What a Weekend!

Such a busy weekend. It was so nice to have a long weekend with Shane. It's so crazy around here with work, school and life that when we get some time together we try to really enjoy it!

Saturday was the Best. Day. Ever. Seriously. My total favorite! We went shopping in the morning for some work clothes for Shane. It didn't even matter that I wasn't shopping for me. It was so much fun! We went to Kohls and they had a HUGE clearance section. He got so many great things for work. Eight work shirts, three t-shirts, a belt, six undershirts, and eleven pair of socks for $227.52 PLUS I got $40 Kohls cash for later this week. That was a total savings of $399.36 off of the original prices. Man...I love getting a good deal! Then that afternoon the girls went to my parents house for a slumber party with their cousin Nokie. Shane and I went to the movies to see Men in Black 3 and then out to dinner. I'm on a mission this year to try new things and go to new places but we just went to Bonefish because I was craving me some bang bang shrimp! Sad, I know. I'll try to be better next time. :)

Sunday we had Shane's family over for dinner. His cousin Jaime was in town with her boyfriend, Forey. She wanted everyone to meet him so we had a party at our house. I think it's safe to say we all liked Forey and we had a lot of fun hanging out. Shane grilled chicken and corn. I made the cilantro lime rice from Chipotle...got the recipe from pinterest. :) It was all very good. The kids (and the adults) jumped on the trampoline pretty much the entire time! I really should have taken pictures! It was so fun to watch. :)

Monday we celebrated Nokie's birthday. I really can't believe she is 4! We were going to swim all day but it rained a ton. They did get a little bit of swimming in but the best part of the day was Pin the Tail on the Donkey and opening presents. Nokie didn't actually like pin the tail on the donkey because she didn't like being blind folded. I never liked it either! My girls loved it though. Gracie and Matthew played too.

  They stuck the tail on with tape instead of pins. I really should have taken a picture of the actual donkey with all his tails. Haven't been very good at taking pictures lately!

When Nokie opened her presents, she was so excited with every gift. It was really cute to watch! She got some adorable clothes and fun toys but her favorite thing was flip flops from Mammy and Bumpa. She loves flip flops but since she didn't have any she would always steal everyone else's. So when she got her own she must have thanked, hugged and kissed my parents at least 3 different times! We bought Nokie some new clothes for her birthday. The girls wanted to give her their own gifts so they each picked something of their own toys to give her. Heidi gave her some bunny ears from her dress up box and Natalie gave her a blue rock star hair clip that she got from McDonalds. 

 A shirt from us

 Showing off her new flip flops

Rock Star hair :)

Blowing out the candles on her ginormous Costco cake

I know today isn't really part of the whole long weekend thing but I'm adding it anyway. It rained ALL day today. The kind of nice rain that makes you want to stay in bed all day or sit on the couch curled up with a good book. Love those days! At least I used to love those days when I was still able to stay in bed all day or curl up on the couch with a book....you know...the pre-kid days. Rainy days with kids are really not that fun. They don't let you sleep in first of all. Then they go stir crazy because they can't go outside. I don't know how many times Heidi asked me if she could go swing on the swings. "No, it's raining" didn't seem to sink in! So I went on pinterest again and found some fun things for them to do. We tried this first. You put baking soda into a bowl and then let the kids put colored vinegar into it to watch it bubble. I didn't have a dropper so they could do little drops at a time so it didn't last very long. But I did pick some up at Walmart today so we could try it again. They totally loved it! Then we did this from pinterest. Another brilliant idea. You put paint in a ziploc bag and tape it to the table. They get to swirl around the paint and there is no mess! At first they were not very happy about it because they didn't get to make a mess. But after a while they really liked it. We will definitely do that one again! I also bought a bunch of art supplies today too so they could draw pictures which is always a good thing for them to do. We ended our day at Baskin Robbins for dollar Tuesday. A huge success of a rainy day!

 Natalie's ziploc art :)

 Another piece from Natalie. This is our family sliding down a rainbow. :)

Finishing off the day with yummy ice cream....rainbow sherbet! 

