Daddy's Girls

Fall... The leaves are starting to change, nights are getting cooler, pumpkin everything everywhere... One of my favorite times of the year. We have had our fair share of pumpkins! I used the pumpkin painting idea from Zoo Boo and brought home a craft for all the kids to do here last week.  They all loved that. I sent Hallie and Sadie home with theirs but my house is decorated in pumpkins with our kids artwork. They like that it's displayed for everyone to see and we have plenty more to keep us busy on our rainy Halloween.  We have a tradition every year of taking pictures at the Asbury pumpkin patch. We were supposed to go last weekend but it rained for 4 days straight so we had to move that to this week. The original forecast had it rainy all week though so Hailey and I met last Thursday to snap a few just in case.  We got a couple cute ones (with everyone amazingly looking at the camera!) and then went to Nicky's for dinner.   The rain did stop in time for Rachel and the kid

Lilli had her first school Fall Fest on Friday night. It was POURING and everything was moved to the gym and breezeway so to say it was crowded would be an understatement.  Think fitting 300-400+ kids (my guess- I think the school has around 700 but surely some didn't go because of the rain) and their families in only the covered areas of school. Matt was such a trooper to take both girls around to all the booths while I worked the cake walk. :) There was face painting Balloons And hair coloring  Those are the ones we got pictures of but they played enough games to fill my purse with candy too. My favorite part of the night was watching the kindergarten class perform the Halloween and Thanksgiving songs they've been working on.  They were so cute and did really great. I have so many memories from the Halloween carnivals at my elementary school so it was very cool to watch her experience her first one. We didn't stay but about an hour because that was enough in the weather b

We all went to Houston to spend the weekend with Shanon and Alex. We were there and back in 48 hours since we couldn't leave until after school but it was plenty of time for some fun! We went to the Houston Zoo for Zoo Boo on Saturday morning (along with half of Houston ;) What could be more fun to my animal loving girls than a trip to the zoo? Add free candy and craft stations! We were there about 3 hours and that wasn't long enough to see everything but plenty long for us.  Rachel (Janet's daughter) lives in Houston and met us there to spend the morning playing with her new nieces.  We all loved the baby flamingoes.  The lines were long so we said they had to pick between giraffe feeding and the carousel. Lilli wanted the giraffes and Katie wanted the carousel so Matt took Lilli and I rode with Katie.  Candy corner! I don't know why we brought bags, they ate it as they got it.  Her scared face  They really liked pumpkin painting. It was a fun idea but took a little lo

Lilli had the "best day ever" since she started school (all of 2 months ago, lol). It started with a morning field trip (her first ever) to the fire station and 911 call center. Parents weren't allowed on this one but a friend of mine that is a room Mom sent me a few pictures.  Then she got a great surprise when she walked in to the cafeteria... Yaya was there to eat with her! She was also waiting at our house to watch her getting off the bus. She brought home her first report card today. They don't get real grades in kindergarten but she got O (outstanding) in everything. Doesn't surprise me.  And to top it off, we had time to get to gymnastics early so they got 20 minutes of play time before class.  I hope that means she'll sleep well tonight. They have to get rested up to visit Uncle Shanny and Alex after school tomorrow! 

Dad and Janet made it official yesterday at a beautiful ceremony at St. John's Methodist in Baton Rouge. It was performed by the Pastor of St. John's (Dad's church) and also Janet's long time Pastor and friend. It was personal and moving and everyone from the bride and groom to the guests both laughed and cried. All 5 grandchildren had a role. Lilli, Piper and Katie were all flower girls. And Daniel and Anna were the Junior Groomsman and Bridesmaid. Janet's daughter, Rachel was the Matron of Honor and my Uncle Jimmy (Mom's brother) served as best man. They all did a great job. Katie even walked down the aisle by herself and they stood (mostly) still and quiet for the duration of the ceremony.  (I LOVE this one :) After the ceremony came the party. The reception was at the studio where Janet takes lessons and it was perfect. There were 125+ people but plenty of room to spread out. We had good food, family photos,  Bride and groom with their kids. (I have a step-s