hay ride

The finale of the party was the hayride. Remember this was a camping themed party.

Mikey's step-dad Gary brought the trailer, and the big strong truck, and we were off!

We had that thing packed to the brim. About 1/5 of the way into the trip, we picked up Ava Claire's new-found stray, Chocolate Puddintain (Yes, that's what she named him), and he rode all the way home sitting in Regina's lap. It was hilarious!

An awesome to end the party!
Who said Hayrides are reserved for Ho-downs and Halloween?

presents

These are some pictures of Huett's party presents!

He got a ton, as usual. Many of which are still being dispersed to this day.

His Maw Maw, Gary, and his Aunt Shell bought him a Mustang Convertible. He asked for it months ago, and knew it was coming for his birthday. I guess he forgot b/c when he opened his eyes and saw it, he was so excited that he got embarassed. He came and laid his head down on me, and I told him he needed to go hug them, because they are the ones that bought it for him.



He immediatly got in the driver's seat, and we piled the other boys in.


He just kept wanting to kiss all of us. It was so funny! That's not the reaction I was expecting. When he got down out of my lap, he went up to Sam and did the same thing he is doing to Charlie in this picture.

It's like he was excited for all of them, not just himself.

Such a good big brother!

Charlie was loving the sweet ride!

Isn't that a sweet ride?

Yet another pinnacle moment of this five year old's birthday!

water balloons

So, it's been a few days since I've posted, and I have good reason. Trust me, when what I've got going on right now settles down, I'll tell you all the details. Right now, though, I'm stressed, and it sucks!

Onto happier times. At Huett's party, we had one awesome water balloon fight.

I don't know where he ever heard of water balloons, but he'd been asking for them for several weeks prior to his party. So, imagine his surprise when he was introduced to an entire garbage can completely full of little water balloons!!


I absolutely love men with little girls (it doesn't take much for this sentence to head in the wrong direction, but don't let it, you perverts!) Anyway, I just love the way they are looking down at her like they are going to rush in and do whatever she's asking. Too cute!



Anyway, it didn't take long for the kids to start attacking one another!




Even the little ones got in on the action!



The more they threw out of the garbage can, the deeper they had to reach in to get them. That got pretty interesting because none of them were very tall.

Cocked, locked and ready!

Ava gave up on throwing the balloons, and resorted to crushing them over people's heads.

She had it down to a pretty exact method. And, I think she successfully soaked more people than anyone else, so she gets points for being resourceful.

Seriously, he had the best time, ever!

Sam and Huett were kinda teamed up, going after people together. It gave me a glimpse of what they are like on the playground. Every time I go to pick them up at school, they are together playing on the playground. I guess they'll stick together, and this was good proof!

Not sure who they were after, but this is a perfect example! Somebody was going down at the hands of the Hill brothers. Well, two of them at least!

I don't know who his aim was set on in this picture.

The adults all got a good laugh out of watching the kids try to attack each other!

He was coming after Mikey and me. Good thing he didn't fire that shot.

The water balloon fight was all thanks to us.

Just two solid hours of filling up and tying 100 water balloons in the 90 degree heat, at the expense of our fingernails, were totally worth it.

No doubt, this was another one of the highlights of the party!
Huett's a mean little stinker. He keeps rubbing it in Sam's face that he can't have water balloons at his birthday party because it will be too cold outside.

Oh, brother!

Fifth Birthday Bash!!

Huett's big party was last weekend, and can I just say, it was better than I could've imagined!

We've planned a lot of big birthday parties for Huett over the years...there was the

Giant Water Slide, the super-hero party, and two pool parties, but this one far exceeded the others!



It's not that I didn't do as much preparation, or have as much planned for the other parties, because, God knows I did. He is just getting to be such a big boy, and he was just in his element. There wasn't a single tear shed, which is a big deal for him, especially when he is the center of attention!



The turn out was great and most of our friends and family were able to attend!



Some friends that had been meaning to attend for years but hadn't been able to for one reason or another!
My friend Brooke from work brought her son Drew, and daughter Abby. Oh, yeah...and her husband, too!

