Thursday, September 30, 2010

Refreshery

We've been enjoying the cooler weather this week. It's still warm enough for our summer clothes, but it feels so wonderful so we've been spending lots of time outdoors.  Yesterday when we went outside Handley said, "Wow!  It's so refreshery today."  I think she meant refreshing.  Earlier this week she said it felt cold and I told her it felt refreshing.

Yesterday we met our friends Charlie and Madelyn Kate at a near-by park to play.  Before going Handley wanted to put on her lipstick and when I was packing some snacks she asked if we could bring some apples to share with Charlie.  I think she has a crush on him. :-) They had a blast playing together.  He's so sweet to her and they play very well together.


Harper and Madelyn Kate are only 4 months apart and Harper just squeals with excitement when she sees her sweet friend.  She is so happy to have friends her age to play with.


This evening while we were playing in the back yard Handley told me that Harper was being disobedient.  Ha!  I asked her what that word meant and she told me the correct definition.  Then I asked her where she had heard that word and she said that her teacher has used it at school.  It sounded so funny coming out of her mouth!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Welcome Baby Leah

Some of our friends, Brian and Lisa, just had their first baby two weeks ago. We finally made it over to visit and take them dinner this evening.  Leah is just a doll!  She is so tiny and so precious.  It's hard to remember my girls being that small and I loved getting to hold and love on sweet Leah.  Handley couldn't keep her hands off of Leah and was so interested in every piece of baby gear in sight.  Harper was also pretty interested and when I was holding her she climbed up beside me and kept trying to get her hands on Leah too.  Handley was sad to leave and kept asking if we could stay longer.  I promised her that Leah would be one of her new favorite friends and as soon as she got a little bigger she could play with her all she wanted.  Congratulations Brian and Lisa!!!

Birthday Party and Volleyball

This morning we started out the day with a birthday party for one of Handley's best friends, Annabelle.  She lives just down the street from us and we meet her when she was only 1 month old.  Today she turned 3 and had a huge party to celebrate!  It was at Champion Kids (formerly Southern Prep, but now in a new location).  Everyone there had a great time.  There are trampolines, zip-lines, foam pits, inflatable bouncy slides and so much more.






After the party we made our way down to Piedmont Park.  My cousin, Addison, was in town for the Red Bull Spiked volleyball tournament, so we met up with Aunt Missy and Uncle Neal to watch him play and help cheer on his team.  There were teams from all over the southeast that had qualified in regional tournaments to make it to this event.  Addison's team played all day long and kept advancing to the finals.  The top two teams in the tournament got to play against the Olympic Gold Medalist Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser.  He and his teammates did a fantastic job and I was impressed watching Addison spike the ball time after time.  They finished in 3rd so they were just one spot away from playing the Olympians.  Next year...

Addison is in the blue shirt, just spiked the ball and you can see the other team wasn't able to block it. 

Uncle Neal and Handley

Harper warmed right up to Addison.  Every time he would come sit with us after one of their games she would run up to him and wait for him to pick her up. You can tell in this picture she feels right at home with him and had assumed her position...sucking her thumb and rubbing her belly button. 


We had so much fun watching and cheering for Addison today.  There was tons of room for the girls to run around and play, a DJ blaring music, and free drinks.  We had so much fun that we ended up staying for 4 hours!


Thursday, September 23, 2010

Ponytail for Paxton

Today was our last full day in Wilmington so we packed it full of fun.  We started off by spending the morning at the beach.  After lunch at home I saw few different things in my mom and dad's pantry that would make a delicious and fun dessert.  They were a hit with all of us!



This afternoon we got to play with Paxton.  My mom has kept Paxton a few days a week for 5 years now (since he was a tiny baby).  Handley has always been a big fan of him.  I think she has a major crush on him now. She's not always fond of having her hair up in a ponytail and earlier this week my mom was trying to get her to keep her hair up by telling her that Paxton liked girls with ponytails (something she totally made up).  Today when I was fixing her hair she thought for a minute and then told me she wanted a ponytail so that Paxton would think she was pretty.  She also needed her lipstick.  Oh my...I can't believe we are starting this early. :-)



Tonight we went to Capt'n Bills, my Uncle's restaurant for dinner.  The girls loved getting to see lots of extended family members and we loved eating some delicious food!


Handley loves Aunt Missy!  She also can't smile or talk "normal" when she is wearing her lipstick (colored chapstick) because she's afraid it will mess it up. Ha!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Consignment sale, Memaw, and popsicles

This morning Jen and I started out early at a children's consignment sale.  It's a local sale in Wilmington that consigns upscale, boutique type clothing at great low prices.  My mom always goes to this sale to get clothes for Handley and Harper and it just so happened that we were in town for the sale.  We were the first in line and it paid off!  I got some adorable things for the girls and Jen got some really cute things for her baby boy on the way.

