Farm P-A-R-T-Y

Mr. Talkative, Ford, turned 5 on May 1, and about lunchtime on that day he started asking if his friends were coming to his party that afternoon.  The answer was “No”.  It was a nice thought, but I hadn't even planned a party on May 1.  We had just moved from our house into the rental and quite frankly, I was trying to get out of having a party all together.  Classy mom, huh???  Well, all the asking about the friends and looking sad made me feel bad.  Then I remembered that he’s ONLY 5 and I have to give this baby a party.  So the following Sunday I made him an invitation with the assistance of my Dad and his poetic talents and got to planning.  

Parties stress me out.  I’m no Pinterest mom, but we've been invited the parties that have been somewhat ridiculous.  I decided to try to keep my head above water and we would have a few activities, eat, and go home.  Easy enough, huh? 

We decided to do it at the family farm, have a hay ride, horse and buggy ride, bean bag toss, and all around good playing.  The night before the party we headed out to get ready and to hunt lightning bugs after dark of course.  On Saturday Ford woke up and was ready to go!

 It’s about 12 miles from town to the farm on some good old country roads so I was a tiny bit concerned some people might get lost.  So I did what any good woman would do and I picked a location to begin the directions (there are multiple routes to take) and I drove it myself.  I did not put directions such as N, S, E, or W because who knows that, right?  I documented landmarks, stop signs, and put exact mileage.  The last bit of directions stated that balloons would be on the gate!  No one got lost!

 This is Mississippi.  It’s late May.  The air is humid.  I decided a family picture before we all melted was necessary!

 The food was simple: chocolate chip cookies, Doritos, watermelon, hot dogs, M&M’s and cake.

 Taylor isn't going to miss a party for her adopted nephews!!!

Parties are right up Bitty’s alley.  There is juice and junk food.  He saw my buckets of juices and waters and it was more than he could handle.  If awards were given out for the most juice consumed, I am sure he would have won.  Can you tell we don’t have stuff like this at our house????  He did manage to spill most of it on his outfit, but at least it was red on red.

Caroline, Ford and Elizabeth Anne on the hayride.

Bit enjoyed the ride too!

Hayes, Caroline, Ford, Nick, and Jack

 Gran and Molly Cate had on similar colors which I thought was picture worthy.

Horse and buggy

Meg and Gaines

 Jennifer, my crossfit partner, and Rials.  Rials got to celebrate his first birthday party after Ford's was over.

Hay ride again

 The hot dog cooks

 Hoola hoop fun

We must have an honest moment.  I did get on Pinterest a bit to look at ideas and was quickly let down with my lack of crafty skills and time.  I did, however, see this piece of ply wood cut into a barn to be used as a bean bag toss and made sure we had one of those.  Too bad I didn't have any bean bags.  I got some of Ford’s old socks, bought beans at my favorite store, The Dollar Tree, and sewed them up tight.  Worked like a charm! 

Bitty had cookies and Ford had hot dogs.

 I have had the same lady make my cakes for every birthday party.  My parents always pick them up and bring them to the parties for me.  I was scared to death I would drop it, so Penny did the honors.

 While he was being serenaded, he wouldn't look up.  I believe he was a bit embarrassed.

 But he sure blew that candle out!!

 And not only do I not carry cakes, but I also don’t cut them either!!!!

 This boy of mine doesn't have a sweet tooth the size of Texas like his momma, it’s more like the state of Rhode Island, but he did manage to eat a few bites before gifting it to Bitty.

 Uncle Ken giving Bitty a lift!

 All the fun activities, sugar, and heat can wear a little fella out.

 The invite said, "No gifts please", but he still got a few.  No gifts is the way to go!!!

Jake and the Never Land Pirates ship from Uncle Vance and Miss Emily

And as we went inside to clean up I noticed that "The Chinaman" ventured to the party.  Ken, my brother, and I have been passing this little figurine back and forth for about 15 years now.  Who knows where he'll end up next????

 Happy Birthday to the cutest 5 year old I know!!!!!!!

A humbling experience

Let’s talk about a real life issue here lately: “THE BODY”.  Yep, mine.  My body has been around for almost 32 years now.  It’s served me well, and I haven’t put a lot of injury or stress on her in that time.  I had an unrealistic notion that the body still worked the way it did in my teens and early twenties.  WRONG!!!  Ohhhh so wrong!  I will say I weigh the exact same thing that I weighed in 2008 when I got pregnant with Ford and in 2011 when I got pregnant with John Brantley.  HOWEVER, over time and two babies later not everything stays the way it should.  You know what I mean???  Thought so!!  Well, with that being said I decided back in March that I needed to get my “game face” on and get beach body ready.  Well, like all good plans I have, they don’t start right away so I started in May… last week.  I decided I would weigh myself every day at the same time, log everything I put in my mouth, and exercise.  It really was a nice plan, but only lasted a week.  I logged.  I weighed.  I exercised.  I stopped logging after 5 days.  I quit weighing because I wanted to throw the damn scale through the wall after a day of carrot, oatmeal, and banana eating only to have lost 0.2 ounces.  But working out I did NOT quit.

