Babies, Pilgrims and Christmas Angels

But not exactly in that order or even remotely associated with each other...

Let's start with the Pilgrims. The kindergartners had a Thanksgiving play which was definitely worthy its own post that's soon to come, and on the Friday before they got out for the holidays the Pilgrims and Indians made their debut for another little show. But first, a Thanksgiving feast was in order...
It was heart warming to see the Pilgrims and Indians all dining around the same table!
After they feasted and played a round of educational games, they got lined up for their performance...
It was as precious as always!
If Towns is the pilgrim, guess what Cate is...
And a wild one at that!

A couple of weekends ago I hit the road to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Little Miss Sara Frances Parrish, the bundle of sweetness my friend Oakes will welcome next month. The theme was very fitting. You can't imagine what it was...
Jenn did a fine job in the cake department...
However it would have been a whole lot sweeter had she been with us and not under the weather. We missed you, JennSimp!
Let me just state the obvious - Anna Kate's baby shower hosting skills are impressive...
Is that door hanger for Sara Frances not the most precious thing ever? Jess' handy work!
(I just hung our Christmas door hanger and definitely have to show you how cute it is.)
A certain little elf left adorable owl ornaments for us all to take home...
Complete with the cutest poem...thanks Diana! You know we love you!!
Oakes isn't the only one with a bambino on the way...
Ginny and Ashley are both expecting!
Blazer and Tara and their baby bottles...
Wish you could have seen our attempt (or 83 attempts) at a group shot with our self timing cameras. This one is the best one I came home with, and it was a work out trying to get it...
But I wouldn't trade it for anything! And will you please notice that even at a baby shower we've got football on in the background? Only in the south!
I have to admit that I'm a little spoiled from seeing most of those girls two weekends in a row. We'll all convene at the beach in March and I cannot wait! Being with those girls just feels comfortable. Like Tara said, it's the only baby shower she's ever been to where she doesn't have to shut the door to the bathroom! :)

Now onto Christmas Angels...
Last Sunday morning we picked two off of the Angel Tree at church. This is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. 'Tis better to give than to receive, and we can't start teaching the girls that early enough. So I slightly influenced their Christmas Angel choices and got them each to pick little girls their own age. It really gets me that those two little angels need clothes and tennis shoes for Christmas. We hit Target immediately after church to pick a some things out for them. Towns and Cate really couldn't understand why their angels only wanted clothes for Christmas. I tried to explain it the best I knew how, but they both meant that we were buying them coloring books, crayons, jewelry and dolls as well. I loved how enthusiastic they were about it. It did my heart good!

The WHAT Shop?!

There are plenty of things I love about Bethany, and a biggie is how sweet she is with her little sisters (who most times drive her absolutely crazy). Last Tuesday morning it was storming, I had at least a hundred shirts to get done and in the mail before we left town the next day for Thanksgiving, and I was desperate. B came to my rescue and planned a fun morning to spend with the girls. One of the things all three of them love about going to Grandmommy and Pop's is taking a bath in the sink. Of course B is too big for that now, but I think she secretly wishes that wasn't the case! :) Back to Tuesday morning. She decided to turn the kitchen sink into a beauty shop. She's so creative and resourceful like that.

Cate asked to go first, and I'm glad I had my camera near by. The way she says some words makes me laugh hysterically. The beauty shop was the "booty shop" and I can't even translate her attempt at "beauty salon". See for yourself and please excuse the laughter...


Towns was super excited to have her turn...
And even more excited to have such a fantabulous big sister!

15

For months we've been counting down the days to a certain monumental occasion. What might that be, you ask? It just so happens to have something to do with this sweet thing...

And these two numbers put together...

That's right, folks! Bethany's FIFTEENTH birthday!!

Actually, her birthday is Saturday but something this huge deserves a celebration that lasts more than just one day. Especially when you're as fabulously fabulous as Bebs!