After our great shopping morning we went over to my grandmother's house to visit for the afternoon.  It's always great to see her and be able to let the girls get to know their great-grandmother.


Tonight we relaxed around my parents' house and enjoyed the fabulous weather in the back yard with some popsicles.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A quick getaway

Handley is on Fall Break this week at school so I decided to come up to Wilmington for a quick getaway and visit my parents for the week. I was back and forth about making the 7 hour drive by myself, but didn't have to because my BFF, Jen, decided to come along with me!  Talk about a fun girls trip!

Today we started out the day by heading to the beach.  The weather was perfect and there was hardly anyone there so we had the run of the place.  The girls enjoyed playing in the sand, searching for shells and splashing in the water.


This evening we went down to my grandparents house for a visit.  They live on the intercoastal waterway, so there is all sorts of fun to be had there.  After tossing hickory nuts in the water we tossed out some old bread for the sea gulls.  At first there were only 1 or two birds, but they must have sent out a call to all their sea gull buddies because they came from EVERYWHERE!


Monday, September 20, 2010

Handley, the wake-board girl

All summer long Robby has been talking about trying to get Handley up on the wake-board with him.  I wasn't sure she would really be up for the idea, but he kept throwing it out there.  Every time he would bring it up she'd always say, maybe later.  On Saturday he mentioned it to her and she was all about it.  I figured when and if she got up with him that she would probably start freaking out and start telling him she was all done.  Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.  


After a mini lesson on what to do she hopped in the water with him and was ready.  Robby's parents with us this weekend so Papa drove the boat so I could get some pictures.  They popped right up on the first try and she was all smiles.  We were cheering like crazy for her!  She kept waving to us and then she was getting brave and sticking one foot off the board.  As we passed other boats and people saw what she was doing, they were cheering for her too.  That just made her love it even more.  When she'd had enough Robby scooped her up with one arm, let go of the rope, and slowly sunk into the water.  


We were so proud of her!  She kept saying she was a wake-board girl and that she couldn't wait to do it again.  


First try out this morning she was a little over confident and after being up for a minute or so she kept sticking her feet off the board and ended up wiping out face first.  Needless to say she wasn't thrilled.  She got back in the boat, had a snack, and then we sent her right back out to try again.  We didn't want her to be afraid and to never want to do it again.  This time we reminded her to keep her feet on the board and she did great. 

I totally forgot to bring my Flip video camera with us, but today I realized that my little camera could do a video too. It's kind of long and this was about the 3rd time she had done it, so our cheers had died down at this point.  Still pretty impressive for a 3-year-old though.  :-)


After Handley was back in the boat, Robby went at it alone.






Tonight on the way home we stopped by Bass Pro to get a few things for an upcoming family camping trip (something some of us are thrilled about and some of us, well, not so much. :-) -  more on that later).  We ate dinner after Bass Pro and as we were getting out of the car Handley said, "I'm a wake-board girl and a camping girl."  Let me just tell you, 9 little words could not have made Robby more happy.  I love that she can be such a girly girl and also do the fun outdoor things with her Daddy that he loves so much too.  

Monday, September 13, 2010

Robby is 30!

On Saturday we got together with some of our best friends to celebrate Robby's 30th birthday.  We started with dinner at Garrison's in Vinings and spent the rest of the evening dancing the night away.  It was SO much fun and I think everyone with us had a blast.  Good music, good friends, good times.  Definitely a birthday to remember!




I'm so happy that we have such fun friends!  We stayed out way too late, but were very thankful that Gigi and Papa had let the girls have a sleepover so we didn't have to get up too early. The girls did great and Handley and Harper had a blast. 

Friday, September 10, 2010

Happy Birthday Robby!!!

Lordy, Lordy, Robby is...  

Ha, ha...not quite, just 30, but still a big milestone.  :-) This morning he woke up to Handley telling him a big Happy Birthday.  While he was at work, the girls and I made pictures for him, wrapped his gift and stopped by our favorite bakery, McEntyre's, to pick up a cake.  This evening we met Gigi and Papa out for dinner and although we could hardly hear each other in the loud section we were sitting, we still had fun.  Robby opened his gift, we had a great dinner, and enjoyed our cake.  

Robby opening his gift - an iPad!

Tomorrow we are getting together with friends for a big celebration dinner and I can't wait for a night out.  The girls are going to spend the night with Gigi and Papa (this will be Harper's first time away from me at night). Handley is super excited to have Harper at Gigi's with her and keeps telling me that she's going to show her all about spending the night there.  I know they will be having lots of fun, so that will allow us to have lots of fun too!  

I forgot to post this picture from last weekend.  Harper got to ride in the bike trailer for the first time and loved it! When Handley found out that I wasn't going to be going with them she told me she was going to be Harper's babysitter and would make sure she was OK.  She's such a sweet big sis. :-)