The Circus and a Big Fancy Wedding

I think we were pretty much crazy to pack in all that we did last weekend, but we had so much fun! The circus came to town and we've sort of made it an annual thing with the boys so we just had to go. The only conflict was that Joel's cousin Allison was getting married and so Friday and Saturday wouldn't work, and then Joel was leaving again for Houston Sunday so that really wasn't going to work. So, our only option was Thursday night. Joel booked a flight that got home at 6:20 and so we picked him up and headed straight there. Joel was thrilled. :)

 

It started at 7...on a school night...so I was a little worried about how that would go seeing as though their bedtimes are before 8. But, they did great. The circus is so entertaining that it's pretty difficult to fall asleep!

 My favorites, the elephants.

 And the poodles were SO cute!!!

 We got home a little before 10 and I decided to let the boys sleep in the next morning. Of course, they only slept 30 minutes later than normal so that didn't really work in our favor! Hudson loved being checked in to school a little late though!

After a full work day and a play date after school with the Kincaid's, we shipped the boys off to Big Mama and Big Daddy's for the night. We had a big fancy rehearsal dinner to go to for Allison and Chris at the Tutwiler!

 We had a great time celebrating them and hearing lots of stories. The food was delicious too!

Hudson had a basketball game at 9 am the next morning, so we were up and out early. I finally took my big camera with me, but these pictures are terrible! A certain little 3 year old was a wild man the entire time and so I didn't get to watch much of the game. Hudson is getting the hang of it though. He still loves it.

 After the game, we headed to the Reed's house for lunch with the extended family and then it was home for much needed naps. My parent's came and picked the boys up a couple of hours later and took them to see Paddington at the movie theater. They all loved it! Cousin Morgan went along with them (I think Mom and Dad needed a little help with our wild guys!). They all spent the night with my parents again so all was right with the world!

Then we got ready for the big fancy wedding! It was black tie so it was fun to get all spiffed up, even though tying bow ties is REALLY not Joel's thing--thankful Jordan was here to get him ready, ha! We will be going to buy a clip on for next time! :)

 We had a driver for the night so that was kind of fun too. He even took a picture of all of us!

 The wedding was at the Florentine building downtown. It was really nice and Allison was just beautiful! Her theme was the 1920's so every detail including her dress had that sort of feel to it. The father/daughter dance was the best I have ever seen too! They did a slow dance to some song I can't even remember and at the end of it, the tape started skipping and we all thought it was messing up...but then they broke out into a dance and it was fabulous. There was definitely a lot of practice that went into it and apparently no one knew they were going to do it! My phone did not like the light in that room so these pictures are dark, but you get the idea!

 They had bits and pieces of a bunch of different songs...this one looks like Thriller.

We had a really, really fun night. And, ended it back at the Tutwiler WITH the bride and groom who hung out all night with everyone! We got home entirely too late, but it was worth it!

It was an exhausting weekend and we are all still recovering, including the kids who stayed up every night until 10! We will be sleeping a lot this weekend coming up!

Yay for Some Sun!

The sun has finally come back! It has been so dreary around here lately that this ended up being the perfect weekend.

 

 The boys were glad to have Daddy back in town too! While we are adjusting to life with Joel gone every week, life definitely gets a little easier once that plane touches back down in Birmingham! The good news is that he has scored a trip home every weekend now, which is much better than the original deal of one trip home a month, so we are celebrating with that little victory. The boys have been SO good for me though. Hudson took out the trash last week, AND gave Harrison a bath most nights, among many other helpful things that he pitched in with. And, he asked to do these things. He said he is the man of the house now that Daddy is gone and it is his job! Ha! I guess Joel has given him one heck of a pep talk! We are proud of him though and how he has stepped it up...is he really about to be 6?!?!

 We've had a few tough days with Harrison. He is starting to fight taking a nap and he is just not ready for that (neither am I!). He needs it, otherwise he gets violent. Not sure why that is, but he is a total terror when he doesn't sleep. But he sure is a cutie!

 On Friday I realized his tennis shoes had a hole in the top of both of them so off we went to the shoe store. I knew his feet were big, but I didn't realize how big. He and Hudson are now wearing the same size! I usually order his shoes online so I can pick them out and he has no choice, but since we needed new shoes ASAP, we had to go to the actual store. Well, this resulted in bright blue shoes that he picked out as soon as we walked in, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. He hasn't taken them off since. And, now I'm working on a bright blue spring wardrobe for him! :)

 Harrison had the cutest birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon at the park for his best buddy, Henry. I was a little worried about a birthday party at the park in January, however, it ended up being the most beautiful day! They rented a little train that rode around the park and these little 3 year olds had the best time. This party will go down in Harrison's mind as being one of the best! He loved it. And we loved the sunshine!

While Harrison and I were at the party, Big Mama took Hudson to the Brick Fair downtown. Hudson had "the best day ever" at the lego show. I've never seen a child so obsessed with legos. He had such a great time with Big Mama...some much needed quality time for the both of them!

We had another great weather day on Sunday. The boys took every truck we own and put them on the front porch and played with them. It was so funny. They spent a lot of time on the trampoline and just playing outside...just what we needed!

