Mother's Day

We spent Mother's Day weekend with Meme and had a grand time celebrating the end of her first round of treatment and the beautiful weather!

Saturday we headed to Russell Crossroads to walk the grounds, visit the stables and have some lunch at Catherine's Market.  Such a good time.  The horses were a huge hit with the girls!

Caroline wasn't sure what to think at first, but with a fierce love of animals she was game after a few minutes. The horses were very interested in the girls and if they had any snacks.

Not so sure yet ....

CE was charming and gentle, as usual!

Hot mess right here!

I decided I wanted in on the fun - so I nuzzled up for a selfie with our new friend and he thought he'd take the opportunity to nibble on me a bit - it caught me by surprise and the funniest part was that I captured it with my phone!

It was an overcast and cooler day, but perfect for wandering the grounds - we were the only folks out that morning - perfect for two wild wees to run aimlessly through the fields.

We took Cain and Emma with us this trip so there were lots of opportunities for our helpers to help with walking the dogs - they loved every minute of it and Cain and Emma were good sports!

Sunday we headed to church and then brunch at Spring House - so yummy!  It was a gorgeous day - the views are incredible there!  It was a bit hot but we enjoyed a bit of shade while dining which helped.  The girls love their sweet little cousin Lily - she's such a good sport and lets them wrangle her for quite a while before she's had enough.

CE looks grown here - stop growing CE!

Meme and all her girls

Caroline is obsessed with Lily!

Love this picture!

Me and my most favorite girls on earth!

Princess and Pirates Birthday Fun!

Warning - this is a long blog post!  Caroline and Catherine Ellis kicked off their birthdays this year with a joint Princess and Pirates birthday party!  It was great fun and lots of dear family and friends came out to celebrate these two in style!  I finally wised up this year and decided instead of killing myself with birthday parties three weeks apart that we'd do a joint party and it was a splendid idea - thanks to all the parents that have kiddos with close birthdays that have gone before me and paved the way with grand ideas.  

We sent our precious invites courtesy of Mr. Patrick again - and looked forward to May 3rd with great anticipation!

We arrived so excited about our friends and family joining us for Storyville Station fun!

The birthday girls!

So many princess dresses to choose from

CE was a pirate all the way!

Our pirate and our princess (who later became a pirate!)

Carrigon in her first wardrobe change...

Watching all of our friends arrive

Lipgloss - a party essential for these little ladies

Auntie B and Sweet C

All the little ladies getting dressed

Coco and CE

Coco and C

Head of the table!

The party really got started after the group photo when the guests had to go down the tunnel slide to get to the "kingdom" in the basement.  It was a like a club for wee ones - dark, fun music, games, candy, bubbles, - it was magical!

Doing some sort of dance

Mesmerized

Mary the weest princess

Daddy and C dancing 

CE limboing 

The group getting ready for a dance off

After our partying hard downstairs we all made our way upstairs for cupcakes and tea.  Such a precious idea.  A true princess part of the party.  They took pictures through out the party and played the slide show at the end.  The kids loved that!

The banquet slide show

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

Happy birthday!

Drinking their "tea"

Love these little ones!

Mary Ryan was exhausted from all the fun :)

Charlie came to his first birthday party - such a cutie pie!

Wyatt and CE - big buds!

Uncle JoJo and the girls

C, Brayden, CE and Audrey - I went to high school with their Mommy!

Daniel and CE -another sweet classmate

Happy, happy birthday to Catherine Ellis and Caroline - it was such a fun day - a big thanks to all you came to make their day so special!

California Lovin'

The summer after I graduated from Auburn I worked at Camp McDowell and "looked for a job" - as you can imagine being at summer camp with little access to the Internet, I didn't have a great job search going on, so when my good buds from Auburn said they were going to fly to San Diego and look for jobs and a place to live, I said I'll join!  Long story short, I flew out there, found a job and a place to live and the rest is history.  

Cristin and I have been friends since our freshman year at Auburn - fall of 1997 - 17 years ago - how is that possible?!?  We've been with each other through the ups and downs of life and despite the miles, we've stayed in touch over the years and see each other about twice a year - which is awesome considering she's still living in California.  She is the only room mate that stayed  - the rest of us eventually came back to Bama (though Bets now lives in NYC).  We love her husband, Mais, and her two sweet little girls, Allie and Avery.

Cristin's sister is here in Birmingham which is so much fun because we get to see her when she visits!  They decided to come Easter weekend this year and we had such a great time.  We always miss them as soon as they leave and wish they would move back South.  We're working hard on Maison, but he's a Southern Cal boy through and through.  The surf isn't big enough for him here in Bama :)

Friday night we headed over to Sam and Katie's (Crid's sister) to have an egg hunt and cook out.  It was cool, but so fun!  

 Caroline hunting for eggs!

 Avery and Criddy

 Catherine Ellis and Caroline grabbing eggs galore

 Look at all my eggs Mommy!

 Cutie pies - Avery and Allie weren't sure what to think of these wild wees!

Easter Sunday we left church and met to eat Mexican and then head to Ross Bridge to enjoy the pool.  A cold front had come through, so it was just a bit cooler than is comfortable, but it wasn't miserable.  We skipped naps and had such a fun afternoon playing outside.  We pretty much had the pool to ourselves, it was wonderful!  The slide was a big hit - the best part of the pool!  We can't wait to go back again this summer.

 David and Catherine Ellis took the plunge first!

 Little Mama loved the pool!

And the slide!  Thankfully David is tall enough he can hold her 

above his head and she won't go under - she's not quite ready for that yet.

 Caroline put Mais to work too ....

I didn't do the slide, but I did get in a play - which is huge because I don't like to be cold, but I took one for the team several times and played for as long as I could!  Caroline and I worked on floating - I am warming her up to the idea of swim lessons - she loved it last year when we accompanied Catherine Ellis, but it will be a whole different story when little Mama has to be in the water without me.

The girls had such a good time - I'm so thankful for the time we had with Criddy, Mais and the girls.  Katie and Sam were great hosts and helped with the kiddos all weekend.  We had six adults for four kiddos - that's the way to go!  It was a great Easter spent with special friends!

 Catherine Ellis, Allie and Caroline

 Caroline and Allie -Caroline was fast friends with the girls

One wiped out little mama - snoozing on the way home