Hurricane Party

I've known Bethany for six years now, and I learned early on to never doubted her creativity when it comes to finding things to do on the weekends. From day one she had us playing anything and everything under the sun, and even as she gets older she's still using that imagination of hers! So this morning on the way to Panera Bread for breakfast it was raining and she was asking us if it was going to be like that all weekend, and we said yes and to get used to it because of all those hurricanes lined up out in the ocean! I jokingly said we needed to have a hurricane party....and being the planner that she is, Bethany took it and ran with it!! When we got home the party planning began and in less than an hour we had party food in the oven, transformed the dining room into party central, changed into our fanciest attire, and even had a red carpet leading up to the front door where you had to hand over your custom designed ticket to get into the ever exclusive shindig. I think I see major celebrity party planning potential in her future....

The wall decoration B made for the party, complete with the projected path of Hurricane Ike...

Where the lunch party would take place...

The hostesses...

(B turned my skirt into a dress and added my belt and shoes, Towns was in my 1st ballet costume which is 25 years old!!)

Posing together...

The brains behind the party...

Towns showing off her fabulous outfit...

I'm posting this one very much against my own will, B is sitting beside me and forced me to do it....

J and Cate (C got fancy by adding a tutu to her outfit, J was a party pooper and wasn't as decked out as the rest of us)....

Bugaboo ended up crawling the red carpet...

And then, naturally, she was ready to party with invitation in hand!

This one is for the record books...tried to get a good pic of all three girls and this was what I got on the first try! YAY!!

Thanks Bet for entertaining us! We never know what's in store for us when you're here and WE LOVE IT!!!

2 Cool 4 School

Towns and Cate started Mother's Day Out at our church this week and are both loving it! And so am I!! Last year in November I took over Towns' MDO class after her teacher left, and I although I loved getting to spend those five morning a week with her and her friends I sure did miss my one or two mornings a week to get all my running around done! This is Cate's first time to go, and I'm rather conflicted about it. I didn't want to put her in this early, but then again I so desperately need a minute or two to breathe every once in a while! Raise your hand if you know that feeling. I tried to snap a picture of the two of them in front of the church on their first day, but with the two of them you never know what kind of picture you might get. Here are all of my attempts...

Last night after church Towns and Cate were in the floor playing and were having a blast together....

Until....

...this little monkey stole Towns' stickers and then it was all downhill from there! Towns is great about sharing 99% of the time, but she is a 3 year old. Didn't think I'd be refereeing them quite so soon, though!!

One more picture of Cate from this morning...

She's learned how to use a brush!

This chick will be here tomorrow....

...and we couldn't be more excited!! It's always more fun when she's around! Towns has been counting down the days since Tuesday...she lives for the weekends when she gets to see her

Bet-ny!

11 Down, 1 To Go

My heart is officially is in a million little pieces, and I'm hoping this will be the longest month of my life. All because this is Cate's last month as a true baby. SAD! I'm in denial, I think. I still see her as my little 5 pounder I just brought home from the hospital. The baby who made it against all odds. I'm might be a tad bit sentimental and nostalgic these days, but I want to hang onto her being a baby as long as I can. I want to keep her like this forever and never, ever let her grow up! In three short weeks (since I'm a week late on this post) she'll be a year old. And it's killing me!! I was looking back at pictures from when she was so tiny....

Her hands were so small she couldn't even wrap them around my finger....

And whenever she's sitting or laying down she still crosses her sweet little feet like this...

The truth is that no matter how little I want her to stay, she's growing up before my very eyes faster than I like to admit. She's talking more and more now....Dada, dog, uh oh (most notably when she intentionally throws food off of her high chair and likes to pretend it's an accident), thank you, and in the last few days she's started saying Towns. She's still a crawler, although she can walk like a champ when she's got her hands on something to keep her balance. She loves to feed herself and can really show her temper if you try to do it for her. And she loves to be right in the middle of any action she can find! She might be small, but she can definitely hold her own. The other day at the bookstore she and Towns were playing at the train table when a group of older boys came up and tried to take over. Towns backed away and let them play, but not Cate. She made her way right to the center of the group, tried to knock them out of her way from the table with her arms, and gave them a good talkng to with that voice of hers that's her way of letting you know she means business (I swear we haven't taught her any of this, I guess it's just her nature). I asked J why he thought she acted that way. He (jokingly) said "she's Cate McClendon, that's why". And that's pretty much my Cate Bug in a nutshell. She's no joke! HA! In the 11 months she's been with us she's definitely livened up our lives. But for every ounce of sass in her, she's just as sweet!

