have a happy halloween!

in the midst of all the craziness we managed a couple of halloween decorations...

if anyone is in the market for a pumpkin that looks like it was carved by a 5 year old - i'm your girl.

there is a boring story behind why this is the worst pumpkin i have ever carved...but anyone between the ages of 6 mo & 4 years old has not noticed. Mary James is just glad I didn't make her help me because it was "disgusting" carving it. They just love to look at it with a candle in it every night.

We are also crossing our fingers toes and whatever else we can think to do to make sure everyone is well for halloween! I can't have a broken hearted spider girl (mj), tinkerbell (molly) or flower (mills) on my hands. (Scary costumes huh?) we have to get better! I know it's sick season, but it's like we're all falling down like dominos.

Hope everyone has a healthy & fun night!

post by kristen

we ♥ daufuskie island

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to be able to visit the island of Daufuskie! A very good friend (Laura Leigh) moved there a couple of years ago with her husband and shortly after had 1 adorable little girl (Presley). And pretty soon after that, had an equally adorable little boy (Clinton) and are loving their island life. We very rarely get to go visit, so we were thrilled when it worked out for us! Me, MJ, & Molly made the 4 1/2 hour trip and 30 minute ferry ride over.

we were so excited about the ferry



when we arrived we were greeted by the (said) adorable kids and their mama. can't you see the excitement?! Well, on Mary James & Presley's faces..molly's thinking "what the hell - where's the car?" but she soon learned how fun it is to drive golfcarts instead of cars everywhere!
our host & hostess..

Laura Leigh & I go pretty far back (not like childhood back, but teenage, college and all those important years that you never forget!) We never have a chance to miss each other thanks to her many trips home (that I am forever thankful for, now that i know the pains of the journey).. but it's always SO good to see her.

molly & presley are only a few weeks apart - it's fun to watch them and think about how they will always be close friends (like their mamas) Although LL and i don't typically share drinks with a straw. But if there was only one glass of wine left, i am quite sure that we would.

this trip was a very much needed 1 on 1 (well 2 on 1) time with mj & molly. While at the park, MJ asked me to come talk to her on the "bouncy thing" and we chatted about things like how old we are, what her teachers names are (don't worry I did know this information beforehand), how pretty this island is.., etc.



baby clinton, isn't he the cutest?!





molly & presley

we hit the beach in the late afternoons, the weather was perfect

we would only head home after molly & clinton had had their fill of sand

on the last night - after kids were tuckered out early (and a sitter was called), Laura Leigh and I (and her sweet friend Marianne) all hit the island hotspot - Marshside Mama's.



Laura Leigh - we can't thank you enough! It was a very much needed weekend. Put us on the books for next october :) we had a blast!

post by kristen

have you missed us?

then come see us!!



November 5-7 (details to follow)

ready...

and waiting.

our show(!) is two weeks from tomorrow. and our invitations... are still at the stinkin' printer. so here i am, with my stack of labels and rollS of stamps, ready. and waiting.

post by arre

tiny TOMS

TOMS for kids?



too cute!

post by arre

birthday wishes to...

jim

i met you a decade ago and can't believe i thought you were old :)

make it the best!

xx

post by kristen

alison & bo

As i mentioned, on our trip this past weekend, our main event was my cousin's wedding. Alison & Bo were getting married and I didn't know too much about the event, except that it was in a remote location, and had a peanut butter & jelly theme.

When we arrived, we were picked up by a golf cart and taken down this path (and i mean down) into the woods.

The scene was amazing! We were told to help ourselves to a drink and have a seat, the ceremony will begin shortly. We were in the middle of the woods, with a tiny cabin and a small creek running between us (the guests) and the wedding party and family seating.

They had written their own vows and although they were hard to hear (from where we were), there was not a dry eye in the crowd! Kelley was sitting right next to me, tears flowing when Bo was saying his vows and I asked if she could even hear him - and she said no, but Alison is crying :)

Alison looked beautiful!

here are some pictures of a few of the details ...

All photos taken by me or Kelley .. we really aren't sure why she even paid a photographer, these are only a fraction of the amount we actually took! (well i guess the fact that she would want quality over quantity!)

love this next idea...

we all signed a window instead of a guestbook

peanut butter & jelly station..yummy!









adorable out house. I don't know what i'm doing...remember, they opened the bar before the ceremony even started. At least I wasn't sitting on the toilet.
First dance. I'm horrible at remembering small details.. so I know i'm not doing this justice. but Alison & bo were so sweet & so cute. They had a fun, upbeat first dance with everyone joining in to sing.

But my favorite was the father / daughter dance. They did a traditional sweet dance, and then broke out in a choreographed dance as the bride pulled up her dress and we saw she was wearing boots! how cute..with blue tights (for her something blue). It's been a while since i have been to a truly FUN wedding..and this one was just that. Fun. So much attention paid to detail, so many people singing, dancing, laughing.

sister kathryn & brother-in-law, brent

and to top it all off, a really cute couple!

Best wishes Alison & Bo!
post by kristen

weekend fun

This past weekend, me & the fam all headed a few hours north to our old stomping grounds in Athens, GA. We have some family that lives in Athens so our first visits were great-grandparents!
First, we visited my dad's parents...

then my mom's mom (nanny). She has a creek behind her house that we loved to play at when we were little. I made the girls stand in the same spot where we stood for pictures when we were little, but I didn't get much cooperation.

The girls with Nanny

That night, we headed to an old favorite restaurant (Last Resort) with sisters & brother-in-laws. So fun!! But, our main event for the weekend was my cousin (Alison)'s wedding (more on this later). We were so excited about staying in downtown Athens and taking the kids to see a little of the university. On the morning before I left, I had this conversation with Mary James.

Me: Do you know that we are going to see where me and daddy went to college and that's also where we met!
Mary James: I know that mama, Daddy already told me. He said that y'all met there and the first time he kissed you... you tooted (giggles).
me: (can't help but laugh myself) you know that's not true.
Mary James: well, that's what he said.
me: i'm sure he did.

So with those fond memories in our little 4 year old's head... we headed downtown at sunrise (kids in a hotel room, enough said) As Jim & I reminisced that we had not been downtown at this hour unless we were walking home from a long night. (how times have changed!)



Later that day, we headed off to see a bit of North Campus. Mostly because it was the closest to downtown and we had 4 kids with us (mine, plus cousin william).

notice the look on molly's face. she was still recovering from being confined to a hotel room


kiki (my sister kelley) helping ring the bell

Thank goodness for Kiki's stroller

And thank goodness for naps

I have no idea why there aren't any pictures of baby jane! She was there and as sweet and cute as ever but was in the room napping for many of our outings! As always, we are happy to be home, but so glad that we had a good weekend & made some really good memories. Hopefully, Mary James learned a little more about what college is besides what her Daddy put in her head :)
Check back for pictures on Alison & Bo's wedding soon!

quick edit
I can't believe i forgot to mention that i got to meet Ernie! He and his mama (and dad) live in Athens and it just so happened that he was born a couple of hours after our arrival. Thanks for waiting on us Ernie! He is precious - has the most perfect little round face. Wish i had a picture to show, but all i got was a really bad quality cell phone pic. You'll just have to take my word for it :)

have a happy Tuesday!

post by kristen