Splish Splash

This morning we met up with some friends at the splash park at the Alachua rec. park. Crystal had been before and had invited Carrie and Allie to join them this time and they invited us, too...Crystal and Carrie and I used to carpool back when we were all going to LCCC....this morning kind of reminded me of those days...(since I was 30 minutes late).....Yep, it was just like the old days... during our junior college years, we'd all meet at Carrie's house and then drive to school together. I was ALWAYS the last one there! I'm sorry, girls. Despite my tardiness this morning, I promise I have gotten lots better than I used to be with my punctuality!



The splash park was super cute, and the kids loved it. I didn't take many pictures... mainly because I am figuring Carrie or Crystal will blog it and have better pics than I took....

Annabelle wasn't quite ready to get down on her own to splash, (even if she thought she was!). But, she had a great time watching the other kids run around and play in the water....

Annabelle & Momma splashing


This is Crystal's youngest, Wyatt.

He is so cute. He has the sweetest little eyes, and cheeks that just need pinching. He provided some serious entertainment, too...One time we looked up and he was standing with his swimming trunks pulled down fixing to go potty right there on the grass by the splash pad... It was hilarious...

Crystal's sister, Tania also came and it was good to get to finally meet Tania in person. We read each other's blogs, but hadn't ever met, even though we feel like we have...

Here's Miss Allie Claire...

And I finally let Belle sit on the ground (with Aunt Carrie close by)

Crystal also invited a few other friends and their kids... so we had quite the crew! The Mommas all just sat at the edge of the splash pad, talked and watched the little ones and passed out snacks and sippy cups... you know, typical momma stuff...

After about an hour of splashing, we decided it was time to get some lunch...

it's always fun to see old friends and make new ones...

Thanks for letting us tag along, girls! It was great....we'll do it again, soon! I promise to not be late next time! Well, I promise to TRY REALLY HARD not to be late!

~annie~

An Ag. Day

Thursday we did some serious hands-on 'field-tripping' outdoors....but I'll let Belle tell you about it....

Hey! It's Belle here....I'm not "reporting live from my Boppy Bouncer seat" anymore...in case you haven't heard, I'm crawling all over the place. Momma's having to chase me everywhere. It's so fun to hear her say, "No! No!" and I think I'm almost learning what it means...

Momma wanted me to tell about our big day last Thursday.

On Thursday morning, when I woke up

my Momma said that we were meeting my Grammy in Mexico for lunch. It's not really Mexico, but it's the mexican restaurant and we just call it that...My Grammy & Pop will love this picture of me, because they have pictures of my Momma just like this when she was a baby.... Anyway, we met Grammy in Mexico and then Mom & I dropped Daddy back off at the office. On our way out, we saw the horses tied up at the horse lot! They had saddles on them and that meant that Pappy & his crew had been working cows that morning....I've never been up close to a horse, so we decided to walk back there and see them. I was so excited! Daddy said he bet I'd love it if he took off on one of them... I wish he didn't have to go back to work, because I would have loved to see that... Momma, too! Since I loved the horses so much, Momma thought it was a good idea to take me home and change me into something that looked like a "cowgirl" and get her camera and go back to the horses and take pictures of me...

When we headed back home, we saw these little guys...

yep, the boys (and girls) are back in town! This was their first "meeting" down by the tree to make their plans. They heard Momma was dragging out her scarecrows soon and going to start putting up her fall decorations, so they're plotting how they're going to eat what's left of the scarecrows' arms and legs...I heard Momma say that they left her some "presents" on the drive-way, too, and she needed to get the shovel and scrape them off so our garage didn't stink. I don't really know what she meant....

When we got home, I had to take a nap because Momma said we had a big afternoon. We had to go to the lodge to help Pappy & Granny set up for a party. I love parties! My Pappy went to college in Georgia (NO WAY, not at UGA!) he went here:

and on Thursday night some nice people from the college drove down and Pappy had a dinner at the lodge for them and for some of the people around our area who went to college there, too!

