Under the Sea

Today was a big day, one of my favorite people in the entire world, my niece Evelyn turned 3 We have been working on her party for about a week. Evelyn is in LOVE with the Little Mermaid she carries her Ariel figure with her wherever she goes. The decorating started on Tuesday, we made a boat out of two cardboard boxes and hung streamers all around my brothers apartment, both girls were a big help:).








I think everything turned out great.
We filled the boat with a ball pit and tack-it over and over fish for the kids to move around. We hung streamers from the walls for the under the sea effect and put fish, seaweed and “sea bubbles” on the ceiling.








Evelyn had a custom Ariel outfit on, the leg says Evie + Flounder in a heart.


We had a message in a bottle where people wrote notes to the birthday girl for her to read later.


My sister in law made the cake, it had a real fish in-between the two layers. Evelyn enjoyed eating it!



The food was awesome, all sea themed. The kids had chicken nuggets and individual fish bowls with jello, Swedish fish and a string cheese octopus on top.




Ariel even made an appearance doing magic, face painting, and helped sing happy birthday.
It was a wonderful day and I wish my little munchkin a very Happy Birthday.

Shop til you drop... the thrifty version

Andy has been on vacation all this week!!! At the beginning of the week we had thought about going somewhere but decided we did not want to mess with Lucy's schedule:(. On Monday night we drove up to Andy's mom's house in Gwinnett. I had heard about a really great consignment sale that started early Tuesday morning and I really wanted to go. We had dinner with Andy's mom (aka Muv) at a really great Mexican restaurant and went back to her place to spend the night. Lucy took a bath in her sink and went to bed shortly after that.




The next morning we woke up at about seven. The sale started at nine and I had heard the lines get ridiculous! This sale is so big it takes up two buildings at the Gwinnett County fairgrounds. Kids, strollers, and babies in carriers are not allowed in till after 2 on the first day for their own safety if that tells you anything so Lucy got to spend some quality time with Muv while Andy and I shopped! Andy and I had a plan of attack, we were looking for a wagon so we waited in line for the larger toy building first. It was FREEZING!!! We waited for about 45 min and were about 20th in line. All the women in line were amazed that my husband was with me (he is great isn't he)! We did not get a wagon but, we got some other great deals. Andy kept calling the rocking horse he got Lucy the deal of the day. I would look over at him and he would have his phone out looking up how much the item was retailing for used making sure we were not paying too much!
Next we hit the clothing and small toys. It's easy to go a little crazy when most of the outfits you are buying are 2 dollars (and I went a little crazy!) My favorite thing all day was the Leap Frog baby system with almost every book they make for 20 dollars total. (We went to a sale on Friday here in Peachtree City; I saw the same thing priced for $80 firm. I could not believe the difference in the two sales!) It took us two and half hours in line to check out, but it was totally worth it! Andy's favorite buys were the horse of course, and a set of 20 Baby Einstein videos for $18! Now I am not posting this picture to say hey look what I bought my kid, she is spoiled isn't that great. I am posting this because I got all this stuff DIRT cheap and I am so excited about it, I almost couldn't believe it. I needed to take the picture to preserve the memory!

Cold Days, Warm Hearts

This week Atlanta got a whopping three inches of snow. This was Lucy's first real snow. She enjoyed watching it fall and blinked her pretty blue eyes every time a flake came anywhere near her face. However, this interaction was really just a photo opportunity because she didn't want to have any real contact with the cold, white stuff! She did get to enjoy the fruits of all of this weather, she really enjoyed her first taste of snowcream!



This was also the week of Valentine's Day. Andy and Lucy began their Valentine's Day tradition of going on a date with daddy, this year they went to Build-A-Bear (mommy has to tag along for nutritional reasons for now). Lucy "picked out" a classic brown velvety bear (name to come later) who was then quickly dressed in a pink dress complete with pink shoes and, of course, a bow. She really liked watching the stuffing get tossed around and she was intent on pulling off the bear's bow. We had to stand in line a whopping hour and a half, but Miss Lucy was very interested in all the kids running around her and was the perfect baby the entire time! Then Daddy and Mommy got to go on their third date in almost eight months, dinner alone at Outback, while Lucy spent quality time with Marmee and Poppa.





Lucy has been teething all week so we are hoping to see that first tooth pop up soon!
Despite the frigid days, spending time with the ones you love can really warm your heart!

Ready for some football

This is what the girls did during the superbowl... GOOD TIMES!

Big Day at Sea

On Sunday we got the bright idea to go the Georgia Aquarium the following day for a family field trip. Monday morning came and we got up and got everybody ready for the big day out. Miss Lucy wore her sparkley heart shirt, red sweater, and, of course, a big red bow!



We made it to the aquarium around 11 o'clock and walked right in and that is where the fun started. Lucy was amazed by all the lights in the lobby that changed colors constantly. While looking straight up, she would grin from ear to ear enjoying all of the new sights. We started off in the Georgia Explorer section and we thought she might just jump right in with the sting rays and start splashing like it was bathtime.



She also enjoyed the brightly colored starfish and sea urchins. Next we hit the River Scout section where she looked on in amazement at the large waterfall out front.


She enjoyed looking at all of the colorful fish, but she didn't realize that we were separated by a glass wall.




We went through the Coldwater Quest and Tropical Diver sections before lunch and she loved the spider crabs and jellyfish, once she realized that they were there.




We ate a little lunch and Miss Lou had a nap before we watched the Whale Sharks being fed.



At the very end we got to see that the once snuggling and napping otters had also had a little lunch and were out playing. We all loved these guys, the Cody's of the river. All in all it was a great day out and about, spending a fun day with the family!

Over the river and through the woods

Lucy, Marmee, and I have spent the past several days in St. Louis. My grandmother has been in a nursing home for about a year and my brother is in medical school up there. We stay at my brothers house in downtown St. Louis. I am so very thankful that Lucy gets to spend this special time with her great grandmother and they adore each other.

A typical day consists of about seven hours at the nursing home and Lucy must know that most of the people there need to see her sweet smile, she is the happiest baby. Lucy makes the rounds every morning to see the rest of the residents on the floor and brighten their day dishing out a healthy dose of giggles and coos. However, we spend the majority of our day getting some quality time in with marmee and great grandma. Lucy became a VERY good crawler this week and got into everything including great grandma's oxygen! She seemed to know exactly what she was not supposed to have.




We also enjoyed a visit with my moms two sisters and Lucy's second cousin Chloe.



The 9 hour drive does not even bother little Lu! She only got fussy for 30 min on the way home when we got stuck in Nashville traffic. As much as we like the bonding time we are happy to be home in our own bed!

Radar Love

Sarah and Lucy went to St. Louis this week with Marmee to visit Lucy's Great Grandmother. I have been living the bachelor life for the past two and a half days. Every guys dream, right? No nagging wife to complain about taking the garbage down and no crying baby to change stinky diapers for, just my dogs, beer, and video games. So I keep asking myself, why am I so unhappy? The answer to this has been ever so apparent since my two ladies left the driveway. They are the air, water and sunshine that breathe life into my very existence. I have been truly blessed to have a woman that keeps me on my toes (don't tell her I said this) and makes me a productive member of society AND a beautiful little ray of sunshine that never fails to smile at me when I walk into a room and can remove the weariness of the worst of days. I have never forgotten, but sometimes my memory gets a little groggy and I believe that God has taken these quiet moments the past few days to remind me of this. Today when I was riding around in my truck a song came up that sums up the whole point of this blog entry. It was Golden Earring's Radar Love. I hope that Sarah and Lucy know that, "When I'm lonely and my longing gets too much," I am sending them my love, always.