Of course, Ava Claire was there to celebrate!

Charlie

(feeling okay despite having surgery that morning--relax, it was just tubes in his ears)
and his aunt Shell!

Alex and Christina (wow she looks just like her daddy)!

AmIright??

As you all know,the theme was camping, and there was much fun to be had inside the tents!

We had a good crowd! I'd say fifty or sixty people!

Archer roved the yard all day long, getting into a variety of different things, but still having a blast!

Harper is one of the cutest red-heads I've ever seen, but she gets some heavy competition from her big sister Henley, who is so. stinkin. pretty.(and has red hair to die for)

Oh what a pair. I can only imagine what these two will get into one day. It makes my head hurt!

Huett, and Lilly Rylan, one of his pre-school mates! She comes to all the parties, and we're glad she does! The boys were oh, so excited when she showed up. Huett really wanted his friends from school to come, and he kept asking if they were. Hopefully when he starts real school, more of his actual friends from school will be able to come because he would just be so excited about that!

This is Briley, one of my best friends from high schools little girl!

There were tons of "little kids" as Huett would call them, at the party! Let's face it, Mikey and I got a jump-start on most of our friends, so there aren't many with five year olds. Most of them are just getting started! I was still so happy to have the "little kids" there!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S! She is beyond cute to me!

Wow, I need a little girl!

Snaggle Tooth hopped a ride on Ava, the work horse! HA! Fun!

Do I sense a love connection between these two? According to her mother, she was just bossing him around the whole time. I think he was just being a gentleman!

There's me, in action! Not something you get to see very often-if ever- on here!

Alex, again!

If her and Archer got together in, oh, say thirty years,

I'd love to see how blue their kids' eyes would turn out!

Huett had such a great time at his birthday party, I'm overwhelmed just thinking about what I'll have to do to top it!

Well, I guess I better get on it because Charlie turns one September 4th!

Gotta go brainstorm some ideas for another bash!

Wish Me luck!

Sew Gran'd

I just updated my mom's embroidery blog with some new designs, so you should ALL check it out!
Keep in mind that she has hundreds of different designs to choose from, so just because you don't see it on her blog, that doesn't mean she can't do it! If you have an idea, let her know and she can probably make it happen! GO visit her here!!

Character Strengths

Today, as I was sitting at work between deliveries, I was reading a blog that I LOVE by a local girl that I have never met, yet feel like I know, through reading her blog. You should all check it out because I love her (is it weird that I feel like I know her well, yet she doesn't even know I exist?). Anyway, she did a survey that lists your character strengths, and posted a link to it. So, of course I took the assessment myself. After answering 240...yes, TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY questions, it tells you your top five character strengths.

Mine were:

.

Top Strength,

Humor and Playfulness:

You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

.

Second Strength,

Perspective (Wisdom):

Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.

.

Third Strength,

Social Intelligence:

You are aware of the motives and feelings of other people. You know what to do to fit in to different social situations, and you know what to do to put others at ease.

.

Fourth Strength,

Capacity to love and be loved:

You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you.

.

Fifth Strength,

Hope, optimism, and future-mindedness:

You expect the best in the future, and you work to achieve it. You believe that the future is something that you can control.

I feel like these are pretty true to form, and accurate for the most part. What do you guys think?? If you do the survey yourself (there are several others on the site, too), comment and tell me what your strengths were!

Click here to access the site! You'll have to register first, but it only takes a second! Happy questioning!

balloons

So, I've always been the kinda girl who loves balloons at a birthday party. The more, the merrier! So, Huett's birthday was no exception. I bought 25 red, 25 white, and 25 blue helium quality balloons at Hobby Lobby. The morning of the party, I took them to Wal-Mart to have them blown up.

In case you didn't know, it only costs $0.25 per balloon to have them blown up, and tied, and they even provide the ribbon. That is way cheaper than the ridiculous helium tanks you buy individually from Wal-Mart for $30 that only inflate like thirty balloons.

And those tanks are so wasteful, too, because you just throw them away.

Anyway, we went to pick them up just an hour before the party started.

