Ooh la la..

Our fancy Caroline turned 5! I still cannot believe I have a 5 year old... wasn't it just yesterday she was learning to walk? Time needs to slow down. If you know Caroline at all, you know that her birthday is a BIG deal. She anticipates this day all year long. She is already talking about her 6th birthday. She went back and forth on birthday theme ideas and finally decided on Fancy Nancy. I was a tad excited too... we have been making and getting together every fancy thing we can find. I truly LOVE to plan parties and it is starting to rub off on Caroline. She came up with some great ideas for her party and helped me make everything. You have no idea how happy it makes me to have a little Martha that loves crafts. We set up an accessories table for the girls to come in and get glamorous. They accessorized with boas, stick on earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces. The girls then went to make a "haute hat". The decorated with flowers and jewels... every girl needs a fancy hat. Then it was off to a tea party. I think this was Caroline's favorite part. She loved the idea of having the table set with little white gloves at each place setting. The girls had tea sandwiches, fruit kabobs, chips, chocolate covered pretzels and pink lemonade served in a fancy glass (of course). The adults had my moms awesome chicken salad sandwiches. After lunch, the girls made ice cream parfaits and we celebrate by singing to Caroline. She loved that part. I think the favorite activity of the day was stuffing the pink posh poodles. The girls had to add the stuffing, add a wishing heart, decorate a t-shirt for their puppy, add a collar, give the poodle a name (Caroline named hers Sally) and then top the poodle off with a tutu. They were SUPER cute and all the kids got to leave with a memory from her party. I could not be more proud of my sweet Caroline... she truly is one of the sweetest and fanciest girls I know. Happy 5th birthday, Caroline Elizabeth!

Family Vacay

Get your popcorn ready, there are a TON of pictures from our trip to Gulf Shores. I took 890 pictures and had a terrible time narrowing them down because I love each one. We loaded up the Sunday after Caroline's Fancy Nancy birthday party (that post will come) and hit the road to Gulf Shores. We decided to break up the drive and stop in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The girls were awesome in the car to and from the beach. My parents let either Reese or Caroline ride with them which was wonderful. In Vicksburg, we visited the battlegrounds and played at the park to keep the girls busy. We also stopped in Monroe to visit the Duck Commander because Steve is pretty much obsessed with the show. The got to Gulf Shores on Monday and stayed an entire week. We rented a house directly on the sand... it was beautiful. It is so nice to be directly on the beach with the kids. It makes lugging toys, umbrellas, etc... that much easier. One of Caroline's favorite things about the house was the bunk beds. She got to sleep on the top bunk while Reese slept on the bottom bunk, they were so cute. I cannot tell you how much FUN the girls had. We built sand castles, dug holes, turned Caroline into a mermaid, made a sand alligator, sand snowman, went boogie boarding, saw crabs, jelly fish, stingrays, went for walks, swam in the pool, had evening adventures and made alot of great memories. Uncle "B" played non-stop and made all sort of sand creations. Our girls truly adore him and fight for his attention. I'm not sure what he is going to do when Allie is in the mix too... I can already see one on each hip and one on his shoulders. Aunt Peggy flew in Tuesday and stayed with us all week too... what a treat. We love spending time with her and so happy she was able to come. One of the highlights of the week was a show put on over the ocean by the Blue Angels everyday. They would fly over and do all sorts of tricks. Reese loved watching the planes. We went bumper boating and go karting several times. My mom and I were bumper boats pros.. I laughed so hard the entire time I had tears rolling down my face. Caroline go to drive a go kart by herself.. we were all shocked that she drove and steered without any help. Uncle "B", Grandad and I all took Caroline in the fast go karts and she absolutely loved it. Steve took Reese and that was a sight to see... Reese was laid back with her arm out the side of the go kart and her curls just blowing. Reese and Caroline will both ride anything, we love that! We also got to celebrate our BIG 5 year old. I still cannot believe Caroline is 5. We had a great day celebrating her birthday at the beach. We went on a dolphin boat ride... it was absolutely amazing to watch them jump out of the water and be so close. Allie also turned 4 months old. She was an absolute trooper. She was so happy and just went along with everything we did. We packed so much into our week at the beach, it was one of the best trips I have been on. Plus, I got to go boogie boarding with my dad which I haven't done in YEARS! Lots of laughs, good food and nothing better than spending time with my family. Thank you Mom, Dad, Uncle "B" and Aunt Peggy for an amazing trip. We can't wait to go back.