Old friends are the sweetest kind

We had the most fun surprise visit with Hugo, Juanita & Matilda a couple Sundays ago.  They were in town from Miami to enjoy the land of the Mouse for a day & decided to swing by their old neighborhood to pay us a visit on their way home.  Juanita let me know Friday night but we decided to keep it a secret from Charlotte until Saturday night. Once we told her, she could not stop grinning & kept saying "my best friend is coming!"

This sweet family has been so special to us over our years in Florida. We met when Matilda was 6 weeks old & Charlotte was just days old while out walking the neighborhood. This past fall we sadly bid them farewell when they made the move to south Florida.  Charlotte has missed Matilda soooo much so it was wonderful to see them together & introduce the babies. Hugo loves babies & lasted about 30 seconds before stealing Owen out of my arms.

Since we have missed celebrating all our birthdays together, we made some Triple Chocolate Cupcakes to enjoy. These three cuties were glad to have a candle to blow out as we sang happy birthday!

Eloise was even happier that Hugo has a sweet spot for her & did not turn down her request for more :)

Char & Mati look so old to me in the picture below....

We tried out the new bubble guns. I guess a more accurate statement would be that we tried sharing 2 bubble guns between 3 excited girls... There were tears & screams.

We also recently added a new ball to our collection so they all had fun jumping for it : ) 

Such sweet friends...

Oh my, these two were so cute hugging each other! It was like no time had passed.

The most heartbreaking part was on Monday morning after breakfast Charlotte was really excited & said "Mommy! I have a great idea! Let's go on a walk to Mati's house & we can play all day!" She was convinced they had moved back in around the corner.  I can't even describe the disappointment in her face as I explained they had only come for a visit.  So for now, we will catch up via FaceTime & look forward to another visit!

Can you ever spend too much time with Grandma?

Ask any of my kids that & the answer is NO WAY! These four were loved on non stop while Gaga, GGran & Grammy were all in town.  Words are not needed to express the love these women have for their grandchildren & great grandchildren...just look at the faces of all : ) 

My Grandma had not met the boys until this weekend & Jeannine had not held them since they were just days old in the NICU with all sorts of wires & tubes attached to them.  Quite a bit has changed since then!

The first moments of seeing the boys...

a little sneak peek of the nursery I have yet to photograph...

Remember how I said that GGran gets the most smiles & coos of anyone I know? Here she is with Owen who is usually stingy with his grins...

Here is Eloise trying to show off some wrestling moves...

I love these two black & white ones.  She spent so much time just talking to them & they loved it!

Love seeing these hands touching my boys knowing they were the same hands that held my mom & me as babies....

Grammy stayed at Aunt Jenny's house but came to visit lots. It's like she couldn't get enough double snuggles!

looking very much alike! Anson on left, Owen on right : ) 

Anson & GGran

Grammy & Anson

Jeannine and all her boys

We were all surprised to get such a great picture of all six grandkids with Grammy! We were definitely missing Papa!

It is not hard to miss but there are definitely WAY more pictures of the boys with the Grandma's than the girls due to the non stop action we experience around here.

We love these Grandmas & our GG who is up in Michigan looking forward to visiting in the fall! Thanks for loving on our kids!

Splish Splash Birthday Bash

I feel like I am constantly playing catch up...it is a new way of life & I am learning to be alright with it. So, two weekends ago, we celebrated Charlotte's 4th & Eloise's 2nd birthday together with one big splish splash bash. After planning two separate parties last summer only 6 weeks apart (and inviting all the same families) we thought, "why not celebrate them together!" It was fabulous to plan for & knock it out in one weekend. Plus the girls had a blast!

With all the time spent playing in the Florida heat, we decided that an outdoor water themed party seemed perfect for the celebration. Too I bad I didn't consider the monsoon of a summer we had experienced so far & if I were smart enough to think about that I would have picked a morning party instead of the afternoon. More on that later.

Here is the invite we emailed out...

It worked out perfectly to have all the help we could possibly imagine when Jeannine plus my mom & Grandma all ended up being here over the weekend. We could not have pulled it off without them!

