Don't be a slave to fashion...

...because Abby is not. My middle daughter likes to wear what she likes to wear. She likes to change clothes a few times a day. Her outfits of choice are all her own. She likes "go-go" shoes, jewlery (her favorite piece is a bead necklace on a piece of twine) and a crown. The socks with sandles, car shoes or a frilly dance skirt are really just necessary accessories.

I do draw the line at wearing her nightgown to school but I have let it go to Target, against my better judgement.

A bachelorette party with this old lady

LP is getting married in a few short weeks. For her bachelorette weekend, 8 very fine ladies went to Wrightsville beach to live it up like the rock stars we know we are....kind of. Here are the stories that I must write down to give you a little snap shot of a bachelorette weekend when you are 29.

1. My price of entry was 10 hours (5 hours down and then 5 hours back) in the car with all three children. Matt supposedly had to work but every time I spoke to him he was playing corn hole

2. I dropped the kids off at Papa Tim and Shay Shay's house at 8pm on Friday. I felt free! I felt awesome and young with NO car seats in the back. I turned up the radio and headed off to the beach house a few minutes away. On my drive, a young man drove up along side me and stopped next to me at the stop light. He smiled. I smiled. What a great start to the weekend! He then motioned for me to roll down the window. Okay, from the safety of my own car, this should be fine, what the heck.

He said: "Hey."

I said: "Hey."

Then he said: "Did you know you have two ice cream cups on your back bumper? They are about to fall off."
Dang. That went a different direction than I expected.

I immediately started laughing. I guess I think I am just a little hotter than I actually am. I also realized I can't get away from being a mom, even when the kids are not in the car. It was just like the Toyota commercial where the lady leaves her diaper bag on top of her van, only mine was ice cream cups.

3. On the first night we were there, we had dinner at the house and talked until the wee hours of the morning. We also had a dance party. For the sake of comfort, we changed into our jammies first. Save those restrictive dress up clothes for another day. While we are at it, I am also going take my contacts out and change into my glasses too.


4. Here is a great picture of all of us out on the town. Interestingly enough, the young man who took this picture told us to all make our best "cougar face." All eight of us stopped talking to stare him down.
One of our group yelled: "We are not cougars! We are not old!"

All I know is that when we are cougars, we are going to look great.

Harper's Birthday

1 year ago today, our Harper was born. Today she is happy go lucky, pulling up to stand, front facing car seat riding, grape eating girl. I think she enjoyed her birthday as much as any little girl could. She ate some blueberry pie. Her siblings sang to her a few times. Abby never got the tune right, but it did not bother Harper.
I can't believe my baby is a year old. Part of me wants to freeze her right now. She is so cool sucking on her two fingers and smiling with her six teeth. She may have the the same long lashes as her brother and the same giggle as her sister, but our Harper is one of a kind.

The first day of kindergarten

William went to kindergarten today. There were no tears, no crying but lots of big smiles from Will. I, on the the other hand, had a rough go of it with the new morning routine. It was really hard getting to the bus stop on time. Yes, I know I have been packing up the kids and taking them to day care every morning for 5 years, but being on time for a bus is a whole other ball game. The mommy stakes have been raised. And then there is homework too?!? Kindergarten is hard. Here are a few pictures from our morning.

Will waiting with his guy friends at the bus stop.

He is ready to get on the bus and go! No fear from this guy.

Abby packed her own lunch and her bunny for 'school' this morning. Check her out looking very grown up. I also bought her a nap mat that was a school supply requirement for Will. The 6 extra dollars I spent was well worth the peace it bought me.

Harper needed a break and got back into the car. Yes, she is using Will's old car seat from when he was small.

Check out Harper Crawling

So Harper is crawling all the time, all over the house. Where do I find her? With her hands in the cat water bowl. Well, I guess it could be worse. Like the toliet.

Here is where I found her last night. Really, I only found her because Abby was yelling that Harper was in her table. Harper looks very pleased with herself.

Nothing could make me happier

I love Will for so many reasons. To see him vacuuming the family room almost brings a tear to my eye. I am thrilled that I have someone else who will vacuum (Yes, I bribed him with a trip to the dollar store, but I can live with that). Mainly, I am shocked that he is so grown up. Will starts kindergarten in a few days. I know that he is big enough to pick out his clothes, pack a lunch and (GASP) get on a bus by himself. Still when I look at him, I see the tiny newborn wearing a little blue sweatsuit that is too big because I didn't know what size to pack for the hospital. Only yesterday was the sweatsuit. Today is vacuuming. Tomorrow is driving the car.