The only bright side to my baby growing up is planning her 1st party! I'm a planner by nature, and planning parties is my fave! Towns' 1st birthday party was balloon central because she was obsessed with balloons. I've yet to live that one down....

We had balloons in the front of the house...

(Not sure why the pictures is so tiny)

Balloons all the way down the side of the house leading into the back yard...

Balloons on the fountain and in every other available spot....

Balloons on every table...

And after it was all over with, this is what my house looked like...

The balloons were fun, but I want to do something different for Cate. I'm thinking bubbles. Bubbles and dogs are the two things that really get her going, and I'm not having a yard full of dogs.....SO, let the party planning begin!

True Love

After Saturday's trip to Auburn, I have a much deeper love and appreciation for two things in my life...my husband and Auburn. For this to have any relevance I must tell you that J is a die-hard Alabama fan. So the fact that for my birthday he surprised me with tickets to opening day at Jordan Hare Stadium was nothing but pure bliss. Never once in our marriage have I thought about going with him to an Alabama game even though he's asked me to go with him many times. Obviously I'm not nearly as nice as he is. Or as thoughtful. Because I can honestly say that the thought of giving him a trip to the place he loves to watch his team play has never entered my mind. I'm going to have to really step up my game after this weekend! Not only did he take me to Auburn, but he went with a smile on his face and was the best sport about it. He wore his navy Lacoste to fit in with the crowd (his own idea...I didn't have to ask him to do it). I drug him all over campus and he was fine with it. He happily accompanied me to Tiger Walk. He didn't complain a single second when I had him in the stadium an hour and a half early so I could take it all in....in our seats that were in practically the only place the sun was shining down on the stadium. We were both melting in the 95 degree heat, but I had chills. Auburn's got a great show. Everything leading up to kick-off is phenomenal....the band marching around the field, the pre-game "Are You Ready For This?" video (I was in tears), the Eagle, the video before kick-off , and all the other pre-game festivities. And after each one you think it can't get any better. And then the Tigers take the field and you nearly fall off the bleachers because it's almost humanly impossible to jump up and down, scream, sing the fight song, shake the daylights out of your shaker, etc. in the 1 ft. by 1 ft. space you've paid to stand in. Oh, and then there's the football. Insane!!! I'm telling you, there's just no greater place on earth...period. It's been several years since I've been back, but I swear every time I go I leave with a deeper love for that place. It's in my blood and I'll love it 'til the day I die. The only thing that could be better than this past weekend is the anticipation of my children growing up experiencing it....

The band marching around the field while during warm-ups....

The Eagle...he flew from right above our seats!

The band's pre-game show...incredible!!

Tommy and the Tigers taking the field...

WAR EAGLE!!

6-in-1

Way too much to blog about, and way too little time! Here are a multitude of posts all rolled into one...

We've spent a lot of late afternoons at the park by the river (Towns calls it "my birthday party park" since she's had her last two birthday parties there...what can I say, we might have overdone it but it's the absolute perfect party spot and the kids love it...plus it's special because it's been our favorite place to play since Towns and Bethany were a lot younger). It's nice right at 6:30 or so when the sun is almost down and it's not so hot. This particular day was a treat because we got to see two pretty neat sailboats on the river. Click on Cate and Towns below to see the rest of the pictures....

A few weekends ago my dad rented a house on the lake in Guntersville and invited us to tag along. We had a fabulous and relaxing weekend complete with lots of grilling, jet skis, a failed attempt to take a stab at intertubing with a broken tube (for the record 12 year old Bethany is much better at pulling an intertube than her father...HA), and spent some quality time with my dad's side of the family who we don't get to see as much as we'd like to. This picture of Bethany and Towns makes me smile...click on them and you'll get more pictures!

