School Days

Curly Q had her 1st day of Kindergarten today!! I looked down this morning at Little Lovey who was saying, "Ma Ma..." and wondered, "where does the time go?!" Seems like the 1st day of Kindergarten is bitter sweet. Nice to see her grow up and do new things, but hard to look back and not see my little shadow there!

Spiky Lou is now in 3rd grade, which means, at his school, he is a big boy on campus as their Elementary only goes up to 3rd grade. He'll be headed to Intermediate next year! Sigh, I don't want to think about that either!

JJ, Lovey, and I decided to have a special breakfast at IHOP (shhh...don't tell the kids!) It was nice sharing the day with him and Lovey since I'm not thrilled that summer is over (with summer goes my chance to sleep in for one thing!) We have had a nice long vacation. Something to think about in the next few months as this seems like it'll be a long year.

So, now it's just me and Lovey during the day, and I know things will speed up when the kids come home in the afternoon. CQ will be starting ballet classes tomorrow, and Cub Scouts will be in full swing again on Friday. Plenty to do!!

A Howling Good Time

We are having fun on our vacation at a hotel with an indoor water park!

Curly Q is doing a little bit more than last year as she has been getting in the wave pool and is starting to try to swim in the shallow water. What a big step for her! Spiky Lou loves the river (complete with waves!). He acts like everything is a video game. LOL! Apparently, you loose life points if someone dumps water on you and there are only certain ways to get them back and move on to the next level. He is so creative :). Even little Lovey is having fun in the water ("wa wa" ) this year! We have just been putting her infant life jacket on her (that we got earlier this summer for our Mommy and Me Swim class,) holding on to the strap in the back, and letting her have fun in the shallow end! And JJ and I have been enjoying having some time off from a busy year! Even Nanna and Pawpaw came over for a visit and some supper last night!

We have been having so much fun this summer. I'm so not ready for the kids to start school!





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A Splishin' and A Splashin'

We just got back from a week at the beach, and the kids had a blast!

On our 1st day, we took all the kids down to the beach. Spiky Lou and Curly Q loved playing in the waves! They were sooo easy to watch this trip. This was Lovey's 1st time at the beach, and it was a short visit for her as she got tired pretty quickly. She did like exploring in the sand for a little bit.

We took a break and went to the near-by aquarium the next day. The kids had fun watching the dolphin show from below. Lovey, who is now walking, was taking off all over the room. SL and CQ were tickled :)

One of my favorite things that we did was take a trip to the local pool. We stayed there for 3 hours, and all of the kids had fun! SL went down a water slide in the deep end (which is a big step for him,) Lovey kept wanting to kick up her feet like she was swimming, and Curly Q surprised us all when she stuck her head in the water and kicked up her feet. She's still crawling on her hands, but this is a BIG step for her since she didn't even want to go in the pool up until this week! All we had to do was buy her a pair of goggles!! If I had known that, I would've saved the money on swim lessons! LOL!


The kids discovered that they could get out of the car on the short fairy ride. It was a like a mini boat ride every time we crossed over to the main land and back.

We enjoyed our vacation! I just love the coast because of the nice change of atmosphere, and I enjoy watching the kids have so much fun. Can't wait to go back soon - especially as Lovey gets a little older and can enjoy our trips to the beach even more :)

Happy 4th (and 3rd)!

Can't believe I'm blogging again! Wish I could say I was back on track, but who knows... Our town celebrated Independence Day on the 3rd since it really fell on Sunday this year. The kids had a blast, and JJ and I were completely exhausted, but enjoyed watching them have so much fun :) This was Curly Q's first year in our town's big parade! She and Spiky Lou rode with JJ on his company float with the other kids. Lovey and I looked on with excitement! Then, we joined our family for lunch and swimming. SL and CQ stayed in the water with their cousins for hours! SL was swimming all over the place and jumping in the water. His swim lessons really helped him to get comfortable with the water this year :-D

We went back to the house for a short break, and then headed to our local park with the cousins to play and watch fireworks.

Curly Q and her cousin playing Littlest Pet Shop.

Lovey (excited that she found a chocolate milk bottle! LOL!)

