Marianne's Pre-wedding Surprise

My friend Marianne is getting marriend in August in Montana. On Sunday, Jill, Sara and I (we were all rommates together) drove to Atlanta and surprised Marianne for the day.

We met her at their church. She really was surprised!

Her fiance Jim helped us coordinate all of it. We joked that it really was a test to see how well he did accommodating all of us and our crazy plans. He gets an A+!

We took her to Babette's Cafe for lunch and then hung out at a coffee shop afterwards to give her some wedding gifts and advice. It was a fun day to talk with her about all of her wedding and honeymoon plans.

The 4 roommates (L to R: Sara, Betsy, Marianne, Jill) We've now been friends for about 12 years and even though none of us live in the same city, we all still make the effort to be a big part of each other's lives. I love these girls!

A little hot chocolate love for the afternoon to celebrate.

One month from tomorrow and they're getting married! I'm excited to head to Montana already.

Catherine's Big Purchase

Earlier this year we started giving Catherine an allowance ($1.50/week) if she completed her chores with a cheerful attitude each week. We wanted to start teaching her to give her tithe to church (she puts in a quarter on Sunday), save some (a quarter in the piggy bank), and then she has $1 to spend. When she had saved about $5-$6 she wanted to go to Target to buy something for her baby doll. We went and saw all the baby things you can get for $5---an outfit, a bottle, a little bitty baby doll, etc.

But then she spotted this whole box of baby accessories---it includes a pack-n-play, highchair, bouncy seat, carseat, carrier, and changing pad. That was what she wanted for sure. Only problem: it costs $20. So I tried to explain that she didn't have that much money and she had to make a decision. She could either buy something small today with her $5 or she could save her money (a long time if you're only getting $1/week) and buy it later in the summer. Oh what a dilemma she had! We had to walk around Target and have counseling sessions in the aisles about this. That's a really hard decision for a 4 year old to make, but in the end she decided to not buy something that day and save her money to get what she wanted. So we snapped a picture of the toy box on my cell phone to keep as a reminder/motivator and we headed back home.

So, for the last 2 months, she has been saving her allowance and doing extra chores (helping me clean out closets, organize dressers, and do additional chores without me asking) so that she could earn enough money for her baby doll accessories. About once or twice a week she would look at the picture on my phone and talk about all the things she wanted to do with those toys and how much her baby dolls were going to love them. She is such a little mother to them!

Finally this past weekend, she had enough saved. I told her on Friday night that we could go on Saturday and she was ready to go by 7am. So here she is with her long awaited purchase!!

She had her money in a ziploc bag and gave it to the cashier. She only had 6 cents left over, which she generously gave to Will. She did ask if she really had to give him the money to pay for it. It's a little different than when she "pays" for things when we play pretend, so I assured her that yes, you have to give him the money or you can't have the toys.

This really was a great lesson for her. So often I cave and just get them (and myself) things. It was fun to see her make her decision and stick by it and work hard to meet her goal. Just the first of many times that will happen. And now, we have more baby paraphernalia all over the house. I really think we have more things for her baby dolls than we do for Anna, but that's okay. If you ask what she wants to be when she grows up, she says a mommy (except once when she said she wanted to be a teacher in the day and work at Chick-fil-a at night). I love this little girl so much. I can't believe how fast she's growing up.

It's a Parade!!

Julia, my friend Jill's mom, wanted to have a fun parade with the kids last week. They decorated their bicycles, tricycles, and tractors with garland, bells, whistles, even some cans tied to the back. They had a lovely parade while Julia kept beat to the drum. It was really cute and their bikes still look festive!

Catherine, Eddie, and Will ready to start the parade

Raise your hand if you're having fun

Catherine stayed right behind Julia. Will and Eddie went off course a little more.

Even Jill, Anna, and I participated some. We didn't want to miss the fun!

Julia had also said she would fix lunch for the kids that day. In true Julia style, she brought them apple pie and chocolate covered strawberries for lunch. Only a grandmother can get away with that! We're thankful to have such fun friends.

Baby Marshall

We are so excited to welcome baby Marshall to our family! Jay's sister Melissa and her husband Andy are adopting this precious baby. They've been waiting patiently for a baby for a long time. They got a phone call on Saturday that he had been born the day before and they could come to be with him that day. Melissa immediately went (he was about a 5 hour drive away from her). Unfortunately Andy is out of town, so Jay hopped in the car and drove up to be with her that night and Sunday morning until Jay's mom could get there on Sunday afternoon. Marshall was released from the hospital to Melissa Sunday afternoon. Now they're just waiting for some paperwork to be finished and they can take their son home. We are so excited to have a new nephew and to see how God has answered our prayers with this little guy!

