you know life has changed...

when you leave a Georgia/Florida party in the 4th quarter after Georgia ties up the game 31-31 because your baby girl is so exhausted and needs to go home and sleep. And even more so when on the way home while attempting to listen to the game on the AM station you turn it to the DVD setting so your son can listen to his newest Thomas & Friends DVD because just seeing the picture alone isn't good enough for him.

We made it home in time to see the end of that despicable game...but it was still a good day.

Gorgeous weather and a super fun time hanging out with friends this afternoon made today a great day. The Mayor wore himself slap out from the hours he spent running around a massive backyard playing with his buddy while D and I took turns running into the house to get a score update. Life certainly has changed...and for the better. Wouldn't have it any other way.

so over it

i loved today

When I woke up after 8:00 this morning and the house was still quiet, I just knew today was going to be a good day. The Mayor used to sleep like his sister...well into mid-morning, but since he has been in his big boy bed, we are usually awake around 7:00. But not the past two mornings...and I am not complaining!

He played quietly in his room until 8:30 which meant I got to stay in bed until 8:30. Sweet Love Bug slept until 10:00 and we weren't done with her breakfast until after 10:30. The Mayor played in his playroom while Love Bug sat in her vibrating chair in our bathroom while I got ready for the day. By 11:15, we were heading out the door for a Target run.

The Mayor's school is participating in Operation Christmas Child this year. Each student is asked to bring in a wrapped shoe box filled with toiletries, small toys, crayons, markers, gum, candy, etc for a boy or girl in a particular age group. I talked to The Mayor this morning about how blessed he and his sister are with all of their toys and how not every boy or girl is as blessed so we were going to buy a little boy some fun items for Christmas. He kept responding with "yes" and "ok" during our conversation, but I am not sure he completely understood. But that is ok...we will continue to do this every year and he will eventually get it.

At Target, I put Love Bug in the cart and let The Mayor walk around the store with me. He helped me pick out toys and items for this special boy...I wanted The Mayor to feel like he was participating. He had such a great time picking toy cars, crayons, toothbrushes, bouncy balls, cards and other items for the box. D and I have always wanted to instill in our children the importance of volunteering and giving back to the community and you can never start too early.

When we got into the car a little after noon, I had a voicemail from D. He was on his way home and wanted to meet us for lunch. What an awesome surprise! We met at one of our new favorite restaurants and had a great lunch together. Lunch was followed by long naps, dinner and playtime.

This weekend promises to be cool and sunny...finally some nice fall weather. We have the Georgia/Florida game tomorrow afternoon and Halloween on Sunday. Can't wait to get our trick-or-treat on!

Funny story about The Mayor: while I was making dinner, I heard Love Bug's convertible car being played with. I turned around to see The Mayor playing with it, which is normal, he usually pushes it around (and asks if he can ride in it...which we tell him 'no' because he is too big for it). Today he figured out how to get into it by himself...and came 'driving' around the corner. He is so big for it that he was 'driving' the car with his knees. Instead of telling him AGAIN he was too big to be in the car, I grabbed the camera. I love this boy.

animals on parade

This morning was the Fall Parade at The Mayor's school. Instead of dressing him in this year's costume (Buzz Lightyear) I decided to put him last year's costume (puppy dog). I did this for two reasons: 1. They asked the kids to be dressed in easy to remove costumes since after the parade the kids would be taking them off. It doesn't get much easier than a bubble costume 2. I am not all that confident in the quality of the Buzz Lightyear costume and need it to be in one piece for Halloween night.

The Mayor did well. He walked with his class and didn't try to run off. I was so proud. But he wasn't wearing his doggy hood and he never smiled. He didn't look like he was all that thrilled to be marching around the school with hundreds of strangers staring at him. As much as I wanted to yell his name and get him to smile at me, I stayed hidden behind my camera. I just knew if he saw me, he would run to me and never agree to go back to his class for the day. I will absolutely show him all of the pictures I took when he gets home so he knows I was there. Can't have my child thinking his mommy wasn't there supporting him!

