i scream, you scream!

amelia turned 4 last month, and we celebrated with a little ice cream party. i kept the decorations really simple, and aunt kristie helped me make the balloon ice cream cones.




what? you want a closer look? ok!




are those bowls & spoons not the cutest little party favors???

i was also just a teeny bit excited about the toppings.


well, except these sprinkles. i hate jimmies. blech. so you know brian took this picture. 'cause if i had taken it, the focus would have been on those mini reeses cups one bowl over...


here is the cake table.


i absolutely love these cute little ice cream cupcakes that my mom made!


and then the other side of the room: we turned our dining table sideways to squeeze in 16 little ice cream monsters!


their first activity was to color sprinkles for a game later. here is caroline's illustrated demonstration of the various sprinkles that could be drawn:


these girls are working away on their sprinkles (with caroline's drawing close by, you can see!).


this shows most of the party guests coloring their sprinkles (some were on their way).


lily & georgia with their finished sprinkles!


then it was time to make ice cream sundaes!

amelia has been waiting and waiting for these gummy bears!


i think the kids had fun putting on their own toppings!



i did help some with the sprinkles and sauces.


tyler cracks me up! i guess he was taking in the aroma of caramel sauce!


guess how sticky my floor was later that day!??! :)


check out the leftovers of the birthday girl's sundae! hilarious. love the random piece of popcorn.


the kids left a little for the adults, too...


next, we played pin the sprinkles on the ice cream. the birthday girl got to go first...



this is gonna be one yummy ice cream cone!


coco and mrs. chakahana pose with amelia and the completely sprinkled ice cream cone!


then it was time for presents! i love this shot of my two big girls!


everyone was so eager to see what fun gifts amelia opened!


this little girl is growing up!


last but not least was cake! i mean ice cream. wait, i mean cake! well, which is it??


singing to my sweet birthday girl.


blowing out the candles... caroline cracks me up


here is an inside look at the unmeltable ice cream cone!


this is one ice cream cone that you CAN eat from the bottom!


mimi redefined the term "dig in"! ha!


LOVE these two mamas!


and this mama, too! let's see how lena handles the ice cream cupcake....


wow. this actually looks like ice cream all over her face. :) this may be my most favorite picture from the party!


the girls wouldn't let greg sit at their table... poor greg. (shhh, don't tell, but amelia is his favorite.)


along with all of her friends, amelia was also blessed to have her grandparents (and 2 great-grandmothers!) at her party.




i think everybody had a good time! it looks like they're all screaming for ice cream, for sure!!


we are so thankful to celebrate another year with our silly, spunky amelia!
happy birthday, baby girl!

woops!

hey y'all! mommy has been feeding me these little pouch-y things with yummy food in them. she says they're a new invention since amelia was a baby. anyway, she usually holds it while i slurp away, but today, she let me have it all by myself! something about needing to get a million things done, and i didn't take a good nap... whatever all that is about...

so look at me! 9 months old and feeding myself!


well...almost. i really liked chewing on the corner of it. it felt SO good on my teething gums, and i heard mommy say that she didn't care how much of a mess i made because i was entertained by feeding myself.


the funny thing is that when i chewed on that corner, prunes squirted out! cool!


good thing mommy is doing laundry today!

thawing out in nashville

after the fun of playing in the snow and the un-fun of sitting in stand-still interstate traffic for over 3 hours, we finally made it to nashville! my great-aunt and uncle were so sweet to open their home to us. aunt norma and uncle clarence are the quintessential grandparents, and we loved every minute with them!


a given when staying at aunt norma's is the texas sheetcake sitting on the counter under a loose piece of foil with a knife conveniently on the cake... oh man... i have a love/hate relationship with this situation. she told me that i could bring the rest home, but um... there was nothing to bring home. uncle clarence ate it all. yeah, we'll go with that.

our main reason for this trip was for hallie girl to meet my grandmother. i think they liked each other. :)



grandmother loved seeing these girls, too! i guess hallie didn't get the memo to dress in pink and jeans.


we ate dinner with grandmother in the dining room of her assisted living home. the kids easily entertained the surrounding residents just by being under the age of 75, and the kids were easily entertained by a ride on grandmother's walker!



earlier that day, we met up with two of my dear college friends who live in the area. i wasn't sure of what the weather would be like, so we met up at an indoor playground called the monkey's treehouse. it was the perfect place to let the kids run and play while we sat and chatted. we could keep an eye on the kids right from where we were sitting. it was marvelous. i seriously think i got up one time while we were there. it was such a blessing to spend the afternoon with these girls!! i have been spoiled to see christie twice this past year and ashley three times!

christie's precious boy, owen, and hallie wasted no time in getting to know each other.


our kids actually did their own thing most of the time we were at the playground, but toward the end, eden and amelia buddied up. eden belongs to (and looks just like) ashley.



noah & caroline became fast friends at the beach last summer.


