it's paartaay time!

So after two years of anticipation, we leave today for our long journey to Quitaque, TX.  My Mema is celebrating her 80th (!!!) birthday and so ALL the family is convening on Quitaque for the weekend.  When the town has a population of less than 500 and 25 new people are at church on sunday it's a population explosion!
Our journey will take us 1018 miles one way and I'm sure will be a road trip Matt and I will never forget. We are driving with a 26 month old and a 10 month old after all. I am bound and determined to have a not horrible time in the car and have prepared fun activities for Eli and I to do and have tons and tons of snacks for us to eat (snacks are key).
So say a lot of prayers for us and i'll talk to everyone next week. :)

here's my sweet Mema holding Isaac in March

here's what's for dinner

um...YUM

http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/?p=713

I've made several recipes from this blog and all have been delicious.  I'm sure this one will be too!

it's a pirate's life for me

So we went to a birthday party today after church for our friend Alex. The theme was....pirates....arrrrgghh matey, shiver me timbers. I had 3 dashing young buccaneers who found buried treasure and gathered the loot!

Buccaneers 1 and 2

Buccaneer 3 looks like he's taking 2 hostage!

just kidding he says

the pirate's loot

captain Alex (the black shirt and huge smile)

it's friday. woot woot!

Okay so this picture was actually taken on thursday but who's counting......so if you live in TN and have kids under age 5 The Dolly Pardon Imagination Library sends each kid 1 FREE book each month! How awesome is that!!!! This is Isaac's first book - The Little Engine that Could - and obviously this is how a 9 month old reads a book.  Thanks Dolly :)

 Today I met some mom friends down at the depot for lunch and live music.  The city sponsors live music each Friday in October so we took advantage of the beautiful day and had lunch outside.  I didn't get any pics of the musicians, but the old-timey bluegrass was a lot of fun and so were the trains!

 Okay and look who's pulling up on everything. I turned the corner and found these fatty little leggies standing up. 

 He was desperately trying to pull the toy top out from under the trucks. Mom intervened. 

 Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

friday

Very first time eating cinnamon rolls (homemade gluten free!) Eli liked them OK- didn't finish a whole one. (totally not my son)

 This one was so pleased to finally have a little sugar he held it up to show me. Probly would've finished two if I'd have let him. Hmmmm....wonder where he gets that from. 

 Eli had some crafty watercolor time during brother's nap. He was WAY more interested in making the water get colored than he was the paper.  He had a blast as evident by the water splatters everywhere.

 Took a hike in the woods across from our house. Absolutely beautiful and as good as any state park hike we've been on. The new and old logging roads make for perfect trails. 

Okay, and all this happened before noon. I've decided that having a two year old is exhausting!

monday

A walk

 and pizza.

family vacay

So a friend at church was extremely generous and gave us free tickets to Dollywood(!!) so we took a long weekend vacation and went to Pigeon Forge.  We picked an off season weekend and boy was it worth it not having to wait in line for anything.  Eli got off the bumblebee ride and right on the duck ride....about 5 times in a row!

Eli is preparing himself for a fun-filled day.

Isaac's token ride (okay, he rode the tea cups too)

Rode "Thomas the Train" aka the dollywood train.  

Isaac watching daddy and Eli

Matt and Eli on the green elephant

Rode this ride by himself first.  Just hung out.

Braved this ride by himself 2nd.  Got to push a button and turn TWO steering wheels!

Now onto the big stuff....the bumblebee went up and down.

Riding with his daddy

Stopping for a snack and sharing with brother

Brothers playing while mommy rides a roller coaster.

We enjoyed our time and especially loved getting to be together as a family.

SAHM

So a couple times a month the stay-at-home-mom's group from church gets together for some mommy time and kid play time related activity. This past week we met at our friend Kim's house to play, then walked to Sonic for lunch, then stopped at a pumpkin stand on the way home.  LOVE my SAHM group and the kids E and I get to play with :)

Here are the kiddos at lunch

An attempt at getting 5 kids ages 2 and under to "sit" for a picture

Isaac picked out his pumpkin right away

And loved every moment holding it

Eli perused all the pumpkins to pick just the right one. 

He took so long picking mommy had to pick for him.