Weekend Festivities

Whew! This past weekend was BUSY…but in a really, really good way. We spent the entire weekend sharing laughs with some of our all-time favorite people.

Here’s the breakdown: we hosted two impromptu dinners with friends at our house, one baby shower (well, that was just me and not Dave), and one going away dinner for Uncle Bob & Aunt Jill. We also attended a neighborhood get-together, baked (and ate) loaves and loaves of homemade bread, planted some flowers for Earth Day and started quite a few fires (on purpose).

I will warn you now, this is going to be a long post. I have cut down the photos as much as I could. I sent the 100+ images out to my mom and sisters but I had to share some of the highlights here for memory’s sake. These are images of the moments I absolutely treasure…weekends at home together with loved ones!

Friday —

It was really chilly here on Friday so we spent the afternoon playing at Hannah’s house and then Katrin and I took the kiddos to our favorite coffee shop downtown for coffee (for us) and chocolate milk and banana bread for the kiddies. It was so fun and relaxing.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE having Friday’s off??

After our coffee date, the kiddos played in the park for a while and then Katrin, Scott and Hannah came over for some homemade soup for dinner. It was a perfect night for soup and what will probably be our last fireplace fire until next winter.

While we waited for the Clubines to arrive, the boys (all 3 of them) sat and watched the fire (and ate a banana).

After dinner, Hannah joined the boys for a bath and donned some of their bigger PJ’s (explains the Santa PJ’s she’s wearing) before we walked her and her parents back home.  Can you tell how much we are loving having the Clubine’s as neighbors??!

Saturday — 

I dare you to tell me that this isn’t THE sweetest boy on this planet (bedhead and all)…

You see, I took this picture of Ben with my phone Saturday morning when he was being silly and snuggling with his giant teddy bear. I told him that his cousin Michael would love a picture of Ben and the bear (Michael MAY tie for the world’s sweetest boy on the planet award…) because he loves bears and he loves his little cousins. So, sweet, adorable, loving Ben gave his bear a giant hug and said, “Cheese!”

Just after I sent the photo off to my sister, Angie, Nathan came into the living room yelling and shaking his hand at me.

His hand (and his stomach and his chest) was covered in poo. Not surprisingly, the wall in the laundry room was too. I suppose he tried to rub it off on anything he could find. (Now, I really can’t blame him there…)

Seriously. This is not made up.

And, yes, this is the same child who pooed in the bathtub a couple months ago.

I blame this behavior entirely on his father. 

Legend has it that a certain camping trip was ended abruptly when a certain little Davey decided to drive trucks in piles of “mud” in the family tent. No lie. These are the genes Nathan inherited. 

Please feel free to laugh out loud. I did. It’s all you can do with a houseful of boys. I promise you. 🙂

Moving along to Saturday afternoon, everybody cleaned up and we headed to our little neighborhood get together (I call it a neighborhood but we live downtown so it’s just our little block but it feels cozy like a neighborhood to me). Each year, Mrs. Bogle hosts a party for all the neighbors to come over on Prom night.

Now, if that doesn’t leave you confused, I don’t know what does.

Well, all of the high schoolers (from our town’s high school) come to the park across from Mrs. Bogle’s house (that is appropriately named, “Bogle Park” since she owns and maintains it :-)), to have photos taken before prom.

Sounds simple enough, right? Just some high school kids having their picture taken before heading off to dinner and prom with their date. Why would we go to eat apps and watch these kids take photos?

It is actually quite a spectacle. Hundreds of kids and their parents congregate at the park starting in the early afternoon. There are limos, shuttle buses, professional photographers… the works. And, we had a front row seat to all the action. I sort of felt like I was a commentator for a red carpet special. There were some amazing dresses and some very interesting ones.

And, a few of us adults decided to dress up in our own prom gear. Why not? We’re old and weird and embarrassing anyway.

I tried to get a photo of Ben & Nathan in front of the high school kids…this was all I could get. I find it hard to believe that someday (sooner than I would hope), these sweet, innocent, toddlers will be going to prom themselves. Maybe I will embarrass them with this photo on their prom night. Ooh..and the earlier story in this post. Oh, the poor dates these boys bring home…

How sweet is this? Like father, like son. Sometimes those genes they share are pretty darn cute. 🙂

I didn’t go over and get in the middle of the action but can you see how many people there are over there? And it goes back all the way into the park!

Feeding Mrs. Bogle’s Hog statue. Go Gators! 🙂

Next up, our crew headed back to our house for a little bouncing and a barbecue…

It looks like Nathan just pushed Caroline. He is way too excited and she is  upside down and backwards. Hmmm…..

After taking out Caroline in the bouncy, he went after her sister. Nathan and Evelyn were tackling each other for about 20 minutes… Apparently, I need to teach this boy some manners.

Sweet friends 🙂

Digging in the flower bed with a spatula. Normal, right?

Everyone wanted in on the digging-in-the-dirt action.

Surprisingly (or not at all), we ended the night with another bonfire…this one was a little more tame. No dead trees, just some firewood.

Dave’s Uncle Bob & Aunt Jill from Minnesota recently renovated the apartment behind Katie’s house  (we now call it “The Marrs’ Compound”) and will stay there during there visits to NWA. We SO enjoyed having them as neighbors and will miss them this summer while they’re back in Minnesota! (Cousin Emily is in this photo with Chiquita in her lap too :-)…luckily, she’s staying in town)!

Hannah wanted a photo with Nathan and he obviously did not. Ha!

The boys both ate breakfast while holding their football and basketball. They would not put them down. They are my little athletes (and/or they just didn’t want their brother to take their ball).

I spent my Sunday morning at a wonderful brunch celebrating my sweet friend, Muffy’s baby boy on the way. This was truly one of the simplest and most fun showers I have hosted in a long time! Because this is her second baby, we decided to do a low-key brunch at a local restaurant.

There were only a handful of us there and these girls are all some of my closest friends in this area. I have known them all for years and LOVED having a quiet brunch with them. We were able to have adult conversations and eat our food as slowly as we wanted and drink our coffee while it was still warm…it was fabulous! 🙂

No stress planning included a fun bouquet centerpiece put together with flowers I bought at Sam’s club (& Katrin added diapers so it was a useful gift too!) and then yummy cakeball favors!

The Mama-to-Be (again) 🙂

LOVE these girls!!

Other Sunday activities included…

Baking homemade bread and making homemade pasta sauce 🙂 YUMM!

I’ll have to get this recipe from Dave to share…it was INCREDIBLE!!! (He also made two other loaves and rolls that were all eaten!)

And, in honor of Earth Day, we planted new flowers out front!