Let's move on

So, I think I've finally finished all the birthday party blogs and I may have even written about a couple other random experiences too. Now, onto the end of the year to talk about Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas! October is also Breast Cancer Awareness and at work, the speech therapy department accepted the task to help "paint the building pink" to go along with a community effort of the same name to raise awareness for breast cancer. My coworker and I had the great idea (and thankfully it turned out great) to use cheap vinyl tablecloths and cover our entire room in pink! We also cut out circles with a huge circle punch and strung them from the ceiling and used the leftover scraps of pink card stock to make pink ribbons and tack them up on the wall too! It turned out so cute! I also made small pink ribbons for all my coworkers in rehab to wear during the month. I was really surprised at how many people wore their ribbons! There wasn't a contest or we didn't win anything at least but we had a great time decorating and everyone who saw it loved it! I even striped my hair pink for an entire week and put some in Ryan and Brittyn's hair too! I just wish I had gotten pictures of that because they loved it, they still ask for it when they thumb through my photos and see mine. It was lots of fun to talk about and raise awareness about breast cancer, even from our little space!

















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Fall Festival 2013-14

When fall comes around here in the south, it means shorter days and cool nights. It's supposed to anyway, but what it really means is that we might get some mildly cool weather in the nighttime sleeping hours. So, this past "fall", we went with Ryan to the Fall Festival at her school. All of our kids had such a good time playing in bounce houses, riding horses, eating snacks before dinner and having their faces painted. Ryan helped me work her lollipop booth and we gave away lots more prizes than we probably should have. But we had a great time and it was all for a great cause, I'm sure!








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Friday family night

We never have simple Friday nights where we have dinner and fall asleep watching a movie in bed with all the kids. That would be lovely but it's just not us. What we like is to go, and by go I mean checking out the new Bass Pro Store that opened in Tallahassee last fall. It had to have opened after Hunt's birthday and before Halloween, gauging by the order of the photos on my phone, so last fall is close enough to perfect for me in terms of a "date." So, we had to get in line like the rest of Tallahassee and go check out the new store and get pictures to document the occasion. We looked at the new fish tank, tried on all sorts of camo, sat in various boats and played with the "outdoor" toys for children. By the way, when I say we, I mean we as in Joe and I let/made the children do all this stuff while we attempted to stage for pics and supervise them. Good night for us, the girls got wooden pop guns, Bubby got a camo hat, Joe probably bought some sort of camo shirt or something and I came home with a box of camo band aids at all the children's request. So, no one goes home empty handed! Now, on to the photos!




















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Brittyn turns 3!

Sprinkles abound!!! We celebrated Brittyn's 3rd birthday with a sprinkles party complete with a mess of colored quinoa (I'll never do that again) sprinkle cut outs for decor and a cake covered in sprinkles. She had so much fun and was so excited to have all her friends and family over for her special day. We colored quinoa and used them as "sprinkles" for the kids to make their names and pictures. Super messy but super fun. I think I'm still finding that stuff in the grooves of my table and my floor. She had a great day and I'm so happy that I get to be her mommy, couldn't imagine a day without my little Brittles!























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Huntington's First Birthday!

By the time my children have turned one, it's not too far after that that I become pregnant with another sweet blessing. Such a situation has not been the case since my Huntington Brooks turned one LAST AUGUST 31, 2013. He's now 19 months old and it looks like he's gonna be my baby, my caboose, my end of the line, my "they broke the mold" baby. He's moving and shaking and talking and eating and playing nonstop, like crazy! I cannot express how much I love this little man, because even the girls remind me that he's no longer a baby.

His birthday party was a great day for our family. I know he won't remember it because of being so young and also because he slept through a lot of it. I know because the minute I was gonna start the party, I looked over and he was asleep in his grandpa's arms. Note to self: don't let kids chill with grandparents on party day.

So, we welcomed everyone, had a blessing and started eating. We decorated the house in a barnyard and "Charlotte's Web" theme because he loved that movie as a baby. We would watch it every night before he went to bed, he got to where he would even ask for it, saying "Char" and I knew what He wanted. He'd take his bottle and lay in my arms and be asleep in no time. The girls would lay on the floor and also fall asleep to the movie, the I got to the point that I would know the kids were asleep by the time the movie got to 1:13:00 left. I know because it happened every night.

Ok, wiping my tears away, let me get back to the party! We used red bandanas and greenery and lots of "nature" inspired decor. We had Rice Krispie treats for "hay stacks" "spuds" for potato chips and Oreo cookies for "wagon wheels." We ate pulled pork sandwiches (sorry Wilbur) and had a great time. The girls "helped" him smash his cake and open his presents. Not that he really needed the help but... He was wide awake by the time the party was over so he and his cousins stood by the "watering hole" and played in the ice and drank Capri sun. That ended our day because I dropped the kids off at Kylia's later and I couldn't have been gone more than 10 minutes before she sent me a picture of my Bubby passed out on her floor. It was a great day, I know he won't remember it but Im thankful for everyone who came and helped make it a great day for Huntington!





































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