We Remember...

It's hard to believe it has been 10 years...

Stone Mountain Laser Show

We caught a break this weekend from the scorching Georgia heat and took the opportunity to head to Stone Mountain for one of my favorite summer traditions- the laser show!  The laser show is a big attraction in the summer, so we got there early so we wouldn't have to fight to find a space to spread out on the lawn.  Since Caitlin is still obsessed with trains, we also wanted to get there in time to ride the train around the mountain.

We bought tickets for the last time slot of the day and made it just in time for the conductor to say "ALL ABOARD!"  Unfortunately, there were some really rude people on the trains or maybe just some unruly kids- the host on the train kept asking repeatedly for everyone to please keep hands and heads inside the train. Eventually the host threatened to stop the train if the passengers couldn't keep their hands and heads inside, but they never actually did.  It was the funniest thing I've heard over a loud speaker in a long time! 

When we finally pulled back into the station, we went to the front of the train to see the engine and meet the conductor.  He was a sweet man who took extra time to show the girls around. 

As it started getting dark, we made our way back to our blanket to eat our traditional KFC dinner and get ready for the show!  The laser show was awesome- it has been re-mixed and they have upgraded the graphics, but the playlist was still the same.  I am embarrassed to admit I got a little misty eyed when they played Ray Charles' version of Georgia, On my Mind.   It reminded me of summer when I was a kid :)

It was the perfect way to end the summer!

Best. Concert. Ever

Maroon 5 AND Train in one concert... could it get any better? 
It was the ultimate pairing of my most favorite bands-

and Adam Levine was not too bad to look at... just sayin'  :)



My date for the evening was definitely hotter, though!


This was our third time seeing Train in 12 months-

and they were just as amazing, if not better, as they were the first two times!

 

We were lucky to share the evening with some great friends! 

The last Train concert we went to with Ben and Nikki was at Chastain, where the four of us shared four bottles of wine... it was a night where many memories were made and one that I will probably hear about for years!  Needless to say, it was {probably} a good thing that the concert was on a Thursday night and everyone had to go to work the next day so there were no repeat performances. 

I could have danced and sang (loudly) all night... and the next night... and the next night...

 I can't wait until the next one! 

Kelley's Swoozie Shower

All the Swoozie's ladies got together to celebrate Kelley's upcoming wedding to Kevin.  Nickie hosted the shower at her gorgeous home.  There was an amazing spread of BBQ, potato salad, cheddar biscuits, and personalized lemon drop martinis. Nickie made Kelley a crown made out of burlap and chicken wire to wear and Kelley was a good sport and wore it for pictures some most of the shower.  Not only was it a great evening showering the bride, but it was a great excuse to get the West Cobb Swoo' Crew back together.  I can't wait for the wedding in September!

Kelley and Nickie- the Hostess with the Most-est

Kelley with her sister Christy- Christy also used to work part time at our Swoozie's and the one in Birmingham. Most everyone's family members were recruited to work at Swoozie's at one time or another! :)

Anyone who knows Kelley, knows she loves anything with a monogram!

This was the only picture I got of the lemon drop martinis... they were delicious!

This was the appetizer spread- I love all the burlap accents!

Most of the Swoo Crew

Gift Opening

I had to throw this picture in there- I was in charge of the cupcake toppers.  I had so much fun coming up with something to match the shower colors and theme, and of course I had to throw Kelley's new monogram in there.  I loved how they turned out!

Caitlin's First Day of Jr. Preschool

Caitlin started her first day of Jr. Preschool today- she was so excited!! I'm knocking on wood as I say this, but I am so grateful that she happily wants to go to school like big sister and did not scream and cry when I dropped her off. It was a little unsettling to leave her in an atmosphere where there were other kids crying huge crocodile tears, but she didn't seem to mind and went right on in and started playing with play-doh. Her teachers, Ms. Linda and Ms. Iheoma, quickly took the kids outside to play on the playground and give them a change of scenery and of course everyone stopped crying immediately.

Since Caitlin was fine with me leaving, I was that mom and followed them out on the playground to get a quick picture of Caitlin's first day of school... I know, I know- I have a serious problem...

Ms. Sharon and Ms. Iheoma have worked together for many years and they are perfect compliments- Ms. Sharon is very calm, she leads a structured and organized classroom and has tons of experience with teaching 2 year olds and Ms. Iheoma is warm, loving and loves to be silly with the kids. They seem to be children whisperers- I am amazed that they can have 8 little 2 year olds sit quietly and pay attention for circle time. When passing their classroom on the way to Ava's, I have never once seen one of their students mis-behaving or throwing a tantrum like so many two year olds do. They are the perfect duo and I am so excited to see how Caitlin will learn and grow from being in their class.

