Thursday, February 17, 2011

Harper's 2nd

Our favorite not-by-blood-but-certainly-family-anyway cousin, Harper, had her 2nd birthday party the other day.  It was quite a shindig, with all the necessary components for an awesome 2nd birthday:  family, presents, food, presents, snot, frilly dresses, cake and icing everywhere.  Happy Birthday, Harper!

(That second one is by the lovely and talented Uncle Jay Adkins.)

Click here to see the whole slideshow.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentimes

Funny Valentine's Day Ecard: I'm glad you recognize how terrible your life would be without me.


Valentine's Day isn't a particularly big holiday at our house, although I do love an excuse to give my kids a little gift of some type without feeling like I'm spoiling them. The $3.00 I spent on each kid was totally worth it! Plus they got homemade cards. True to their natures, Chloe pointed out that I bought her the wrong brand of strawberry gum while Connor repeatedly told me how much he liked the card that I made for him.

But, as Chloe pointed out this morning, my family isn't supposed to be my "Valentime"- Daddy is! And he is. We too exchanged homemade cards, but we won't do gifts or a big night out. Our dating anniversary is in a couple of weeks, so usually we just go out to dinner at some point in Feb/March and call it our "Valentine's/Anniversary Meal." We will, however, pull out all the Valentine's cards Chip has ever given me and read through them tonight, reminiscing about our first V-Day dinner together and laughing at the wide variety of fart-related cards Chip has picked out through the years. So not a night of full-blown romance, but a little better than your normal Monday night! (We're totally still watching Chuck, though. Some things about Monday nights are sacred.)

One more Valentine's note- this year Chloe is in the Penguin class at Idlewild, which means that Valentine's Day is the day of the "Sweetheart Ball." You might remember Connor's turn with this tradition- I can't forget it. First of all, there was much hand-wringing over the appropriateness of a school dance at this age. (Ah, things first-time moms worry about!) Then there was the epic puking. Take a walk down memory lane with me, won't you? And keep your fingers crossed that no stomach bug comes along to ruin Chloe's fancy new "frilly dress."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

More of the White Stuff

This winter has provided us with the most snow Memphis has seen in 20 years.  We haven't had any really big snows, but there have been several smaller events.  The kids were let out early from school on Monday and Wednesday, and were out all day Thursday.  The 3-inch Wednesday snow was accompanied by bone-chilling temps, so we didn't really do a lot of playing in it.


 No, Chloe isn't carrying a snowball the size of her Sputnik head-- that's a basketball.


Thursday, February 03, 2011

Other Pics

Other things that happen at the park on a beautiful Saturday, besides taking a thousand pics of Maisy.  (And sorry to bore you with more of these-- it's just that this day was the only warm, pretty day we've had in forever around here.)

Mother and daughter making out in front of the sun:


Geese, with their doberman pincher-sized poops everywhere around the pond. Seriously, how does that happen?

I like this one--  what if I could go back in time and show these two grade-school best friends this picture?

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

MaisyDaisy

I spent most of the afternoon at the park the other day taking pics of the newest member of the Chockley/Miller/Stanfill clan--Maisy. Those of you with one of those last names (and maybe even a few others) might like to see some of them...




Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Fan Clubs

On Saturday, we took advantage of the unseasonably perfect weather and went to the park with our favorite cousins. It didn't take long for the allegiances to form.

Maisy starts laughing the second she looks at Connor's face. It doesn't matter what else is happening. This usually drives Chloe crazy, and she'll try to do something crazy to make Maisy laugh, too. Then Maisy will look at her like she's nuts, and cast a conspiratorial glance Connor's way. A silent, "Get a load of that chick!" passes between them, and then Maisy cracks up, because Connor is paying attention to her. No amount of Chloe's dancing and singing can replace the glowing light that comes from Connor's face. We have full-on cousin worship here.


Chloe didn't have time to get jealous on Saturday, though. She was too busy being followed around by Harper. "Coe-E! Siiide! Coe-E!" Chloe was happy to oblige, going up the stairs and down the slide over and over, introducing Harper to all the dogs in the park, and occasionally lifting her onto a tall platform. (This last one took years off the lives of every adult present.)

It was such a fun day, for the adults as much as the kids. We all needed that sunshine pretty badly. I tried to soak up as much as I could, hoping to store enough to last me through February and into March. But it looks like I didn't get enough to make it through the week! Anyone know when our next sunny day is scheduled? I need to pencil that in on my calendar. In the meantime, I'll have to schedule a bunch of cousin playdates instead. That should be enough to keep us warm until spring arrives.