The Year of the Flower Girl

Isabelle is now a professional Flower Girl! She was in 3 different weddings over the past couple of months. She practiced her flower girl walk for almost a year leading up to all the weddings and was so excited. Fortunately for my bank account, she was able to wear one of her flower girl dresses twice! Unfortunately for my bank account, the dress she wore for only one of the weddings ended up costing me double because the original size I ordered was too big and then when I ordered a smaller size and tried to return the first one they wouldn't honor their return policy and I was only going to get about half of my money back, so I ended up having two dresses for the 1 wedding. Hopefully in a year or so she will fit in the bigger dress and Anya will fit in the smaller dress.

The first wedding was for one of my best friends from high school, Brad and his new wife Liz. They have been together longer than Charles and I so this was a much anticipated wedding. Isabelle adores Brad and Liz, so it was really special for her to be in their wedding. Charles and Brad have become good friends over the year so he was a groomsman in the wedding.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful. The ceremony was held on a golf course and then the reception followed inside in the country club. The weather was great and everything went perfectly.

Ready to walk. They were quite the pair.

The Smilebooth at the reception was a big hit!

The day before the wedding they had the rehearsal. The kids were so cute practicing together. They went from walking nice to running down the aisle together.

They decided they were done practicing and started to take off.

At rehearsal dinner

We are so happy for Brad and Liz. They are such a wonderful couple and they are perfect for each other.

Soccer

Isabelle played her first season of soccer this Spring. We signed up for a team through the YMCA with her best friend Addi and thought it would be fun for the girls. Isabelle was so excited to start playing. We went out and got her a pink soccer ball and started practicing every day for a few weeks before the season started, she looked like a natural. Then the season started...

Isabelle was so excited for the first game. She was determined to kick the ball and get it in the goal.

Then came our first obstacle...she couldn't use her pink ball. Why did I have to buy her a pink ball??? She had a complete melt down. When we finally got her out on the field she had the ball and someone took it away....obstacle #2- you don't share in soccer. Isabelle just couldn't understand why people would take the ball away from her when it was her turn. Obstacle #3- kids would run right into her and not say sorry. Yes in soccer you don't stop to say sorry. It didn't help that Isabelle was the shortest one on her team and usually one of the shortest and youngest on the field. Each week before the game she said she was going to play and kick the ball and not cry. She would go into the huddles with her team and be all ready but then we kept running into the same obstacles. Would this ever work?

Typical scene of me trying to get Isabelle out on the field as she cries from the sidelines.

Erin and Marc came to watch Isabelle play, but saw more tears than playing. Anya liked coming to Isabelle's games. Fortunately she hadn't started walking yet so I didn't have to worry about her trying to run into the field.

We kept hoping that Isabelle would see Addi playing and want to play like her.

After about 4 weeks of tears, I decided to try a new approach. I took Isabelle to the store and let her pick out a toy. I told her if she played her soccer game that week and didn't cry at all that I would give her the toy. Yes, I bribed her! Some may frown on that, but at this point I was willing to try anything. That Saturday we went to her game. She watched me bring the toy with us and put it in the stroller, still in its packaging. She went in the huddle with the team and then went out on the field to play. And she played! It was like she was a completely different child. She kept looking over at me so proud that she was playing and saying "I'm doing it Mama." At the end of the game she came over and said "now can I have my toy?" Of course! I was one proud Mama. The next week I was a little concerned that she wouldn't play if I didn't get her a toy so we went out again and picked out another toy and went through the same process. Sure enough she played again. This continued for a couple weeks till she was good and comfortable and playing. Now when I say she played, I don't mean she was suddenly making goals and kicking the ball a lot. In fact she hardly touched the ball, but she kept running up and down the field with the other kids following the ball. So there is still a lot of room for improvement, but at least she overcame her fear and her need for her pink ball. I'm proud of her!

Charles coached one week when Isabelle's coach was gone and helped out on the other weeks.

Coach Rob and the Rays!

Trophy Ceremony

Coach Rob with Isabelle and Addi. The kids loved their coach!

Looks of Awe!

We always love the 4th of July. I think my favorite part is watching the girls' faces during the fireworks. It is always a priceless moment.

Bummed the fireworks are over!

A Visit from Mamie!

We just had another wonderful visit from Charles' mom. She is always making an effort to come and visit. It means so much to us and it is so wonderful that she is able to have such a strong relationship with the girls with how far away she lives. While here she was a huge help, as always. I had a lot of wedding planning going on for Erin's wedding and she stepped right up to help me. She was able to be here for both Erin and Jessa's bridal showers. Unfortunately she already had her plane tickets when Erin and Marc picked the date for their wedding so she left the day before their wedding. While here Charles was able to take a week off work. One of those days we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom, one of my new favorites. We had a great day there full of fun.

My favorite thing at the Animal Kingdom is the Safari ride. It is so amazing. This time when we were passing the Lion it actually started to roar! Even though we were in a big jeep, I did get a little nervous. What a cool experience.

We are so glad we got to have such a wonderful visit with Mamie!

First Trip Away

Isabelle took her first trip away! My mom and Mikenzie were going up to visit Carol in Atlanta for the week and came by my house to pick something up on the way out of town. While at my house they asked Isabelle if she wanted to go with them to see her cousins. Isabelle immediately said yes and I started to panic. My little girl hadn't been away from both Charles and me for more than a night and that had only happened twice. Once when I was in the hospital having Anya and the other time she went to my dad's for a night, again with all her cousins. I explained to her that she wouldn't be able to see me for a lot of days, but she was okay with that. I was now really starting to panic. I told my mom I would have to call Charles and ask him. I thought for sure he would say no... au contraire.. he said he thought it was a great idea, that it would be a great experience for Isabelle and that she would have so much fun playing with her cousins. I couldn't believe he was saying yes. By this point Isabelle was upstairs packing her suitcase. I went upstairs to help her and felt like a zombie, like I was just going through the motions. Still in shock. A few minutes later she was getting in the car. Everything happened so quickly. I only had a matter of maybe 20 minutes at most to get used to the idea of her leaving me. As they drove off I cried like a baby. I missed her the whole week. Each time I would look in her room and she wasn't there I just felt an emptiness. Anya missed her too, she would look all over for her. At night Isabelle would call and have me sing her songs to her before she went to bed. That made me feel better, like she still needed me. Isabelle did great while she was away. They had a great time playing with all the cousins and going to the Aquarium. By the last day she was ready to come home. I watched at the window the last few minutes till they drove in the driveway. What a feeling of relief, it was so wonderful to see her.

My sister Ashley drove to Atlanta from SC with her boys to spend a day with everyone.

Crepes!

One of our favorite family traditions is Saturday morning crepes. We often have a house full of guests for Charles' delicious crepes!