When I say we've been counting down, I mean we've been counting down. I remember when we were still in the 70's and talking about how her big day was just a couple of months away. Since this is major excitement, I couldn't let the last ten days of the countdown get away without taking it up a notch.
And thus you have the 10 Days of Birthday:

On day 10 she got 10 banana Laffy Taffy's...

9 Dove milk chocolates...

8 Reese's peanut butter Christmas trees...
**Day 7 was the day she was too hungry for her 7 peppermint bark squares to wait until a picture could be taken...just picture her pretty face here**
6 airheads (no hidden meaning - ha!)...
When she looked back at these pics she asked me to crop out her t-shirt in that picture because she'd already worn it on day 9. I promised her I'd explain that she just really, really loves my old Halloween date party shirt. :)
5 Starbucks dollars...
4 boxes of Hot Tamales...
3 fun pens that we fight over so I got her some of her very own...
2 owl clips that she can totally rock...
1 pair of owl pajama pants...
Yesterday when she got home from school we had a little something waiting for her...
A surprise party!
These two worked so hard getting everything ready...
It only took approximately 3 hours to get it to this point because of their serious work ethic... They were so picky about every little detail!
While we were waiting for her to get home, Towns found a great spot to hide so she could be waiting to jump out when B came in...
While Cate kept an eye on the cupcakes (and usually a few fingers in them as well)...
She kept watch of those things for at least half an hour without moving. And every two seconds she'd remind me of how "nummy to her tummy" they were going to be when she finally got to dig in. And if she asked me to "just let me mell dem" once, she asked me to let her smell them fifty times!
The (almost) birthday girl ready for her party, complete with a Birthday Princess sash and a crown to match...
Time to light the candles and sing!
Please notice the monkeys in the background that have choreographed a dance...
Make a wish, Bebs!
Finally, it's time to get our hands on those cupcakes...
Bebs must have been hungry. I know that because she opted for cupcakes before presents. Shocking! But it wasn't long before she was ready to rip into them...
The background on this one is funny...
She was opening an autographed copy of Lauren Conrad Style. The day I ordered it for her was also the day she bought a copy for herself at Target. I tried to get her to return it without spilling the beans, but it didn't work. I ended up having to tell her and she insisted that she wanted both copies (being that she couldn't hold off on reading it until her birthday)... The next round of gifts are pretty fun to talk about...
When we're driving anywhere that requires being in the car for a while, B asks me to tell her stories from when I was at Auburn. She's done it as long as I've known her. That eventually turned into me teaching her Chi O songs and what not. With her being in high school now and college inevitably around the corner, she's gotten very much into anything and everything Chi O. Do you even know how excited this makes me?! One of the first songs I ever taught her was the one that goes a little something like this...

She's got hair of gold and her eyes are blue, and her cheeks are rosy too
(clap, clap)
And on her chest she wears the crest of the X and the gold horseshoe

I'll spare you the rest, but it ends with "she's the cutest girl in the whole wide world, she's a Chi Omega girl". Maybe it's a little premature, but it's definitely fitting for sweet B. A couple of months ago she was looking at the Chi O website and saw a shirt for sale that had the words to that song on it. She had a fit for it. So of course she got it...
And she got this, too...Those two things were at the top of her wish list, and you better believe I couldn't say no to that!
She also asked for brown boots, and if you saw this you'll know that she'd fit in with the Chi O's on this front, too...
She might not be a Chi Omega yet, but she's definitely the cutest girl in the whole wide world in my book...
After the surprise party, the girls all went to gymnastics and we rounded out the celebration with a late night trip to B's favorite place to eat...Ruby Tuesday!
The birthday girl and her daddy...
This one makes me laugh because you can tell the younger ones were ready to call it a night and they look like they've been through the ringer...
They were up way past their bedtime, but I can't think of a better reason to keep 'em up late. B's a pretty fun person to celebrate!
Happy birthday to the sweetest, smartest, funniest, most beautiful girl in the world.

Happy 15th, Peach!!
We love, love, love, love, love you!

And if you're in the Decatur area, watch out...she'll be behind the wheel.
Kidding, B! You take curbs way better than I ever could!!