

Practice Dress

Well, on a positive note, Alexee seemed to like this dress better than the first one I made for her! ha! I made her a matching headband, so I think that might have done it for her.

But there are a LOT of negatives. I'm going to have to consider this a practice dress, restock on materials and try again. (Please don't laugh at the pictures below...this was only the second dress I've ever made and I had nothing at all to go by except the small picture of the MJ dress that I posted yesterday!!) :)

Some of the issues:

1. I managed to get it too tight at the top even though I thought I measured correctly. That's why she's not wearing a shirt underneath--it was really snug with the shirt!

2. My seams were way too thick and made the side of the dress look funny. I'm not happy with that at all. After looking at some of the dresses in A's closet (which I should have done earlier), I realized that I'm making the seams too wide and not using the right kind of stitch. I guess I'm going to have to get out the machine owner's manual or something. I'm not a big fan of looking up things.

3. I made the ties too wide. I could still fix those because they're only attached by pins right now, but since that's definitely not the dress's only problem, I don't think I'll bother with it. Just making a note for next time.

4. I think it needs to be a little shorter so it will come to her knees instead of below. I was completely guessing on how much material to buy, so I didn't get quite enough of the main fabric. I'll try to make it a little fuller next time--mine turned out too straight.

Sewing tips/pointers welcome!

Probably a bad idea

Given Alexee's reaction to the first dress I made her, I'm probably crazy to spend my time making another one...but I'm not giving up yet. I bought this material today. I'm considering signing up for more sewing lessons. I took a few lessons when I first got my sewing machine back in 2003(?), but I can basically only sew (somewhat) straight lines. I can't read a pattern for anything. They just make me mad. And I don't know how to do button holes or zippers or "fancy" :) things like that!

This small ribbon has owls on it, which I loved. The MJ dress below has cute ribbon with words on it--something about friendship I think, but HL didn't have anything like that. Wonder where I could find that?

My goal is to make a dress that looks similar to this one from Matilda Jane. I think MJ has the CUTEST clothes. I ordered Lex a skirt and shirt and leggings from there, but they didn't have this dress in her size in stock. Maybe if I can figure out how to make one, I can make several for the cost of one MJ dress?? I think my supplies added up to about $12. We'll see if she is willing to even try it on! ha ha

No cavities

Rhett and Alexee had dentist appointments after school today. I hurried there for our 3:00 appointment, but when we all got inside the receptionist apologized and said that she had left me a voicemail saying that they needed to move our appointment to 4:00. Soooo, we sat in the car and watched a DVD. I didn't have the energy to take everyone to do anything else. Six months ago I took Rhett on the wrong day for his appointment! Maybe I'll get it right in March 2011!

Rhett went first to show Alexee how it's done (Alexee's first time in the chair today).

She did great!

Look at Crosby driving the school bus across the chair. :) He looked at EVERYTHING in the whole office. He dug through the toothbrush drawer, pulled on cords and wires, climbed in chairs, etc. My head was spinning when we left.

She was told to "open wide like an alligator"

Showing me the results, I think.

He took a turn in the chair too and even got a toothbrush (maybe just because he'd been chewing on the box!?)

This one was with my phone--I wish it wasn't so bright--but I liked it anyway. Rhett was assisting the assistant with Alexee's cleaning. Maybe he will be a dentist when he grows up?
So after a long afternoon at the dentist office, we had one more event for the day: Rhett's friend's birthday party. Lane dropped him off so I only took two pictures when I went back to pick him up. By this point in the day I was exhausted and too tired to take pictures! R had a blast at the party though--it was at the family life center of a nearby church. He had never been there before. He told me he had fun and that he made several new friends that he can look for on the playground at his school. :)

School Brunch

Here are a few pictures from a school brunch that I helped with today. It was at my friend Cameron's house and was part of a school fundraiser event. I met several new people, and some of them have kids in R's class, so that was fun.

Fruit bowl that Katie brought

I took these cinnamon/sugar cupcakes. I've probably posted this recipe before, but if not it's super easy:

--1 yellow cake mix (I used the butter recipe)--bake according to package. I used mini muffins this time, but I've used regular cupcakes before.

--Melt 1 stick of butter (or more if needed--I think I melted an extra 1/2 stick today)

--Dip cupcakes in butter (I do top and bottom)

--Then roll in a bowl of cinnamon/sugar mix. I made the cupcakes last night, but waited until this morning to do the butter and cinnamon/sugar because they seem to get a little soggy after a few hours.

Cameron had everything decorated so cute. I loved this bright floral arrangement!

I also took these cream cheese crescent bars (above). I first had them when I worked at the church and one of the ladies brought them to the office. They are one of my favorite breakfast things!

Cream Cheese Crescent Bars

--Roll out one can of crescent rolls in the bottom of a greased 9x13" pan (press seams together).

--Filling: 2 packages softened cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 egg yolk (mix and spread over rolls.

--Top layer: Roll out another can of crescent rolls, press seams together.

--Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes

--Top with brown sugar, serve warm.

Cameron made these delicious fudge muffins. I've had a total of three of them today--yikes. I have to eat healthier tomorrow!

Stacy made punch--it was great! I wish I had these recipes to share.

Lianne made ham & cheese sandwiches ("Bunko Buns" I think they're also called?) and Cameron bought cheese grits at a local catering place. All yummy stuff!

I took these roses from Fresh Market. I like having an excuse to buy fresh flowers.

I think this is just so pretty. They're such a beautiful color!

Some of the guests. It was fun visiting with everyone!

Everyone is excited about the new school year!