Masterpieces

For the last two weeks, Towns has been going to an art lesson at Memi's Pottery on Bank Street.  Our friend Mary Bibb turned us onto these lessons and once I saw what they created during the first one, I was so sad that we'd missed out on it all summer!  Rickie Higgins is a great teacher - so patient and easy going with the kids.  A room full of oil paint and young children would send me over the edge, but his feathers never seem ruffled.  He's excellent at what he does.  Towns has always been very much into painting and anything artsy, so I had a feeling she just might be into these lessons.

The first week she painted pairs, and this past week was a butterfly on a flower...

The blue in the pear painting was supposed to be covered up with paint.  They were the guidelines she'd painted.  But Miss Perfectionist wasn't even halfway done with the picture when I went to pick her up so the blue is still there and the shading on her pears didn't get finished.  She was quite upset about that, but I assured her they were the most beautiful pears I'd ever laid eyes on.  And my absolute favorite touch was the way she signed her name.  Mr. Higgins told her that should be her signature on all her art! :)

We took Madelyn with us Tuesday...

They painted hard for two hours and were all proud of their masterpieces...

You can look at the older kids' paintings and tell more about what it was supposed to look like, but I think this one is just perfect the way it is...

 

The younger ones are giving each other makeovers (with bright blue eye shadow from what I can tell...lovely!), Bethany is napping, J is riding his motorcycle, and yours truly is packing.  I'm not running away from home if that's what you're thinking.  Well, at least not by myself.  The five of us are heading to the beach for the week for a much needed family vacation. Hello perfection!  Now I just hope and pray my husband makes it home in one piece this afternoon.  I couldn't help but remind him that a wheelchair wouldn't get very far in the sand...

Crazy Cupcakes

Thanks to my favorite sister duo (none other than Anna Kate and Virginia), we had afternoon entertainment yesterday.  Once I saw what they came up with earlier in the week, I knew we'd be trying it out.  They made rainbow cupcakes and nailed them.  I was too intimidated to try it for the fear of ours not turning out to look like rainbows which would end with two little girls in tears.  So we did ours a little differently.  Towns and Cate love to bake, but throw in neon food coloring and you might as well have told them they could have the whole bowl of batter to eat with a spoon!  What is it about food coloring, neon at that, that makes things more fun?  It was all flowing smoothly and right on track until Buggy decided to take the hand mixer out of the batter bowl and hold it high above her head.  Now you know as well as I do that's the biggest no-no ever in baking.  She knows it, too.  But she wouldn't be her silly little self if she didn't spice it up every now and then!  After ten minutes of removing batter from the cabinets, ceiling, and light fixtures, the three of us each made a pan of six cupcakes.  I let their creative juices take charge and let them do whatever they wanted to do with all the colors.  Some were striped, some some were swirly, but they all tasted fabulous hot out of the oven.  I know this because I ate two immediately.  So much for my P90X devotion!  In my defense, they were too cute not to eat.  We used a white cake mix (out of the box) with butter cream icing.  We're fancy around here, let me tell you.  I would have gone for homemade icing, but I was gun shy after Cate's escapade with the mixer.

It looked like a big mess to start with...

Actually, it was a big mess.  But the girls had such a good time, so the clean up and food coloring stained clothes were worth it.  Please excuse my disposable muffin tins...they're horrible, I know. 
This is why we love neon...

Those bad boys are so bright you'd need shades!
Trust me, they tasted as good as they looked...

This is our new favorite thing to bake...thanks for the tip Roommate and VLD!  Bethany even said she'd been wanting to try it out for a while, so I have a feeling round two is on the horizon...

Baby Boden?

To most people this is a Mini Boden catalog...

As I was just sitting on the front porch swing looking at it with Cate, I found out that to her it's much more than that.  She's oblivious to the fact that the babies are models for the clothes they're trying to sell.  To her, it's where you pick out a baby you want.  She was so interested in that particular page and when she said, "can my order those three babies?" I understood why.  She desperately wants a baby in our house and in her mind, this is the way to get it!  I asked her what in the world we'd do with three babies.  Sort of like a hypothetical question.  But she had it all figured out.  We'd buy diapers, baby food, and bottles and we'd be all set.  We wouldn't need to buy clothes since she thinks they come in those outfits. :)
If someone has a baby we can borrow for a day or so, we'd be much obliged because Lord willing she's not getting a brother or a sister from yours truly!

It's Almost Time!

Do you know what this is?

Looks like school supply shopping (hence the rows upon rows of Elmer's and Crayola in the background).  Sounds like school supply shopping ("I want this", "I want that", "I know I don't need this, but can we buy it anyway?").  That can only mean one thing: it's almost back to school time!

Glory, hallelujah!