Mother's Day

I know it's a little late for this but...that's how it's going this week. :) So I got to celebrate twice. Sunday after church we went to Five Guys for lunch...yum! No crowds, just good food! We went to the store and got good stuff to make dinner. Shane was going to grill his world famous salmon...seriously amazing stuff people! At home I got my gifts from the girls. They made potholders at Sunday school with their handprint on it. They made their own cards and wrote on a card from the store. Totally my favorite!

 Seriously...so cute!

 So Natalie wanted to write in the card without asking anyone for help. At the top she wrote birds singing...BRS CNGNG. I know she told me what the rest was but I was too impressed by her sounding out her own words to remember. She is getting way too big!

Heidi got to do the envelope! I think this is me and the girls but....not to sure about that one!

Beautiful flowers from Shane. The girls also bought me the new Frank Perretti book that I am almost finished with. I'll let you know how it is when I finish!

So then we played on the trampoline. It's so much fun jumping with the girls. They fly so high! They sit on the trampoline and have me jump so they bounce around. That was the best gift we ever got!

And then...I made the most amazing chocolate cake ever. I'm serious. But I was the stupidest person ever and grabbed the handle of the pan and totally burnt my hand. It hurt so bad!! I had my hand in a bowl of cold water pretty much all night. Shane had to grill the salmon, make the mashed potatoes, vegetables and rolls. It was an amazing dinner though even though I had to eat with my left hand! Thank goodness the cake was good too or I would not have been happy! :)

The frosting is melted baking chocolate mixed with caramel sauce and poured over the top of the cake with caramel sprinkles on top! YUM!

My hand is totally fine now. It killed that whole day and even the next day but after that...it was totally fine. Plus I don't even have marks on my hand to prove that I got burnt so bad...that part really stinks! 

Last night we celebrated again. This time with my mom and sisters. Our gift to her this year was taking her to dinner. We went to this new place...to us, not to Augusta...called Crums on Central. So good! We just got a bunch of appetizers to share instead of a meal. They were amazing. My favorites were the fried ravioli, the bruchetta and this shrimp risotto ball thing. The bruchetta was the best I have ever had. And the fried risotto balls were incredible. I can't wait to go back!

 iPhone pictures! Happy Mother's Day Momma!

Happy Birthday Natalie

I  can't believe Natalie is five! It's so crazy! We had a Giraffe Pool Party. I know...crazy combination but it worked! It had been really warm and the pool was really warm and then the whole week before her birthday it was really cold. The water got cold so none of the adults went swimming but the kids didn't care. They swam and played. It was really fun. 

 I found too many cute things on Pinterest! I saw a cake with a giraffe on it and figured I could do something close. :)

 These are Natalie's favorite...sugar cookies with lemon frosting

 These were found on Pinterest too....you can click the link if you want the recipe for Trix Krispies

 Gracie and I made Natalie a birthday sign.

 Instead of goodie bags for all the kids I bought beach balls and wrote their names on it so they could take it home when they were done playing. A brilliant idea from my mom!

 We had the whole party in my parents' screened in porch...perfect!

 She is getting so big!

 She can even jump in the deep end! 

 I love this picture...Heidi giving Daddy some love :)

 We had hot dogs with your choice of chili, hot cheese, sauteed onions mushrooms and jalapenos or all three. We had watermelon, pasta salad and chips too. 

 Then we did presents! Natalie's favorite part. :)

 DeDe got her "rock star" hair clips...this is her rock on look. :)

 Waiting with her eyes closed and hands out for her gift from Uncle Bubba

 A Hula Loop!! As Natalie calls it. :) 

 Singing for the birthday girl

 Blowing out her candles

 A three layered, tropical colored checkerboard cake

 Enjoying their cake 

 Trying out her hula hoop 

Happy Birthday my sweet girl! I love you so much...I can't believe you are five and growing so fast. You are such an awesome little girl and I am so proud of you!

Surprise! Not so much...

