Birthday Princess

I've been trying and trying to add a picture of Caroline to this post - blogger had issues. I have finally succeeded!

My sweet baby girl turned 6 last week. 6! How did this happen? We celebrated by having our families over for pizza & subs and cake & ice cream. It was a full house! Everyone had a great time. Happy birthday Caroline!

Dinner Conversation, Thankfulness & Candyland

Several families I know have been talking about thankfulness. One family is sharing something they are thankful for every day. Another family has a turkey on the wall that they add feathers to each night. Each feather has written on it something that someone is thankful for. I have four kids under six, so I'm not recording anything this year, except what I'm writing here. Our conversation at the dinner table has been very pleasant the past few nights. Everyone that can talk shares what they like about everyone at the table. Caroline is thankful for Daddy's job, and that he goes to work so we can have money for our clothes and food and house. Nathan is thankful for cuddle time with Mommy. Everyone loves Ava's mischievous smile and Nolan's new laugh. So, even though Nathan and Caroline are fighting over who is cheating at Candyland right now, at dinner, I can be thankful that they played Candyland for 30 minutes and only fought once!

Gloop!

Other titles for this post could be...
How to use a whole roll of paper towels in 20 minutes
How to destroy your brand new house by 10 a.m.

After making a huge mess in the kitchen with the gloop (corn starch & water) the kids were sent to take baths...unsupervised because I was cleaning up the gloop. That's how the bathroom got destroyed!

But my favorite title for this post would be...
How to have some happy kids for most of the morning!







Except for Ava. She didn't enjoy the gloop so much. She cried almost the whole time!

And Another Birthday

My mother-in-law's birthday is September 16th. So we celebrated her birthday Saturday night at Carrabba's. We have been going to Carrabba's for several years now, and we just keep having to get a bigger table! This year we needed seating for 14 plus a high chair plus a sling for the car seat. After dinner, we played, opened presents & had cake & ice cream at Nanny & PawPaw's house. A good time was had by all!

The Craziest Thing A Mother of Four Can Do

Last Friday night I stayed up until 5 a.m. Okay, so its not the craziest thing in the world, but I had a good reason. My nephew was born! Griffin Dale Crotts was born at 2:50 a.m. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces & 20.5 inches long. I was so excited to meet him. I was surprised at how excited I was. I guess that helped me stay awake so late. I had Nolan with me at the hospital - and he was a champ. Jennie was a champ, too. It was not an easy birth - but well worth the effort!

Mountains Again

Last year we went to Sky Top Orchards with the Davis Family for honey crisp apples - my favorite. Last weekend we did it again. We didn't actually get any honey crisps - they were all gone before we got there. But we did add a stop to our trip. We took the kids to Pearson's Falls, the same falls I saw a few weeks before with my mom & sister. The kids enjoyed the hike & falls, we had a picnic lunch, then picked apples. A full day!

Stephanie's Wedding

Stephanie's wedding was beautiful & too quick! It was a joy to spend the weekend with Grannie Annie, Aunt Donna and my sister Amy. It was also pretty exciting to manage 4 children at a wedding! But it was definitely worth it - especially on the dance floor! I'm sorry I don't have a great picture of Stephanie in her wedding dress - I was a little too busy to get a great one.

Bridal Luncheon

Getting Ready

Cutting the Cake

Cutting a Rug