Since the school colors are gold and green, I decided to wear a green bow. Here's my Daddy and me.

The whole family was helping and I wanted to do my part, too. Since I'm the youngest in the family, my job is to smile and look cute. Momma says I always do a good job at it. I try to please...

Momma says that we had an ag day for sure. Ag is short for agriculture, or so I hear. I don't really know what it means yet, but something tells me growing up where I live, I'm going to learn.... One thing's for sure, an ag day is a sure way to make me do this....
It was a fun day & I hope we get another ag day real soon. I hope next time we see those horses somebody will take me for a ride on one! I know it wont be my Momma, though....

Love,

Belle

First Comes Love...

Last week at Kelly's Korner, for Show us your Life Friday, it was baby showers....
But, before the baby carriage, comes the marriage... So this week, it's wedding showers.

I have no digital pictures of any of my wedding showers...geez, you'd think we got married in Bedrock or something... digital technology has come a long way in 6 years! Ha...

When DW and I got married we were so blessed to have several wonderful parties and showers to celebrate our marriage. We enjoyed every one of them!!! I wish I had some pictures of them to share....Since I don't, but I do love to host and entertain, I'll share some pics of a couple of the more recent showers I've helped plan and host....These were the three from last year....

We love to host couples' showers, so the groom can come, too---and they are typically a lawn/garden gift themed shower. Last year, we hosted, along with DW's brothers & their wives, a Couples Shower in honor of Sam & Marianne. I fell in love with these invitations....

and to match them, we did everything pink and green. These are the only pictures I have of the shower... I am beginning to see I am a terrible picture taker (unless it's of my children...ha)...

Drinks & Desserts (no pics of the real food, though?!?!?)

We have a sunroom on the back of our house, and we had tables set up in it for the shower... We played the Newlywed Game and it was hilarious...

For favors, we tied seed packets onto garden shovels and everyone grabbed one on their way out....

The other 2 showers I did last year, were lingerie showers... so much fun... The first was for my sister-in-law, who also happens to be one of my BFFs! I'd gotten the idea for a monogram shower out of the Southern Lady magazine, and had been dying to host one for quite some time...so as soon as Adam popped the question, I knew Lauren had to have one! It was so fun to do the monogram/lingerie theme...I wish I had saved one of the invitations... the guests either brought something with Lauren's new monogram on it or lingerie or both... everyone came up with really cute stuff and it was really a fun night...

I had to email Lauren to get some pics of the shower, because I had NONE. I can't believe that....

For food---lots of sweets, all kinds of different pink candies, fruit and some salty snacks...

Instead of a cake, we did chocolate cupcakes with pink icing & served them on a 3-tier server, each tier had one of Lauren's initials on it...

For decorations, we hung Lauren's initials on the three pendant lights above my bar (which I don't have a pic of) and used lots of black and hot pink fabric & tulle. I even found hot pink roses at Fresh Market. (I don't know why this pic is black and white?)
I ordered monogrammed napkins....
We played a "Guess Who" game...guests were asked to bring a pair of panties to hang on the panty line and Lauren had to guess who brought which pair....it served as decoration, too... Ha.. Lauren (before the line was full)...

Favors were heart shaped soaps tied up with black/pink ribbon...

The monogram/lingerie shower turned out so good, that we couldn't not do the same theme for my cousin, Stephanie who was getting married 4 months later!!! Steph's shower was in July at my cousin's house in Georgia. Oh my gosh did we have a great night... We started the evening in Krissy's basement (she has a fully finished basement) where we had tables and chairs set up and my Aunt had decorated so nice---we had dinner there, then the party moved up stairs...

We'd decorated upstairs with black and hot pink... and of course used Steph's initials (and soon to be initial) on everything... We hung her new initials above the bar & above the food table...

We did the "Guess Who" panty line, too....

Like I said last week, showers are so much fun... nothing like celebrating such an awesome time with those you love!

For more showers you can visit Kelly's Korner....

