Mommy's Day

Mother's Day has become a lot more fun now that I am a mother of course! This year, we spent the day with Nana and Mommaw on the farm. Since I volunteered to cook dinner (which according to my husband is what mothers do), he promised to do what fathers do on Father's Day...take us out to eat! (If you are wondering, yes, I have my hands full with him and the kids.)

Anyway, Caroline was so excited that it was finally time to give me my "Mommy's Day" present that she picked out of me. Granted, I already knew what it was because as soon as she and her Dad came home from the store, she showed me the pamphlet she was given that had a picture of what she picked out for me on it. Nonetheless, the charm bracelet she chose fit perfectly and the angel charm was precious.Despite it being Mother's Day, the kids weren't too excited to oblige me with a good picture. This is the best it got. They did, however, pick lots of rose pedals off of the rose bush for me. I just count my blessings that God allowed me to be a mother, and I cherish each day I have with my precious little angels!

Baby Lane is growing up

This past Saturday we attended Lane's 1st birthday party. Caroline loves "Baby Lane" and was thrilled that she was able to hold the birthday girl. Unfortunately, she is beginning to realize that Lane is not really a baby anymore, but is becoming a toddler on the move. Thank goodness Aunt KK is going to come to the rescue by adding another baby to the family real soon! Will decided to give the cake a try before Mimi got to the table with it. Here's a picture of Josh (my cousin) and Lane. There is no doubt that he is that little girl's daddy, is there?And of course Uncle Randy obliged everyone by giving wagon rides. Next time I'll have to get a better picture of his pulling crew...those horses are beautiful!
On the way home, we passed Pop on the road riding Durango. Caroline said, "Pop is going really fast. He better slow down or he will get a ticket."

Nana's Retired

Congratulations are in order for Nana! After 28 years of teaching school (four of which she taught me), she has finally decided to close the math book and relax a little. The kids and I decided to help her celebrate this momentous occasion and joined her for her retirement reception. Caroline was a champ and sat through the entire hour-long presentation, while Will and I got to explore the hallway since he couldn't keep his mouth shut. He babbled about something the entire time. I think the only reason Caroline was such a trooper was because she knew Mexican food was only a possibility if she was sweet. So, once we got Will off the stage (he slipped away from Pop Buddy and thought he was so funny sitting on the opposite end of the stage and refused to come when called), we headed to the Mexican restaurant to celebrate some more. Nana, we hope you enjoy your retirement and I'm sure we will be seeing more of you these days.

Mudbugs

This evening, Matt decided to pick up some crawfish on his way home from work. Well, maybe he was prompted just a little. Anyway, it was the first time our kiddos got to meet these funny looking creatures. Here are a few snap shots from their first encounter. Oh, and if you are wondering, they ate spaghettios instead because neither one of them would try a bite and Will fed himself (as if you can't tell from the pictures).

Bookworms

Today when I put Will down for a nap, I couldn't seem to pry the book he had out of his hands. So, I figured there wasn't much harm in letting him sleep with it. When I went in to check on him, I found this:He gets it from his sister, I assume who likes to read before she goes to bed at night. Her favorite book at the moment is my devotional book. You should just hear the stories she is reading to her baby doll out of this little book!

Happy Birthday, Ol' Pal!

Today is the long awaited day that I get to wish one of my best friends a Happy Birthday. While I am excited it's her birthday, I'm more pumped that it is finally payback time for the sweet birthday wishes she sent me on my birthday.

Please let me introduce you to Laura Elaine Baria Henson. We met playing tennis at Mississippi College. Don't you love the barbed wire tattoo I let her give me before one of our matches? Anyway, we got to know each other really well on our very LONG trips to Texas. It was then that I found out how strong she was.......and about all of her previous military experience, so I knew I needed her as a friend in order to stay safe during my college years. I must admit, if I had not had Laura as my best friend in college, MC would not have been the same. Instead, we have lots of funny, embarassing and not to be shared on the world wide web stories. Then there are some that are worth mentioning...like when she kept pestering me in the hotel one night that I finally had enough. Since we had been working out in the gym, she was determined to show me just how strong she was, so she kept trying to body slam me to the ground. Well, during one such "slam" I decided to pick her up and throw her on the bed. Well, obviously I had been eating my wheaties because instead of Laura hitting the bed, she flew over the bed and hit the wall...hard. Of course then panic struck because we were all afraid that I had injured our star player before a big match. Luckily, she was fine and of course won her match. Laura and I are both country girls at heart and often decided to travel back to Texas (as if we hadn't spent enough time there already) to see George and Clay. Then there were all the fun times on the farm (you can check out those pics on her blog) and the many chocolate milk runs late at night to ease our anxieties over tests and those pesty boys.Who would have guessed that these days we'd both have young kids (she's expecting her 3rd boy) that we hope act more like their Daddies did in college! Happy birthday, ol' pal! I hope it is great, filled with less trips to the bathroom and more time off your feet. Next time we're together, I'll treat you to some chocolate milk!