We've had a great couple of months of free time, but by this point in the summer we're desperate for a routine.  We're creatures of habit.  We like to get in a groove and stay in it.  We crave it and thrive on it.  If you read between the lines here, you'll know that it also means that the girls are always one second away from tearing each other apart.  As long as I can keep them busy, entertained and productive they're wonderful.  The minute I have to work or do some things around the house, it all falls apart.  Bethany is my hero and has come to my rescue this summer more times than I can count.  She knows just when to step in and say, "who wants a makeover by Bebby?" or something of that nature. God love her!  But for all the moments when I think I could pull every last hair out of my head (and theirs too), there are twice as many where they make me smile, make me laugh, tell me they love me or throw their arms around my neck for no reason at all.  And that's what makes my world go 'round!

Back to the school supply shopping...it's right up there with our all time most favorite things to do.  And since this is Towns' first year at "big" school (so to speak), it made it even better.  However, I must admit that I wasn't quite ready to ditch the cutesy flower and heart covered notebooks for ones that look more like 1st grade.  Hello, Justin Bieber.  Really?!  I didn't question Towns' choices.  She got to pick it all out herself.  And if that's what floats her boat, well, I can live with that.  Sadly, it ended all too soon (we like to drag it out, J does not).  But we couldn't stroll on out of Target without stopping for a brownie for the girls and Starbie's for the grown ups...

Now that's the face of a happy girl...

Who is well on her way to being a big, bad 1st grader!

Mini Cheer Camp

The past two days have been cheer central around here.  Not too far from the ordinary, I suppose!
We were up and at em' early Wednesday morning and proudly sporting cheer gear...

There's only one thing that can get us going that early, and that's Decatur High's mini cheer camp.  Towns and Cate both got to attend...with much anticipation.  Give them a shot at anything that can get them a little closer to being just like Bethany and they're game!  After three hours of camp yesterday and three more today, they were ready for an audience.  And that's just what they had, but not before a group picture...

The three year old group performed first which was the sweetest thing ever.  To say they thought they were hot stuff would be an understatement...

Once they were in place and ready to rock and roll, they danced to a little Justin Bieber...

 And it wouldn't be completely without doing the ice cream and cake...

Towns had a big group of kindergartners and 1st graders who were so into it.  Too cute!  There was a varsity cheerleader standing right in front of me which prevented many good shots, but she was loving life and that's all that matters...

They know most of the girls already, so they were right at home...

Cate's been all about her Bebby lately.  B told me that Buggy faked having to go to the restroom just so she could hang with her sister in the hall.  Love them to pieces...

We didn't escape without Towns wanting everything the Varsity rep had to offer.  The promise of a family trip to Panera for lunch got us away without us breaking the bank.  I do believe I dodged a hundred dollar bullet!

Monday, Monday

What is it about summertime that makes me lose all good parental judgment?  This past weekend our girls ate ice cream at least six different times.  Not that bad, right?  Unless ice cream is their meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And forget shoes.  They went everywhere like this...

 

Do you see how black those feet are?  It didn't bother me a bit.  Life has been so laid back and carefree lately, and it's been fabulous.  

 

 

Yesterday Bethany had Ice Water Teas for JUG rush.  Y'all know how I feel about that!  This was her first year on the "other side" which (in my opinion) is the best place to be.  She looked gorgeous, by the way!  While she was chatting it up with rushees, we killed some time with a bike ride around the neighborhood.  The only thing about that is that J doesn't have a bike (that's not motorized) so he has to ride Bethany's bike.  It's sort of small for him which obviously means he can manhandle it.  The other day he took the skin off of his forearm when he was riding it on only the back wheel down the road.  In all of his horseplay, he's managed to break the pedals completely off of the bike.  Twice.  He had to put a third one on, and I love how he acts like that's totally normal.  You know, like it happens to everyone all the time.  The girls and I gave him down the road about it, but he kindly told us he didn't need any comments from the peanut gallery...

 We not so patiently waited for him to fix his ride and off we went.  Two minutes into it Cate always tells us that her legs are tired and she needs to stop for a quick rest.  J and I remedied that by turning around and coming back home to put her in her Escalade instead.  That's the only way she can keep up with us!

Not to change the subject, but what's a Monday morning without a photo shoot? We stopped by to see Stephanie at Eloise & Henry Friday afternoon and came out with these adorable outfits...

Honestly, have you ever seen such cuteness?  She has a store full of fabulous clothes and goodies that you can't pass up.  And the beauty of it all is that you don't have to be on Bank Street in Decatur to snatch it up - you can see it all here!

The only down side of shopping online is that you miss actually seeing Steph and filling up on sweet treats.  My children don't go in her store without coming out on a sugar high!  And I don't come out without my side hurting from laughing so much.  She's hilarious and precious!