Have a great weekend!

~annie~

The Countdown....

Linking this to an older post for Kelly's Korner's Show us Your Life "Favorite Teams"...

It's official....Summer is coming to a close around here. But, it's not seen in cooler temperatures, or school buses, or shorter days...Nope, in our family, the seasons are marked something like this:

Football season, Christmas, & Beach season...

Christmas time is my most favorite time of the year, so of course it gets it's own "season"...and once March gets here, we're all ready for the beach...our family spends a lot of time in the sun and in the water (be it the pool, on the beach, or at the river) all season from March until September... but by mid-August, these boys around here are thinking of only ONE thing... Florida football. The countdown begins and we all wait anxiously for the first game of the season.
When we found out that Annabelle was a girl, one of the first things her Daddy bought her was some Gator apparel and her UF Cheerleader doll, whom we named "Georgia." We still say that never has Georgia looked so good than dressed in orange & blue...ha... Annabelle was also gifted many cute Gator "things" from sweet family and friends, but they're all still too big for her...., so, a couple weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to go up to the stadium and see if the Gator sport shop was open so we could get her ready for football season. When we got to there, the Gator Shop was closed, but we decided since we were already there to walk around...

We took Miss Belle on her first trip to the stadium (she's already been on campus a few months ago...Daddy was quite proud to show his girl his alma mater)

DW & Belle on UF campus, in front of the College of Business

On that day's tour of the stadium, Devin showed her the gate that we go in for the games,

and we even took her up to the seats that four generations of her family before her have enjoyed the games in.

Football has rich traditions and deep roots in the south, but in DW's family as well... I love that... I love that Belle's great-great grandfather, her great-grandaddy, her Pappy, and her Daddy have all sat in those very seats to watch the Gators play.

DW doesn't miss a game. (He missed the first game he's missed since he was like 12 years old or something crazy like that, last year for my cousin Stephanie's wedding... the Gators LOST and so it's STILL a sore subject... that's LOVE, let me tell you, for him to miss a game! When we started dating, and getting serious, I knew he REALLY loved me when he told me that he "loved me more than the Gators"... ha... but, when he proposed he made sure to let me know that our wedding could not be during football season!).... The guys in this family are serious about some football... I love watching the games with them...and although I wouldn't want to go to all of them, it's fun for me to go to some of them...

On her first trip to the stadium, we took Belle to the tunnel where the Gators come out of the locker room,
and showed her all the National Championships that they've won....(we're certainly hoping for another one this year!)....

On our way out of the stadium, we stopped by the Bull Gator statue, where DW showed Belle her Great-Great Grandfather's name on the side.....

While taking these pictures, we couldn't believe that Annabelle didn't have her orange and blue on. That inspired a trip right then to the mall to Gator Mania... that's where we found little miss her adorable cheerleader uniform..... which of course, inspired a photo shoot that very afternoon at our house...

(the pics from yesterday's Wordless Wednesday are from that)...

After seeing how cute she was in the uniform, we had to take her back to Florida Field for pics in her new outfit!!!

We went back to the stadium later that week....when we got to there it had just finished raining, and there was a rainbow that arched right over the "This is Gator Country" on the wall... is this not the neatest?!?!?

We took Belle on the field again, and in these pics she is sitting right where the field goal post goes... I told her she was walking right where Timmy Tebow stands.... she got REAL excited... ha! :)

With Daddy on the field...

And while we were taking pictures, I heard, "Hey Annie!"--- we looked up and a friend I went to school with was running at the stadium and saw us come in and offered to take a picture of all of us... how sweet of her!!

That evening, I know, was fun for DW...we got in the truck to come home and he looked at me with the biggest smile and said he was "ready for some football!"... to which I wanted to start singing some Hank, Jr., but for the sake of my pride, I restrained...

9 days until the season starts---and we're all three ready & waiting....

~amw~

Wordless Wednesday

I've got some words, but will post them tomorrow! :)

Happy Wednesday-

~amw~