Paisley Cowgirl Fun

For the first time, Helen Grace’s actual birthday fell on her party day this year. From the moment she woke up, she told anyone she saw (including random strangers), “I’m FOUR!,” and then proudly stuck her four little fingers out at them. We headed to Cedar Hill Farm bright and early to get ready for her paisley cowgirl party, complete with her pink cowgirl hat, pink cowgirl boots, and braid. {Notice the intentional cowgirl references. According to HG, it’s important to say cowgirl, not cowboy.} She has been wearing her boots around since the moment they arrived at our door, so she was thrilled to get to wear them to her party.

We were blessed with a beautiful day- sunny, breezy, and not a cloud in the sky- and we loved having the celebration at Cedar Hill Farm. The kids rode the train, rode a pony, petted the farm animals, watched the chicken show, and took a hayride, and then we all headed up to the loft for pizza, cake, and ice cream. After the party, we all headed to the playground, and the kids ran down the big, grassy hill, swung in the tire swing, bumped down the huge slide, and had a blast laughing together.

On the way home, she requested a strawberry milkshake, so we stopped at the Dip and indulged her. Shockingly, she didn’t pass out in the car, but she easily went down for a good nap when we got home and into ‘mommy’s bed.’ She opened the first half of her presents over the rest of the night, and her grandparents came over to watch the chaos. Right before bedtime, she decided that she wanted to have a slumber party at Spiffer and Granddaddy’s house. Sniff, sniff. I couldn’t talk her out of it, but hey, she’s the birthday girl- we do whatever she wants to do on May 25th (and honestly, most other days too)! So she went home with them, and thankfully, Granddaddy took a picture of her at 9:21 p.m. when she was officially four.

We love our little baby girl, and she makes our lives complete!

Again, the girl loves to be a hostess. And again, she wanted no singing.The tongue wag- like mother, like daughter. There were some ‘how many Delta Gammas does it take to cut a cake?’ comments being made at this point. But I sure was glad for some extra hands!

Since our trip to Disneyland, she has consistently asked for a bow and arrow set like Merida had in Brave. We were able to push it off until her birthday, but when she finally opened that bag from us, her face was priceless! We’ve been dodging flying arrows ever since! Other favorites were her first Bitty Baby (complete with diaper bag) from Spiffer/GD/Bubba and also Iron Man and talking Woody and Jessie (from Toy Story) from Grandma and Peggy.

9:21 p.m. on May 25, 2013

Ryves’ Med School Graduation

Thursday, we headed to Jackson to celebrate my cousin Ryves’ graduation from med school at UMC. Four years have flown by, and I could barely hold in the tears of pride and joy. Most of the time I don’t care if I embarrass Fuzzball, but this time, I tried to be on my best behavior. On Thursday night, I was able to attend his white coat ceremony and watch him put on that long white coat that he’s worked so hard to earn. And then on Friday morning, my parents and I cheered for him as he walked across the stage to receive his diploma and hood. The whole family celebrated with lunch at Julep afterward. Words cannot describe how proud we are of Ryves and how hard he’s worked to get to this point. No one deserves it more!

Ryves and Mary Chris recently told us that they are expecting a baby in November, and this weekend they revealed it’s a GIRL!!! Cheers all around! You should have seen Helen Grace’s big ole grin when Mary Chris told her!

Grabbing that diploma

While my parents and I were busy with graduation festivities, Aunt Glo and Grace Ann graciously kept up with Helen Grace. She was in HOG HEAVEN getting to hang out with them and followed them both around like a puppy.

Helen Grace took three days worth of swimming lessons from Melissa Brown this week at the Coats house (we missed the last half of the week because of our Jackson trip). Grandma took her the first two days, and she did great. No tears at all, and she was a pretty good sport. Not sure what happened, but when I took her on Wednesday, she LOST it during the middle of class. She did NOT want to put her face in the water, so when Ms. Melissa told her she had to and made her do it, she started screaming, “I want my mommy!” It was torture. She cried a little bit afterward and said she didn’t want to go back to our second session later in June, but when John asked her about it later that night and when others ask her about it since then, she says she loved it. I am so confused! But regardless, we were hoping that since Grace Ann is a swimmer, she could encourage her about learning to swim. They spent a good amount of time in Gloria’s pool, and HG went with her to swim practice too. Let’s hope we can get her ready and excited for round two of swim lessons!

Literally attached to Glo’s leg while she and GA got ready Friday morning HG wasn’t happy when we showed up on Friday afternoon and told her it was time to go back home.