Best Buddies

                                                             Meagan & Abbie

                                        Sophie, Abbie, Drew & Jackson in their firemen's gear

                                                 Meagan & Abbie playing in the kitchen

Abbie & Meagan are special buddies. We go to church together and they are in the same class at Mother's Day Out. Each of them always asks about the other one. It is just so cute! Well, Meagan had a birthday party last week and I knew that it was one that Abbie couldn't miss. I think this is the 1st party that Abbie's been invited to that is officially one of her friends (not invited as Sophie's little sister or just a family friend). Her birthday party was at Peekboo Playtown and Meagan's mom said that Sophie could come too. It is really a cute indoor play place with a playground type area, grocery store area, cars to drive, dollhouse, dress up stuff, kitchen and school play areas, etc.

Costume Party

Emerson & Sophie being silly (I told Emerson to say "argh!" and Sophie to say, "yee haw!" before I took the picture.) I should have tried for a more normal pose too. =)

                                                 



Linnea & Sophie

Sophie & Abbie on the trailer bed after the hayride.

                                          

Here's the girls with one of our pumpkins.  Their daddy carved another one. Fun traditions! 

Last weekend, Sophie was busy with parties after her soccer game in the morning.  First, she was able to attend her friend, Carley's gymnastics party.  Then, she came home and changed into her Jessie outfit for Emerson's costume party.  This year, Emerson opted for a Halloween party instead of celebrating on her birthday which was in September.    Their family invited all of us but Abbie ended up taking a good nap that day so she only came for the last part of the party.  The kids had fun playing games, snacking, doing crafts, and going on a hayride around our section of the neighborhood.  All of the kids enjoyed the party and the hayride was a big hit!               

A Family Celebration

Sophie's about to enjoy a cupcake!

our family-yes, we are looking different directions but at least we're all smiling!

Abbie & Sophie love playing with their cousins-here's Abbie & Sierra hanging out!

One of Sophie's favorite gifts was a Barbie head where you can style her hair with tons of accessories. Here, the girls are playing together somewhat nicely. Sharing toys is always a challenge at our house.

On Saturday evening, we had planned to have a birthday dinner at our house to celebrate Nana and Sophie's birthdays. Nana's birthday is on April 30 and Sophie's is on May 1st. Well, Saturday it just rained and rained and rained. Our area received 10-12 inches on Saturday alone. Some of the roads around us were closed on Saturday afternoon, including I-65. It ended up some of the family who had planned to come on Saturday night were not able to make it because their street was flooded or they just realized how bad the roads were. We had a birthday dinner but Nana and Paw-paw didn't get to make it until later that night. Aunt Patti, Uncle John, Randle and David were able to come. It was a nice surprise that Uncle Mike, Summer and Sierra were able to come because the girls had been at the Cool Springs mall when tornado warnings started coming in so that they couldn't leave the mall. It continued to rain all day on Sunday too and it has caused a lot of people around Nashville to lose their homes or have significant amounts of flood damage.
On Saturday night the tornado sirens started going off after we went to bed but no tornadoes touched down. On Sunday morning, after watching the news, we decided to try to head to church. It was barely raining at our house. When we got to Brentwood though, it started really pouring. We made it to church but parts of Franklin Road already had significant amounts of water flowing over it. Our church didn't have power. We decided to just head home and hang out. Matt was afraid that if we went somewhere else for church, we might not be able to get home since so many roads were already flooded and it was raining so heavily. We already knew from talking to my mom that several streets in the Crieve Hall were badly flooded. I think we made a good decision because many parts of Nashville were badly flooded on Sunday. It's the worst disaster I've ever seen in Nashville!

Sophie's 5!

Sophie riding the carousel

Sophie's Barbie cake

Emerson and Sophie eating cake

Sophie is so excited to be eating pizza and celebrating with her friends!

Sophie turned 5 on Saturday, May 1st. For some reason, this birthday seems really hard for her mommy to swallow because it means that she'll be starting kindergarten in a few months. We decided to celebrate Sophie's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's this year with some of her friends. We had it on a Thursday night which was great because it wasn't crowded and we did before all of the storms came over the weekend! The kids ate pizza, played games, and ate cake. Abbie was pretty scared of Chuck E. Cheese, even the electronic one.

A "Fancy Nancy" Party

Sophie's all ready to go!

All the girls (and Will) after they got dressed up!

Anna Kate and Sophie

Sophie was so excited to be able to attend her friend, Anna Kate's, Fancy Nancy party! All of the girls dressed up for the party. Then, the girls got all dolled up with jewelry, tiaras, and face glitter. We took pictures and then they enjoyed a nice lunch, followed by Anna Kate opening her gifts and finally the Fancy Nancy cake with ice cream. All of the girls had a wonderful time! Sophie and I kind of snuck out of the house while Abbie and her daddy were at the store. I knew that Abbie would hate to be left out, especially if she knew that she missed out on seeing her friend, Will (Anna Kate's little brother).

Let's Get Ready to Party!

