Action packed day!

We have had an action packed day! We started off the day by meeting up with our favorite gal Evie at Monkey Joe's. The boys get so excited to see her and the combination of both jumping and Evie really sends them into happyland.  I did not take my camera because I was excited to get to talk to Jennifer and it's so hard to get pictures there with kids flying around. But of course it was the least crowded I've ever seen it and I wished (just like always!) that I had my camera with me. Lesson learned! We had a great time.

I should mention that before we even got out the door the boys, who have apparently taken notice of mama painting her eyebrows on every morning, decided to do the same to CD's.. picture is out of focus but you get the idea. HA!

  And he tried to hide it from me...

Well moving on to day's end, we switched gears and headed off to soccer.. I'm officially a soccer mom.  I think CJ is the cutest thing ever dressed up in his soccer garb. Since last week we practiced in Bailey Boys seersucker embroidered shorts and matching T-shirt, we were prepared this week with more appropriate attire.

C is doing a great job considering it's his first team sport and the first time he's ever played soccer.  He does spend some time in his own little world and wanders off a bit from the action but I know it will be like all things and he will soon catch on quickly.  Big C and I think he's a lot like his Papa O, he never gets in a hurry for anything and that's true on the soccer field too.  It's sure to be a fun season though and a learning experience for all of us.  One of the mom's warned me that when the real games begin I will start to see some of the "crazy soccer moms" get pretty intense.  Oh boy--this should be interesting! My husband is scared I will be part of the "crazy" category--let's hope not!

PS I totally swiped this off my friend's blog--SO CUTE!

Cutest little T-shirts

I've mentioned a few times in the past, here and here, that I rarely buy my boys any clothes. My mom has a friend in the children's clothing business and bless her soul, she just picks out all the boys clothes for each season and sends them to me.  It's such a huge blessing and I'm so grateful because my husband would never in a gazillion years let me dress them this way without her help--kid's clothes are expensive! So I'm always giving mama little shout-outs for this:) Love you mama!

Anyhoo, on to my story; the only things I really ever look for for the boys are cute t-shirts to play in.  A while back my sister in law, who visits Charleston occasionally, gave the boys these adorable silhouette t-shirts from a store there.  They are my favorite t-shirts they've ever had, softest cotton, classic looking, and they wash well.  

Would you believe while blog surfing I ran across an etsy shop based in Charleston and yup, here were those exact t-shirts.  (I saw them mentioned on Holly Mathis Interiors via 3 Peanuts, just to give credit where it's due!) Anyways, I may splurge on a few of them for fall.. Are they not the cutest? They have adorable girl ones too, but this household is all boy. And we are so ready for fall..

These photos are from this Etsy shop..

Hobbies

Over the weekend my husband surprised me with a new bike! First new bike I've had since I was 14 and I felt just as giddy when I saw this one as I did back then. Fun! I loved the color, I'm so surprised he got this cutie pie blue/green one since he laughed me out of town when I said I wanted to put a basket on it.  He called me "froo froo".  Hm.  Anyways, we're trying out some new family hobbies and so far everyone seems happy with biking--that's pretty unusual! We put the boys in a bike trailer stocked with snacks and water and headed off for the trails.  Then when we get home the boys like to practice on their own little bikes.  It's pretty cute.  They really liked it.  CD even slept for a while!

The boys have also been having fun painting and coloring outside (a little trick we picked up from Evie!). 

And speaking of hobbies, little CJ started soccer last week too. We went to buy his gear today and it's just the cutest little stuff ever.  Little miniature cleats, shin guards, those little slicky shorts that remind me of Umbro's, oh it's all so cute.  Can't wait to snap some pics this week.  We are also wrapping up swimming lessons and starting school this week.  These boys keep me busy!!

Anniversary

My anniversary is coming up and looking at wedding pictures brings back sweet memories. C and I have been married for 6 years! WOW!

We got married by the water, very casual and non-fussy.  I made my own wedding invitations.  We had a little tower of cupcakes instead of a cake.  It was the best day of my life (tied with the 2 birthdays of my boys of course) and that's just what I'd always hoped for.

It's been a really fun ride so far.  We first met at a restaurant in Davidson, North Carolina called Brickhouse Tavern.  I was there to meet someone else, ha! And that someone else brought a friend, who turned out to be my future husband!

But it was Halloween when we first really paid attention to each other and considered dating. CJ's the nun and I'm the 60's girl (I used to be blonde, long story..) For this reason I look forward to Halloween every year, I love it, it's kind of an anniversary of sorts too.

I loved that he wasn't afraid to dress up for that Halloween party and he didn't take himself too seriously.  Who doesn't love a good sense of humor?