So this year we were going to surprise Natalie with a trampoline for her birthday. I got Luke and Matthew to come over after school to help Shane put it together. I closed all the blinds in the house so she couldn't see the backyard. (She didn't even notice that by the way) I took the girls to my parents to swim so they wouldn't notice the boys in the back yard. I played a game with them in the car where they kept their eyes closed on the car ride back home so they wouldn't see the huge net in the back yard. We ate dinner and got ready for bed...still didn't have a clue. I put her to bed and told her to not get out of bed. Sternly! I go to Heidi's room to check on her and Natalie comes running down the hall..."Mommy!! There is a trampoline in the backyard!!" She heard Shane mowing and thought it was our neighbor...she likes to wave to the neighbor when he mows their yard. Anyway...I said that she wasn't supposed to get out of bed, she said but there is a trampoline in the backyard, I said but you were supposed to obey Mommy and not get out bed and she said but there is a trampoline in the backyard. :) Then I told her that it was a surprise for her birthday tomorrow from Mommy and Daddy. Then she started crying hysterically. She was so upset that she had ruined the surprise and found out about her present before her birthday! It was so sad! So then I just brought her downstairs and said happy birthday Natalie! We let the girls play and jump and then we all jumped too. This is gonna be a really great birthday gift!

 Natalie loved jumping. She had so much fun...I'm sure you could hear their laughter all the way down the block!

 Love Heidi's hair on the top picture and her face on the bottom!

Preschool Graduation

Today surprised me in a lot of ways. There has been so much going on lately that I really haven't been thinking much about Natalie graduating from preschool. And...it's just preschool. It made me laugh that they were making such a big deal out of a 4 year old graduating from preschool. We had to buy cap and gowns and bring food for a special lunch. It was just crazy! But I have to admit that I have kind of been emotional all day! It's not that I'm sad that preschool is over. I'm actually a little happy about that. No more trips back and forth to school, no more having to be there by 1 everyday and getting Heidi fast food because there is no time to go home before picking up Natalie, no more schedule to keep and hopefully no more filling up my gas tank all the stinkin time! I guess I just realized today how lucky I am that we found such an amazing preschool, that these people really love my little girl and that my little girl is pretty darn awesome! More about all that in a bit...now for the actual graduation...

So the graduation started at 11 and I thought I'd get there 15 minutes early because I wanted a good seat. I really figured that would give me PLENTY of time for her little school. I pulled into the parking lot and the place was packed! I couldn't believe it!! The whole middle of the church was full so we sat in the front row on the very left, hoping that we'd be able to see Natalie a little bit. 

  First they brought in all the 3 year olds and 2 year olds and then the little 18 month olds I guess. 

 Then they actually played the graduation march music and the 4 year olds came walking down the center aisle in their cap and gown. 

 It turned out perfectly because she stood right in front of us...yay! Natalie went to stand where she was supposed to and she was so excited when she saw us! 

 The three year olds sang their two songs which were really cute! Yes...I have the entire ceremony on video. :)

 When they were finished they got to go sit with their parents so Nokie went searching for Dane

 Such a great picture!

 Then the 4 year olds sang their two songs. One of the songs was about growing up and how they used to be so small but now everyone keeps telling them how big they've gotten and where has the time gone...totally pulled at the heart strings! 

 They put a picture of each kid on the projector screen as they called them up for their "diploma."

Me and my baby girl

 Heidi and Winnie...best of friends :)

Natalie with one of her teachers, Mrs. TK

So after the adorable ceremony we all got to eat lunch together and then we came home. They sent home a HUGE packet of stuff for the kids. These teachers are really amazing. They put together all the projects that they had worked on all year, gifts from the teachers, books, pictures. They put together this book where they had the kids answer questions about themselves all year long. So cool! They even did a slideshow of pictures from the whole year that was about 30 minutes long. Everything was just so thoughtful and special. Needless to say I've been doing a lot of huggin and squeezin on my girls. They are growing up too fast. I want to treasure the moments where I can pull them up on my lap...Natalie's legs are almost getting too long for that! I just feel like this is going to be a really great summer and I need to remind myself that I need to make the most of every single second!