Wedding Weekend

Phil's good friend Jason got married this weekend in Maryland, so we left the kids with Nana and Papa and headed north. We drove all the way to Annapolis on Thursday. It was an easy drive until we hit D.C. traffic at 5 pm! We stayed in the historic district, so we got to walk around near the water and through the old buildings and shops. After some sightseeing Friday morning we headed across the Bay Bridge to St.Michael's, Maryland. Check out the Bay Bridge website for images. It is an incredible four mile long bridge that spans the Chesapeake Bay!

We got to Galena and checked into the Kitty Knight House on Friday afternoon. The rehearsal dinner was held here, so it was wonderful to finish dinner and walk upstairs to our room. The groomsmen decided to go to the casinos at Dover Downs on Saturday morning. This was our first time gambling at a casino and we walked out $6 richer. We are so conservative that we just played penny slots, but it was a fun experience.

The wedding was held at St.Dennis Church and the reception was at the bride's family farm. Phil and I had envisioned a small farm like here in East TN, but we were informed that it was 400 acres. The Eastern Shore is a lot of flat farmland, which was way more rural than we expected. The ceremony was at 2:30, but the party was still in full swing when we called it quits at 9:00. We had a wonderful weekend filled with great friends, good food, and lots of celebrating!

Chick and Ruth's Delly ~ a great little diner in Annapolis

Sunset in the Annapolis harbor

Phil with the groom's cake

Congratulations Jason and Alyssa!

Birthday Visit

Papaw Rick came for a visit this afternoon to celebrate Andrew and Mommy's birthdays. We picked up McAllister's for a picnic lunch at Victor Ashe Park. The kids were so excited to see Papaw, and even more excited to spend the afternoon at the playground!

A chilly picnic

New books!

Handprints

The kids brought home some really cute handprint artwork from preschool yesterday.

Andrew's tree

Evie's horse

How we spent our Sunday afternoon...

Catching Up

Although the blog doesn't reflect it, we have been really busy lately. Between the kids' activities and our MOPS year starting up, the blog has been neglected a bit.

Over Labor Day weekend Evie got to go see Fly Me to the Moon at the theater with her friends Sydney and Kaitlyn. It was her first time to the movies and she loved it!

Andrew had his 3 year pictures taken. His face looks pretty much the same as it did a year ago, but he is 5 pounds heavier and 3 inches taller.

Evie went to a fun party at Smart Toys and Books on Sunday and made a volcano. She has been asking all week if we could explode it, so we erupted it on Tuesday night. The kids loved this little science experiment. (Pause the music player to hear their comments)

TN Valley Fair

Phil wanted to take Andrew to see the tractor pull at the fair, so we loaded up with Mimi and Jeff and took the kids on Saturday night. They had a great time!

Their first fair ride
Had to ride the carousel
The kids first little roller coaster
Tractor Pull

Soccer

Evie had a great time at her first soccer game today! Watch the video below to see the five goals she scored!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One more reason to love Target

The latest earth-friendly trend is to use reusable grocery bags. I didn't use cloth diapers and I don't have a compost pile, but these bags seem like an easy way to do a small part to keep the earth cleaner. My sister bought me some great bags for my birthday that aren't store specific (apparently it would be scandalous to take the nicer Kroger bag to Wal-mart). I have learned that even if stores sell cloth bags, not all of them are nice about actually bagging your groceries in them. I was shocked the first time I used them at Walmart and the checkout lady just started piling up my groceries on top of the bag carousel. However, I got a pleasant surprise at Target this week. Because I brought my own bag I got a nickel deducted from my total. The cashier told me for each reusable bag you bring (doesn't even have to be the Target brand) you get a five cent rebate. It isn't much, but it is an encouragement to consumers to BYOB and it's a nickel you don't have to spend!

A week's worth of groceries from Walmart. This is the equivalent of a dozen or more plastic bags!
Notice the 5 cent deduction before my subtotal

Andrew's Fun Day

I took Andrew shopping with his birthday money this morning at Toys R Us. This was the first time I had taken him somewhere and given him an amount to spend, so I wasn't sure how it would go. He did great! He narrowed his choices down to a Cars speedway or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lego set. Of course he wanted both, but he acted like such a big boy when I told him he had to choose one. He also saw a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lunch box as soon as we walked into the store that he just had to have, so I think he was sticking with the Mickey theme. After shopping we went to Sonic to get his free birthday kid's meal, and he was so excited that our car hop was on roller skates. He thought that was just the greatest thing!

Thanks Granny Ani and Mamaw& Papaw

Mommy and Andrew had lots of fun playing with the new Micky lego set

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew got a Spiderman scooter! He has been asking for one since Evie got hers in April.
Loving the new froggy umbrella
He played with his new rug a really long time A spiderman fishing pole!
Happy 3rd birthday little boy!