Fast forward a while later: C was in the garage working on his jeep and I was hanging out with him studying for a nursing exam. He asked me to hand him an air filter. I hissed at being interrupted, put down my books, got the air filter and handed it to him, saying "Here, and a little white box just fell out of it." Gasp! He looked at me kind of strange and I think we both laughed. That little white box had my ring in it. C proposed and pulled champagne and flowers out of his jeep.  SO cute! Great memory. And we laugh now at the fact that I was so mean right before he proposed, oh funny:)

So that's the quick version of our story.  Two precious boys later he's my partner in crime and I would choose him again and again. He's a great catch:)

PS This was last night on our way to our celebratory dinner. Had our babysitter snap a quick pic and I felt like a total dork but so glad we finally have a halfway current photo together! Dinner was Mills Creek Sauvignon Blanc (yum), pan-seared scallops over lobster mac-and-cheese (me),  veal 3 ways (husband), dessert coffee, and molten lava cake  = 10,000 calories but who cares:)

Impromptu photo session

Quick product post

I've found a new face cream that I love. It's this..

No icky parabens, petro chemicals, blah blah blah. I've never been terribly picky about that stuff but I did try to start reading labels when I was pregnant.  It's actually been hard to find more "natural" products that feel good.  Weird--my skin likes chemicals.  But I decided if I could find something I liked that was a little healthier, then great.  In the past I've used Estee Lauder's Hydra Bright (used to be Hydra Complete) and loved it for many years.  Love LaMer, but it's expensive and a little too perfumey for me.  I'd been using Keihl's recently and while I very much like Keihl's, it made my typically normal skin kind of oily. I would need to blot several times a day. Wasn't sure if I should attribute that to Keihl's or the fact that it's been a million degrees here and I'm constantly sweating.  Well, Origins seems to be a perfect balance.  I love this stuff -- my skin is hydrated and no blotting required.

I also tried this and fell in love.

I didn't think a tinted moisturizer would work for me because frankly, I like wearing makeup, but wow, do they all cover this well? This one feels light and covers so well, plus has SPF.  A good find!

A first and some random photos

 

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with the story below but this little butterfly follows the boys around and I had to snap her picture.  Little CJ named her Flower.  Aw.  PS.  I shot this in Manual and am so proud of myself.  I indulged in a 50mm 1.4 and I love it.

Anyhoo.  Earlier this week I took the boys to the movies for the first time to see Cars 2.  It was fun and hysterical and memorable (and I had my camera with me but it was so crowded I was too chicken to pull it out!).  We are steadily marking things off of our "Summer Fun" list.  There were about 6 million previews and I was sure we would never get to the main attraction.  The preview for "Puss in Boots" had CD a little concerned.  His exact words were "The huge cat is scary."  CJ was a little bothered by the loudness at first but after a while he got used to it and settled right in.  He was also a little concerned about the way the seats push down and flip up, so for the longest time he sat right on the edge of his seat and refused to scoot back.  Funny!!

Here's my review:  I thought the movie was really cute and the boys love their Lightning McQueen.  The plot seemed a little sophisticated to me (since I was having trouble keeping up for a while) and there was one stretch in the middle where the boys seemed to get restless, but overall we all really liked it.  I think the first Cars is still my favorite though.  But we made it the whole way through with no major drama.  Success!  Good memory:)  It was so fun to be at the movies with my boys.

Randoms: CJ loves this game on the iPad. If you touch the letter, animal, or word it sounds things out for you.  He loves it!

Boys being boys

I stare at my children all the time and am amazed I am their Mama.  I feel so blessed.  We are having such a great summer and these boys just love to run with wild abandon anywhere and everywhere. They just want to be outside.  They are constantly covered in mosquito bites and always have bruised up knees.  I love to see them get dirty and grimy like little boys should.  I snapped a few pics last night while we were sneaking in some playtime before bed.  Sad that this will be the little one's last summer of john-john's.  Where does time go?

On another note, little C is really doing great in swim lessons.  We tried one round of lessons in a group but it seemed C would benefit from one on one attention and it has made a huge difference.  Yesterday in just his 3rd class he swam the length of the pool on a noodle!  So proud of him.

Apparently I use the term "You better.." quite often because CD says it all the time.  He'll say, "I better go get my car" or "You better get me some milk".  Ha!

It seems someone is always picking a nose around here:) 

A Day at the Fair

Today we took the boys to the fair.  It was SO fun!  There were tons of rides for little ones.  A lot of the rides are the ones I remember from years of going to the Myrtle Beach Pavilion, oh good memories..  Of course there was no riding the Caterpillar or The Enterprise (my personal favorite), but the boys sure had fun on the little stuff!

We did some snow cone eating...

some motorcycle riding...

Please tell me you remember the scratchy fiberglass glitter boats?

Oh I love me a fair--I felt like a kid again!!!  We rode our first family ride together, the tea-cups..

Airplanes, carousels, we left nothing untouched!

It was so so fun to share this day with my sweet little boys.  I think we are going back so that Mama can ride this..Big C was laughing at all the warnings for this ride, "Please no recent surgeries, illness, heart problems, etc."... HA! It sure did look fun though. I dunno, maybe we will just go back for more snow-cones and funnel cakes:)