and heeeere's all the kids! (till ashley has her sweet baby in may!)


we all headed to chick-fil-a next, and we attempted to have a kids' table and a mom's table... um... it worked for a little while, but i think we will have more success in a couple of years!

on saturday, we picked up my grandmother and spent the day at my brother's house. they were so excited to see uncle ryan!


it was a gorgeous day, so ryan and the kids played football in the backyard for a while.


my girls loved ryan's little dog, lucy! not sure if lucy was loving my girls by the end of the day....


caroline jumped at the chance to take lucy on a walk!


this picture is the perfect illustration for the poem we have been memorizing...
"i have a little shadow that goes in an out with me..."


i have wonderful memories of doing puzzle after puzzle with my grandfather and grandmother when i was little... so it was incredibly special for my children to get to work on a puzzle with my grandmother, too.


it apparently wasn't so special for them because within 10 minutes, they were ready to go watch cartoons. :) but hey, i got my picture.

i am so thankful that we were able to make this trip and visit with my grandmother. she seems to be feeling good and is still her same ole self. i love this picture of her with my babies.


and here we are, 4 generations!


my mom totally cracks me up in this one!


before we knew it, it was time to pack up and come home. on our drive home, we stopped to see one of my dearest childhood friends, janie. and now that we're all mature (ha!) and grown-up, she goes by jane. :) she had her first sweet baby, eloise, back in august, and i was just dying to get my hands on that babycakes! facebook can be SUCH a tease! so we stopped at jane's for lunch and for some baby play time. here we are with our babes.


here are the future bff's.... eloise (5 1/2 months) and hallie (8 1/2 months)


"hi, eloise! so nice to meet you!"


"i think i'll just rub your head for a bit."


"what, mom? isn't that what you do to your friends?"


i loved catching up with jane and her hubby, and i love love loved meeting sweet eloise!

it was a wonderful trip visiting our friends and family! as soon as we got home, we unpacked and began getting ready for amelia's birthday the next week! can't wait to share all about it. hopefully that will be sooner than later, but who am i kidding?? see ya back here sometime!

the first snow

this time of year, my flip-flop sporting floridian children are sure to ask the same question (over and over) that they asked last winter: "why doesn't it snow here?"
every year, i give them the same explanation: florida is closer to the equator than the northern part of our country, so it doesn't get cold enough, etc, etc, etc. and they also get the story of how it snowed here when i was 10. but no matter how well you explain it, and no matter how right you are, it doesn't make them want to see snow any less! so when our recent travels to nashville coincided with a winter storm's recent travels through birmingham, the kids could not have been more excited.

by the time we were north of montgomery, i was already seeing some flurries. the kids were straining at first to see the rain/snow, but soon, it was definitely snow. this was our view as we headed toward birmingham.


all you northerners are laughing, but this was a big deal to us. :) the snowfall got heavier, and i was just praying that it was sticking just enough in birmingham for us to play in, but not enough to cause us problems on the road. before too long, our view turned awfully white. the kids could not have been more excited.


(photos courtesy of ethan and gram... i was driving.)

the snow suddenly stopped falling, and i was worried that by the time we got through birmingham, our opportunity to play in the snow would be (literally) melted away. but as we drove through birmingham, everything was white. the kids didn't notice that it wasn't actually snowing. they were in the middle of the most fun ispy game ever! trees covered with snow! roofs covered with snow! grass covered with snow! there were even cars covered with snow!


we got through birmingham and pulled into this rest area. and i was worried there'd be no snow left. the kids could not have been more excited.


i loved seeing each and every expression as their wish came true!


amelia was the first to pick up a snowball.


it wasn't long before they realized that gloves were a good idea!


the three happiest kids on I-65!



for the next hour, my children threw snowballs at each other, drew with sticks in the snow, and ran up and down a big ole alabama hill over and over and over.





all those footprints in the snow represent an hour of pure childhood joy!


my mom and i took turns thawing out in the car with snug-as-a-bug hallie while the other one supervised the snow-happy kiddos on the hill. i really wanted to at least get hallie in a picture with us all, but i was a little nervous walking on the ice-ish, slushy parking lot with a roly poly baby in my arms. and she voted to stay snug-as-a-bug.

here are my mom and i each with the kids. it was such a fun hour!



the sun was beginning to set, and we just had a little more than 2 more hours to go on our trip. so we loaded up these little floridian popsicles, changed into dry clothes, and were on our way.


"on our way" translated to driving 8 miles in 3 hours due to interstate delays/closings, but this is a fun post, and i don't wanna talk about the torture of sitting in the car for 3 hours going nowhere.

SO it was a wonderful dream of an afternoon for my children to see snow for the very first time. they loved every single minute of it and cannot wait to frolic in the snow again.

but today they wore shorts and flip-flops on january 28 in florida, so i'm thinking they'd better start dreaming about the beach.