Like I said, I always get balloons for parties that I throw. Well, this time, right when I walked out the door of the store, a huge gust of wind blew up and the three separate bundles of balloons got completely intertwined. My plan to put some in our car and some in Mikey's aunt Michelle's car went out the window.

It was here when I realized what was going to have to happen.
Yep, this is exactly what you think it is. Mikey took one for the team (more specifically, for me), and rode in the back of the truck, holding these balloons, all the way to my parent's house.


He held the balloons tight, thinking he was hiding from the other drivers, but everybody who's anybody knows he drives that truck. So, no hiding the fact that if I'm behind the wheel, then he's behind the balloons!
The boys got a HUGE kick out of that, too!

Anyway, we were cutting it close at this point, so we dropped the boys and the balloons off at my parent's house, and that was my first mistake!

Mikey and I rushed home to change clothes.
Our game plan was to rush back to mom's, change the boys' clothes, and distribute the 75 balloons at the subdivision entrance, the mailbox, on the hayride trailer, and around the tables.
Upon arrival at moms, we rushed out of the truck to get the balloons when I was approached by my sister. She said, "You need to go talk to Sam." I was confused by her somber expression and didn't really understand what she meant. I said, "about what?" She said, "the balloons!"
Long story short, somehow, amidst all the adults that were around my parents house, Sam managed ( with Ava Claire's help I'm told) to get 75... count 'em
Seventy-Five
balloons and release them into the clear blue sky!
I was shocked...and Mikey was disgusted. But there was no time to dwell on it, so I made lemons into lemonade. After the party I told Sam, "If you wanted Papa Hill and Popeye to know about the party, we could've just sent up a few balloons, but I bet they had one big birthday party in the sky with all seventy five of Huett's birthday balloons!

...KIDS

There's a party in my tummy...so yummy so yummy!

I debated about where to get Huett's birthday cake for a while. I wanted to order locally to prevent myself from having to traipse all the way to Birmingham the day of the party. Then before I had made a decision, I found out Charlie was getting tubes in his ear on the morning of the party, so Mikey and I were all going to be in Birmingham. That's what sealed my decision!

We ordered Huett's 2nd birthday cake from Olexa's Cafe in downtown Homewood after I saw the cake in Birmingham Baby Magazine. I was told that it was the most delicious cake EVAH by numerous party attendees, so delicious, might I add, that I never got to taste it because it was gone! Well, I've also always been in charge of Ava Claire's birthday cakes (what can I say? Cute cakes are kinda my thing) so when her 2nd birthday followed in September, I ordered her cake from there. It WAS delicious, just like everyone said it would be! Anyway, the years after that, I ventured out and tried different bakeries (Charlsie's in Gardendale, Publix{I have a weakness for their whipped icing}, and Tater Jane's) and they were all great, making cute cakes (well, not Publix, so much, but Batman was what I needed and Publix had it so...) that tasted great. When I found out that we were going to be so close to Mountain Brook (he had his surgery at Children's South on Acton Road) there just was no other option!! I had to go back to Olexa's!!

The literal "icing on the cake"? They took Huett's invitations and personalized the cake to match! I knew I wanted a round cake, and I just loved how they put the decorations around the cake instead of on top!!

And the actual decorations were made of icing, too, which is another reason I love Olexa's!

Neither myself, or the boys are fond of fondant(haha!!) so I was glad to see that they could make cute detailed designs without using fondant!


Huett picked out the candles at Wal-Mart. Cute, huh? Anyway, this cake was so incredibly moist and delicious, you would swear that it had just been taken from the oven and cooled!

Olexa's specializes in the most amazing, beautiful wedding cakes. A friend of mine told me that if you lunch at Olexa's you can order a slice of wedding cake off the menu, and they bring it to you warm!! I cannot even imagine!

So, I know what some of you might be thinking. A whole post, just for the cake? Is that really necessary? Well, in my world it is. My mouth is watering just thinking about another slice of it. Maybe I should do a whole post about previous birthday cakes my sons and nieces and nephews have had...There have been some super cute ones!! I'll think about it!

More birthday posts to come!