Anything for Free Chicken!

Today was "dress like a cow to get free chicken" at Chick-fil-A. We'll do almost anything in our family for free food, especially Chick-fil-A. Their website had a link to print out cow spots, ears, noses, tails, and the "Eat More Chikin" sign, so I printed out some and all 5 of us attempted to like cows. We were a little worried that we would look like the only crazy people at Chick-fil-A but almost everyone in the restaurant had cow spots on! It was a fun way to make some silly memories with the kids. And not bad if dinner only cost 32 cents (which we had to pay only because I substituted a fruit cup for one of the kids fries).
Once we got there I realized I had taped Jay's cow ears on upside down. He looked more like a puppy dog than a cow. But he's still incredibly handsome!

Catherine was very excited about this adventure! especially when she realized she got ice cream too

Jay asked if we were going to the Chick-fil-A near our house and if we should go across town where no one would know us. We went to the one near our house and had fun dining with friends from Furman, friends from church, and even one of Jay's clients. But hey, they all looked like cows too!

Swim Time

Catherine and Will took swim lessons a few weeks ago at the gym. They had a great time practicing in the pool and learning some basic swim moves. They have been excited to keep trying their moves at the pool. (We just bum off friends and neighbors to use their pools.) They can jump in and swim to and from the step by themselves with no floaties.

The floaty/vest is very helpful though to be able to let them swim around on their own. It's really hard to hold onto all 3 kids at once. Will thinks he's a little fish in his and will swim from one end of the pool to the other. He loves to jump in and is not scared to go under the water at all. At swim lessons, the teacher and other parents kept commenting on how brave Will is. He's very confident in the pool, which is good but also makes Jay and I keep our eyes on him. We don't want him to be too confident since he doesn't really know how to swim unassisted yet.

Catherine likes to swim from the step to you without her floaty. She's not as excited about going under the water and getting her face wet. She's very proud of herself if she does either of those and is a little more timid in the water. (She's a little more like me in the water.)

Even Anna had her first swim. She was very laid back about it (as she is with most things). She didn't even notice when a big kid jumped in and splashed all over her.

Jay really loves to swim, so he has been excited to help them learn. We do think Will is like Jay is with the water. Jay's parents say that Jay jumped off the high dive when he was 4 years old. I could see Will doing that in another year or two!

Kitchen Creations

Catherine, Will, and I have been trying some fun things in the kitchen lately. I'm not a chef or an artist, but I think we do okay by a 2 year old and 4 year old's standards.

Our 4th of July Flag cake:

Our alphabet pretzels--we made letters for each member of the family (including Eli) and a few different shapes too.

They have lots of fun "helping" me cook things. And I try not to worry about how messy the kitchen ends up. I'm so glad they want to be in there with me.

Success!

We had an entire day with no potty accidents!! Lots of peepee and poopoos in the potty!!Whohoo! We are so proud of Will and how well he has done this week. We'll keep practicing every day and hopefully it will keep getting easier and not be the constant theme of our daily existence :)

And I apologize if you're tired of reading about the potty training, but it's pretty much all we've done this past week. We'll try to do something more interesting this coming week to share!

Potty Training Days 2, 3, & 4

We're continuing the potty training and things are getting better each day. Day 2 was rather frustrating for all of us (especially Mommy) because Will would know when he had to go but then wouldn't do anything on the potty. Within minutes of getting off the potty, he would have an accident. I couldn't figure out how to get him to relax on the potty enough to go. I remembered one of my friends who is a mom of 3 boys saying that she let her boys stand up in the shower and aim for the drain. So we tried that a few times until he gained some confidence about going on demand. After that, things got much better. As of today, he's gone peepee in the potty every time and only had one accident (which was my fault because I was nursing Anna and couldn't get him on the potty in time, so he peepeed in front of the potty). We are still having lack of confidence with the poopoo and he's just holding it all day until he gets his diaper on before bedtime. We'll keep working on that, but we're making good progress for it to have only been a few days.

He's so cute in his little undies!

He's taking this very seriously, as you can see by his "silly eyes"!