Moseby can’t wait for cake next year…but this year he just showed off his new skill–chuckling!
On Friday night we hosted a small birthday party.
By small I mean 200 people came. Whatevs! {That’s how we roll in the south.}
We put out at least a hundred pictures of Mamaw through the years as table centerpieces, as well as flower arrangements made from flowers on the farm, and votive candles. I loved how almost every person walked around the room looking at the pictures.
For food I convinced my mom and uncle to go with a whole “Ruth’s favorite foods” theme and I thought it turned out really cute. Chicken nuggets, meatballs, little quiches, cheese ring with strawberry jam, Snickers bars, Moon Pies, cut-up strawberries with sugar, peanut butter crackers, lime sherbet punch, RC Colas, and Orange Crush. The only thing we didn’t include was the poke salad {ack!}, cornbread, and buttermilk.
We had the guests write down a fond memory they had with Mamaw and add it to our “Memory Tree”. We’re going to put all the memories in a book so she can keep them. {MM’s said, “I like to watch TV at Mamaw’s. I like to ride bikes with her too.” Hmm…I get the TV part–they love watching ‘Little Bear’ everyday, but the bikes? Uhm, MM, there are no bikes at Mamaw’s house! …silly three year olds!}
Mamaw enjoyed getting to see people she sees every week and ones she hadn’t seen in years.
Happy Birthday, Mamaw! We are blessed to have you in our lives and hope you have eighty more!
]]>Something starts out relatively simple…painless…and then once you start grows and grows ’til you just have to keep plowing away at it until it’s finished or you might kick yourself for giving up?
Maybe it’s just me. I don’t know.
Since Christmas we’ve been talking about getting MM {and Moseby when he gets older} a play-set for our house. We looked at the ones we liked online and they were four or five…thousand. No offense, but who in their right mind would pay five thousand dollars for a play-set? Riddle me that.
We looked at Costco and Sams and their smaller versions were still pushing $1000.
So we tabled the idea and said we would come back to it in the spring. Imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago C. said he had been looking at them on Craigs List for a few months now and found us a good used one for literally five percent of the original cost.
The only problem was that WE had to take it down, WE had to move it to our house, WE had to set it up in our backyard, and WE had to repair/add things to it. {I say ‘we’ loosely, of course. I just planted a pot of flowers and held a couple of posts up.}
We couldn’t turn a deal like that up so last Saturday we went and bought it. And it took basically a whole day to take it down and move it to our backyard.
Our backyard looked like a graveyard full of old swingset bones.
Pretty daunting, huh? {Thankfully they labeled the pieces and took tons of pictures before they took it apart.}
But MM loved “sliding” already. She stood around “helping” {see that screwdriver in her hand?} all afternoon.
Late that afternoon they had the first tower thingy put together.
And right before dark the first slide got added so MM could take a quick ride down {because, come on, it’s hard for a three year old to be that patient and we had to reward her!}.
The next day the second tower was added, but the twisty slide {MM. calls it the “curly slide”…so cute} and the swings proved to be much more difficult.
The men met again on Wednesday evening to come up with a list of more materials they needed {four trips to Home Depot and one trip to Ace for this project, I might add}. And on Friday afternoon as the rain was trying to close in on us they got the swing and slide added.
Moseby’s vantage point:
My laidback baby of course fell asleep while lying in the shade and took a little nap while everyone worked.
And while he snoozed MM and I planted some marigolds and catnip {her choice}.
And Vivi barked. And drank water. And barked. And drank water.
And then it was time to swing so MM practiced a bit with her baby first.
And had a little snack on the stairs {you’ll probably notice that the swingset has a picnic table built in, but of course that meant that MM wanted to eat on the stairs, haha!}.
And by Friday evening it was fully functional though still a little rough looking.
Saturday we bought accessories {handles, a ship’s wheel, etc.} because a plastic telephone brings the swingset to a whole ‘nother level, you know?
And then on Sunday the men added decking to cover the old sandbox {sorry, I don’t do sandboxes} and a new roof.
Grand total of time spend on this thing: 28 hours.
All I gotta say is those kiddos better play on that thing everyday! …but so far Moseby is not impressed. HA!
Right?
If I have, just indulge me, because I honestly don’t remember doing so.
And if I haven’t shown you yet? Sweet! I remembered!
I know I’ve shared my love for Anna Maria Horner fabrics on here before. In fact, I went to her sewing workshop back in ’10 {Don’t click on that link unless you want to see an 18 month old MM who looks soooooo tiny and precious and adorable. Swoon.}. I love her crazy bold designs in bright colors. They speak to me.
