wonderland

My kids' mom is The Best Decorator ever for birthday parties! If you ever need ideas, just ask her. She always does an amazing job. This year, LM Giggles wanted an Alice in Wonderland theme party...which was one of my favorite ideas yet! Of course all the princess parties are cute and girly...but Alice in Wonderland has a funky fun twist to it!

I made her close her eyes until I was in the right position for a picture of her reaction when she saw the decorations. Mommy put paper over the windows and sliding glass door all day so she couldn't peek until it was all done! I think she liked it. I did too. But then, wouldn't you......

This picture really needs to be soo much bigger to see all the little details!!

If you've read the book or seen the movie, some of the little details - like the "drink me" and "eat me" will make sense. :)

Lauren and Reegan of course came. The rest were grown ups. :)

It was even warm enough for a short swim in the pool! They loved swimming in the dark.

Then it was time for cake and ice cream. This is Wendy's favorite cake ever!! Right, Wendy?? :} She hasn't even seen the movie...so I had to explain the "unbirthday" thing. Lol.

I'm glad you had a wonderful day, Little Miss Giggles. I am so thankful I get to watch you grow up. You are doing soo well in school so far this year - especially in math!! :) Now, I think I need to add a photography class to our homeschooling so that new little pink camera of yours will be put to good use!! (Translation: no goofy pictures of Kiki!! lol)

last vacation pics, i promise! :)

It has taken me quite a while to get all these photos edited and uploaded on here...and these are the last set. Sorry if you're bored with this topic! :}

These are from Tuesday when we went and explored Anthropologie and the story behind them is that all three of us - Rebekah, Lauren, and I - have several blogs in common that we love to read. More than one of them are photographers. On several occasions we have made the comment, "WHERE do they find those colorful backgrounds?!" The pictures will be taken in front of a brightly colored wall on the outside of some store or some other location that makes the most incredibly cool picture and we wonder how they just always seem to find these cool spots over and over again! For some examples, check out this blog post from Bobbi & Mike, a couple who are an a.m.a.z.i.n.g. photography team (ok, so I think that would be SUCH a cool job to do together!). The link I am sending you to is their list of top 100 engagement pictures from 2009. All of the photos are worth checking out, but these give examples of the color I'm talking about (as well as a couple i just really like!):

#94 ~ yellow

#91 ~ teal

#90 ~ green

#66 ~ pinkish purple

#52 ~ ok, so I just love this one. that's all. :}

#49 ~ seriously?! how did they get the sparkle on the heal of the shoe?!

#36 ~ red and blue

#35 ~ yellow and green

#16 ~ ha. abby, remind you of anything?? your uncle would appreciate this one...! ;)

#13 ~ how did they do that???

#1 - where did they find a pile of only yellow leaves??

See what I mean?? Where do they find all those?? Anyways, we were walking along outside after wandering through Anthropologie and Rebekah says, "Hey...there's a blue wall!" I looked and sure enough! There it was! Just like in all the cool pictures we love! So OF COURSE we had to stop and take a few pics against it! They are soooo nooooot the level and quality of Bobbi & Mike or the photographers on the other blogs we read...but they were fun to take and I'm a little sad that wall is 3 hours away from me! I would definitely use it again if it was closer...I already have more ideas for it!

Anyone who can tell me where the perfect colored wall is within a 30 minute radius of where I live can have a free photo session with me...the very not-professional-but-it-sure-is-a-lot-of-fun photographer! Lol!

vacation wednesday

Our last vacation day, we met Rebekah and kids for another yummy lunch (hmm...food was an important part of this vacation! lol) and a cupcake before heading home.

(ahem).

Ivey Cakes has become well-known recently because they made wedding cupcakes for country singer Carrie Underwood's wedding. They had the actual cupcake available...and if I wasn't such a chocoholic, I would have bought that one just so I could take a picture of it. Oh well. :)

I cracked up the whole few days we were there - Anna Walton is sooo much like my LM Sunshine and Olivia is sooo much like my LM Giggles!! So many times I would say, "Yup! That is exactly what LM_ would do/say!!" Like these pictures. AW was done with her cupcake in no time flat...and then nibbled on Olivia's icing. :} Olivia took her own sweet (no pun intended...) time with hers, off in her own little cupcake world. Yup. That's exactly what my girls would have done!