We had to drop Joel back off at the airport last night, but thankfully we had a dinner date with Migi and Pops to celebrate Migi's birthday after we dropped him off, so it made it a little easier!

The kids also had today off for MLK Day. We had a great morning at the park with friends and then lunch at Pizza 120. Such fun and so thankful that the sun was out again today and it wasn't freezing!

Now we are looking forward to picking Joel up on Thursday night and heading straight to the circus! Then, it's a full wedding weekend for Allison! We can't wait for all the fun to begin!

Fancy Pants Chicken

I have been meaning to put this on the blog for some time now.  I found this recipe on Facebook of all places and my mouth started watering by just looking at the picture! Ha! I knew I had to make it. It did not disappoint. I took pictures of the process, but then forgot to take one of the final product because we all ate it so fast, so below was the original picture from Facebook. Looks yum, huh?!?!

Package (or 2) of thin chicken breasts - you can make however many you want
A few slices of prosciutto (optional--I left out)
1/2 bag of fresh spinach
8 oz. package of fresh sliced mushrooms
1 envelope of Lipton's Savory Herb and Garlix mix
1/2 cup of white wine
1/4 cup of olive oil
8 oz. shredded mozzarella

Layer the bottom of the pyrex with chicken. Cover with spinach and mushrooms. The original recipe also had some prosciutto in it too if you like that. I left it out because I forgot to buy, but it would be good too! Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Whisk together olive oil, wine, and savory herb and garlic envelope. Poor over everything. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Add the cheese and bake until cheese is melted (around 5-10 more minutes).

The first time I followed the recipe exactly. The second time I decided I would rather drink my wine instead of put it in my food. :) So, I just used some chicken broth instead of the wine and it was great. I think I might have even liked it better. The point is, you can change up the recipe to how you like!

I served it over rice both times because that's what I had, but I am sure it would be great with pasta too.

Enjoy!

Southern Museum of Flight

We woke up Saturday morning to yet another rainy day. We had to do SOMETHING, so we decided to head down to the Southern Museum of Flight and check it out. We had not done this before so we thought it might be fun. For $20, it was GREAT! Our boys loved it!

 

They had several cockpits that the kids can get in and play with all the buttons. Hudson was in heaven...really, this is all he wanted to do. He could probably tell you what half the buttons were for too.

 

We all liked the mouth on this plane! And above the plane was a helicopter with army guys hanging out of it "shooting" a man in the woods below. It even had noise associated with it. We could have stayed there forever.

 This plane "started up" when you got near it. So neat! Harrison was terrified! Ha!

The kids were mesmerized by all of the missiles on some of the planes and helicopters. It is a little surreal thinking about it all though.

 More cockpits!

 They were begging me to take their picture in front of every plane. It was so funny!

It was maybe a little over an hour of fun for my boys. They were very interested in looking at all of the planes and getting in the ones that they could, but they didn't really care to know about any of the history behind it. We did see a birthday party there and they were doing a history lesson by each plane...not sure my kids could have handled that. But, for what we did, it was fun!

We ended the morning with lunch at Post Office Pies! It was yum!

Last Week of Staycation

We've had a fun week since Christmas! It's been a very rainy one though, which has been super tough on the kids. We've had to come up with stuff to do nearly every day. I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish while I was off these past two weeks and I'm proud to say that I've crossed everything off the list! I have cleaned out every single closet in the house and gone through all the toys, which resulted in one big trip to Goodwill on Monday (had to get one last tax deduction!). I've reorganized the pantry. And we've made a pretty good dent in cleaning out the basement.

 

We threw in some activities with the kids too. On Tuesday, we just had to get outside. It wasn't raining, but it was SO cold. We had to do something though so we headed to the zoo.

 

 It was a horrible day to go to the zoo. It was too cold for a lot of the animals to be out, so I feel like we did a lot of walking for nothing! Ha! The boys had fun though.

 I was thankful that we missed the train (it was going to be one really cold ride) so I talked the boys into doing the carousel instead this time. Harrison is still telling everyone we didn't get to ride the train. I tried! He looks like he's having fun though!

 We got a little bit of trampoline action in between rain, and one day, the boys went out there and jumped IN the rain. They were sopping wet, but it got some energy out. The squeals that came from it were hard to beat too.

 On Wednesday, Joel took the boys to the McWane Center to see the model trains. They had a blast!

Then that night, we headed to the Schreiner's house to ring in the new year! I don't even think that this was all the kids...

 It was a little crazy. Sweet Brandy hired a babysitter to corral the kids...poor girl had no idea what she was in for. She did make out like a bandit that night though.

 Then on New Year's Day, we headed to the Bridges' to watch the Auburn game and eat brunch.

 Love this kid.

 Sweet boys were SO tired from the night before. They were so cute all wrapped up watching a movie!

The Auburn game was quite disappointing, but at least we were with good friends!

It's been a fun week, and the boys have learned to let Mom and Dad sleep in past 8 every single day. Hooray!!! Even still though, I think we are all pretty ready for school to start back! Time to get back to our routine!