Pictures with Santa

This morning was the annual Breakfast with Santa and I took the girls to get their picture mad, eat pancakes and play & craft with the Junior Women’s League.  Mom and Jamie met me there with Mary-Jane.

So…here’s how the pictures went:

A happy but reserved (amazingly quiet & calm!) Campbell

 

An absolute hissy fit throw down Sara Gray with her embarrassed sis….

 

and cousins with Honey (because that was the ONLY way that Santa was going to be able to handle all three of them plus Honey had her red lipstick on!) Look at those faces!!

 

I told that Santa not to even let all that screaming & squirmin’ to bother him because it wasn’t bothering me one bit!  I know it looks like torture but I love it and know these will make us giggle for years to c

Pike County Fair 2010

It’s  a tradition. Campbell has loved a fair ever since we took her two years ago and we enjoy getting to see her have so much fun.  This year could be no exception.  I have been out of town earlier this week and thanks to soccer games and a field trip, I knew tonight would be the only night we could go as a family. 

We had some long lines and some limited rides and some kinda scary, creaky equipment so we didn’t really get the full experience!  But in spite of all that I know the girls had a great time.

Campbell of course loved riding everything and Sara Gray stayed up until 9pm (she is usually in bed at 6:30!) and was totally mesmerized by all the lights, sights & sounds.

Look at both their faces!  We had just arrived and they were totally amazed!

FBC Picnic at Banks

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of fellowship,play and food with our church family earlier today. It was the perfect weather to be outside and enjoy some old-fashioned FUN!

Hula Hoop Contest!

 

Some proud grandmothers!

Even Sara Gray got in on the hula  hoop fun

Cousins

 

Campbell and friends decided to get in  stage for an impromptu children’s choir rehearsal. She LOVES a microphone!

Newton & Mary-Jane

Campbell’s first trip to the Theatre

The Troy Arts Council had Billy Jonas Band in town tonight which was a great performance! Billy Jonas is a mix between Stomp! and James Taylor…I know, weird mix.  But he has a very spiritual/folk sound yet his instruments are buckets, a 55 gallon drum, tribal bells, pots & pans, beads in a water bottle!  So you can imagine how fun and exciting a show he puts on and how much kids love it.

I decided this would be the perfect event to introduce Campbell to live performance so I asked her if she would like to be my date to the theatre and she said YES!

I told her we needed to get dressed up (and then later had to talk her out of her Cinderella dress).  She did however have a LBD in the closet so we got dolled up and went to the Claudia Crosby Theatre.

On the way there (taking multiple construction detours) I thought about when I was on the Troy Arts Council for several years and I would sometimes ask myself WHY I was doing it all and then I would think about the day that I had my own children and how I would want them to have opportunities to be exposed to the arts, here in our community.  And last night it all came full circle for me.

In spite of their being no popcorn or skittles (the theatre thing did skew her expectations), Campbell enjoyed the performance. She got to sit next to her friend Lola (whose mother, Kristy, and I would always sit next to each other during our tenure on the Arts Council!) and the girls had fun getting to make the gestures and sing and clap along.

We left early because it was way past bedtime and the melancholy James Taylor-esque-ness was getting to my little girl. On our way out of the lobby, a reporter stopped us and interviewed Campbell and I was so surprised how much she had soaked in. She told him her favorite songs and favorite instruments and how much she really enjoyed it!

On the way home, I learned that Campbell was truly upset by one of the songs, “Zach’s Walk”.  It was about a 2-yr old, named Zach, that left his crib & walked  out of his house at 2am to go on a little walk. The police found him and returned him home to his sleeping parents at 5am!  So it was a really good story and song and Campbell had listened and understood every word which left her very upset and sad.  This combined with her sleepiness made for a not-so-much-fun ride home but nevertheless it was a special night for me and my little girl. 

I can’t wait to take Sara Gray to her first performance one day  and then one day take both my girls to the REAL DEAL theatre-Broadway! 

Rehearsal Dinner on the Bay-Fairhope, AL, Part 2: Event

For this event, the groom’s family selected The Yardarm, a local landmark restaurant located out on a pier (over 200 yards!) in Mobile Bay. The location was located near the outdoor wedding site (and therefore convenient for the wedding party), was very small and very casual.