Towns started ballet class a couple of weeks ago. Yours truly is her teacher! This week on the way to class I snapped a few pictures because she was ever so excited about the way I cut the feet of her tights so she could pull them up on her legs and wear them like "the big girl ballerinas" do. Cate looks a little pitiful in these pics...this is 24 hours after surgery. Don't let her fool you though. She hasn't missed a beat!

Bethany was here last weekend and was in one of those moods where she wanted to get a new look. Every few months she'll ask me to cut her hair, and I'm just as nervous about doing it now as I was the first time (years ago) she ever asked me to cut it. It was one of those rainy, blah weekends where we didn't have much to do so she said she wanted to chop her hair off. I asked her how she wanted it and she said "like that" as she pointed to my hair. Minus the layers, of course, so that made it pretty simple. We cut it little by little until she was sure we'd gone short enough. The only criteria was still having a ponytail. Mission accomplished!

Two weekends ago my sweet friend Anna Kate (more affectionately known as "Roommate") celebrated the upcoming birth of baby Katherine and I wouldn't have missed it for the world! Her shower was in Birmingham and it was so much fun seeing all of girls we spent long hours studying (translation: playing) with at Auburn. Ahhh, memories! Katherine got loads of fabulous clothes and other goodies and I've already begged AK to display it and take pictures so I could see it all again because it was so much to take in at one time! After the shower our crew went to AK's beautiful new casa, and let's just say that baby Katherine is one lucky chick to get to come home to such a gorgeous nursery and wardrobe! She's blessed in every way, that's for sure!

Wish I would have gotten better pictures of AK opening her gifts, but here she is super excited about the owl finger puppet!

Baby William was glad all of his OOC aunts officially interrupted his nap schedule. This car seat business lasted all of .4 seconds before his Aunt TT busted him out of there! Is he not the cutest?! William, if you like older women Cate's totally available in 30 years...that's when she's allowed to start dating.

Blazer, Jess, Jenn, Tara (61) & Baby Blair, Tara (TT), Anna Kate & Baby Katherine, Ginny

Tara, Claire & Blazer

So after several months of Cate's desperate attempt to walk, I finally decided it was time to try to give her a little help. Towns never had a walker (if that's what they're even called these days) so we didn't have one to pass down to Cate. Towns took off at 9 months and never slowed down so we never needed one! Cate's taking her dear sweet time which is perfectly fine with me. I want to keep her little as long as I can. However, when I spotted this cute little thing at Target the other day I couldn't resist. She LOVES it and thinks she's big time pushing it around.

The bad news is that the red-head temper comes out when she pushes it into something and can't get going again. I don't know where she gets that from!

Towns is very into using her imagination. She's always been this way, but even more so now that she's learning the "I want to be ____ when I grow up" concept. All week she's been fascinated with being a nurse. And today she's into teaching (something she's always really enjoyed because Bethany plays school with her all the time). She lined up her dolls, Lulu the lamb, her special Care Bear Grandmommy gave her, and her pink bouncing donkey who was too big to sit with the rest of the class and read her little heart out to them. Welcome to "The Handy Manny School"....she picked the name, naturally.

The other thing she loves is pretending she's a mom. Here she is with her stroller and my Baby Huggums dolls (circa 1982). Out of all the dolls she has, this is her favorite to play with!

Something funny she said today....at the grocery store she spotted the aisle full of Halloween candy and begged to take a look at it so she could pick out what she wanted. Being the frazzled mom that I am in the grocery store with two children who doesn't always think things through before I say them, I told her that Wal-Mart's rule was that we couldn't buy Halloween candy until closer to Halloween. She didn't say anything but I could tell her brain was hard at work. Ten minutes later in the check out line I'd forgotten about the candy, but she hadn't. She looked at me with the most innocent look and said "there's no Wal-Mart rule about Halloween, you just didn't want me to have any chocolate, did you?"....now what do you say to that?!

Happy Labor Day weekend! We're headed to the Loveliest Village on the Plains! And I can't get there fast enough!! WAR EAGLE!