Better Late Than Never I Suppose

It’s a good thing I don’t blog for money, cause’ I’d be in a heap of trouble and real broke. We are still alive and well, just busy bees. Here's a few quick photo recaps of the past few months, just for memories sake.

We had several family birthday’s to celebrate in the December, January & February, those always keep us hoppin’ and card making. Our most recent Hagood adventure we enjoyed a week at the beach for our first spring break in quite some time and boy did we enjoy ourselves and had some great family time.

We also spent some time in Fairhope with Danny's aunt Kay - she's so sweet and her home is just a slice of heaven. The boys were loving every minute of their adventure there, feeding the horses, fish, exploring the beautiful land (climbing her trees) she even made them a yummy grilled cheese. If there were ever a place to move, I do believe it would be Fairhope, there's just something about that town.Later that week, Mom & I also snuck away to Fairhope for their annual art festival, wow what an event, streets lined with creativity, we had a ball shopping - one of the best shops is Danny's aunt Kay's called A Place Remembered, everything is so pretty and unique. Then the phone rang & daddy boy brought us back to reality and it was time for us to go back to the condo to releive him of his duties.

Once we got back home it was back in full swing with baseball, we’re a proud cheerleader for the Cubs team and have the best coach ever for our second season of t-ball (minus the T most of the time :). I can't even believe it's already April, my how time flies when you're havin' fun! Until next time...

FALL FUN!

(Oops, just a little late on writing about October fun times, better late than never)

October was packed full of fall fun. We took our annual trip to the Clanton Pumpkin patch, I think it's our 4th year now. I'm all about creating traditions for the kiddos in hopes that they will treasure the memories as much as I do. We missed the Morris family this time around, but we hope we'll catch them at the patch next year.

Houston LOVED the hay ride...hence his total fascination with all things tractor.

Pumpkin Carving Time...

The week of Halloween was a busy power outage week, with the hubs on call we didn't see Daddy boy all week, which meant, momma here had to carve the pumpkins. I had forgotten how time consuming it was to get all the guts out and work your magic on a cute face. Next on the agenda is roasting those pumpkin seeds, yummy.

We had a fall festival at Nana’s school, which has become an annual event for the kids and they always have a blast. Lots of kiddy games and prizes. Colby was a yellow wolverine and Houston was a race car driver— note Colby changed costumes at each event - he's so funny about dressing up - he loves to change it up and does not wear the masks that come with the costumes - I don't blame him really...they do get rather hot.

Saturday, OMES had their first Fall Fun Fest, fund raiser. The boys had a full day of fun, hayrides, petting zoo, bouncy things, ball tosses and BBQ. I worked the bottle people craft table, it was fun to see all the kiddos creations, my boys weren’t really into the crafty stuff so thank goodness daddy boy came along to keep them entertained at the outside festivities. By the time we got home the boys were worn out, but the day didn’t stop there... Next up, Saturday night we went to watch that orange and blue team over at Holley & Steve’s. Never a dull moment with that crew. Garrison has so many toys and older neighborhood buddies that the kiddos entertained themselves most of the night. We did go out for a little trick or treating and their neighborhood did not disappoint, it was packed full of kiddos running around and their bags got heavier and heavier each stop. We even hung out with a few sweethearts from Colby’s old school. Colby was batman, Houston remained a race car driver. The kids had a ball.

Halloween day we went to Mt Brook to hang out with the cowgirl (Sadie) and the Indian (Sydney) at a really cool community Halloween parade - think Marti Gras parade but with a Halloween theme - lots of beads, moon pies, candy being thrown from old timey fire trucks, hurst on wheels, the kids had a ball fetching the loot. Mt Brook knows had to celebrate - the fun didn't end there - next up was a block party, complete with a band and pizza. Very neat to see the neighbors coming together and all the cute kiddos running around in the costumes, not to mention charming homes as the backdrop, very cool. This round, Colby was a blue power range and Houston stuck with the race car driver. We trick or treated with the Sadie & Sydney for a bit but felt like we should head back and be social in our own neighborhood. After 3 trick or treating excursions we are in candy overload at the house. What a non stop fantastic Halloween!