So I knew I wanted to make my parents a quilt in her fabrics but that I had to add in some red since that’s my mom’s favorite color…hence, the borders and binding.
I chose a ‘plus’ design for their quilt. I used lots of different tutorials, but really liked the one I found here. For quilting I chose to quilt 1/4″ along either side of the seams.
On the back I used my favorite fabric from her Loulouthi collection. I did one more plus sign block with some hand embroidery. And my favorite thing? MM’s art project that I put on a piece of fabric and incorporated to the back.
So, it only took me four months to post about it….not bad. HA!!
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Easter.
The Easter Bunny told me he had a very hard time picking out gifts for a six week old. So Moseby got two teething rings, two bibs, a beach towel (to match MM’s), and…a baby chick. That MM named “Chocolate Chipy” for him.
{I love his face…it’s so “Like what am I supposed to do with THAT?!”}
MM got some Strawberry Shortcake things–that remote controlled car was a hit, a new Tiana doll, a beach towel, and a baby chick that she named “Chipy”.
I realized later that I did not give her any candy in her Easter basket. I’m so not a no-sugar-for-Easter kind of mom {though it’s totally okay if you are} and felt kinda bad that I didn’t give her any chocolate. Thankfully my family came to the rescue and gave her enough sugar to last her for weeks. HA!
Then it was time for Easter mass.
And I dressed our son in a smocked gown with matching bonnet. I told C. at least it was blue when he kidded me that our son looked like a girl. I couldn’t help it…he was just too beautiful in it!
And MM sported a not-vintage-but-could-have-been dress and cardigan that I just loved.
I love these kiddos…I could just eat them up!
{Of course he won’t legally be ours until the adoption is finalized–probably in the next three months or so depending on how backed up the courts are–but you know what I mean.}
My parents decided to throw Moseby a “Welcome to the Family!” party the night after the tenth day. I think he slept right through it…but that didn’t stop us from celebrating!
Here’s a few pictures.
I mean, the little guy turned six weeks old yesterday and I STILL haven’t posted the pictures of the night we got home at almost 9pm from the hospital {after a 4.5 hour drive…with a day old–newly circumcised and fussy–baby}. Needless to say we were ALL worn out and ready to be home by the time we got there!
All our family came over and were waiting for us when we pulled into the driveway. I think MM’s expression says it all–they were EXCITED!
This little guy was a long time coming–we’d been talking to her about Baby Moseby or Baby Emmeline for over a year and she was just trilled to finally meet him!
We loved showing him off to people {especially our little MM}.
My parents.
C.’s parents.
My cousin, Jessica, and her boyfriend, Adam, who are going to be his godparents.
Aunt Jen-Jen {MM’s godmother}.
My Aunt Jackie.
My Uncle Doug.
C.’s sister, Katie.
I think this was the funniest part of the night. Four C.’s hovered over Moseby while they tried to change his diaper and put Vaseline on his…uhm…boy parts.
And the only way we could get this one to go to bed? To promise her she would get to hold him the next day …and the next. …and the next.
Here’s another one of those posts that I just didn’t get around to when we did it weeks ago. You know my reasons {…and the perfect little knit gray hat…the dark gray booties…and all the other shopping and preparing going on for Baby C.}, but I still wanted to post these photos here since this little blog keeps track of our family’s life.
I will say that cutting down a Christmas tree is just not that big a deal if you own a Christmas tree farm. We see them every day. I’ve been trying to think of a way to make it more special and I think the next time we plant {late winter} I’m going to let MM pick out a liner from the batch as HER tree. We’ll put a special tag on it and let her take care of it for the next four years as it grows. And then when it’s time to cut it {and she’ll be almost 7–ACK!} she’ll get to use the saw herself and help her daddy.
But until then we just go out in the fields and cut our trees…or three…down.
If you want to cry all you have to do is go back to 2009 and 2010 and see how much my little one has grown. It’s crazy how quick they go from a little baby to a toddler talking in full sentences.
I just love Plum District. It’s a Groupon/Living Social type of website geared towards moms and families. Last week they had a spend-$10-get-$20-worth-of-food at the Roswell Teahouse. As soon as I saw it I knew this would be a *perfect* place for MM to have her first official tea party at almost three years old.
And boy, was I right!