Planting flowers

Since I have so many empty flower pots around the house (mainly because of plant neglect in which a once beautiful plant died while in my care), I decided we should try our hand at planting flowers from seed. Who know if anything will come up, but I figure it was a cheap, fun project for the kids. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that at least one seed decides to sprout, otherwise I'm going to have a very unhappy camper named Caroline.

Of course the interesting part of our planting was when Will found a worm. He thought it was the coolest little creature and kept trying to aggravate his sister with it. Oh the screams! Anyway, before we knew it, he decided to see if his little friend tasted anything like a gummy worm. Disgusting, I know. Luckily we caught him before he took a bite out of his new found friend. After we got through that ordeal, he decided he would put his little buddy in his sand box for safe keeping. Luckily, we caught him again and made certain we didn't have any unwanted guests setting up house. Matt thinks all of Will's boyish ways are hilarious. I'm not in total agreement because I'm usually the one trying to get him out of the messes he makes. But, it does make for interesting days!

Caught!

If you wonder where she gets her love for ice cream and eating out of the tub, it is directly from her father. No matter where she is or what she is doing, she can hear her daddy get the ice cream out of the freezer and comes a running because she wants "just a little" too.

Happy Birthday, Abby and Tamah!

On Friday afternoon, we had the pleasure of helping Caroline's friend, Abby, celebrate her 4th birthday. The party was held at Laurel Park in Belhaven and it is absolutely the cutest little park with tons of fun equipment to play on. Abby is a very popular little girl because she had lots of friends come help her celebrate. And the cake...let me tell you about that cake. It was made of fondent icing which is always beautiful but not always that tasty. This cake, however, was absolutely delicious. So, I will gladly give a plug for Abby and Tamah's neighbor who owns a cake business called Southern Belle Cakes.
After the party, I asked Caroline what she wanted to eat for dinner and of course she wanted Mexican food. So, since Daddy and Will didn't want to get cleaned up from playing outside, Caroline and I had a little date. The food was good but the company was better. We had so much fun just the two of us.





Since we're in the business of birthdays, I should also mention that today is Tamah's (Abby's mom) birthday. I am so glad we met each other in our Bible study and I'm especially looking forward to enjoying some playdates with the two of them this summer. Happy birthday, Tamah!

What will $20 buy?

I must admit that I have never been a garage sale shopper, but since our neighbors were participating in the neighborhood garage sale, I figured, "what the heck", I'll go see what they've got. So, my garage sale buddy and I rode around the neighborhood and found these awesome deals!
A Barbie piano and horse and carriage for Caroline - total $6
A motorcycle and Elmo workstation for Will - $8
and my favorite find of the day...bed guard rails for $5. Granted, these were a little dirty, but once I Cloroxed them, they look brand new.

And if you're wondering about the shady math (the items total $19 if you were adding in your head Momma), I also included the 2 $.50 lemonades we purchased from the girls down the street.

School's out for summer!

Today marked the last day of playschool for the kids. They both really enjoyed Ridgecrest and loved their teachers, Mrs. Candace, Mrs. Ricci and Mrs. Carrie. Mrs. Candace is one of the most creative people I know so she helped the kids make all sorts of cute things. Caroline's friends from school were Josh, Blake, Taylor and Olivia, while Will and Dale had a lot of fun playing together. When I told them that today would be their last day, Caroline asked, "is it summertime already?" I told her it was and she squealed with glee. She then said, "that means we get to stay home with you everyday and it's time to go to the water park." Ever since Pop and Mimi gave us season tickets to the water park, she has been asking when we would go. I guess we'll probably make a trip up to Geyser Falls on opening weekend since she is dying to go. I know the kids loved playing with their friends, but I must admit that it makes me feel good that they are excited about our summer plans.Caroline, Mrs. Candace, Taylor, Blake, Josh and Big Red

Mrs. Ricci and Caroline
Will and Dale (Big Red)

A fun playdate

On Wednesday, Caroline had her friend Abby over for a play date. The girls have such a good time together and are so sweet about including Will in their fun. If he didn't love tractors and tools so much, I would be a little worried about him because he acts like one of the girls when they play together. I had to make sure that we had 3 strollers for each one of them to push their babies when they went shopping around the house for things they needed. He also helped the girls cook lunch in the kids' kitchen, color a princess picture and helped fix my hair. And he sure wasn't going to let me insult him by making him sit in his highchair for lunch. No, he sat at the table with the girls and enjoyed a tea party with them as well. It was really funny to watch him fit in so well. Perhaps next time I need to invite a little fellow over for him to play with so that he can play with his cars and toolbox!