When I picked Caitlin up at carpool, she was speaking so fast that it was hard to understand her. Apparently she has made a few new friends, Alyssa, Shaina, and Jackson and she loooved playing on this fire-truck.

It is so fun watching Caitlin experience "school" for the first time and I am so glad she had such a positive and fun first day!

Ava's First Day of Pre-K

Ava started her first day of Pre-K today at Open Arms. And though Ava has gone there for day-care as an infant and mother's morning out after I stopped working, this will be a brand new experience for her. Luckily, we are very familiar with her teachers, Ms. Linda and Ms. Debbie- Ms. Linda leads all the classes at chapel on Wednesdays and Ms. Debbie was Ava's teacher for a summer session for mother's morning out when she was three. Both teachers are fabulous and I can't say enough positive things about how energetic, patient and creative they are- when dealing with 4 and 5 year old children these qualities are a must!

Ava's classroom has 18 kids in it, which will be a pretty big adjustment from the 6 or 8 we have had in classes before. She will go on several field trips- like to the fire station, the pumpkin patch, a dairy farm- so she will ride on a bus for the first time! She will also be learning to read and is expected to know about 100 sight words at the end of the year, the pledge of allegiance, how to count by tens, her address and phone number and all sorts of other things that I can't believe she is old enough to learn!

Her closest school friends- Lincoln, Addison and Austin- will all be in her class so she is really excited to start school. I love her enthusiasm and since I was a little bit of a nerd myself, I hope that it will continue through the years :)

I can't wait to see what this year holds!

Rebecca's Appointment

The American Girl doll store at Northpoint Mall in Alpharetta is amazing! They have a huge cafe where you and your doll can come and eat, they have a TV where you can preview the latest DVD's and they have a full service doll salon. It's part of our Sunday tradition to browse through the store after lunch and a carousel ride to see what's new in their store.

A few Sundays ago, Ava found out that not only can you get your doll's hair done but you can also pierce their ears! To celebrate the beginning of the school year, we made an appointment for Rebecca so that she could get a new look for school.

Ava was so excited that her and Rebecca were going to have matching earrings!

Rebecca did not cry at all when getting them done and she sat perfectly still for the hair stylist...

Ava could not have been happier to get this done and match Rebecca. Poor Caitlin was wondering why everyone else was allowed to get their ears pierced but her! She seemed to handle it ok when I told her you have to be at least 4 to get them pierced (Rebecca is 8), but we'll see how long that will hold her off. It was a fun {and totally indulgent} way to spend our last day of summer... :)

Happy Birthday Lauri!

As if getting married this year weren't enough, Lauri celebrated another big milestone... her 30th birthday! Her brand- new husband planned a surprise party at Uncle Julio's with all of her closest friends and family.

By the look on her face when she walked in, she was truly surprised!

Even her good friend Julia and her husband Mark flew in from Virginia to be a part of the celebrations!

Papa was teaching Allie the best way to eat cookie cake... the icing dots are the best!

We all had a great evening celebrating 30 years of a wonderful friend, wife, sister, and daughter!

I have known Lauri since we were 5 and we have been best friends for close to 20 years- it has been so much fun sharing all of these special moments in her life and I can't wait to celebrate many, many more.

Happy Birthday Lu!

For the record, the surprise party was all Marc's idea... I definitely told him you do NOT like surprises... hehe... :)

Girls Movie Night

A fun thing we've started this summer is movie nights- family fun movie nights, just the girls movie nights, Daddy-daughter movie nights... Our first official family fun movie night, started as a way to cheer up two sad little girls who couldn't go to the pool with their Daddy as promised because of rain- but the popcorn with M&M's was such a big hit that they have become regular occurrences and are requested often!

Tonight was our first movie night with the younger neighbor girls. All the girls felt special that they were all allowed to stay up a little later than usual to watch the new Barbie movie.

Abby, Ireland and London all live in our cul-de-sac and we are so grateful to live in a neighborhood with so many young children for Ava and Caitlin to play and make friends with. Tonight gave me a future glimpse of all the sleepovers and fun these girls will have with each other!

1 large bag of M&M's, 3 bags of popcorn and 8 cans of pink lemonade later, their first movie night was a success!

Ava and Caitlin can't wait to host the girls again for the next one :)

Holy, Mole... Guacamole!!

This baby girl amazes me with her eating habits. Jason and I made some delicious homemade guacamole and Caitlin ate and ate and ate and ate it up! Where she gets such refined taste buds for a two year old, I'll never know...

On a side note, the beer prominently featured in the picture is Jason's, not Caitlin's as so many of you assumed...

