trains AND planes

Wade and I met some friends in Kennesaw for a day of transportation fun. We started at the train museum (same place where Wade had his 3rd birthday)...
Guess who was too busy to pose with the rest of the kids?
(Izzy & Jack Springthorpe on bench, Retta & Leighton Duckett on the floor and stroller)

How cute is Jack? He is Wade's best guy friend from school

Then we moved the party to McCollum Airport for lunch. The restaurant was empty so the kids were able to roam free and watch plane take off and land.

What a fun day! Thanks for playing with us :)

WAVERY Slumb-over

Wade had his first non-cousin sleepover with his "best friend" Avery. We call Avery his girlfriend, and he corrects us and says "best friend". I think it does sound better to say he spent the night with his best friend instead of his girlfriend anyway.

Sarah and Clint were brave enough to try the overnight experiment and unless they lied to me....it was a great success! First, we wore them out at the pool,

then Wade got to experience the world of a 3 year old little girl....

playing dress up,

watching a Tinkerbell movie,

reading books about Barbie,

and making pancakes in the morning!

He had a blast and we're excited to return the favor at our house soon! But Avery beware, just be prepared for trains, trucks, dinosaurs and wrestling!

CHEERS!

Bree's MONSOON Birthday Party

To celebrate our baby girl's birthday, we thought we'd keep it small and simple. Yeah right. Some may say it was "memorable", but I will tell you the truth and say it was a complete disaster :) I can say that, I threw it.
Summer birthday = pool party. RIGHT?

I thought that was a given! With a June birthday, Bree better like swimming because she is destined to have a pool party for the rest of her life. Well, the weather gods played a mean trick on us and said, "not so fast". Every hot summer day has a 30% chance of thunderstorms, but this day we got hit - and hit hard.
As our family and close friends were joyfully gathering at the pool, a huge storm started rolling in. Wade and Bree were the only ones to even touch the water before the first thunder prompted the lifeguards to kick everyone out.Playing NEXT to a pool is complete torture for children, especially when the weather still seemed okay. But they handled it well and found other ways to entertain themselves.

Spirits we still high, margaritas were flowin', and we all hoped we could get in the water soon.

THEN the iffy weather turned ugly and dark. We thought the covered pavilion was plenty of shelter and decided to go ahead and eat, still hoping it would clear up in time for kids to swim.

Then just as we were about to give Bree her cake, the full storm hit and all H%*L broke loose. Rain was coming literally sideways, thunder and lightning were crashing all around us, everything blew off the tables, kids started screaming bloody murder, we were standing ankle deep in water, Poppa's telling everyone to stand on chairs and don't touch anything metal, some people hid in the bathrooms, and Bree thought the world was ending and completely lost it.

Luckily Grandpa Greg caught the chaos all on video.As the host, I felt horrible subjecting everyone to the weather abuse and kept checking the radar for a break in the storm. I wanted everyone to get to their cars and drive far far away from the party or any memory of it. As soon as it tapered off to a light rain I asked everyone to leave. Seriously. But they didn't listen to me. So we bribed them with cake pops to not sue us for post traumatic stress. They still wouldn't leave.
These cake pops may look cute and innocent, but don't let them deceive you! Since I wasn't hosting the party at our house or having to cook all the food, I naively thought it would be fun to make Bree's cake and cake pops for the guests. I watched this video and thought, "that looks easy!" Famous last words. I spent 10 hours baking cakes, mixing with frosting, freezing, coating with chocolate, and decorating.....only to have them collapse on droopy sticks. Oh well, they tasted great!!!And they got Bree back in a good mood! She was ready for a second go at her cake...Maybe the sparkler candle was a little much after bolts of lightning had just narrowly missed us?It didn't take long for Bree to rebound and dive right into her cake!

We had to do a practice run earlier in the week because of her allergies. So I knew she liked cake and icing, I just had now idea how much!Caleb thought her cake face was hilarious!We had to take the cake away before she ate the entire thing and made herself sick. So what do you did with a half eaten "smash" cake?Put it to good use!!!

Uncle Shawn is a great sport, but I know he's plotting Beau's payback. It's not going to be pretty :(

"YAY! The storm is over and I love CAKE!"

So after the cake smashing, the kids played in the huge puddle that had accumulated from the rain. The lifeguards tried to kick them out of that, but we let it slide. Lifeguards aren't certified in rain puddles anyway.

Somehow it turned out to be a decent evening, after the storm passed. I hope none of children have to go through shock therapy due to the traumatic experience. I accept full responsibility for any sleepless nights or bed wetting in future storms :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BREE!!! Next year we can have your party at Chuck-E-Cheese.