Back To School!

This morning these two loves started their Junior and 2nd grade years...

Last night before B went to bed she reminded us that this would be her next-to-the-last 1st day of school ever.  In high school, that is.  It's unreal to think that this time next year she'll be starting her last year here.  Of course, she's ready to say sayonara to Decatur and hello to college life, so that statement no doubt contained subliminal excitement!

While B was looking forward to her 1st day for that reason, Towns was looking forward to hers for a totally different reason.  She never wants it to end (or so she thinks at this age)!  Before bed she asked me to get out her "special pearls" and told me they'd be perfect for her first day of second grade...
She could hardly fall asleep at a decent hour because she just couldn't wait for this morning.  When she woke up at 6:30 on the dot without an alarm, she came running into our room at full speed, jumped into my arms, and exclaimed that it was finally the big day!

We got to school super early.  So early, in fact, that J accused me of making a "nerd" out of her for being the first one there.  I simply can't help myself.  I had to make sure we had enough time for all our "first" pictures - first time walking in as a 2nd grader, first time hanging the backpack up as a 2nd grader, first time sitting in the desk as a 2nd grader, etc.  And with the way she is these days, I surely wanted to get all those out of the way to avoid major embarrassment for her!
When we arrived at Ben Davis, her friend Conner greeted her with a great big smile...

Conner was sweet enough to snap this on my phone...
Right about then, she'd have loved to have a hole to crawl in.  Next year when she's at Leon Sheffield for 3rd grade I know there will be no picture like this unless it's taken before we ever get to school!

And naturally, we had to have a picture in this spot...

Towns and Emma are in different classes for the first time in their seven years of life.  There is major separation anxiety going on, but we weren't missing this photo op...

Cue the tears.  When we saw this angel of a woman, I nearly lost it...

Surely a year hasn't passed since we were taking that picture in her class.  Heaven help me.
We couldn't stay long. We had to move on down the hall to her new spot for the year...
I'll spare you the 457 other pictures I took of the whole process of getting situated in her classroom!
I can't leave out these, though...



 After a picture with Mrs. Davis we had to go...

Second grade it entirely different than first where we'd stand around and chit chat for 30 minutes.  They were ready to get down to business!
Cate and I went to the car and just sat.  I was physically unable to leave the parking lot.
Here's what I was thinking to myself:
Is it too early to get in carpool line?
(Along with: Hmmm, how long has it been since I've cleaned the inside of my car?)

All I have to say is that I'm chomping at the bit to get blondie and hear all about her first day.  I'm thinking a date to the ice cream shoppe is in order to do just that.  Right after I leave a treat in the form of a Starbucks gift card on sweet B's car so she can go straight to get a green tea and resume her after school ritual!
Goodness, I love these girls!!

JUG Summer Formal

I always love doing this post for a lot of reasons, one being because I absolutely love this time of year.  When the JUG Summer Formal rolls around, with it comes a welcomed change of season (well, almost), the beginning of school, and the start of a new "normal". Summer Formal - unlike its winter counterpart - is always pretty laid back.  B had a super cute date who knows how to have a good time, so we were all excited for her!  When she brought her dress home, we agreed that a huge necklace and fun heels had to be part of the mix.  After a trip to Bridge Street one day last week, we checked both off the list.
When she was all dressed and ready Saturday afternoon, I almost wanted to call the whole thing off because Lord knows it's hard to let her leave the house looking this pretty...

Cameras were flying left and right.  Half the pictures ended up on my phone, while half were taken with my real camera (it's not hard to tell the difference!)...

The running joke of the evening was whether or not J would tag along since he and B's date Cory ride motocross together and get along so well.  It's always hard to split them up, as crazy weird as that sounds.
But we did manage to separate them long enough to get a picture of the real couple together...

As sweet as Cory is, he better watch that hand!!

Not too long after, she was whisked away to her friend Julia's house for a couples dinner.
Thanks to Berek's mom Lucinda, I have a couple of group shots from Julia's...

Pretty girls!

While they were at dinner, the rest of the fam and I hit Ingalls Harbor for this...

