Memorial Day Weekend

We had a nice holiday weekend.  Lane worked on Monday, but we had fun going to The Track on Saturday.  The kids did bumper boats, go-carts, laser tag and the boys did the batting cage.  Sunday we went to early church service, had a quiet afternoon at home then went out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack.

Rhett in his red, white and blue accessories (purchased for upcoming camp theme night) and the kids acting silly in the car.  :)

Dinner on Sunday

Very very thankful for the freedom that we have!

***

Monday night Crosby had a baseball game.  It rained (again), but still a fun night.

ready on 1st

Alexee and Crosby have been in a crafting mood since school got out.  :)  They both sewed pillows and made bead animals, and Alexee made clay donuts and clay charms (which we baked) for her charm bracelet.  

Lane's B-day, StitchFix & Other Catch-up

Things are going well with the new school year so far!  Rhett is staying busy with football practice (games start after Labor Day) and drama club just started, with book club and math team beginning later this month.  Alexee is taking gymnastics again, and she also wanted to sign up for intramural basketball and volleyball and Crosby wanted to play flag football.  So I don't think we'll get bored this fall! :)

Lane had to work last Sunday, so the kids and I went to early church service then went to Silver Dollar City for a few hours.  It wasn't too hot, and it was much less crowded than a typical summer day so I was happy about that!  They rode several rides together.  Rhett has never been afraid of any rides, but Alexee and Crosby are getting more adventurous now, too.

Sunday evening Lane and I had reservations at Top of the Rock's Osage Restaurant for his birthday.  It was our first trip there, so we were really looking forward to trying it.  Our only regret was not arriving early so we'd have more time to look around before dinner.  The setting is amazing with a beautiful view of Table Rock Lake, and sunset was so pretty.  We loved the food too!  It was such a nice evening.

(It was fun to see that the restaurant had an ad in Southern Living this month!)

So Monday was Lane's actual birthday.  I made a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing, and we celebrated with the kids after dinner and gymnastics.  We're so proud of him, and we are thankful for how he loves us and takes care of us!

I've heard about several people shopping through Stitch Fix recently, so I finally decided to join and give it a try.  I was so excited to open the mailbox and see my first shipment!  They sent five items (2 tops, 1 dress, 1 jeans and earrings).  I liked the style of everything they sent, but decided to only keep the jeans this time.  Both tops were just slightly shorter than I would have preferred even though I liked the design.  I tried on the dress a couple of times and almost convinced myself to keep it but decided I didn't really love it.  The check-out and return process was super easy, and I loved the convenience of it all.  After making some minor adjustments to my "style profile" I scheduled a second shipment for this month...so we'll see how that goes. 

Misc. pics of the kids:
Alexee at gymnastics and in morning carpool line; Crosby reading Box Car Children and showing his sweet, toothless smile

Bogart and Rhett enjoying a relaxing Saturday morning and Joey on a field trip to the back yard to eat clover.

Both boys are missing lots of teeth right now.  Crosby is missing front teeth, and Rhett is missing a couple on each side.

Misc. pics from the back yard:
Cute mushrooms :)
Ferns that I bought at the beginning of the summer and had very little hope for because I'd never had ferns...but they loved this spot on the patio!  They have been so pretty, and I really hope they make it through the winter!
Mama and baby deer strolling through the grass
Pretty sunrise colors and fog on the lake

Spelling Bee & Bridal Shower

After being rescheduled multiple times due to snow days, Alexee was finally able to compete in the 2nd grade spelling bee last Monday, March 9th.  She was one of three class representatives.  She was really excited about it, and she studied her list very thoroughly.  

Reading the rules and getting ready to begin:

The competition went on for quite a while.  I expected it to last about 30 minutes, but I think it took about an hour and 15 minutes!  Alexee made it to the final round.  The other little girl was given the word "bunny", but she spelled "buddy" so then Alexee had to spell it correctly plus one additional word ("buy").  She did it, and was named the 2nd grade spelling bee winner!  :)  We were so happy for her!  She told me that afternoon that by the time she made it to the final round she "had no fear left in her".  :) 

final two

She was really happy and excited to get a fun certificate!

It was great that Lane's parents were in town and able to be there to watch her!

Alexee and her super sweet friend AC, also a class spelling representative!  So proud of these girls!!  (They planned to wear matching outfits for the competition--I thought they were so cute.)  

Grammy and Bobba said good-bye to Alexee, then they wanted to stop by Crosby's classroom to meet his teacher, see his classroom and tell him bye before they had to go home.  They were having circle time when we got there, but C jumped up to hug them.