The concept was to work with the space, not trying to transform it with big arrangements that would be overbearing but rather embrace the rustic setting and just dress it up a bit. It’s hard to use formal flowers when the menu is a fried seafood platter (that I heard was amazing by the way!)

The tables:

I used an ivory standard lap length cloth, topped with natural burlap and chocolate napkins. The napkins were rolled with silverware and held together with twin and a tag printed with initial square logo repeated on the personalized koozies and napkins.

The only flowers I ordered, at the request of the client, were Alstroemeria. They were mixed in with a wide variety of greenery (um…yard clippings!) including various ferns, nandina, oleander, berries and even some dusty miller.

We couldn’t stray too much from the restaurant’s table set-up due to the small size of the restaurant so there were tables of various shapes and sizes, which actually helps a space feel more comfortable and casual.

Center banquets featured a green moss covered runner with centerpieces and Spanish moss as a nod to the Fairhope area (lots of live oak trees!)

Alternating tables featured bronze lanterns which provided a good tie in with the rustic nautical look of the restaurant and allowed us to use large candles (Enjoy flameless candles of course-the best!)

Outside the bar tables held additional lanterns and larger arrangements. Copper pots of various sizes held personalized koozies and napkins and served as buckets to ice down beer and wine. Paper lantern lights strung along the back of the deck added an extra bit of casual ambience to the outdoor gathering spot.

It just goes to prove that somehow you can mix elegance with casual style and come away with a relaxed atmosphere that still somehow shows effort.  I think the restaurant owners and locals were amazed there little local place to look so good!

Labor Day Weekend Away

For Labor Day, Matt’s parents decided to rent a condo in Perdido Key and get us all away for a little time together, a little relaxation and a little support of the Gulf after such a terrible tourism summer.  August has been so hectic with school starting, Campbell’s activities, Matt & I are both busy with our work and sweet Sara Gray just getting bigger and faster each day…we have all been running in so many directions it was a great get away to relax & reconnect!

We spent the beautiful weekend playing on the beach, being lazy in the condo and eating lots of good seafood!! 

Saturday night we drove over to Magnolia Springs to eat at Clairey’s new favortie spot. Jesse’s.  It was a great meal and there was the sweetest church across the street that Campbell and explored before dinner.

On Sunday, Matt’s cousin, Anna Katherine, came over with her family and our kids got to play together which was so fun getting to introduce Campbell to her cousin Julie who is the same age.  They played “zoo” which meant Campbell (somehow, someway) got Lewis & Julie to get underneath Sara Gray’s pack-n-play and pretend they were animals in the cage. Campbell would feed them and read them stories which is what any good zookeeper does I guess.  Finally we got them to watch a movie on the sofa for some downside and then ended up all climbing into Doug’s lap to watch the Wizard of Oz…they even had to make room for Campbell!

After dinner Sunday night, Matt & I met my college roomate, Melissa, at the famous Flora Bama!  She recently got engaged and of course we had to interview the lucky guy!!  We didn’t exactly fit in at the FB but it was fun to reminisce about old times and to get to know Clint and talk about Melissa’s wedding plans. I never thought I would be excited about being a bridesmaid at this point in my life but I am SO happy for her that I really am thrilled to get to be one of her attendants!!

Monday morning we got in a few more hours on the beach before we had to pack it up and come back home, finding an Orange Julius in Pensacola!

Thank you Clairey and Papa Q for including us in your beach weekend and holiday!  We had lots of fun and love you!

Soccer Mom in training…and soccer wife too!

Tonight, Campbell had her very first soccer practice. She is on the 4&5 yr old The Revolution team and Matt (after much convincing) is her coach! I came home from work to find her dressed in head to toe pink soccer gear, carrying her pink ball and ready to go.

It was hot…so hot!  And for some reason the coach decided he was going to keep 4 and 5 year olds for a 90 minute practice!  Sara Gray and I sweated through it (she wanted to be on the field more than her sister I think!) and had lots of laughs watching Matt and the other coach herd those little ones around.

Campbell has some potential but half way through practice decided she would rather hug and love and dance with the boy next to her! Then towards the end, she totally figured out the ball everyone else was chasing was only going to come back down to her side of the field again so there was no point in doing all that running.

We definitely have a soccer princess on our hands!  But I am hopeful it will make for some good times with our friends and meeting some new friends too.