Yellow rain boots are necessary attire...just because. And they are good for any occasion...including church on Sunday. :)

I love that.

Lauren and her new little friends. We all wish we lived closer to each other...I know Lauren would LOVE getting to babysit! :)

One more Caleb pic. :)

I loved my time here. So many great conversations...a lot of them about adoption and orphans...something we are both passionate about. So many creative ideas...one of us has to do at least one of the things we saw! :} I think you two are right...this might have to become an annual trip!

vacation tuesday

Tuesday morning, after showing Rebekah and kids around our hotel and stopping by Joann's for something I'm sure you'll see in a couple months on my photo of the day blog... ;), we made reservations at a special place for lunch. We had a little extra time on our hands so we stopped to play for a few minutes at a playground.

It was such a pretty day! :)

Mommy played with Olivia. Anna Walton explored on her own for a little bit. I, of course, took pictures. And Lauren hung out with Caleb.

So. Adorable.

Then it was time to head to our special place for lunch.

This is Homestead Manor. The downstairs has been turned into a tea room. It is beautiful inside and is the perfect place for a girly lunch. We told the girls we were going to have a REAL tea party.

They were a little bit excited...!

The three "big girls" (Rebekah, Lauren, and I) could have had a very "tea party lunch" and had chicken salad...but we opted for comfort food instead at Rebekah's (very excellent) recommendation. You can see the picture above on the right. It was called the Hot Brown and consisted of bread on the bottom topped with ham, turkey, a crazy good cheese sauce, melted cheddar cheese, and two strips of bacon on top!! Soo not healthy...and soooooooo very yummy!!!! If you ever happen to go there...I know all three of us highly recommend it!

We weren't quite sure what we wanted to do next (I love spontaneous, mostly unplanned vacations!) until Rebekah mentioned the store Anthropologie. We were sold. That store is just SO COOL!! And although it has some very not-so-cool prices, it is still a lot of fun just to walk around and window shop. However, Rebekah has a rehearsal dinner to go to soon and needed a cute dress. I walked around with Caleb for a little bit and found one I just knew she needed to see...so I went to find her...and found her holding up the very same dress for me to see!! Great minds.... :} So she tried a few things on...

Olivia helped... :)

And we hung out in the very cool waiting area!

Rebekah...wonder if they got that table with the red candle on it from Rooster Tails?? lol

Do you like that yellow couch?? It could be yours for ONLY $6,000!!!

We finished our outing for the day at one of my favorite rare-treat places - the Cheesecake Factory! Lauren had never been before. The little girls had ice cream sundaes and loved every bite. Lauren and I had the Godiva chocolate cheesecake...mmmmmm. Talk about a chocolate fix!

Ok, one more day left to write about. Although I have two more posts from this trip. I skipped a few pictures from this day because they need their own post. But they'll have to wait till the end. :)

vacation monday

Monday morning Lauren and I headed down towards Rebekah's house where we got to see her girls and meet her sweet mother-in-law before the three of them left together for the day. A little while later, Rebekah, Caleb, Lauren, and I headed to downtown Franklin to explore for a few hours.

On the way we stopped at Rooster Tails...a way cute store filled with all kinds of creative possibilities! (Rebekah, remind me to tell you about the widow frame idea I saw the other day!! You might have to bring me one.... :)

I liked the $5 charge for whining sign...and I loved the creation station sign! If I had an entire craft room...it would definitely be on the wall!

Lauren loved this room. The records on the ceiling were pretty cool.

Once in Franklin, we walked around for a while and Rebekah took us to a cute and yummy (such a good combination! lol) little restaurant that I have just now forgotten the name of. Oops.

We walked around lots of fun shops. These were just two of the cute things we saw. Half the items we loved we decided that between the two of us, we could probably make most of them! But not this pink car. It was too too cute!! And that sign is very true! lol

Then it was time to try out Sweet CeCe's...a frozen yogurt shop where you choose your flavor of yogurt and then add your own toppings. It was very yummy!

While we were sitting there chatting, a mom came up to us and said she just had to ask if Caleb was adopted. She told us she and her husband have three children and are on the waiting list for two children from Ethiopia! I immediately asked if she had a blog...seems like so many adopting parents have blogs - it's just such a great way to keep family and friends updated on each step. She does have a blog...and you should definitely go check them out! :) Her name is Sarah and her three kiddos are adorable and I am enjoying getting to know her through her blog. :) (Hi, Sarah!)