{The Roswell Teahouse is just wonderful…I really can’t say it enough. The food was amazing–honestly the best chicken salad…and tomato soup…green tea ginger dressing, etc. were the best I’ve ever had. Oh my goodness, y’all, go there today. I know we’ll be back.}
I asked Little Miss what she thought she should wear to a teahouse. She decided on a dress, a hat, and some gloves. And “lots and lots of sparkly jewelry”. Yep, a girl after my own heart.
So I found my childhood Easter bonnet, her little white gloves from Easter this year, some faux pink (!) pearls, and a little vintage bracelet and my baby ring. We were all set for our tea.
When we got there she took all that stuff off and got down to business. Sipping her pink “Teddy Graham” tea and tackling her tower of goodies {including peanut butter and jelly, pumpkin woopie pies, cucumber sandwiches, etc.}.
I was so surprised that she actually loved the tea after it cooled off. She drank three cups!
Tea drinking is serious work, don’t ‘ya know.
After bellies were full and lots of loving on two of her grandmothers we left.
{But not without first picking up many acorns…that she then stuffed in *my* pockets and laughing about it.}
Her first tea party was a hit and she’s already asking when we can go back.
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I’ll be honest–I don’t know how to put all my feelings about Disney World down.
As a kid I went four times {plus a Disney cruise} and I was totally gaga for Mickey. Loved him.
But, well, I just didn’t feel the magic of Disney World as an adult. It was just all a bit too contrived–piped in happiness, I’d guess you say. Fake historic buildings, employees in hot, fake costumes with fake smiles, everyone telling you to have a “magical day”, etc.–well, it just wasn’t real. Add on to that temperatures in the upper 90s, love bugs mating everywhere, more children crying than laughing {blame it on all those skipped naps}, and the plethora of strange old people who were there all on their own. It was just creepy.
And don’t get me wrong, MM had fun. She LOVED–like squealed in utter delight–the character breakfast, It’s a Small World ride, and the large gift shop on Main Street {that girl loves her some shopping}…but other than that she was over it. We probably could have left an hour after the park opened and never thought twice. Instead we toughed it out for nine hours, no nap, horribly hot and humid, and did as many kid-friendly rides as we could. Did it make it any better for her? Eh, probably not. But if I’m going to pay $90-ish for a ticket, well, we’re going to get our money’s worth.
And do I think we’ll go again? Of course. {Isn’t that crazy that one second I tell you I didn’t dig it and the next second I tell you we’ll go again?! That’s how I roll.}
But I’ll do it different. We’ll wait a minimum of four years, possibly more. Book a place that is on park property {or better yet, that tram service line} so that naps–and breaks for the parents–can be taken. And either go again in early November or mid-February when it’s not so dadgum hot.
Enough of that. We DID have a good time and I AM glad we did it. And here are the pictures to prove it.
A deserted Disney {our reservations at the Crystal Palace were at 8 and the park doesn’t open to the public ’til 9}.
And like I said, she absolutely loved the breakfast. We did too–it was yummy–and the characters {Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet} came around to each table to spend time with each child.
Playing in the gift shop.
And we met some characters. After standing in long lines. Really long lines. {I thought all kids were in school in the middle of September during the week. Apparently not.}
Her favorite is Tiana. She says she wants to be a chef like her one day.
We rode some rides. After standing in some long lines.
And after a long day we waited in line {yep, one more line} to meet Minnie and Mickey. MM was just too tired and couldn’t wake up {my girl likes to nap, don’t ya know}. We took pictures anyway and I’m glad we did because MM just laughs and laughs when she sees this.
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We just got back from our little vacation and while it was so fun–it honestly, really was–we’re exhausted {missing a flight AND traveling with a 2.5 year old will do that to you}. And plus my camera is on the fritz. Again {the ISO button is jammed which effects everything and I can’t shoot in manual right now…and that’s the only way I know how to shoot}. So I’ve only been able to upload just 2-3 photos {of the 250+}.
Anyway…
Here are some pictures from the beach. A beach that was nice, low 80s, breezy, and mostly overcast–and people-free. Completely lovely. C. had never been to the Atlantic before and I think he was even pleasantly surprised.
She’s learning her letters is preschool and here she is writing “A-A-E-E-E-L-L”.
And then there’s a few I took with my phone of her playing in the sand. I really couldn’t believe how much she’s changed in just the last year. She loves the sand. And the birds. And the water. And sandcastles. Seriously, what has happened to my no-mess-child?! Love it.
Next up? Our trip to Disney World.
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