I'm glad we got that cleared up :)

White Water with the Neighbors

Today my neighbors and I decided to break the monotony of going to the pool and took the girls to White Water Park. For all of you Georgia natives, you know that White Water is an exciting adventure as a kid, a right of passage into independence as a tween and a place to pick up boys as a full-fledged teenager. Seeing it through a parents eye is a totally new and terrifying experience- there are tons of life-threatening situations any child can easily get into, not to mention all the germs and scary people that are walking around the park! Looking back, I'm not sure what our parents were thinking letting us girls walk around unsupervised at 12 and 13 years old. I guess we all made it through unscathed... :)

Ava and Caitlin, of course, were blissfully unaware of the turmoil churning in my chest and loved every minute of the day. There were nine girls all together and the older girls ran from one huge slide to the next, taking breaks to come reapply sunscreen, swim in the wave pool and take a ride around the lazy river with the smaller girls.

After our lunch break, Ava begged to go on the big slides with the older girls- but as a novice swimmer and with her just barely reaching the height minimum, I didn't feel comfortable letting her go. Jason or I will both have to come one afternoon and split up so that one can watch Caitlin in the Wiggles World and one can take Ava on the slides- where is my mommy double when I need it?? On the other hand, I love Ava's adventurous spirit- seriously, even though it goes against every over-protective parent grain in my body, I hope she never loses that courage and bravery.

The girls were sweet with each other all day. Ava was a great big sister and showed Caitlin how to go down all the slides and where the coolest places were in Captain Kid's Cove- she even stuck up for Caitlin when another kid tried to cut in line in front of her.

Of course, nothing ends a day at White Water more perfectly than an M&M ice cream sandwich! They have become somewhat of a tradition in our family and as long as bites are shared with me, I am happy to keep it up! :)

Happy Birthday, Christian!

We had so much fun celebrating Christian's 5th Birthday on Sunday! His party was at his pool and he invited the girls and a bunch of his friends from his school. Ava and Christian usually play together really well and have a ton of fun, but this time Ava was a little miffed when she found out that Christian really wasn't interested in hanging out with her. Ava's face in the picture above says it all! :) He wanted his friend from school to sit next to him instead of Ava and he spent most of his party playing with the boys from his class. If I remember correctly, Kindergarten was the start of "cooties" and "no boys allowed" and the "girls are gross" phase. Ava is going to have a hard time adjusting once she heads to kindergarten next year and realizes all of her boy friends are going to act the same way as Christian! :)

We are so happy to be a part of our godson's life and to be there to support him and share in his life's celebrations. Happy Birthday, Christian! We love you so much!

I love this picture! Boys will be boys... :)

Winnie the Pooh

When this Saturday provided us with a rare overcast day, Jason and I found the perfect opportunity to take Caitlin to see her first movie in the theater. Winnie the Pooh was only a little over an hour long, so we thought that she would be able to sit the whole way through. When we got into the theater, Caitlin didn't want to sit on either one of our laps, so I had to hold her seat down the entire time so that she didn't fold up like lawn chair! It was only upon exiting the theater after the movie was over, that we saw the booster seats the theater provides for small children... lesson learned.

Ava was an old pro and sat quietly through the entire movie- Caitlin, on the other hand, was very excited to be there and we had to continually remind her to whisper and stop kicking the chair in front of us. Lucky for us, most people in attendance were very understanding or under 4 feet tall :)

The girls' favorite part was the huge, yummy tub of popcorn. Of course, Ava and Caitlin had to hold their own buckets and Caitlin only spilled hers once- thank goodness they were refillable!

After a short walk to show Caitlin that we really could get more popcorn, she was able to sit through the rest of the movie uneventfully.

It was an adorable movie and we all had fun on family movie night~ I would say that Caitlin's first movie experience was a success!

Happy 1st Birthday, Bode!!

On Saturday, we went to celebrate Bode's first birthday. He was a social butterfly with all of his guests and loved showing off his newly learned walking skills! There was a bounce house and a swing set in the backyard for the bigger kids and even though it was one of the hottest days this summer, that is where Ava and Caitlin could be found for most of the party.

Since Jason and I met Bode on his first day in this world, it is extra special for us to watch him grow and reach each milestone.

Bode loved being the center of attention and was sooo excited about the cake!

With two little kids, it is really hard to get everyone to look at the camera!

This was the best I could do...

The only thing that could get Ava and Isa to come out of the bounce house was the promise of a juice box and... CAKE!!

Bode's party gave us a chance to catch up with friends who live on the other side of town...

... but, we would love to see them more often!

Caitlin went down the slide again, and again, and again, and... again

After playing in the hot sun, her face was almost the same shade as her shirt!

She stopped playing long enough to give a drive by hug and to eat a piece of cake!

After the other guests had left, we stayed to have dinner and spend some one on one time with the birthday boy. With all the pink in our house, I know Jason enjoyed having some guy time :) Is it any wonder why Uncle JJ is a favorite among all the kids?

Happy Birthday sweet Bode Adam~ We are so happy we were able to celebrate with you!