After thoroughly exploring downtown Franklin, we headed back to Rebekah's house to wait for her husband, Nathaniel to get home. Lauren did schoolwork while Rebekah and I gave her blog a makeover. And of course we played with this happy little guy. :)

That evening we went to pick up the girls at Nathaniel's parents' house and had the best home cooked southern meal - chicken and dumplings, fried squash, bread, beans, home made chocolate oreo ice cream and brownies! Soooo delicious!! Nathaniel's parents were so sweet to let us join their Monday night dinner and I said the next time I go see Rebekah, I'm going to make sure it includes a Monday! :)

vacation

I've had this week off work and the break has been wonderful! I love my kids but even when I leave for two weeks every July, I'm still taking care of kids - just different ones! :) So as I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my week off, I decided I wanted to get out of town just for a few days. Not the entire week. Just part of it. Then I decided I really wanted to go see my friend Rebekah and her sweet family. When I mentioned this to Lauren she said, "Yeah, but you'll never do it!! You hate going places alone!" Or something to that effect. To which I replied, "True. Which is why I had considered dragging you with me!"

So after a quick chat with her mom, promising to take her schoolwork with us (one of the pluses of being homeschooled!), and an email to Rebekah to make sure it was a good time to come, I started looking at hotels in her area.

My mom has given me expensive taste in hotels! Name brand clothes, etc. I could care less about...but I like nice hotels. For the clean factor, for one thing. Growing up my brother and I used to say that we would get the best hotel rooms because "dad would hesitate and mom would negotiate". I definitely do not have the negotiating gene. As I looked at hotels I found one that I reeally like and wanted to stay at but the price was out of my range. The next night I found the same one with a "summer deal" of 15% off...which made it a whole $10 cheaper per night. Oh great. :-p That didn't help any. So kept looking at all the hotels and the ones I knew I would probably choose from just because they were so much cheaper than that cool one. Finally I thought, goodness, I should just get my mom or my friend Leah, who can both negotiate great deals, to call and get a cheaper room rate for me. My next thought was...or I could just pray about it! Duh. Why is that sometimes our last resource when it should be our first?? I kind of felt selfish praying for a nice hotel room when there are people starving in the world...but I figured He already knows I want to stay here anyways, so why not? So I prayed that if there was any way to find that hotel at a cheaper rate, that He would show me.

The next night I was looking on one website I hadn't checked before and they had "mystery hotels" where they show you the star rating, the general location and the reduced price...but don't reveal the name of the hotel until after you book your stay. I figured whatever the hotel ended up being, it would be a nice once since I had looked at all the three star hotels in that area and they were all nice. And maybe it would end up being the one I wanted to stay at in the first place. Before I went through with booking it, I clicked on the reviews. You're not allowed to actually name the hotel in the reviews but by the descriptions I was getting more sure by the review that this was the one I had wanted in the first place. Finally, I got to one review that I realized I had actually read a couple nights before on another website - they had just taken out the hotel name on this one. So I was 95% sure it was the same hotel. I was a little nervous as I booked it just because it was a "mystery"...but sure enough, when they revealed the name, it was a hotel called Aloft - the very same one I had seen and liked - only for $40 cheaper per night that the original listed price I had found!! It was so kind of my sweet King to care about something as silly as a hotel room!! :)

Lauren and I arrived at the hotel Sunday evening and could hardly wait to see Rebekah the next morning. In the meantime though, our hotel was so cool! It was very modern, which is not my personal decorating style for my own home, but was very fun to stay in for a few nights!

More to come about our visit...working on pictures is going very slow because the internet is out at my house and I can't get into the big house to restart the router...which I'm guessing is the problem. :)

toddlers

With my kiddos away at the beach for a few days, I got to spend the day with two of my favorite toddlers...and their mommies. :) Here are a few of the photos from this photo session...

I remember my own little red wagon. :)

Aiden loves to dance to music!

Flirting already?? Uh-oh! lol :}

so cute.

step away from the cheerio snack cup and nobody gets hurt! :}

so happy! :)

can't wait for the fall edition in a couple months! :)