Abby's "Messy" 2nd Birthday Party

Abby's cupcake cake - yum! The adults enjoyed it after she blew out the candles!
Waiting for the guests to arrive, she wanted to paint with pudding (she would have painted with anything - she just loves to paint & color - she's our budding artist. All the girls have loved to color/paint, but if Abby even sees a pen or walks by the cabinet where we keep our coloring supplies, she lunges for it/says "coro" all day long - it's heartwarming she enjoys it so)
The girls in front of the artists corner - smiley face. It was fun to see all the kids paint (or should I say paint a bit then lick the brushes and dip it back in for more - they ate more "paint" than they actually put on paper - fun!)

Hannah with her cousins Kaia & Sean

Lexy creating with Wills & Campbell Stoll (we missed little brother Grady - he was home sick)
Lexy painting with Laney Whiting (we missed big brother Sam - also home sick) and Wills
Hannah & Ashley Crosby creating their cupcake masterpieces
cousin Kaia, Lexy & Josie Dunkerley decorating their cupcakes
Papa blowing bubbles for cousin Emma and Abby
A view from above - decorating cupcakes!

Lexy was working hard on her icing!
sweet Abby enjoying her "muffin" as she called it!
sweet Hannah (can you see Maggie making a move for her cupcake in the back - it had more icing & sprinkles on it than there was cake! too funny!)
Abby got tired of doing the work to put the icing on the cupcake so she just pulled it closer & dug right in to the icing - tooooooo funny!!!!! It was her party though - smiley face!

Happy Birthday dear Abby....
Silly String!!!!


It scared Abby....but the older kids LOVED it!

Abby & Ani


How does this stuff work?!

For Abby's second birthday we had a small (by our standards - smiley face) party. We invited all of our family, as well as five families with children the same age as Abby - the Brady's & Crosby's were in the hospital just two weeks before us delivering Jackson and Lindsey & Colin. It was a fun afternoon. We made it a "messy" party - having the kids paint with pudding, enjoy bubbles, decorate their own cupcakes (which was mostly just an icing eating contest) and ended with a silly string spraying fest. We were fortunate in that it was a beautiful September day - the first day of fall - and had a fun, fun time!

Abby turns TWO at the zoo

Taking our traditional photo by the "stinky" flamingos!
The birthday girl with daddy & mommy

Abby's second mommy - Lexy. She is such a care-taker for Abby - always trying to comfort her when she is upset (saying "come here baby, I'll make you feel better" - always running to get her froggy and blanky to give her that extra love she needs - smiley face)
Grandpa, Aunt Mimi, Abby, Lexy, Granny, Hannah & Daddy by the giraffes - Abby was talking about them all morning and they were out in action today - smiley face

Abby's sweet attempt at showing us how old she is - that's supposed to be TWO!
Hannah doing her impression of Uncle Tom to daddy - she came up with that on her own - too funny - smiley face. Uncle Tom shaves his head bald....
The girls enjoying the gorillas - notice Abby's mouth is saying "cheese"

Family picture at the bamboo - my favorite spot - smiley face!

The girls all love the carousel - I remember when Abby used to be afraid of it & now she laughs with delight - so sweet. Where did the time go....she's so big and becoming independent in her own way! She wouldn't let Granny hold on to her at all on the carousel!!!!

Gator Chomp

Go Abby Go - Gator Chomp!
watching Florida embarass Tenn at Grandpa & Granny's condo - we have to invest in a cheerleading outfit for Lexy! smiley face!
Enjoying the white tiger at their condo!

Faklaris Athletic Facility

Phase one (aka the driveway) of our facilities are near completion - we have a tennis court, soccer field, bicycle course and baskeball hoop....we are a mulit-sport facility - smiley face!

playdate with the Jardina's

All dressed up as princesses - and playing hairdresser - George didn't want to be photographed (no cameras please - smiley face) - although our little bossy Hannah was subjecting sweet George to some hairstyling, he didn't have to dress up other than his cute cowboy hat & boots! What a fun afternoon

Manners

At lunch today Lexy said the following...
"Mommy, you know that restaurant with the peppers as the door handles" (you mean Chilis Lexy?) "Yes, well, the last time we were there I saw a woman who was talking with food in her mouth - isn't that bad manners?"
Too funny (about the pepper door handles - we must go there too much, it's just easy to be loud there - ha) and so sweet - she's learning - smiley face

At the park this morning Hannah was a terror. She got upset b/c the bathroom she wanted to go to by the pool was locked (closed until next summer) and we had to use the one by the tennis courts - she threw an unbelievable fit - it was embarrassing and just made me furious and want to cry all at the same time. She ran away from me - I had to chase her around & around - and once I finally caught her I kept saying "No m'am - you do not act this way" and she kept replying "Yes, M'am...." - if nothing else, at least she had her manners, huh? Trying to see the silver lining...smiley face!

Soccer Love

Chris' pre-game warmup with the girls - see how Hannah is more of a cyclist than a soccer player - j/k - smiley face - although she does ride a mean bike!

Grandpa reading to Abby

I just have to poke fun of Chris for a minute and compliment the girls on Lexy's soccer team. Chris was once a very competitive soccer player and up until this season of coaching our girls, he hasn't really missed it. But I can tell it really hit him & he misses it immensely b/c after Saturday's game - he started talking about keeping this team together for a few more seasons at DUMC then moving onto Top Hat as a team, recruiting (apparently one of the girls on the other team on Sat was very good, despite the fact that they weren't able to score a goal on our blue dolphins - smiley face), and getting them more competition. I had to remind him that not only are the FIVE year olds, but also how it felt last season to be beat so badly a few times (he said he did try in the second half to have the girls play more defense and eventually only put four girls on the field vs their five) and he did agree, but I could tell those competitive juices were flowing - smiley face. We'll see how the rest of the season goes - but for now, wow! It's fun to win - smiley face. BTW - he wants to take Lexy to see South Carolina play on Wed night - he is itching for soccer - too funny!

Along the same lines - he did say he's worried that folks think he's forcing soccer upon our girls. My response - who cares what appearances are. We know they are having fun and getting out & exercising - it's great for them & they like it - smiley face (mind you - this came after a tennis article that I read that said someone Lexy's age should be doing 7-10 hours of off court training a week in order to be a tournament player or to be a club player they should be doing 5-8 hours - or something insane like that - seriously?! she's FIVE!!!! But then Chris reminded me that between gym in preschool, tennis lessons, soccer practice and playing outside with our family & friends - she is getting that much off court training - crazy!!!!)....we are feeding the frenzy, huh? But at least our girls live a full & fun life! super smiley face!

At the park with friends....

After Monday's tennis lessons, the girls had fun at the park - here's a picture of a few of them on the swing...I think the one of Sam Whiting with his girls is cute!