Silver Queen

Are you enjoying the fresh corn right now? We sure are, and the best part is Anna Claire and Mallory are old enough to help shuck this summer...kind of.

Favorites...

...because I may want to remember this one day.

{I just found this draft from 3.20.10 that for some reason I never published. I was right; I do want to remember this stuff!}

 

• Favorite book - Goodnight, Gorilla!
• Favorite song - "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" as sung by the Fisher Price Little People on the Disco CD
• Favorite "show" - a toss up between the Corduroy, Goodnight, Gorilla!, and Little People DVDs
• Favorite color - blue; for Anna Claire, every color is blue (but we're working on that)
• Favorite lovie - Anna Claire: Monkey; Mallory: Corduroy
• Favorite food - any and all fruit, but particularly blueberries (thank goodness summer is coming)

So, here's the 6.11.12 version...more than two years later...

• Favorite book - too hard to choose just one, but tonight Anna Claire wanted a Princess and the Frog/Tiana story and Mallory wanted a Tangled/Rapunzel story
• Favorite song - another tough one but we mostly listen to Disney CDs in the car and lately we've been dancing to "I Like to Move It!"
• Favorite "show" - "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" {hands down}
• Favorite color - Anna Claire: purple or yellow, Mallory: pink
• Favorite lovie - Anna Claire: Monkey a.k.a. Curious George {because some things will never change}, Mallory: Lovie Bear
• Favorite food -  fruit is still high on the list as is corn on the cob and broccoli for fave veggies, but if given the choice, they'll go for the Happy Meal every time!

Beach Day

Last Friday we headed to Sullivan's Island for our first beach day of the summer. The weather was beautiful but the water was cold. Don't think that slowed down Anna Claire and Mallory for a second. They still love the beach and, as always, the water.

Happy Birthday, Great Grandmom

The day after the girls' birthday party, which was the girls' actual birthdate, we spent the day at the river celebrating Great-Grandmom's birthday!...

 ...and swimming in the river. I was a little nervous, but Anna Claire and Mallory are like little fishes ~ nothing to be {too} worried about!

 The day was beautiful and I hope we can get back down there soon!

Anna Claire and Mallory's Watermelon Picnic Party

We celebrated Anna Claire and Mallory's fourth birthday Saturday with a watermelon picnic party! We were blessed with beautiful {though warm} weather and lots of family and close friends were there to celebrate with us.

I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time playing in the back yard, but it sure did get hot quickly!

So, after singing "Happy Birthday" and having cake and {melted} ice cream, we moved inside to open presents.

It's always a goal of mine to do a better job of getting more pictures of family, but I don't think I did any better this year!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone for being so kind with your gift giving. The girls got books, puzzles, games, new beach chairs, cute outfits, and lots more! I'd say we're all set for a fun~filled summer!

 So, how does one pull together a watermelon picnic party? It all started with an applique'...

This watermelon wedge is one of the easiest applique' designs I've ever stitched, and Anna Claire and Mallory's seer-sucker jumpers, my first fully~lined jumper, was so easy to make. It's the Abigail jumper by Bonnie Blue, and I've already got plans to make two more {that would be four more!} for the girls for this summer! Oh, and we can't forget their new hair bows I made using my newly discovered hair~bow~making~method {so much easier}.

I was really lucky to find coordinating invitations, thank you notes, party favor tags, and banner from Tiger Lily Invitations on Etsy. Adorable!!!

We served a simple spread of crackers and cheese {which turned into fondue}, veggies and dip {which became a steamed veggie plate}, and a watermelon fruit basket carved by yours truly!



The cake{s}! My mom did it again making two two~layered pound cakes decorated like watermelons. So cute and so yummy {we are still eating leftover cake!}







 What's a picnic without lemonade?

I count myself lucky to have found these watermelon plates and napkins online; there's not a lot out there to choose from! And, do you see my ribbon topiary in the back ground? That's one of two I made for the girls. It looks a heck of a lot easier to make that it was {not sure I got enough bang for my buck there}.

Our party favors were little picnic baskets from A.C Moore. I cut out a piece of pink gingham check fabric with pinking sheers and tied on the tag with polka-dotted ribbon.

Inside was watermelon~ shaped and flavored candy

Like the tag says, to all of you who celebrated with us Saturday, thank you for making Anna Claire and Mallory's birthday so sweet! We love you all!!

Happy Birthday, Anna Claire and Mallory!

Today, Anna Claire and Mallory are four years old. Isn't that just unbelievable?

Yesterday, we partied picnic~style with a watermelon party ~ lots of details to come!

Happy birthday to our sweet, silly, smart, beautiful girls! We love you!

Memorial Day

Since our Mother's Day cook~out was a complete wash~out a few weeks ago, we thought we'd try again for Memorial Day, and what do you know? A tropical storm showed up. Between rain bands, though, the girls were able to get some swimming in. Too bad I wasn't able to get more pictures...trying to keep my camera dry was not easy!