It's winding down.

Summer that is. In fact, the kids and I went to my classroom this morning to start getting things ready for the start of school. I'm not sure how much help they were, but it was a moderately productive day I suppose. I go back to school August 9th. School actually starts on the 11th. That includes Collin too. We are all anxious, but excited about what the fall holds. Lots of new things coming!

This post has some random pictures of some things we have been doing lately. We finally got together with our dear friends the Pierces this past week. The kids play so well together and always have a great time!

These four would all hold hands and take off running through the yard. Then they would all fall down on top of each other and laugh hysterically. These four kiddos have been "playing" together since they were born. It was such a blessing to see them all together getting so big. We have come a long way from bouncy seats and bottles. It's bittersweet, I guess.

The boys getting their game plan together.

But don't think for one minute that Brantlee sat on the sidelines and watched. She was right in the middle of it all being just as tough as these boys and loving every minute of it- ha!

Another day this week we went swimming with these same fabulous friends! Amanda and I loaded up all four kids (including four car seats) in her Tahoe and headed to Hattiesburg. We hit up a couple of stores and even ate some ice cream and played at Chic fil a. There wasn't the first dull moment on this adventure. We had a blast though!


There is a lot to say about Brantlee these days. First of all, she has spent the last two nights in a "big girl" bed. At this point, we are giving the situation a grade of C+. Not horrible, but we are hoping for an "A" night somewhere in the future. Her room is in the process of a transformation (new bedding, curtains, etc.) When everything is finished, I am sure I will post some before and after pictures. I am super excited about it all! But I want it finished tomorrow- ha.

She is just growing up so fast... expressing her interests and opinions, playing in her jewelry, and helping with laundry. Her two loves right now are Minnie Mouse and playing with Mommy's hygiene products such as ANY lotion, facial cream, eye shadow, lip gloss, toothpaste. If it exists in a woman's bathroom, she WANTS it. Bad. I wonder where she gets that??? (Any ideas, Mom?) And speaking of bathroom, while I was brushing her teeth the other night I notice 2 new bottom molars!!! I had no idea she was cutting them! I am guessing the top ones are right around the corner maybe?

Brantlee has also started waking up dry in the mornings... as in she often doesn't wet her diaper in the night. Does this mean she wants to use the potty when she wakes up? NEGATIVE. No ma'am. End of discussion. This week though I have forced the issue and put her on the potty in front of the t.v. with Minnie Mouse playing. It worked. She actually uses the potty, but this is the face I get afterward.

Clearly, this was not her idea ;)

Have a great weekend everyone!

It's DORA!!

Yesterday Nana and I took Collin and Brantlee to see Nick Jr. Live in Jackson. I knew nothing of this event until a friend on Facebook posted that she needed to sell her tickets. I immediately jumped on this opportunity! The show featured the Wonder Pets, Backyardigans, Ni- Hao, and of course .... DORA. How could we miss this?? Is was a really great show!!

Collin was mesmerized for the entire performance -well worth the time and money to see his little face in awe for an hour and a half. Brantlee missed her nap (which is usually close to 3 hours), and we had to stay seated in a crowded theatre. She did as well as she could (she really tried), but that was honestly asking a lot of Miss Brantlee. She did like the Dora part though. Photography during the show was not allowed, so I did my best to contain myself (even though nobody else followed that rule.) But when Dora came out, I just couldn't help it. I jerked out my camera and snapped away... and so did everyone else.

Just for memory's sake, we loaded into the Yukon all excited to leave the house and go meet Nana, and guess what. The car wouldn't start. Dead battery. That's a bad feeling when you have two dressed and excited kids already in their car seats. Soooo, Nana graciously met us at our house and we took her car. Whew! Collin was almost in tears because he thought we weren't going to get to go. Ahh, the memories...

Killing time waiting on Nana to pick us up.

In front of Thalia Mara Hall

Right when we walked in there was this booth of all kinds of character toys, shirts, etc. We ended up with two swirly wand things that light up in the dark.

And here she... the real DORA ;) Oh, and Boots, of course !

Swiper NO swiping!!

the finale with all the characters

Overall, we give this show two thumbs up!!! We hope to go back next year when they are both a little older.

One....

Two.....




THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday we celebrated Collin's 3rd birthday! I am posting today (the 19th) because it is his official birthday. Lots of Collin's friends and family came to his Dinosaur themed party. We rode down the water slide, ate hot dogs, cake and ice cream, and busted a pinata! He got some AWESOME toys from his sweet friends and family- Thank you, thank you! This was the first year Collin has had an interest in planning his birthday. He helped me pick our the theme, plates, pinata, etc. Fun, Fun!



Before

and the madness after

Just trying to make sense of all this party business...

Blowing out the candles and loving every minute of it!

Nothing like birthday excitement. Collin has been waiting on this party for weeks now- ha.

About half of the kids were afraid to ride down the slide. Collin and Brantlee would ONLY do with Kyle. Kyle officially rode the slide more than anyone else.

Birthday parties will wear a girl out!!

And now for the finale... Heaven help us!
To say he loves this thing would be a huge understatement. It's more like an obsession ;)

To our big boy C0llin-
As you blow out your three candles little man, we hope you know what a joy it was been watching you grow over these fast 3 years. (I am choking back tears as I write this morning.) We are daily amazed by your little mind, by the words you speak, and by your abilities that we can already see. What we are proud of the most is your sweet little heart. Underneath the natural "boyness" and all that comes with being 3, you have a heart that's much bigger than you are and a sweet, caring spirit. We love you thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much (arms open super wide). Happy Birthday!

Love, Mommy, Daddy & B B

Family Beach Pictures

July Beach Trip

Back to the beach we went! For this trip we went with Lolly, Poppy, Casey, Derek and Fischer to Gulf Shores. Mee Maw, Paw Paw and Pammie also came down for a couple of nights to celebrate the 4th. We spent an entire week (seven nights) in a house across the road from the beach. It was awesome!!! Being on the beach for the 4th, staying in a house versus a condo, and staying for this long was a new experience for us all. I am already going through withdrawls-ha! (But soooo glad to be home at the same time.) The theme of the vacay was "low key." Well, as low key as it could possibly be with that many people, including 3 children under age 3. But surprisingly, it was really relaxing. Of course we did see our fair share of oil :( Some days it was worse than others, but we managed to be entertained by plenty of other activities besides the beach alone.

I honestly don't know where to start with the pictures, as there are quite a few ;) So, here are my favorites. I'll start with the house, which was so kid-friendly and included a pool and play area with sand.

Not to mention the hammock on the front porch.... heavenly :)

We loaded up our festively clad kiddos and headed to the beach for fireworks on the 4th! Poppy had his hands full!

Clearly it was waaay past everyone's bedtime-ha!
Guess who got stuck in the sand trying to park?? Yep, that would be us. Some really nice people offered to help push us out. Priceless memories folks!

Heading to the beach in our festive swimwear

Enjoying some waves...

and the sun...

and most of all, the sand!

Oil or no oil, a beach sunset is awfully hard to beat.

One day during the week we tried out Waterville U.S.A. We expected the kids to only be able to last a maximum of 2 or 3 hours, but boy were we wrong. We stayed 6 hours and definitely got our money's worth.

Collin loves pirates so this ship/slide attraction made his day!

Brantlee became obsessed with this duck slide. I seriously think she rode it 100 times.

Fischer got brave and went down one of the really tall slides.

These poor babies wore themselves completely out! They were troopers to say the least.
Another evening we went to The Track amusement park. I am shocked at what these 3 were brave enough to ride all by themselves. Actually, the more I think about it, I can't believe we put Fischer and Brantlee on some of these rides. They aren't even 2 years old yet! HA

This is a baby ferris wheel. Even though it is completely caged and didn't go that high, I was a nervous wreck one of them was going to freak out and try to get out. YIKES! But I was wrong, they loved it!

Okay, so this airplane did go a little higher than I preferred. They did have on seat belts, but mom and I didn't actually breathe until they got off of this thing. Again, they loved it though.

And here we have the highlight of the night... the bumper boats. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. The adults liked it way more than the kids I think.

Ahhh, the ride home... all things considered, the ride home was fairly uneventful.

Other than the fact that the inside of our vehicle looked ridiculous- HA!

Well that about sums up our vacation. We took some family beach pictures that I will post later. (And yes, we are wearing festive clothes again. I know, I know. We just couldn't help it.) Thank you, thank you, thank you Lolly and Poppy for such a wonderful and memorable vacation!!!!