Amy turns 11 and Sarah is 39

Is it possible that our little girl is 11?? The calendar says so. We aren't sure how we feel about that!

Her birthday fell at the end of snow week. We thought she'd be going back to school on her birthday but it ended up being cancelled.

She stumbled out of bed....

Only to be attacked by the boys and silly string. (This is a tradition that Tyler insists on with everyone's birthday)

Our walls have silly string evidence all over them.

She couldn't decide on any big item. So I got her a bunch of little, silly things until she decides on what she really wants.

 
We had crepes with strawberries and whipped cream. A favorite around here!

For a cake she wanted several different cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes. I think we bought 8 of them or something, all different flavors.

I added some tall, trick candles to the cake. But the flame from the smaller candles started melting the taller candles and the flames started falling all over the place. It was pretty funny.

Instead of a party, the next day she had a birthday playdate. She invited Kirsten Pike and Carmen Roney over for it. I laughed when the girls heights looked like stairsteps and had to take a picture.

They made slime, homemade pizzas and little birdfeeders.

She's officially 11!!

Oh and I turned 39. My birthday was rather uneventful. I told someone it was like any other day just with more text messages. I'm saving all the energy for next year with the big 4-0. I told my family I insist on a party. Amy said she's already planning it. Love that girl. :)

(We were rather caked out by my birthday, but I did go to the store and buy a frozen strawberry cream pie. It was actually really good!)

First Snow Day of 2018

They've been threatening it for a few days, but last night it finally happened. SNOW!

 

 

 

(A message on our neighbor's driveway. "I love Kathy!"

It was pretty cold out (about 17 degrees) so no one stayed out very long. It's also not a great packing snow, it's too fluffy. So snowballs and sledding was hard. But the kids are out tomorrow and we'll attempt both again then since the snow will refreeze tonight.

Fun day!

Happy 70th Birthday Granny! (plus video)

The kids has a long weekend and we decided to head to GA to surprise Granny since she'll be 70 in a few short weeks. It turned out that on the day we planned to leave, Murfreesboro was expecting a bad ice storm so the kids school was cancelled and we were able to head out before it got bad.

We drove right to the courthouse where she works and surprise her. We did a great job too! She was quite surprised.

That night we went out to dinner with her, Uncle Bobby and Cici. It was yummy but the company was even better. Tyler was obsessed with Granny. He couldn't leave her side.

On our way out of town we ate breakfast at Waffle House. We all got our yummy fill!

Here is a little video I made to commemorate the weekend. (I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was taking video. You also have to be "on" our blog, not viewing this through email, to see the video.) 




Since my parents are in New York, we didn't stop to see them but instead took some backroads back to TN. I noticed this on the way down and I asked Lee if we could stop on our way back. It was COLD but everyone got out to see this gem. It was way prettier than we thought it would be. I'm so glad we stopped!

This place is called "Little Canyon River Falls" and it's near Fort Payne, AL.

You can see all the icicles on the rocks.

So pretty! A perfect end to a wonderful weekend!!!

Happy 2018!

As mentioned in the last post of 2017, Meme and Papa were here to help us ring in the new year. I made cinnamon rolls with a special 2018 message inside. haha.

We've had record freezing temps around here. I was supposed to run a race on Jan 1st but the temperature was 8 degrees. With the windchill it was 0. So I (and my entire group) opted out of that. Kind of a bummer as I was looking forward to that race. Oh well.

The kids have been playing inside pretty well. Tyler and Amy have some game where he locks her in the closet. He came out asking for food that he could push under the door for her. This child!!

I laughed really hard when Amy said her pants had ripped. I made these pajama bottoms about 5 years ago for her. At the time, they were quite long on her. Since she's just grown up, not out, they still fit, only they were capri length now. I guess they had finally had enough.

One of my goals this year is to complete several monthly challenges. The challenge for January is to clean off the kitchen counter tops each night. They tend to be our "catch-all" place. I have to say, I've been doing fairly well!

I started back to some workout classes. Oh how I've missed those! I was the only one in yoga one day. That was a little weird.

I was substituting one day and Will walked into my classroom dressed as a leprechaun. Apparently they were doing something with leprechauns in music class (which was across the hall.) 

Here's to a great 2018!!