Mirror Transformation

So many projects, so little time. I've always got a project going on, and most of them aren't finished. I can finally cross this one off the list of to-do's. I've been working on this one forever, it's not like the project took a lot of effort but I've been tinkering with this one since July and I have no clue why, it could have taken me one afternoon but instead I let it linger. I kept seeing all these cute chalkboards all over blogland, so I came upon this mirror with really cool lines, probably a little girly for my house full of boys, but I knew she had potential.

Here she is, she's tall, thin and has good lines, she's made of plastic I'm guessing in her previous life she hung above a dresser. I picked her up for $8.00 or so.

I painted her heirloom white and the paint bubbled and bugs got stuck in the wet paint and it was a hot mess so I left her in the dirt and then finally moved her to the back porch for awhile, well maybe even a few months, shame on me.

Finally, when the temperature was a tad bit more pleasant and after a few sips of my husbands Monster drink, I started on her again. I sprayed her with another coat of heirloom white spray paint and a trusty coat of clear poly for protection. I went to Lowe's and found a sheet of galvenized metal, it wasn't the exact size I needed so I cut down a few inches to fit inside the frame - and used my handy kitchen scissors to cut it. Side note: I would have had my handy hubby cut this for me with one of his manly tools, but I was determined to make him proud of me and ask for zero help. After cutting it to size and wearing out my poor kitchen scissors, I then spray painted the piece of metal with some chalkboard paint - got to love this stuff. Took out all the screws from the backside of the mirror, left the mirror intact and placed the galvenized piece on top. And ta da I have a chalkboard/magnet board for all the school paperwork, party invite, doctor appointment paperwork overload chaos. It fits just perfectly on a skinny wall in the kitchen. And that my friend is a project done without the hubby's help! After shot doesn't really do her justice.

Next project to check off the list, kitchen bench for the kiddos...coming soon.

T-Ball

Baseball melts my heart. It's just so darn cute, those boys in their little uniforms, I just can't get enough of it! There's something about being at the ball park that makes you really feel like an official mom of a boy and I'm lovin' it! It's fun meeting new families you start to feel part of the commuity. This is Colby's second sport to try. We've tried soccer for two season and I'll have to admit I liked it too, but t-ball provides more entertainment and of course is a bit comical to watch at this stage. We have a great coach, he's on fire and good with the boys, they have had much improvement in just a few weeks.

Colby had a great hit off of a hand pitched ball his first game. Here' his first hit, see the ball in the air? proud moment!

He seems to really enjoy it and that's what it's all about, gaining confidence while having fun. He did have a total melt down when it came time for a team picture. He's the one on the right looking the other way, oh well, maybe next time.

Houston enjoys bringing his scooter and hanging at the ball park too!

August Birthdays

(Oops I forgot to blog about mommy & daddy's milestones, so I'll back date this one to August) We're getting older....into our 30's for sure now.

32!

And of course I share this wonderful day in August with my dearest friend Emily, my leo gal with the same birthday, birthyear and birthroom number! A fun night and a great place with a great view... Handsome hubby turned 34 just 10 days later! We celebrated Danny's big day at one of his favorite spots PF Changs. We also had dual celbration with the family over a pot of Gumbo by Chef Big Danny a good time was had by all!

FiRsT dAy oF SCHOOL!

So long expensive day care that we love! (but will appreciate the mortgage payment that we will hopefully save)

Yep, the time has come to throw my firstborn to the wolves, I mean to start a new adventure. So long day care...hello real school. School buses and all. There are mixed emotions with this new adventure. Different routines, earlier rising, a new world out there...but here we come...scared, excited, hopeful.

Ready or not kindergarten, here we come!

POOL PARTY

Colby and Garrison had their joint 5th birthday party this past weekend. They are about 11 days apart and met when they were about 11 months old and have been best buddies ever since. They had about 30 classmates, friends and cousins join them at the pool to celebrate. Just after a few games in the pool and cake, thunder and sprinkles came, so the party ended a little earlier than planned, but a good time was had and memories were made.

The boys insisted on a Transformer cake, so a Transformer cake it was...

We did the invites on the cheap and I thought they turned out cute. This is the first party where I didn't get caught up in decorations and matchy theme, and I'm okay with that, it kept it less stressful and really less work. I'm so proud the Colby's swimming lessons have paid off, he LOVES going to the pool and we are so thankful to be able to tag along with his buddies family from time to time. He loves to fetch his super heros from the bottom of the pool and he's getting more confident about going in the deep end, whoo hoo!