Do you watch Duck Dynasty?  If not, I'm telling you right now you're missing out.  A&E hit the jackpot with the Robertsons.  It's by far our favorite show to watch around here.  It's so hard to find something we can all sit down and watch, but this one's a classic.  I know every Wednesday night when it's on I'm sure to laugh until I cry.  It's that funny.  So when J's friend Patrick called to ask if he could find him a black Suburban to use to pick Phil and Mrs. Kay up from the airport in, I chimed in and reminded him that I have one sitting in the driveway.  That went over like a lead balloon since they're all big time and have to have State Troopers drive them around.  Can't blame a girl for trying!  Long story short, J got them a car and Patrick ever so kindly gave us tickets to the big Ducks Unlimited event Saturday where the Duck Commander himself was there live and in person.  Along with his hilarious wife.  I mean, I was dying.  I didn't have it in me to stand in line for hours to meet him, but I didn't mind staring at him for a solid 20 minutes like a psycho stalker...
You would have though they'd brought in a Bo Jackson/Cam Newton duo by looking at the line outside that tent.  It was totally out of control and I loved every minute of it.  The night kept getting better and before we knew it, it was almost 8:00 and time to get to lead out and watch these two make their way down the "runway" as Cate called it...
How cute are they?!
It's always over way too quick for my liking, that's for sure.
And when it's all said and done, these two girls still think their Bebby is the best thing in the world...

B will kill me for that picture, but she was in such a hurry to get back to her friends I only had time to snap one.  There were definitely no redos in the equation!  Towns brought her little tiara in her purse because she said Bethany was the princess.  Bebs kindly put it on her head so the situation wouldn't result in tears!
Cate was extremely confused and was sure Bethany and Cory had gotten married.  I assured her that wasn't the case, but she did want her flowers to pretend like she was the flower girl...
By the time we got home that night, everything was left at the kitchen counter and we fell into bed...

Now B's enjoying her last week of summer at the beach with friends, and the girls and I are making the most of our last few days together.  Can't believe it's almost that time again!

Art Camp for Cate...Finally!

At the end of July, Cate went to art camp which was something she'd been looking forward to for a good, long while.  I'm not sure if was because her best friend Ella was also going, or if it was because she knew Towns had gone for the past three years and it was finally her turn to go.  Or maybe a combination of the two!  She thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was anxious to see her art at the end of the week, as she's usually our wild card.  With her, you never know what you're going to get.  However, I knew from experience that if anyone could pull out the creative side of a child, it was Mrs. Kelly...

For nostalgia's sake, I found this picture of Towns with Kelly at her first art camp when she was four...
Right off the bat, she was excited to take us around and show us everything she'd done within the "For Everything There is a Season" theme...




She was overly proud that J arranged his work schedule around her art show...

He's such a good daddy!
And I'd be remiss not to mention Towns playing the "I've been there, done that" veteran role...

 Buggy and Ella...


This is where it gets comical.  Cate has never been the one to sit still in a group setting like this and listen to someone talk.  That's just her, although it's high time she learned to deal with it.  When J told me to watch her, I had to get the camera back out...
By then, she'd shed her shoes and was about to go postal.  Until Mrs. Kelly started asking questions that she knew the answers to...

I love listening to Kelly go over the different artists that they've studied each day throughout the week.  It's amazing to me that they can create such special art while taking in all the details about the lives of the artists.  Her favorite was that Monet loved to paint on his boat and that he enjoyed painting bridges and his wife the most.  Half of the names of the artists she talks about I couldn't even attempt to pronounce...much less know their biographies!

I think art camp was a hit, and we're glad she's still got two more years to participate before she "ages out" like blondie.  One more for the road...

Famous Last Words

Those famous last words would be "I would never let my blog fall to the wayside"...eating those words this summer!

It's slowly coming to an end, and I can honestly say we've enjoyed every minute of it.  I've let a lot of things go in order to be able to spend more time with the children while they're at home without school and their usual long list of afternoon commitments.  It's been pure bliss.  Of course, there's always the fighting, the "I'm bored, Mommy", the taking of toys from one another, etc. Just keeping it real.  There have been a few moments when I wonder if I'm half crazy not having the kids in a camp every other week.  But all in all, I wouldn't change a thing! It's going to be a wake up call when it's time to go back to school.  Figuratively and literally.  They have grown quite fond of sleeping "late".  All the way to 7:30 - which is late in our world!  My head spins at the thought of having to have everyone fed, dressed and on the way to school by the time they're usually just waking up lately.