Now I am enjoying the peace and quiet of our home. Love Bug is napping and I am doing laundry. This morning will be a lazy laundry day. Love the lazy, hate the laundry. But it's a give and take.

waiting to see her brother in the parade

i love this face...he doesn't look thrilled to be in this parade

halloween fun

Our weekly playgroup decided to make today's playgroup Halloween themed. We dressed the kids up in costumes, ate spider PB&Js (PB&Js cut into circles with chocolate covered pretzels as the legs), made crafts, decorated cookies and did a mummy wrap.

The kids could not have had more fun. We let the kids play together before the activities began... lunch, decorating Tootsie Roll pops with black pipe cleaners making the lollipops into spiders, decorating ghost and pumpkin cookies with icing and sprinkles and we ended with the moms wrapping up their kids with toilet paper making them into mummies.

The Mayor had a blast with his buddies and Love Bug had a great time hanging out with Bennett. Tomorrow is a school day and The Mayor's school is having a parade where the kids will be dressed in their costumes. How cute is that? Better believe I will have a front row seat with camera ready to catch my boy marching around in his costume.

my little doggie

sweet girl

decorating cookies (his spider lollipop is next to his plate)

my little mummy

cheeeeeeese...oh, that's toot

Just about every single night after dinner, the 4 of us migrate to the family room for some last minute play before the bath and bedtime routine begins. And just about every single night I grab the camera to catch the adorable pictures of my kiddos playing together. The second I grab the camera, The Mayor starts saying "cheeeeeeeese". And about 9 times out of 10 he isn't looking anywhere in the vicinity of the camera. And as soon as he hears the click of the camera, he looks at me and says "oh, that's toot". And for those of you who do not speak Mayor, toot means cute.

And "toot" they are. I love seeing these two interact with each other and get each other laughing. Now that Love Bug is on the move and crawling, she doesn't have to wait for her brother to come to her...she will get to him and make him notice her. And he loves it just as much as she does.

happy birthday to the mayor

The Mayor is officially 3! And we started off the day just the way I like...by sleeping in. I think the weekend and the rainy Monday morning just caused this household to be flat exhausted and we all slept past 8:00...well, Love Bug slept until 10, lucky girl.

The Mayor enjoyed a birthday cupcake for breakfast (hey, you only have a birthday once a year, so why not?) and then we watched his new Thomas movie. After Love Bug decided to wake up, we fed her and then went to our Monday morning playgroup. 45 minutes later, we were pulling into the pediatrician's office.

Yesterday it looked like The Mayor was having an allergic reaction to some bug bites. So I gave him some Benadryl and an hour after that, he had the weirdest looking rash break out on his legs. This morning he looked completely fine, but by the time we got to the playgroup, he had these welts popping up on his arms and back. 45 minutes later he was covered from head to toe. His arms were covered in welts, his legs were all red, he had welts on his stomach, back and neck. I called the doctor and they could get us in, so we were off. Diagnosis: hives. So weird. He doesn't have a virus or strep (which can lead to hives) so he has unexplained hives. Which just goes along with everything else unexplained in his medical history...so annoying. Anyway, a dose of Benadryl and a good nap helped relieve some of the itching.

We took him to his favorite Mexican restaurant for his birthday and now he is bathed and being read to by D. All in all, a pretty good day.

this is what happened to his legs yesterday...quite scary...but looks worse than it is

it just doesn't get better than this weekend

Although The Mayor doesn't officially turn 3 until tomorrow, this weekend was all about the party! When you have a bunch of 3 year olds getting together in one room you just never know what can happen. And it could not have gone any better. There was not one meltdown, no crying, no fighting...nothing. Everyone got along so well. They played together, ate together, hugged each other...just had a plan ole' good time. It was a perfect way to celebrate The Mayor's 3rd birthday.

MeMe, Big Daddy, Aunt Nat, Uncle Tom, Trey and Luke all arrived Friday night for the weekend. We were so happy they could all get here to celebrate our favorite little guy's day. We had the party about 1/2 mile from the house...and the best part about that...I didn't have to clean up before hand and I didn't have to clean up afterwards. That is my way to celebrate!

My in-laws left this morning and now the four of us are just decompressing from the awesome weekend. All morning we have played in the sea of new toys that are in the family room, watched The Mayor's favorite movies on TV and taken naps. About to head out and enjoy a little bit of sunshine before the rain moves in for the week.

she's crawling!

cute, cute, cute!