Hayes' 3rd birthday and our "tin anniversary"

I cannot believe it has been 3 years since the birth of our sweet baby Hayes! She has grown into such a sweet, sassy, dramatic, sensitive little girl with the silliest sense of humor. She is tall and skinny (81st percentile for height and 37th for weight) and she loves to try new things......especially new foods! Her favorite thing to eat is any kind of meat and all things chocolate. She wants to do EVERYTHING her big brother does but is such a girly girl too! She loves to dress up like a ballerina or princess, carries her purse with her everywhere, and feels naked without lip gloss. Lord help us!

We celebrated her 3rd birthday with a party at The Village Toymaker and it turned out just as we had hoped.....sweet, simple, and fun with LOTS of pink!

Hayes and her friends made pirate and princess masks, got tattoos and their nails painted, and ate yummy cake and ice cream.

As for Gray, he has been busy getting too big for his britches. He just finished his first week of Vacation Bible School at our new church and after the first day, he was already preaching to me. Me: Mumbling some typical rant about not being able to find something and being late for school AGAIN.... Gray: "Leave it with God, Mom". Me: "Word."

He also had his second year of swim lessons and I am happy to report that he is now far beyond the "shark teenager" he proclaimed himself to be last year....he is swimming like a full-fledged shark! He is jumping off of the diving board, swimming to us every chance he gets, and completely resisting his puddle jumper. In true Hazey fashion, his little sister is not far behind him, even though this was her first year at swim lessons. I'm so glad we did them again and as always, it was fun to do it with fun friends!

Being the avid Grouponer that I am, I took advantage of a "great" deal for four so that the kids could have their first experience at the circus. With no elephant, tiger, lion, trapeze, or tight rope, I'd hardly call it a circus (a rodeo at best), but the kids didn't know the difference and they sat still as statues through the whole thing. Okay, okay, it may have been the cotton candy.....

Some anniversaries promise gifts of silver, some of gold, some of crystal or pearl. Hey, I'd happily settle for the gift of wine, though I doubt I'll make it to our 85th year of marriage (we'd be be 107!!). But alas, the prescribed gift for our 10th anniversary this June was tin. I tried to think of a clever gift comprised of the cheap, flimsy substance, but I came up with nothing. Instead, we decided to celebrate this milestone with a trip to a familiar, relaxing and beautiful spot....The Grand Hotel in Fairhope, Alabama. We dropped the kids off at my parents and headed east a bit to spend a few days together sans kids. It was the first time we had been without them for more than a night in almost 2 years and I can't tell you how much it was needed. While the kids were at "Camp P and Pop", we slept in, lounged by the pool, meandered around the town with no purpose at all, and ate fabulous food at some of our favorite restaurants (new and old!). We even met up with some old friends for a fun night of dinner and laughter.

But most of all, we strolled through the memories of our last 10 years together and all that we had seen and done......four moves, 2 kids, new jobs and promotions, new churches, new neighborhoods, new friends, old friends moving away, exciting trips, some challenges (of course), but most of all, LOTS of love and laughter! Here's to another 10 years, WAP!