4!

It's hard to believe 4 years have passed since Ellie entered our life in the middle of the night and rocked our world completely upside down. She has turned into quite a prissy princess which just cracks us up! She definitely has opinions of her own now and has commentary and questions that NEVER end. Wednesday (the 19th) was her birthday and she was so excited she could hardly contain herself. She awoke to a call from her Uncle Amos (who's mission in life is to be the first person to call anyone in the family on their birthday- as early as he can possibly call). She came down for breakfast with gifts from Sa and Gramps, Grandmama and Granddaddy Cavaleri, Mia and E.W. and Mommy and Daddy. She was most excited about getting new books including another Dr. Seuss and Silverlicious (in one of the pictures you'll notice her hugging her Silverlicious book - which she has slept with every night since her birthday.) She also got a sing along radio with a microphone from us. I clearly wasn't thinking it through when I bought this. It is really LOUD, and she sings in it ALL the time. I don't know, maybe we have a future American Idol on our hands. Ellie had a celebration during snack time at school for her birthday. I asked her if she wanted me to send cupcakes or cookies for her birthday snack and she said "I want popcorn!" So, I send bags of popcorn and m and m's per her request. That afternoon Grandma and Papa came over early to give her their gift which was a Rapunzel tower with all the movie characters. They broke the gift rule Worth set (No toys allowed that have more than 5 small pieces!) We just get really tired of stepping on little pieces and digging them out of Emma's mouth. But Ellie was super excited about that gift, so we'll have to let it ride! After that, we headed to Jumpin' Jacks for the party. This is a huge warehouse full of bouncy houses in Valdosta. Ellie's class was invited and I think they probably all went to bed early and slept really well that night! They ran from one end of the warehouse to the other over and over again, in addition to bouncing in the bouncy houses. It was wild, and Ellie had a great time. None of the kids really cared much for the pizza that was served, but they all ate chocolate cake. No big shocker there. I wasn't planning on setting aside time to open gifts because I thought the kids might want to jump some more, but they just started bringing Ellie their gifts to open and helping her open them. They were so cute and sweet. Four was definitely a fun birthday year and Ellie was so hyped up it was hard to get her to sleep that night. I can't believe my little peanut is already four! Time does fly! Sorry for the slide show, but I just couldn't pick out a few pictures to post. There were so many good ones! (I apologize for the run on paragraphs but for some reason blogger isn't separating out my paragraphs!)

Photo Booth

This is what happens when your 3 yr old and 1 yr old get your iPad and end up in the photo booth app

These Boots Are Made For Walking

UGA vs. Mizzou at Mia and E.W.'s

We traveled to Tifton on Saturday to spend the day with Worth's parents. Kate and Jay were in town also and it was a rainy day but we had lots of fun getting together and watching football. Neither one of my girls wanted to nap so by the time UGA actually played there was some serious meltdown activity. Thankfully, I left Tifton early and I was home in time to get the girls in bed and the meltdowns abated before the end of the first quarter. So glad the Dawgs pulled off a win against the new SEC team Missouri (who's teammember referred to UGA's team as "old man football") So how do you like that old man football now, Mizzou? Anyway, the girls always love seeing there E.W. and Mia, and Uncle Jay and Auntie Kate are an added bonus (especially Uncle Jay:)) Kate is 26 weeks pregnant, and Ellie and Emma can't wait to meet baby cousin Bo. Okay, maybe they don't know what's really going on, but I'm pretty sure Ellie already has a princess dress waiting on him for when he comes for his first visit. (Poor baby Bo!)

This is Ellie trying her 1st Coca Cola. (That I know of). She loved it ofcourse and it gave her lots of energy for the afternoon rain!:)

Ellie and Emma decided to jump around in the rain puddles for fun (We removed Emma's dress to avoid the nasty mess that it would create.

E.W. shows Emma how to dance in a rain puddle.

Ellie had us tie up her dress because she did not want her "Bulldog" dress to get dirty.

Emma testing the waters

Jay and Kate and Baby Bo to be!

Bubbles with Mia

Emma and her new favorite activity: Climbing, EVERYTHING!

Uncle Jay and E.W.

Sweet Cheeks!

Labor Day Weekend Fun

We had a busy holiday weekend! Worth, unfortunately, had to stay in Valdosta because he was on heart call. So, Saturday morning the girls and I loaded up and headed to Athens. (and, no, I did not attempt to make it to the tailgate or into the game by myself with a 1 and 3 year old!) Saturday was Papa's birthday (Ashley's Dad) and we celebrated in Athens at Uncle Amos and Aunt Anna's house following a hot, humid football game at Sanford Stadium that ended in a win - and that's all that matters. We grilled and had Papa's favorite dessert, angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

Sunday afternoon, after a lazy morning and homemade breakfast of cinnamin rolls and scrambled eggs (by Chef Uncle Amos) we headed to Monroe for my grandmother's (Mimi's) 90th birthday party. Her birthday falls on September 1st also! It was a dessert held at her church, Walker Baptist, in Monroe and tons of family, friends and church family attended. They had cakes made that were all of Mimi's recipes when she used to make cakes for people. There was chocolate, caramel, key lime, pineapple, strawberry, coconut and a few others. They were delicious (but not as good as Mimi's always were:)) I think we all got our sweet tooth fix! Mimi looked beautiful and had a ball. I've posted a slideshow of the fun afternoon. I'm so blessed to have such longevity in my family and have such a wonderfully huge family to celebrate our matriarch's milestone with. Speaking of longevity, pay attention to the little lady in the wheelchair sitting beside Mimi in some of the pictures. That is Aunt Annette, who is Mimi's older sister. She will be 98 on November 16th. Love those two! They are both spit fires and are hilarious to be around!