TWO!!!

It's embarrassing, but I have to admit that I wasn't even going to throw the babies a birthday party this year! I feel like I am always in the midst of craziness and the thought of not having to plan one more thing sounded fabulous. Anyway, they are only 2... they won't remember, right? Well, as is my nature, I started feeling guilty so I decided to just do it... And I am SO glad that I did! We had SO much fun!

We rented out a kiddie pool that was perfect! The entire pool was only waist deep for the littlest of the children, so although you had to keep your eye on everyone you weren't terrified of someone stepping off into the deep end. We could only rent it when it wasn't open to the public, so the party started at 8 AM!! I had serious doubts about it starting that early and after an incredibly hectic morning of trying to get there on time, I knew it was a bad idea. However, once the party was over at 10, we had missed the terrible heat of the day, no one missed a nap and we all had our Saturdays left to do what we wanted, I decided it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

(I was the photographer, so no pics of me)

The pool was called Noah's Ark...

All of the kids on top of the big water slides...

Sidney & Luke on the little water slide...

Mitchell

Luke

Ivy & Nain

Briellen & Sidney with Nonna

Stephen & Fearless Mitchell

Mimi with Brynne & Sidney

The babies actual birthday was on Thursday... I wanted to do something fun with them but not an all day adventure. I thought the Rain Forest Cafe would be perfect... All of the fun animals and sounds. Wow... I couldn't have been more wrong! They were scared to death. I even tried to change tables, but the lighting/thunder storm went off as we were changing and made things worse. We ended up getting our food to go and left quickly. Such a scene. I was so flustered that I didn't get any pics. So that night as we were putting the babies down, I made them pose for a picture because I had to have a picture of them on the actual day. They, again, freaked out on me, but oh well, it had to be done.

Ivy, Sidney, Hidden Brie, Luke, Mitchell

2nd Annual Lake Travis Trip

So my girlfriend, Misty, has an amazing lake house on Lake Travis in Austin... It's in hot demand from renters on vrbo.com, but she let me pick out a weekend we could come and vacation!! Last year when we went, it was our first family vacation ever!! We had so much fun both times that we decided to make it an annual tradition! Woo-Hoo!!!

The Howells

The View!

This year my sister Amy and her family came with us... It is always fun to vacation with the Farley's not only because they are a blast and jump immediately into the routine of taking care of the babies, but they are great cooks and fancy-up everything. For example, they brought basil from their garden for a special cocktail. Also, my babies are obsessed with them!! At 6 AM, Ivy would try to open their bedroom door calling for Damon. (This is especially funny because the Farley's love to sleep in and Amy is notorious for her morning grumpiness!!) After we got home we had to remind the babies that, no, we don't live with Mimi and Uncle D!

Aunt Mimi With Brynne & Aiden

Uncle D Being Swarmed

This year swimming with the babies was a titch more challenging. They didn't really want to stay in the floaties they had last year... the kind with the saucer around them and a sun shade. But they weren't ready for the old school floaties that go around their arms. I was trying to save money and not buy them the life jacket-y kind of floaties that are a million dollars a piece, but in hind sight, they needed those more than they needed new sunglasses, cover-ups and hats!!! And now I will end up buying them anyway... Well, maybe I did do it the smart way, so now they will have life saving devices AND cute accessories...

Mimi & Sidney

Ivy aka Hollywood

We decided this year to leave our stroller at home. Last year, we only took it out only once... It's too hot and hilly to be worth the trouble. So, the life saver for when everyone got stir crazy was Misty's golf cart!! We would pile everyone on that sucker and ride down to a park and play... I was worried that someone in the neighborhood would report me because it looked unsafe and a little ghetto!

Walking Down to the Lake From the Park

Misty and her fam and our other college roomie, Kimber and her boys came to visit us on Saturday. Of course, it was total chaos, but oh, so much fun!!

Kimber & Ivy

Misty with Luke & Ivy

Mitchell

I am already looking forward to next year!!

Other Hits:

-- Exploring the house --

Briellen

(Her hair is FINALLY growing in, so it's sticks straight up...

Love it!!!)

Luke

-- Perfect Feeding Table--

-- Bath Time --



-- Hot Tub --