"A" Cubed

Wednesday, August 27

Andrew's Sailboat Happy Birthday Party

our sweet baby boy turned 1 on august 12th. i cannot believe how the months have flown by! he was so very tiny and is now a giggling, happy chunk of a crawling baby!

' we had family and a few friends over for...

..."sub"marine sandwiches (paul's too cute idea!), goldfish, and sea salt chips...

...along with fishing poles (pretzels) and gummy worm bait, watermelon complete in a sailboat, and...

...orange sailboats floating on blue jello water.

think we might have had a sailboat theme...? (thank you pinterest)

the cake was way more fun to make than the full fondant cakes we've done in the past. i used the "viva" paper towel method to smooth the butter cream icing. not near perfect, but it was perfect for us!

after lunch, it was cake time!

and he was one happy little guy!

he wasn't sure at first, but then dug in.

and of course loved it!

yummy!

but this is one of my favorite pictures and paul took it!

i'd say he enjoyed it!

we used a friends idea to have everyone sign a sailboat. the big sister may or may not have gotten a bit ambitious with her name writing ;0) nothing a little sailboat window can't fix.

the gorgeous graphics were done by a local friend shannon from paper & play. she was so much fun to work with, and i loved the soft colors she used. each guest got some salt water taffy to take home with them.

andrew is such a perfect addition to our family. he adores his sisters, loves to give kisses, and has the sweetest belly laugh. his favorite thing is to see a dog, but throwing a ball is a close second. he says dada, mama, hey, ball and dog (that we can understand). he loves to wave hello or byebye, and he continues to be as laid back as he can be, for which this mama is truly thankful! he's a super crawler, but he's yet to pull up to his feet; and i'm completely ok with that!

happiest of happy first birthdays to our baby boy. we treasure every moment with you and are so thankful God blessed us with you.

zephaniah 3:17

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

Thursday, July 24

Road Trip to Callaway

i have some sweet memories of spending time at Callaway Gardens with my mom and brother growing up. I learned to water ski there and was certain i was going to grow up to be a trapeze artist as we watched the circus. it's a beautiful place; and for some reason the topic of the butterfly garden came up a few weeks ago. i knew the girls would love it; so my mom and i decided to make it a day trip.

we made it there within minutes of the birds of prey show. to say it was fascinating would be an understatement. i know birds of prey are driven by food; but these birds had some serious training, flying inches above audience member's heads.

swooping over us and through the aisles.

we had a picnic and then went to the butterfly garden. it was beautiful, but not nearly the hit i was thinking it would be. the humidity outside was stifling, but the humidity inside the tropical greenhouse was insane. I was wearing Andrew & had sweat pouring down my face. The girls did enjoy it, but it was just short lived.

So we went to a pioneer house (& got some of my favorite pictures.)

Sweet

And oh my word silly!

After a trip to the ice cream shop, we surprised the girls with an adventure. I say surprised, but really I told them way in advance because we have a few need-to-know-the-plan kiddos.

There was a tree top obstacle course, and it was literally tree top! But they recently built a saplings version that's no more than about 6 feet off the ground & our saplings were ecstatic to try it out! We talked about things that were scary vs fun vs challenging. I tried to explain the safety measures of being constantly carabined onto a line.

They listened to their instructions...& within minutes the child in front if them was climbing down. I knew the i can't do this is to hards were coming, but the challenged trumped the butterflies in their tummies...and they had a blast!

I was amazed at their determination. Their balance. Their {good} attitudes! Their ability to carabine on & off of lines. And their drive to get from one tree to the next. Across one obstical to conquer the next.

They looked so tiny & at the same time so big up there! Anne Perry was the first to go. She was so intensely focused.

Addie was next. She was in the middle of both the little girls. She helped each of them maneuver & encouraged them constantly. I was so thankful she wanted to try this something new. She did it despite her anxiousness. Her bravery & self control have matured so much.

Audrey Kate was last (but not far behind at any point!). She was consistently right up on Addie, many times having to wait because she was so speedy. She was so lighthearted & had so much fun being up there!

And then Anne Perry got to catch her sister coming down the ziplock line! (as addie called it ;)

Thanks for braving it with me mom! <3

Tuesday, July 22

Fashion Show

one of the girls most favorite things about spending time in the mountains with nana is their fashion show. you wouldn't know it from anne perry's face here. she did not approve of the cheering one bit. but her mad face is still pretty precious!

and this little one wasn't too keen on the cheers either, but we did get a "you better not smile" smile from her ;)

on the other hand, this little girl ate up the cheers!

dress her up and any part of her shy, timid self turns to silly, sassy sweetness.

these girls adore their nana!

...and so do i!

Saturday, July 19

Highlands: the Fairy Garden

my aunt emailed me a few days before we were heading to the mountains...that she had a perfect fairy garden spot & to have the girls bring some things to put in it. my creativity hit a wall, so i went to hobby lobby. and met my mom at joann's. and we raided the all the rave fairy garden section at 70% off.

we found so many sweet fairy details:

and sweet fairies for each of the girls!

they loved creating their own fairy gardens throughout the week. they even got some mail from the fairies in the fairy mailbox! if only mommy had remembered to keep moving the fairies around each night...

Friday, July 18

Week 29/365

*day 190: washing the Finnster

day 191: laundry twinsday 192: all three girls playing {sweetly} on thencomputerday 193: this picture is so much more than just Addie going up some steps to a {huge} water slide while wearing a green bracelet because she passed the outdoor swim test. It's bravery & courage & peace & growing up & I love it. day 194: McWane center slide that spans an entire floor level day 195: paleontology scientists of sortsay 196: addie reading her first chapter book completely by herself