Fireworks! SL and CQ just loved this part. And, little Lovey did surprisingly well. She wasn't all that scared and just watched (probably wondering what it was all about!)

Happy Independence Day everyone, and thank you to all the men and women who fight for our freedom!

Curly Q's Pinkalicious Party :)

I can't believe my little Curly Q is 5 and going to Kindergarten in about a month! Where does the time go?! OK, this party needs an explanation for those of you who aren't familiar with this story. Pinkalicious is basically a story about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and, as a result, turns pink. Pinkalicious LOVES pink and dressing up like a fairy princess. If you know Curly Q, you know that she's pretty much just like this girl. So, this was the perfect party for her and lots of fun to do!

The birthday girl! I found a recipe to make cupcakes that look just like the ones in the book. Didn't say I baked them though! That's why I'm blessed with a husband like JJ, who made these cupcakes and the cute cupcake cake (just like Curly Q requested.)



JJ also made lots of finger foods and even baked pink bread for some of the sandwiches!


Curly Q wanted her guests to decorate tiaras (since that's part of Pinkalicous's repertoire.) They had a fun time.

The party table! I made a birthday banner for CQ with my Cricut. And, the tulle on the back of the chairs are actually pink, no-sew tutus that I made for the girls to wear (their ensemble also included pink fairy wands that look just like the one's in the book too.)


Here I am, reading the story of Pinkalicious to the party guests. This party was so fun and so girly! Enjoyed this one!




Here are the girls having a tea party and getting ready to eat their pink cupcakes :)

Big brother insisted that he be invited to the party. Plus, we had a few boy siblings. This created a challenge for me. I mean, what are you supposed to do with boys at an all pink party?! The best I could come up with was pirates. I found some pirate hats that were similar to the girls tiaras (plus, technically Peter, Pinkalicous's little brother, plays a pirate in the author's new book, Goldalicious.) The boys had a blast playing pirates and it was a nice distraction for them while the girls did all their girly stuff.

I really enjoyed planning this party. I think some of my favorites parties to plan for my kiddos are the ones that take some thought. I had to start from scratch on this one since their are no Pinkalicious party favors and got a lot of ideas from the Internet. I'm just enjoying this party planning too much - especially the part when the party planning is over and the kids can just enjoy the party. LOL!

Lovey's 1st Birthday Party

Needless to say, I am way behind on my blog! But, I just had to post pictures from my kiddo's birthday parties (especially since party #3 is coming up in about a month!) This is Little Lovey at her 1st birthday party. We invited mainly family and one close friend and had so much fun!

No, I didn't make the cake. Although, I would love to take classes someday :)

I did go Cricut crazy and made the streamers complete with about 60 bunnies! I got the idea off of Martha Stewart's website. It was so adorable (only problem was that poor Curly Q got all tangled up in it when we were hanging it up the day before. Oh well, live and learn... Oh, and the carrots on the table are really the napkins and silverware - got that idea off of one of my favorite sites: Family Fun. It was such a cute theme! We chose the bunny theme because Lovey was born around Easter time :)

Birthday Girl, eating her cake!

All tired out and snuggling with Pawpaw :-D

Hoping to post Curly Q's Pinkalicious Party soon!

Curly Q is 5!

If you are wondering if we were just celebrating a birthday at our house, then you're right! Our girlie's birthdays are exactly 3 weeks apart. And, you guessed it, another big party is in the works. I'll have to post pics of both parties when I finally get a chance to sit down! LOL!

I was just thinking yesterday about how, in Biblical times, names had obvious meanings. I know names still have meanings today, but, I was thinking about what I would have really named my children according to the lessons I was going through at the time of their births. I would have probably named Spiky Lou "God's miracle" because I was so in awe at the miracle of life with my 1st child. Lovey would have been named "God answers prayers" because we were unsure about adding a third child to our family and prayed and waited for God, and He showed us the way :)

Curly Q would have been named "Trust." Not a very girly name by today standards, but a fitting name. God showed me that I needed to put my pregnancy with her in His hands. I understood the word Lordship on a whole new level. What a tough lesson, but what a beautiful moment it was when CQ came into our lives. Gotta love those kiddos! Happy birthday CQ! :)

Thank you Lord!