Little missy, sporting her new swimsuit from Auntie Deb & Uncle Joe helped me make the "Crabwiches" which were a copycat recipe from Pinterest...of course. We did chicken salad croissants with olives for the eyes & a radish for the smile. She wanted each of the crabs to have three eyes & thought it was HILARIOUS. So, we compromised & I let her do one crab like that. If it would have been her third birthday, I would have let her do all of them ; ) 

This is a great picture to capture the true essence of the newest two year old on the block....

The rest of the food was themed, Lifesaver life rafts, sea cucumbers & crab leg carrots, goldfish & sweedish fish, triangular cut cheese for shark teeth & octopus hotdogs.

Eloise LOVES her grandmas & great grandmas! We are so excited to spend more time with this particular one in the coming years since she is officially retired!

So, we got it all set up & I took the first picture with the bright colors & the sun beaming through the window. The next picture was taken at 3:30. The skies opened up & rain came pouring down promptly at the start of the party. Haha!

We made the best of it! Finding Nemo was on but these three little munchkins decided to play dress up....

Karis, Charlotte & Hannah

Isaac, our handsome little nephew was rockin' a cool hair do & looking so much more like a big boy. He enjoyed snuggles from Uncle Rob.

Rob & Eli stood outside on the porch with the girls who were hoping the rain would stop.  Thankfully the thunder & lightning finally let up & although the rain continued, it didn't stop the kids from having fun!

The adorable Audrey was all smiles watching the big kids play from mommy's lap.

The party moved outside to the Valentine Water Park which included our upgrade to a triple wide slip n' slide. Robby gave me a hard time about why I chose a triple wide instead of a quadruple one so all four of our kids can race ; )

It was fun but then it got even more fun when the dish soap came out & the Dad's decided to participate....

Sal

Eli

After we were all soaked, we served up some sno cones.  A little back story here... in college at Texas Tech, my roommate Cheryl & I enjoyed eating sno cones from a place called Bahama Bucks.  Robby & I had many a date that included a stop there as well. The year we moved away from Dallas, a Bahama Bucks opened right by the lake we kayaked on & we were SO excited. Then we got here....we were hot....we were always saying "I just want a sno cone!"....then about a year and a half ago we came upon a place called Seprock's Sno....our dreams had come true! We have taken some family dates there & sometimes when I am out running errands alone I stop by & get a treat that I don't have to share with anyone : ) Back to the party.  I thought sno cones would be the perfect addition to our splish splash bash with the hot sun beaming down.  Haha! We were a little chilly from being wet, in a rainstorm but it didn't keep us from enjoying a sweet treat!

Sno & flavors provided by Seprock's Sno- the Hulk, Blue Bubblegum, Pineapple & Strawberry Cheesecake

The best idea I had to cut down on prep time was to throw a couple candles in the sno cones & sing happy birthday!

You can't say I didn't try to get a picture of the birthday girls smiling together....

Eloise, oh Eloise! This little firecracker was overcome with love for sugar during the party. It is possible that she might have consumed at least 8 sno cones. Here she is at the table eating a bite out of each cup lined up in front of her.

It's like she would stalk people waiting until they placed their cup within her reach then she would down it.  Rob's face makes me laugh. It's like he is thinking "oh joy, she is going to be up till midnight with all that sugar in her system!"

Eloise wasn't the only one who enjoyed them! 

We had so much sno left over that we had a mini sno ball fight!

Eli happened to be the perfect target & the girls had a great time hurling sno at him while he blocked with a beach towel. 

One last game that we enjoyed was shooting ping pong balls off of golf tees with water guns.  It may have been a little over the coordination of a 3-4 year old but they still played even if they were only inches away : )

Here is the Grandma & Great Grandma  that spent the weekend at our house.  They along with Jeannine were so helpful caring for Owen & Anson & helping me get everything ready.  By the time we got this picture Eloise & Owen were done!

Even with all that sugar in Elo's system, they were happy to go to bed that night after such an exciting Splish Splash Bash!