Saturday Night

Last night I wanted to make a trip to Target after the kids went to bed, so I called Ali to see if she wanted to go along...who doesn't love a trip to Target?  I bought the kids each a pair of water shoes and sunglasses for the trip, and I bought myself a few tank tops and a pair of $5.99 sunglasses.  Here we are trying to find the biggest pair of glasses on the rack...Lane doesn't really like the HUGE sunglasses that everyone wears now...so I asked Ali to take my picture in these for Lane.  :)

I took this picture at Belk before we went to Target--I thought it was a cute idea for a kid's room.  It has a metal ring at the top and bottom and various strips of fabric draped over it and tied.  I'm going to hang onto the idea for future reference for Alexee's "big girl room".

Rhett & Alexee both liked their new glasses.  We'll see if they'll actually wear them on the beach.

Kitchen Safety

I guess our kitchen is a dangerous place to eat...Alexee has to wear a helmet and Rhett has to wear goggles during breakfast!


P.S. Have your kids tried these? Rhett thinks they're so fun--he likes to have one to eat and one to use as a straw in his milk. They're in the cereal aisle by the Fruit Loops.

Bowling Night

Earlier in the week, our Bible study group met for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, then we went bowling afterward. I can't remember what my score was, but I do know that it was not good...no where near 100!? It was really fun though. I think the girls just enjoyed sitting around talking while the guys were actually trying to out-bowl one another. (Phillips & Pengellys, we missed y'all!)


Tracie, Jamie, Kyla, Leslie & Charla

Hanging out with Maylee

A's friend, Maylee, came over yesterday. She was so good, and the girls had fun playing together.

Close-up

Her little teeth are popping in...she constantly has her hands in her mouth because of teething, I guess.

Phone conversation

Kids these days. She'll probably be sending text messages by the time she's two. :)

I love all her different expressions in these pictures:

Homemade gifts are the best!

I'm so thankful to be Rhett's & Alexee's Mom!!! This morning R's MDO class had a little art show for Mother's Day. After we looked around at the artwork, his teacher handed him the gift he'd made to give to me...a stick picture frame with a picture of him standing in the church prayer garden (wearing clothes he'd chosen for the day--which made it even better!)

Here we are in his classroom, standing by the picture he drew of me.

I love the part about cooking with me! The Pizza Hut answer made me smile, too!

WHAT A BLESSING!!!

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

Play date with Kennedy

We met the Burketts at the park this morning and had a great time. I was afraid it would rain, but it was a perfect temperature and we only had a few rain drops.

Two cute 4 year olds. They've been friends since they were born. They're 5 weeks apart.


Alexee ran with the older kids of course.

Having a deep conversation.

Cutie in the clover.

The big tunnel slides didn't scare her at all.

Good laughs over a picnic lunch.

I don't want our kids to grow up--this is such a sweet time in life.

Bogart's Scrapbook

I worked on A's scrapbook for a while tonight. I took a break to go move some laundry to the dryer, and when I came back, Bogart had hopped up in my chair to do some work. I don't think his scrapbook would be very exciting...page after page of sleeping on the ottoman.

I thought he was funny in this one below because he looked so serious.

The real reason he jumped up in the chair: he saw me leave my dish of marshmallows and chocolate chips on the table before I went to the laundry room.

Rainy Day Picnic

This afternoon, a group that L is involved with at school hosted a family picnic at the park. The weather looked questionable when we left the house, and it was raining by the time we got there. Rhett wanted to play on the playground equipment anyway, so we made our way over to the play area in the rain (it was a loooong way from the picnic pavilion). We put a beach towel under a pine tree for shelter and tried to play. Alexee sat on Rhett's lap in the tire swing, and I pushed them briefly--Alexee loved it. She was determined to do everything that Rhett did--it's so cute how she follows him around. Rhett went back to the pavilion to eat BBQ with Lane, and I took Alexee to the car to dry her off.

Simple, white dress

I met Ali at the mall this morning to look for a simple, white dress for A to wear for black & white photos at the beach. Ali suggested buying a cotton slip, which is what this is below. It was $10! I think it will be perfectly cute for a picture in the sand. If we don't ruin it, we're going to pass it along to A's friend Maylee for her beach picture later this summer. Does anyone have experience making pillow case dresses? That was another of Ali's recommendations (she's on speed-dial for all these questions I keep coming up with!)...but I'm afraid I don't have time to tackle that project before we leave. Maybe later for some little summer dresses...they look fun and easy enough to make. Let me know if you have any tips on making them!?

Big shoes to fill

A sweet sweet boy:

Blog world, real world

Yesterday evening we were having dinner at a local restaurant when I decided to take Alexee outside to walk around so she wouldn't get bored before dinner arrived. As I was walking out the door, I noticed two adorable children that I thought I recognized from somewhere. I quickly realized that it was Leigh Ann & her family...a friend of a friend whose blog I've been reading for a few weeks now! She recognized us, too, and we were so excited but also disappointed that we'd failed as bloggers--neither of us had our camera! :( Leigh Ann, it was really fun to meet your sweet family! I hope the craziness over at our table wasn't too distracting during your meal!

Winnie's White Chocolate Drops

Ali had been telling me about these, and yesterday she brought some over to my house. She was right, they are DE-licious! She wrote the recipe down for me, and today I needed a dessert for a church group thing, so I made these. They're quick, easy and addictive...you should try them:

Winnie's White Chocolate Drops
16 oz. white chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups rice crispies
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup unsalted, dry roasted peanuts

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 tsp. Crisco

Directions:
1) Melt white chocolate and peanut butter over LOW heat until smooth.
2) Remove from heat, stir in rice crispies, peanuts and marshmallows until well-blended.
3) Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper to cool.
4) Melt milk chocolate chops w/1 tsp. Crisco in double boiler until smooth.
5) Drizzle chocolate over each "cookie" on the wax paper.
6) Refrigerate to keep them firm.
7) Enjoy!

Acadia

Last night we met our friends, Brad and Leslie, for dinner at Acadia. They're friends from church, and we always have so much fun with them! Lane and I had never eaten at this restaurant, and we really liked it. It's a great nice-weather place because the outdoor seating is really neat. They have a three or four level deck, and a huge tree growing through the bottom layer. I had blackened gulf shrimp--it was a great meal, but very spicy. For dessert, we ordered coffee and creme brulee. Brad & Leslie had mixed berry cobbler which was great, too (they shared a bite).

This is the view over our heads at our patio table. It was pretty once it got dark, too, with the white lights in the trees and along the patio rail.

Thursday Misc.

I decided to try to get R to draw a little bit this afternoon. He doesn't really like to color/draw/write, but I'm worried that he needs to work on it anyway. So he wanted to draw his cousin Jaiden and his friend Mallory first. I had to try not to laugh out loud when he was drawing one of the noses and said (very seriously), "heeeere's the nose, and I need to draw two holes in it for where the boogers go..." I helped him write their names on the drawings, and he wants to send them his artwork. Then I asked him if he'd draw me, and I would pose like Max did in a Max & Ruby cartoon. This is what he came up with:

He spent a lot of time on my shoes at the bottom. Also note the belly button and crazy hair. :)

He's started having Circle Time in his room during the hour that he "rests" (he doesn't take a nap anymore). Bear, Clifford and Bunny are the students, and he reads them a big stack of books. I can hear him in his room as I sit here at the computer, "How does a dinosaur say goodnight..." He's so funny!

More beach preparations...I bought these little folding chairs at Target today. I was thinking about looking for iron-on or adhesive letters to put their names on the backs...does anyone know about a product like that that might work?