While activity here has been slim, it has been anything but that in real life.  We helped J's good friend Billy celebrate his wedding in Fairhope around the first of the July.  When J talks about growing up, the stories always center around Billy and Bradley.  Funny how when they're together now, they're more about showing pictures of their children to each other on their iPhones...

It was a full-on Selmatown reunion, and I've seriously never laughed so hard in my life.  I gave up taking any pictures after this one...

There was way too much fun to be had!

Not too long after that, I turned another year older.  I'm thinking 32 might be my most favorite year yet.  Towns gave me this...

It came with a big hug and kiss, just like the card said.

And Cate drew me a picture of the two of us...

If only I could be neon pink in real life.

The older I get, the more I realize that things like this are way more special than anything they could purchase.  I've got so many of these little treasures.  If you know me, you know I never throw a single one away.  Ridiculous?  Probably, but I just can't help myself.  I spent the day with these two clowns which was just the way I wanted it...
It was a monsoon which nixed doing anything outdoors, so we landed at Chuck E. Cheese where 895 tickets won will get you a Fun Dip, two bouncy balls, and a bunch of temporary tattoos...

Cate loves to use her tokens on these pictures...

Check out the death grip I have on her.  When B saw this she laughed for days!
It ended with dinner with my loves...

We're always making a scene.  We try hard to keep it calm, but inevitably everything totally gets out of hand!

A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I drove through a torrential downpour to spend the day in Tuscaloosa with my precious, collegiate cousin Mary Catherine.  We went armed with lots of homemade food.  If you've been away to college, you know why that was an absolute must!  She gave us the tour of her house, the tour of campus, and our most favorite, the tour of all the Greek houses!  We went to lunch, and the girls couldn't stay off of Mary Cat long enough to let her breathe, much less eat her meal...

They think she's pretty great.  So do I.  We had a blast, MC!  Can't wait to do it again soon!

Late one July afternoon we sprung the Kiddie Carnival on the kids as a big time surprise.  They had a blast, and we left wondering why we'd never gone before?!  We hit the swings first...

Every time they came around, a teenage girl with a super soaker wet the daylights out of them.  After a few trips around, they were begging to get off.  But they really give you your money's worth there...it was a full five minutes before the ride ended.  And they were soaked from head to toe.  Goodness.
B told them to get on the front of the roller coaster because it was the best seat, and they meant that's just where they were going to get...

The scrambler was always one of my favorites...
Towns found out the hard way that the outside seat isn't the one you want!
The ferris wheel was a joke for Towns, but Cate and the little girl riding with them devised a plan to spice it up...
They figured out how to make it rock back and forth...
Which made the boys above them scream like girls and complain that they were too wild...

 By the end of the night they were barefoot and fancy free...
We couldn't leave without cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, and everything else that makes you nauseous at a carnival after riding all the rides that go round and round...


 We've spent some time at the library where we sit for hours quietly entertained...

That usually means we've got to get ice cream or something afterwards to get us going again...
Blurry picture from Zen Beri, but I love that lap full of sweetness!
Come to think of it, ice cream has been a big part of our summer...

That was from the day those four spent together from sun up 'til sun down.  They swam, ate ice cream, went to the park, ate ice cream, hit the splash pad, ate ice cream, and then we ate some more ice cream...
During this particular trip, Cate talked Ella into feeding her all of her gummy bears.
When they're not into ice cream, they're into cake pops...

They're going to hit a crash from a major sugar high when summer's finally over!

Cate's dabbled in piano a little lately.  The other day she had her iPod on the piano playing a song that she was trying to play along with...

I was rather impressed at how she could pick the notes out!
Meanwhile, Towns has come to the conclusion that summer school is for the birds.  You can tell she's none too thrilled that I've been helping her brush up on her math and reading...

Bethany has been in and out all summer, and has kept busy working her little heart out.  When she's home, you can find blondie right up under her...
They were anything but cooperative with picture taking that day, but played along on a tennis date not too long ago...
Towns wants to do anything and everything possible to act like, talk like, and look like her big sister!

We're gearing up for school starting which brings football season along with it...

Much to my surprise, their little trick I walked up on didn't end with broken bones.  I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot of those outfits in the near future.  Football season lights a fire under us around here!

Here's to a fun Fall and jumping back on the blog train...