On another note, have you seen the new Smitten & Company Facebook page?  We've got big things in store and need lots of "likes" to get it all going!  Won't you join in?  Think sample sales, wall sales, and much more.  You won't want to miss it!

Meanwhile, I've got a date with these clowns for a picnic in the park...

 If I'm correct, this will be the 7th park trip in three days.  Ah, the joys of motherhood!

Happy Monday!

Brace Yourself...

If you thought I unloaded a lot of pictures on you before, you ain't seen nothing yet.  My husband wins some kind of major award for the thought he put behind giving me the mother of all cameras for my birthday.  I had no idea how much I loved photography until now. Is that even possible?!  All I really thought I wanted was a new lens for my old camera, that wasn't old at all (and can be yours if you'd like a Nikon D5000, in perfect condition and less than a year old).  I was using the 18-55mm kit lens that it came with, and while it was great for what I used it for I wanted to test the waters with something more.  Mainly, a lens that would zoom further for when Bethany's cheering or what not.  It goes without saying that I was completely and utterly shocked when I opened a new Canon 60D.  I have no idea how to use it and my pictures are laughable, but I'm loving it so far.  I got it two days before my birthday, which also happened to be just in time for J's big motocross race on Sunday.  I find it less than coincidental that his racing buddies knew about it ahead of time.  As in, they all wanted to see themselves in HD video come race time!  These aren't the modest and most humble of men we're talking about. Ha!

Let me rewind to last week when my precious mother-in-law asked if she could have the girls for a couple of days because she had some time off from work.  We didn't even have to think twice about that one.  My children would pick a grandparent over Mama and Daddy most any day of the week!  They spent last Thursday and Friday with them, and J and I joined them on Saturday - after making a pit stop at the track for a quick practice on his new ride.  Did I mention he'd gotten a new motorcycle?  Call me crazy, but I think that might have been the catalyst behind the new camera.  He's sweet like that.  When we got to Selma Saturday, I walked into a surprise party...

 Poor Grandmommy.  I know how excited and determined all three girls get at the thoughts of planning a party when they're here, but I would never have wanted them to put that on her!   The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the play room, riding the four wheeler, and stuffing ourselves with Pop's yummy food...

 

 

And by nightfall, the kids were curled up on the couch ready to snooze...

Towns and the other two lovies really enjoyed getting to spend time with their cousin Keaton!

The next morning it was time for this...

I have one word for you.  HOT.  Blazing hot is what it was, actually.  After Sunday it's very apparent how deep our love is for J.  Otherwise we would have gone seeking air conditioning before we even had time to break a sweat.  Hence these pictures...

Bethany took this one...

Those feet were almost incapable of coming clean by the end of the day.  Who needs shoes?!

This chick was the sport of all sports...

She doesn't have much love for the outdoors or getting hot, for that matter.  But we were excited to see J do his thing on the track, so we didn't complain too much...

It still makes me a nervous wreck to watch him, but it's fun just the same!

J and his friend Eric love to ride together.  His daughter Reid was there, and when that happens the McClendon girls don't let her out of their sight...

That was one of the few times we escaped the heat in search of a few minutes of cool air.  I think the look on Reid's face says it all.  She's wondering why on God's green earth these people have kidnapped her and are holding her hostage.  I'm serious when I tell you that all of them were fighting over who could hold her, whose lap she sat in, etc.  And just because she's half an inch shorter than Cate, Buggy considered her a baby and wanted to play mom to her.  It didn't take long for her to warm up to all that, though...

After a day in the dirt and sun, we came home ready to crash!

Monday was another scorcher.  If you've got to be outside, this is the only way to do it...

Blondie thought she was of celebrity status in her shades...

And this, well, it just makes me smile...

Got to love that little cheek hanging out!

With the water park under our belt, B convinced me to take everyone to the mall in Huntsville.  She didn't have to twist my arm all that much.  We ended the day with a birthday dinner at Mellow Mushroom because, let's be honest, it's hard to do fine dining with our circus...

Pictures from the other side of the table didn't go nearly as smooth...

We couldn't leave without stopping by the table where some, um, colorful ladies were painting faces...

A kitty face for Towns and a "butterthly" for Cate...

I'll cry when she starts pronouncing her Fs correctly.  Thlip thlops, thloaties, butterthlies...love it!

Bethany graciously declined to get her face painted, but I couldn't resist a picture of her...

That famous pose of her really got her daddy going...

We'll have to teach him!

We got a little camera happy before we called it a night...

 Not only are we camera happy, we're also the opposite of camera poor...if you want a great Nikon let me know before it's eBay'd!