***

On Wednesday, March 11th (also rescheduled due to a snow day--it was originally planned for before the wedding), we had a classroom bridal shower for Alexee's teacher.  Jackie and I had a lot of fun planning it!  Since Mrs. S had a carnival theme at her reception, we decided to use that for the shower as well because we thought the kids would think that was fun.  Of course Pinterest proved to be very helpful...We found an animal cracker cupcake idea there that we used, as well as a ceramic popcorn bowl from the class.  

The kids added three fingerprints each to the bowl to make a piece of popcorn with their name beside it.  Jackie also printed out a cute writing prompt with questions about marriage advice, etc., that the kids did at the beginning of the party.  I forgot to take a picture of that, but it turned out really cute.  She had hole-punched the papers and tied the pages into a sweet book to give to their teacher as a keepsake.  

We served cupcakes, popcorn, animal crackers, juice bottles, and Jackie gave the kids cute to-go bags of bubble gum and animal crackers for an after-school snack.

Then the kids gathered around her to watch her open gifts.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MR. & MRS. S!

We wish you lots & lots of happiness!

***

Here's how the bowl turned out after it was fired:

Happy Holidays, Week 1

Here's a summary of our first week of December:

Monday the 1st we had our first "snow day", even though this was what it looked like...a little bit of sleet on the deck with the grass still visible.  It started sleeting right before daylight, so I guess they had no choice but to cancel school. I was sad to have to use a snow day this early, but in a way it was nice to have one more day of Thanksgiving break.  Cookie the elf returned the night before, so the kids were excited to search for him Monday morning.  Alexee and Crosby also decided to be crafty and make toy soldiers.  C hung his on his bedroom door and A hung hers on the Christmas tree.  

Cookie usually shows up with a little surprise on his first day back, and this year he brought flannel pjs for the boys and a Christmas outfit for Lex.

Tuesday was back-to-school, which was good because Tuesday evening was the 2nd Grade Christmas musical, and Alexee did not want to miss it due to bad weather!  They'd been working on the songs in music class for weeks and weeks, and their hard work paid off!  It was a really cute program called "A Nice Nice Christmas".  This is a picture of her with her wonderful teacher and several of the girls from her class before the show.

Her class doing their dance to Here Comes the Snow:

We were happy to have my parents join us for the program.  (This was a bad choice for a photo location with that bright light.)  I had dinner cooking while we were gone, so they came by our house to eat with us afterward.  It was a fun evening.

Wednesday I went to Home Depot to get a Christmas tree.  Sadly, I couldn't find a cut-your-own-tree farm for us to visit near here.

Lane wasn't going to be home until later that evening so I had to get creative with the unloading process.  The boys had haircuts after school that day, then we hurried home to start decorating!  They wanted me to get a tall tree, and I think they were pleased with it.  

I love our new ornament--I bought it in Little Rock when we were there for Halloween.

Friday night we drove out to the Chateau on the Lake.  Lane had seen something on the news about their candy village display in the lobby so we wanted to take the kids to see that.  The candy church was my favorite, especially the "stained glass" windows made from jelly beans!  They also had a beautiful Fontanini nativity set and several Christmas trees. 

We loved having a quiet day at home on Saturday.  Here are a few of our decorations around the house:  fireplace with stockings (and a Christmas cactus on the table that I think might actually bloom at Christmas!), a recycled wood Christmas tree that Dad built for me last weekend.  He made a barb-wire star for the top and I pinned ribbon to the branches for Christmas cards.  I decorated the dining table with sycamore logs that Dad also cut for me, pine branches from our yard and the pretty "holiday forest" candle that my sweet friend Jackie gave me for my birthday.  And this Santa's pipe candle smells so good too.  I love having the house decorated for the holidays!

Crosby was so sweet to want to write Cookie this note the day he hid on his bookshelf.  :)

Alexee is always making things.

Saturday night we were crazy enough to think going to Silver Dollar City was a reasonable idea.  It was beyond crowded, but once we finally made it inside and pushed our way to the back corner of the park it was okay and we had fun.  They didn't even route us through the usual entrance...they sent us down a dark path through the woods, behind buildings, around dumpsters, etc.  Ha!  They kids kept saying, "Where are we??"  The lights there really are so neat, and we had a funnel cake, fried Oreos, hot chocolate and wassail.

Alexee & Rhett are in the seats on the right:

Our sweet gingerbread boys and girl:

Enjoying the giant singing tree on Main Street:

And because I just never learn....on Sunday evening I was crazy enough to think that going to the Christmas parade was a reasonable idea.  :)  Actually, it wasn't bad at all.  We got there too early and had to wait for a while, but I expected it to be more crowded than it was (not complaining!)  We found a warm place to wait inside a hotel lobby then walked back across the street just before parade time and found a front row seat.

It was almost an hour of fire trucks, marching bands and fun local school and business floats.  The kids thought it was great!  I'm glad we went!