Hot Air Balloon Festival at Callaway

Photo courtesy of www.callawaygardens.com

Donald and I took the girls to see the Sky High Hot Air Balloon Festival at Callaway Gardens this year. We've never been before but think we'll add it to our yearly to-do list now that we've experienced it. I don't think I've ever been that close to a hot air balloon before. We had a picnic on the lawn while watching braver park visitors take tethered rides in the balloons. Then we headed over for some miniature golf and spider jumping before the big balloon glow at dusk. Seeing so many balloons lit up around the beach was spectacular! Our pictures just don't do it justice. I borrowed the picture at the top from Callaway's website because it does a better job of showing the balloons at night.  Who knows...perhaps we'll even go for a ride next year!

 

Enjoying a litle dinner and people watching

Check out that cool hairdo - that's a new style we've been practicing

Thanks to Emily, we have a shot of the two of us!

First launch!

Don't worry - they're just posing.  There was no balloon attached to the basket!

Best seat in the house!

A little putt-putt before the big show begins

Both girls have mastered the back flip on the spider jump!

It was amazing - you could feel the heat all over the beach from all of the balloons!

The Harley Davidson balloon was really dramatic when it was all lit up.

Happy birthday - Part two

A few years ago, we put in place the tradition of having Chinese food with our closest family and friends to celebrate Emily's birthday.  We always have the "kid" party (see sprinkler post below), but we also have a family get together at her favorite restaurant.  This year we had a delicious dinner and were served by Emily's favorite waitress.  The entire staff stopped by the table to visit and wish her a happy birthday.  They all commented that they had watched her grow up through the years - very sweet!  They even dug up a 7th birthday candle to present her with her celebratory orange.  We also feasted on another birthday tradition - Krispy Kreme doughnuts!  We make a special trip each year to pick up doughnuts for Emily's party.  This year two dozen were sent to her classroom to share at snack time because the Kona Ice truck came to her birthday party.  I know her teacher was thrilled this year.  Emily actually shares a birthday with another student, which meant there were doughnuts for snacktime and cupcakes for lunch from the other family.  Just imagine - 22 sugared up 7 year olds all packed into one classroom!  We couldn't resist picking up a couple dozen more Krispy Kremes to share at dinner with our family.  It was lots of fun watching our sweet girl open her birthday gifts.  When we asked her later which gift was her favorite, she replied, "All of them!  I couldn't pick a favorite!"  Well played, Emily!

A few presents before school

Johnny loves to eat paper - and plastic, unfortunately.

My big girl!

A sassy birthday outfit. Thanks to Mimi for the leopard leggings!

Waiting for dinner to arrive

Loving on Boo.  Aunt Liz also gave her a DreamLite - you should see the cats chase that image across the ceiling at night!

Checking out her new jewels from Amy and Lane.  Can you tell she loves bracelets?

I love this expression.  We went in with the grandparents to buy Emily an iPod touch.  She has carried it with her everywhere since she opened it.

Luckily, Donald preloaded it with her favorite apps and songs.

Love Aunt Liz!

Hugs from Cici, Granddaddy, and David before they head home

Opening presents with Nanny

 

Birthday photo shoot

When I made Emily's birthday invitation, I wanted to include a picture of her but realized that I didn't have a bathing suit picture of her where she's wearing a one piece suit.  Including a bikini picture on a 7 year old's party invitation seemed a little risque to me, so we staged a photo shoot in the front yard and churned out some very cute (and modest!) bathing suit pictures to include on her invite.  They all came out so cute that I thought I'd share a few with you.  Happy (end of) summer!

Happy birthday!

Em's birthday is technically not for another week, but we like to celebrate the week before because so many people make plans for Labor Day.  This year, we celebrated with a water-themed party in the backyard.  Ten giggly girls descended on our house this weekend and spent two hours chasing each other around the yard with water guns and having different kinds of water relays.  They were so cute to watch!  Instead of the traditional doughnuts we always have on E's birthday, we had the Kona Ice truck visit our house during her party.  I can't tell you how great this was! The truck arrives loaded with forty flavors of syrup and he allows the girls to design their own shaved ice.  They danced around on the driveway trying out every syrup on the truck and dancing to steel drum music before hitting the back yard again to finish out their water attacks on each other.  Emily was so tired after everyone left that she slept for two hours!  She is downstairs right now sifting through all of her birthday loot.  It's so funny to realize that the other girls really know her personality.  Their gifts reflected it - lots of friendship bracelet kits and peace sign paraphernalia.  One girl even said, "Everyone knows that Emily loves peace."  It's wonderful to see that she's making such great friends.  Some of my best friends are girls I met in elementary school and I hope that she's building those same kinds of friendships right now.  Happy birthday to our big girl! 

Presents first seemed like a good idea - before they all got soaking wet!

Craft time is the right time.

Cute cousins on a very fantastic picnic blanket

One of my favorite pictures - I just didn't manage to get Emily in it!

The ice man cometh!

Tough decisions

That's my kid in the bucket.

And now...nap time! (for both of us)

Welcome to second grade!

Can you believe it?  Emily is a second grader!  She started the year with a bang...and a fantastic outfit.  Who could help having a great first day of school when you're wearing sequins, peace signs, and zebra print?  We're very excited that Emily has Ms. Byrd for a teacher this year and that she's in a classroom with so many of her friends.  We're looking forward to learning all kinds of great things.  Another big bonus - she's only about ten steps away from the library!  If you headed back to school this week, I hope your first week went well!  Goodbye summer...but at least that means fall is right around the corner!

Twas the night before school - this is how she got ready for bed.

We always take a picture with Curious George on the first day of school!

Olympics...Barbie-Style!

Today Emily and I staged an equestrian competition using Barbies (and other Barbie look-a-likes that were floating around the playroom).  It was a smashing good time!  Barbie took gold in all of the jumps because the Loving Family kept coming unseated from their mounts.  Take a look at the stylish wardrobe of the audience - most of these Barbies were mine and so are sporting some cool vintage duds.  Hope you're enjoying the Olympics as much as we are!

Barbie and the Loving Family are ready to go!

These jumps look particularly challenging today

The audience is enthralled by all of the action on the race course.

We discovered this severed head floating in the Barbie drawer and decided to give her a hat as we couldn't give her an entire outfit.  We gave her a seat down front so that she could see everything.

Come to our Lemonade Stand!

Just look for the yellow signs!

Emily has begged all summer to do a lemonade stand and we're squeaking it in at the very last minute.  Come out and visit us this Saturday, August 4th, between 1:00 and 3:00 at the White House.  Emily has decided that she wants to donate all of the money she raises to RescueCats, a wonderful no-kill rescue and adoption agency in Fayetteville.  Our lovely boys, John and Ringo, were adopted through them. So proud of my little humanitarian!  Hope you can stop by to visit us, have a cool drink, and support a great organization this Saturday!

Ladybug Pool Party

Emily and I had a great time today at our annual ladybug luncheon.  The moms had so much fun catching up and telling stories while the seven little ones had an even better time swimming away the afternoon.  It's so wonderful to think that we all grew up together and now our children are playing together, too.  We need to do this more often, ladies!

These are the only two pictures I could get.  They were in constant motion all afternoon!

And now for a silly pic...