Favorite Moments

With life as busy as it is, we all find ourselves lugging our cameras around in the diaper bag less often and just snapping pictures on our phones of favorite moments. Here are just three of mine from October.

Lily Kate went to her good friend, Elly's, karaoke birthday party. The girls were adorable belting our Taylor Swift.  I was thinking a karaoke machine could be a good investment to motivate the girls to become better readers.  She was way more excited about this than about our book time in the evenings!

 One weekday morning Charlotte and LK woke up early and made breakfast in bed for Parks and me - completely unprompted and on their own.  We had cereal and juice, but it was such a kind gesture.  It was worth running late that morning.

 And my Hadley.  Monday - Thursday mornings Hadley and I are on our own while Charlotte is at preschool.  We spend most of our time at fabric stores, Home Goods, and Harris Teeter.  Life is SO much slower, but SO much more fun with this little helper. 

Farewell to Soccer Season

Our first soccer season has come to a close.  Charlotte was hot and cold about playing, sometimes thrilled to kick the ball and other times she would rather pick weeds and roll in the grass with her friends.  She had a good last game and actually played soccer the whole time.  

 Jacob & Lily Kate

 Charlotte & Ford

 These two are the best of friends.  I love how they run at each other, calling our their names when they see each other.  Hadley and Chloe may miss soccer season more than anyone else because of their regular toddler playdate on the sidelines. 

We have spent many evenings on our new patio making s'mores and just talking by the fire.  We had a chilly night last week and we carved the pumpkins and made orange s'mores with the giant pumpkin marshmallows Nona sent the girls.

Charlotte all ready for the Fall Festival at church, her Cinderella costume was Parks' sisters' dress up dress when they were little.  It still looked great! I added the ribbons for some Cinderella touches.

 Here's our Titans cheerleader, Hadley

 and our black cat, Lily Kate

I love this candid shot of Charlotte just relaxing on the sidewalk

Holly Tree Ho Down

Sack races at the ho down

 We had a great time at the ho down.  Tons of candy was consumed, faces were tatooed, and bouncy castled were jumped in!

 One of the booths was a game where you guess the amount of different candies in containers and - what do you know - Charlotte won the mini marshmallows!

Charlotte's Farm Field Trip

I got to go with Charlotte on her farm field trip a few weeks ago.  No siblings were allowed, so we got to have each other all to ourselves. It is so fun to see her in her school environment with her friends.  We had a great time.

 There was a tractor ride.

 She fed the bunnies (many time)

 She "scrubbed" a miniature pony.

 And she rode a horse.  I love my Charlotte, she's one sweet girl.

Grandad

I did a terribly job of documenting with photos, but we went to Chattanooga in late Sept for Parks' Grandad's funeral.  It really was a celebration of his life.  He will be missed.

Soccer Season

Our girls (& a handful of our friends) just started soccer season.  Our first game was Saturday.  They loved it.  As we were pulling in I realized that I wasn't sure if Charlotte even really knew that there would be an opposing team and that they were playing against each other.  We aren't the sportiest group if you haven't noticed.  She said, "The other people are going to take our ball, that is so mean!"  Charlotte mostly just ran after the group of kids with the ball.  She would kick it if it rolled free, but never tried to kick it away from anyone.  We'll work on explaining the basics of the game.  

 Samuel & Charlotte

 Lily Kate loved it too (which I was a little unsure about).  I was impressed at her involvement the whole time.  I guess they stop picking flowers on the sides and start playing the game by the time they're six.  It was fun to watch them both have so much fun.

Savannah for 24hrs

Lily Kate and I both had a callback for (tiny) parts in Sponge Bob square pants, the movie.  We were asked to go to Savannah so our family decided to make a mini vacation out of it.  We had a blast.  We left Thursday at lunch and got there around dinner time.  We parked downtown and walked through some of the town's squares.  Hadley loved the horses and carraiges.  She kept saying "hoe-ses and carrots, I love dem"

 We ate at a fun, causal Japanese place.  Testing out the chopsticks started out like this...

 ...but very quickly turned into this.....

 ....and this. Between wearing the chopsticks and accidentally shooting edamame beans out of their pods the while trying to shell them the girls (and the parents) laughed through most of dinner.   

 We swam at the hotel.

 We also checked out Forsyth Park.  It was beautiful, look at the Spanish moss dripping from the trees.  Wilmington has a lot of it too, so I see it all the time, but its southern beauty just doesn't get old.  

 Sitting with Hadley at the playground while the big girls played 

 This might be my new favorite picture.  Our baby is growing up so much!

Our last stop before the audition was River Street Sweets for pralines.  We went to the audition (which was short and fun) then over to Paula Dean's restaurant for lunch and back in the car for a 5 hour drive home.  Fast and furious, but a lot of fun!

Our little friend, Claire celebrated her birthday with a princess party at a ballet studio.  The girls got make up, up do's, and dress up clothes.

The birthday girl.

 Walker, watching all the little ladies

 Isla and Hadley, enthusiastic as usual :)

Happy Birthday, Parks!

To celebrate Parks, this year, we had a big party on our new patio.  Parks' favorite things are good food and lots of good friends.  I feel like both of those things came together successfully.  I didn't take any pictures that night, but I snapped a few on his actual birthday.  

 These girls are loved by their daddy!

Anyone who knows us knows we have a lively bunch.  The girls loved celebrating Parks.  They made him precious card and made sure that the cake was his favorite kind and that he had his box of Whoppers (their annual present to him).