Mimi gives Abbie a "makeover" the night before her b-day party-really she's just pretending to put make-up on but Abbie doesn't know that!

Sophie enjoys playing with play foam for the 1st time!

Abbie tries it out too-fun stuff (as long as you don't try to eat it like Abbie was going to do at 1st)

Abbie had a Minnie Mouse theme for her birthday-I just loved the cake that Emily made!

Yesterday, we celebrated Abbie's 2nd birthday-whew time flies by! Her actual birthday is January 21st but we celebrated a little early since Matt's parents were coming in for MLK weekend. We mostly celebrated with family but included a couple of others. I forgot to take pictures of a lot of the people who were there, her gifts and the decorations (whoops) but I did get some pictures. We had one of Abbie's favorite dishes-spaghetti casserole alongwith salad and garlic bread. Then, we dug into the best part-dessert! We had the adorable cake shown above with ice cream. I had also made some Minnie Mouse shaped sugar cookies (which Sophie helped decorate) but I conveniently forgot about them until after the party. There was a lot going on with almost 20 people at our house to celebrate, food to cook, etc. The girls enjoyed playing with some play foam as the party got started and then after we stuffed ourselves and finished opening gifts, the kids enjoyed playing with our tunnel system which we had set up in the play room. Abbie really enjoyed being the center of attention!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Anna Kate, Mary Frances, Sophie & Ellie had fun playing together.

After everyone left, Sophie took the mike and had a blast performing her original songs.

our family

Sophie's Cinderella cake

We had a birthday party for Sophie with some of her friends and family about a week after her birthday. We had planned to have it at a park with a picnic shelter but it was a rainy weekend. Our plan B was to have the party at our church in the Family Life Center (gym) and borrow a friend's small jump castle. So, that's what we did. Everything worked out fine. The girls who came had a good time jumping in the jump castle, playing Hullabaloo and some old-fashioned games such as Duck, Duck Goose, Hide & Seek, and Red Light, Green Light. We all enjoyed cake and ice cream and Sophie opened her gifts. After the party was over, Sophie discovered a microphone and started singing. If I had known that it was going to be there, we could have made the girls singing part of our entertainment. =) Sophie was really excited that some of her cousins, friends and other family could be there!

Abbie's 1st Birthday party

We had a small party for Abbie's birthday on Saturday. Abbie didn't really know what to expect when we sat her down in her high chair.














Here is a family picture as Abbie begins tasting her cake. She didn't know what to do at first when she got the icing on her hands, but once she tasted the icing she really loved her cake! She probably ate about a fourth of her smash cake before we decided that she had eaten enough. We had a rubber ducky theme for her birthday. Sophie was so excited about Abbie's birthday and overall, she did wonderful with having lots of attention showered on Abbie!

Maybe it's the 2nd child, laid-back personality, but Abbie was much less timid than Sophie as far as eating the birthday cake. =)

Happy 1st Birthday Abbie!

It's Party Time

Paula displays Sophie's birthday cake

Yum, doesn't that look good?

Sophie & her cousin, Grace, do some stickers

Abbie smiles at Aunt Martha

This year, Sophie wanted me to make her birthday cake. I said, "Are you sure?" I'm thinking, she does not know what she's asking or who she's asking. Well, anyway, it turned out OK. I baked a cake and made it into the shape of a butterfly. Matt and my mom helped me decorate it because that is really not my forte. The last two years, Publix has done a wonderful job providing us with Sophie's birthday cakes. I had seen this cake on the Easter M& M's package and it looked doable. I also baked some cupcakes. All in all, there were about 15 of us at Sophie's birthday party. We didn't do a good job getting everyone's picture but I think my sister did so we'll have to get copies of her pictures. =)

Sophie enjoyed playing with her cousin Grace and seeing several other family members. Abbie behaved very well during the party too! I can't believe that Sophie is 3. She got a little indoor basketball goal, a nice easel she can draw on, clothes, books and a few other things. Overall, she had a nice birthday! Her birthday's not totally over yet but I think it's going to be hard for her to come down from the birthday high of thinking every day she gets cupcakes or cookies. =)

Sophie's 3!

Here's Sophie on her birthday playing on her new swingset. We had beautiful weather for Sophie's birthday so we were able to go outside a lot.

Here's Abbie and Sophie

Sophie helped put sprinkles on the cupcakes for her party.

our family before Sophie's birthday party

Sophie just celebrated her 3rd birthday on Thursday. She's been so excited about it. On Friday, Nana made special rabbit shaped sugar cookies with blue icing (as Sophie's birthday drew closer she became more and more detailed about what kind of cookies she wanted). I was just going to go to Publix and buy some but Nana made these special cookies for Sophie to share with her class. Thanks, Nana!

This year, I decided that we would just have a family birthday party and invite all of Sophie's aunts and uncles that live in the area (which is quite a few). This is the first year that we've been in Nashville since Sophie's been born. We had the party at our home on Saturday and everyone had a nice time!