the view from the kitchen window

It's a beautiful late September day here and I caught a sweet picture of Maddie reading a book to Caroline in the backyard.

blakey turns 3!

We've been attending a lot of birthdays lately but will only highlight this one... Because we just love our Blakey Brown. Caroline and Maddie were the only girls but we had a blast. Blake kept wanting to throw the football to Caroline and she wanted nothing to do with it.

It was Cars themed and was a ton of fun!

another great day at the lake

We spent another fun day at the lake. Maddie is kind of a pro fisher girl these days.. But as you can see she's still a little scared of the big ole catfish.

We did catch some that were big enough to eat so we brought them back to the house and Grandaddy showed us how to prepare the fish. This was something I had never seen in real life! Maddie was super brave and actually cut and tail off and scaled a few of fish herself. She's awesome.

let's go duke!

College football season is upon us again and we're having such a great time at the games. The girls love cheering and the popcorn and ice cream, and the bouncey castles of course.

And like previous years... It's certainly not about winning and losing since Dukes not so great on the whole winning thing. We still have fun! :)

the actual birth DAY

A few pictures from Maddies actual birthday I wanted to share. Maddie brought cupcakes in to kindergarten to share with her friends. The girls got Hello Kitty cupcakes while the boys got Angry Birds and gummy worms.

She got to pick a friend to help her pass out the cupcakes and she picked her new BFF Gustavo (who I was excited to meet and it's true he is very very nice just like Maddie said). I also got to meet the rest of her class and they were all very sweet.

After school, Maddie chose to get chick fil a and bring it to Grammie and Grandads house. She also picked a chocolate and caramel cake.. Much to my surprise (it was so good!).

Had a great day and we can't believe she's really 5!!! She's not a baby anymore!

maddie turns 5!

Our big girl turned 5 last weekend and we celebrated with an awesome Safari themed party (inspired by one of our favorite movies right now... Madagascar) at the Bass Lake Park. Our great friend Will turned 5 just a few days before Maddie so we had a joint party. More to celebrate!!

We had lots of fun safari decorations and safari snacks to munch on... And then listened to a park ranger talk about animals native to north Carolina. We got to see some cool skulls and animal pelts. And to top it all off... We had an awesome dance contest where everyone showed off their best moves. Who knew 5 year olds could dance do well!!

Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a fabulous day!!!

Fridays with Caroline

While Maddie is at school on Fridays (my first Friday without her!!!) Caroline and I get to have some much loved together time.

I think Caroline absolutely loves the attention and the one on one love from mommy. And I love it too!!

This week we went to Panera for a breakfast and ran some errands.

she's off to big kid school!

So it's official... She's off to big kid school! I refuse to believe she's a big kid.

She was so excited to go on her first day that she asked me if she could walk, ride her bike and then take the bus because we weren't moving fast enough for her.

She did great the first day and then the entire first week! She just gives me tiny bits and pieces of her day, but so far she loves the cafeteria and recess the best.

She's also in class with her good friend Kyra which is so great for everyone. And she's seen a few of her other friends on the playground.

Mom and Dad are handling it ok. Lots of anxiety about her being the youngest in her class, but she seems to be doing absolutely fine. She even was awarded the swimmer of the day on Friday and got to walk down to the principals office with her teacher and pick out a prize from the prize box. She's awesome.

best 6.99 I've ever spent

we sure have gotten our money's worth on this little pool this summer.

Spencer's birthday party

Last weekend we had lots of fun at our friend Spencer's birthday party at Bounce U. We're going to miss all our Goddard School friends!