Sweet little Eva

Eva's at a frustrating age - constantly testing us, not really listening etc. The thing is, when she is sweet, she is SO sweet. Today as I was getting her ready for her nap, I told her to get whatever she needed (ie, her blanket and teddy) and head over to my room, which is where she naps. She looked at me and said, 'oh mommy, I don't need my blanket or my teddy, all I need is you. You are my best friend.' Needless to say, I just woke up from our nap together ;) How could I say no to that?!

Bah-berry / Strawberry Picking!

We had so much fun picking strawberries last week. It had been raining for days and I was tired of being inside, so I told the girls to grab their rainboots and we were going rain or shine. Well, as you can see from the photos, we had beautiful weather!

Stella was in absolute heaven. Strawberries, or bah-berries, as she calls them, are one of her favorite things. Once she realized that there were strawberries all over the place, she basically started squealing 'bah-berry, bah-berry' and running up and down the aisles!

As you can also see, I think they ate more than we actually brought home :)

Chub-O

You have to click on this photo to really get the full effect. The bigger the better...just look at that belly and those thighs! Mama's girl, definitely ;)

A little ice cream treat...

I'm out of order posting here and need to catch up on some things, but I just couldn't resist posting these. Stella isn't a huge fan of sweets, but she LOVED this strawberry ice cream that we got at the strawberry patch today!

A teenager! Mickey's 13th birthday

13 years old. Unbelievable. As much as I love party planning, 13 is a tough age, especially for a boy! It couldn't have gone any better. Mickey said it was the best day of his life...other than the day of his birth! He had two birthday 'wishes' - 1. that all of the grandparents come into town to celebrate and 2. an iPod touch. The plan was to pick him up from school with a couple of his friends, then head out to do something fun - go carts, arcade, whatever he wanted. What he didn't know, was that it wasn't just going to be me picking the boys up from school, but all of us in a surprise Hummer H2 stretch limo. We loaded the whole family in the hummer and picked him and his friends up from school!

The big surprise - a stretch Hummer H2, full of family on the way to Mickey's school to surprise him and a few of his friends for a 2 hour cruise around the city.



His reaction, like every other kid that was waiting in the carpool line, was fun to watch. The best part was when the limo driver got out and pointed to Mickey. He was clearly in disbelief, but very excited. A friend and fellow photographer of mine, was there in the crowd to capture his expression...I just can't get the photos to re-size for some reason. I'll update once I figure it out!

Well, does he look surprised? This was taken just before he uttered, 'this is WAY better than an iPod touch.' Yay :)



The three coolest boys in school



Joe, I mean, Mickey cool - cruising in the H2 Stretch



We cruised all over Raleigh - downtown, through NC State's campus, down Glenwood South (with a pitstop at Turkish Delight for a few chocolate shakes). The boys had a great time being boys and flaunting their fame to passersby.

We have lots of limo pictures, but I love this one...What are YOU looking at?!



The ride is over...



The three coolest boys in school



All of the boys (and I) stayed to watch Iron Man per Mickey's request



Essential movie-watching snack



Another snack, not so much essential, but definitely fun! Customized M&Ms - some had his picture on it, other's said "Mickey's 13!" and the rest said "happy 13th." He loved them.



Popcorn and Iron Man



Great Grandfather aka Pop watching Iron Man



All of the teenage boy necessities...soda, candy, popcorn, pizza. Not my usual party table, I was told 'no balloons.' Waah, he's getting old!



Although the cake is the number '13', I'm pretty sure it weighed at least 40 lbs. It was Todd's best tasting cake though, at least in my opinion!


Seriously, look how thick this thing is!



and if you didn't get the full effect of the size of the cake, look at how huge it looks compared to Mickey! Admittedly, I think it has a little to do with the angle, but it made us laugh!



THE gift...the ipod touch. It's the ONLY thing he wanted ;)