More Shower

Beth's cupcake!

Loved the way the cupcakes turned out!

There was lots of DELICIOUS food!

I was so proud of my napkin creation! I love doing this kind of stuff!

Gift table before most of the gifts arrived!

The shower favors (Yankee votive candles).

Bernie giving her wonderful devotional on "emergency preparedness". She did such a great job and clearly presented the plan of salvation. There is nothing more important and I was so thankful to be apart of such a God-centered bridal shower!

Beth opening her gifts! Ooohhh, a KitchenAid mixer!

Papa's Retirement Party

My dad has officially retired as a school teacher. He has been teaching at Dayton Public Schools for many years and needless to say... he was ready to retire! He is still doing some substitute teaching and also some part-time teaching at a career technical center.

We had a surprise retirement party for him last night at Shawn & Kristen's house. We decided in honor of the biggest pizza lover we know, we would have a "Taste of Dayton Pizza" for dinner. We all brought two different types of pizza (LaRosa's, Marion's, Cassano's, Papa John's, Domino's, and Cousin Vinny's pizza). Ben had the fun idea to blindfold my dad to see if he could guess the type of pizza he was eating. Not surprisingly, he guessed all six types of pizza correctly. I had no doubts!

It was a really fun evening with the family as we celebrated one of the best men I

know!

My parents!

Let the pizza taste testing commence!

Six for six! Impressive!

The kids were able to get one last swim in before the pool is closed for winter!

They sure do love the "hot pool" as Claire calls it!

Papa with his grandchildren (minus Jillian who was at a neighbors house!). Happy Retirement, Dad!! We love you!

Grandma McDowell's 83rd Birthday

My Grandma McDowell celebrated her 83rd birthday yesterday. We always enjoy our time with Grandma and we're so thankful we were able to be with her on her birthday. We LOVE her!!

Grandma opening the card that Claire made for her!

Aunt Heather, Caroline & Catherine helped us celebrate.
Grandma with the little grandgirls!

My dad also made a visit to wish his mama a happy birthday!

Popcorn Festival '10

We love going to festivals so we made our way to the Popcorn Festival on Saturday! I really love this time of year. Bring on the festivals! Anna getting a free gymnastics class!

Who says firefighters have to be boys?

One of the BEST parts of festivals is the yummy food!

We love lemon shake-ups! So refreshing!

Camping (sort of)

So... Ben had this crazy, I mean GREAT idea to camp out with the girls in our backyard. He's been on the lookout for the perfect tent and finally found it at the Northface outlet last week. The girls were so excited to "sleep", and I use the word sleep very loosely, in the big tent. Ben & I had a bet going on how long they would last in the great outdoors. Let's just say I won and they lasted about an hour. Yes, you read it correctly. An HOUR!

Daddy putting up the tent!

The girls were ecstatic about their big camping adventure with Daddy!

Such helpers!

Getting all snuggled in the princess sleeping bag!

Anna in her Elmo sleeping bag! (I literally think she stayed in her sleeping bag as long as it took me to take this picture... not a good sign!).

Both girls ended up on Daddy's air mattress (he's a wuss... an air mattress when you're supposed to be camping out? WHAT???).

This is the photo I took as I was walking back into the HOUSE. I really, really, really love my bed and within an hour both my girls were sound asleep in their beds, too! Maybe next time!

Holiday at Home Parade

Our annual Labor Day tradition is to go to Kettering's Holiday at Home parade and festival. It's a sign that summer is over, but also the beginning of all the fun fall festivals! This is such a fun time of year! This is how we roll, baby!

The girls loved watching all the cheerleaders!

And of course seeing all the doggies, too!

The storm trooper and Claire are waving to each other!

The best view was from Daddy's shoulders!

We all ate so much festival food we were sick. Claire ate almost the whole bag of cotton candy! Makes me queasy just thinking about it. Haha!

It's FALL

Saturday evening we had the first fire in our fire pit! We love this fall like weather and thought it was the perfect time to break out the fire pit! I love how Anna is holding her baby doll with her shades on ! She makes us laugh!

Roasting marshmallows with Grammy & Papa for smores!

Mmmmm! We love smores!

My messy girl!

My Baby

I check on my girls every night before I go to bed and most of the time I find Anna in this position, on her belly with her little bottom up in the air. It's so sweet that she still sleeps like a baby! MELTS my heart!

Kings Island 2010

On Friday, we took our second day trip to King's Island. The girls and I have been there several times, but this was our first time with Daddy. We all had a really, really fun time. We jumped right on every ride and the temperature was in the mid-70's with a nice breeze! What a perfect day for an amusement park!

Daddy, Claire & Anna on the roller coaster! My girls loved all the rides. No fear at all!

The swings are always a fan favorite!

Anna loved the carousel. I'm sure because of the horses!

My little pilots!

This is a glimpse into our future. Lord, help us all!

Nothing says King's Island like Smurf ice cream! The best ice cream E-V-E-R!

One of the favorite rides was the Drop-Zone for kids! Even Daddy liked this one!

I love how Anna has her arms up in the air! My little dare devil!

Fun train ride!

At the end of our day, we let the girls play in the kiddie water park. Thankfully, I had a dry change of clothes for the ride home! What a GREAT day!