I will be 100% honest.  I HATE WORKING OUT!  I don’t like to put stress on this almost 32 year old body, I don’t like pain, and I don’t like sweat.  My exercise method of choice???.... Crossfit.  Please hold your applause and pick your jaw up off the table.  I know… Jill doesn't like to exercise and she’s doing Crossfit!  Yep.  You read it correctly my friends.  I need to be held accountable.  I need to know people expect me to be somewhere at some specific time or I won’t go.  I can’t join a gym and be expected to just “show up”.  Yeah right!!!  Won’t happen.  But I have gone 3 times now and it’s been a VERY humbling experience.  I am old.  I am out of shape.  And I am in PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  If you see me wobbling don’t laugh… the body isn't what it used to be!

Ford likes to stall when it’s bedtime.  The other night John Brantley went to bed at 6:00 PM because he didn't have a nap.  I told Ford he could watch a show on the IPad (we still don’t have TV) while Trey and I talked about house stuff.  After his show was over I told him to hug Daddy goodnight.  And will you know that smart little manipulator told his Daddy that he wanted him explain the house plans to him.  And Trey FELL FOR IT!!!  He did.  SO they sat in there and discussed what everything was and Ford asked a lot of questions to ensure that he wasn't being put to bed just yet!

 Bitty is a funny little guy.  He found some of Ford’s goggles and decided to model them.  However, he wasn't in the picture taking mood.

 When I am trying to do something like shower, fold laundry, or cook, John Brantley gets into stuff.  Stuff he shouldn't be into.  He is fascinated with Trey’s bathroom draws.  He pulls all of his goods out to examine them.  The other day it was his deodorant.  Apparently it tastes good and you rub it on your wrists!!!

 When we moved into our rental house we inherited a Barbie Jeep that Ford cleaned up and sprayed with camo spray paint.  The boys have a LARGE time switching from the jeep to the 4 wheeler.  Mud riding is also a fun activity to do when it rains.  And boy has it been doing some raining lately.  At this rate we will never get moved into our house.

Baseball (we can’t call it tee-ball or Ford gets mad) is still going really well.  He has announced to the entire audience in the stands that “he might be the best player out there”.  So humble!!  This momma sure is glad he improved from last year, or we might have found a new sport to play!!!!

 Both of the boys have bigger rooms and closets in our rental house.  John Brantley loves to go play in his closet with the door closed.  The other day I found him sitting in a diaper box just having the best time!

Schools out for summer and 23 months

In my older age I have become sappier on special holidays.  Mother’s Day was this past Sunday and I am very fortunate to be able to celebrate it with two beautiful healthy boys, and a wonderful mother and mother in law.  The day was simple, but it was very nice.  My boys drew me a sweet picture and gave me a gift certificate to the spa at the Alluvian Hotel in Greenwood.  I have been hinting to Trey for a while that I wanted to go for the weekend with another couple, go to cooking school, eat at Gardinia’s, and get pampered.  He delivered!

We have been coming right along in the building process.  Ohhhh the decisions to be made: window color, window shape, trim color, brick color, column color, roof color, etc… That’s what we have been working on lately.  Here’s a view from our driveway thus far….

It's hard to tell since we haven't even poured the foundation yet.  We hope to be in our new home in early 2015.

Along with making all the decisions for our house we have also planted some bushes and trees along the perimeter of our property which I get the pleasure of watering.  Sunday night I was carrying my milk jugs as I was giving the plants a drink.  I saw a SNAKE.  I paused and decided someone was playing a joke on me.  I quickly changed my mind and started hollering, “Snake… TREY!!!!!  SNAKE!!!”  He came running asking all kinds of questions.  I said it was black and KILL IT NOW!!!  Then Fancy decided it was a “good” snake that ate the bad snakes.  I said absolutely not and I made him finish the nasty thing off.

YUCK!!!!!!!!

Monday was Ford’s last day of his second round of 3K.  He started a new school this year and has had a wonderful year, and I have been extremely pleased.  I am sad it’s over.  

His little class has been working on their end of the year program for several weeks now.  Monday morning was the time for the show!

Here comes Ford!

He was embarrassed.... I love the face.

Still embarrassed that I was looking at him and taking pictures!

And the show begins...

Mrs. Laura giving Ford his 3K certificate.

Class of 2028

Gran and BoomPa with Ford

Puddin and Pops with Ford

Bobba with Ford

All of Ford's grandparents

Momma and Daddy with Ford

Snacks at the reception

Teacher gifts

Thanks for a wonderful year, Mrs. Laura and Mrs. Kristy

Certificate of completion

And yes, I have another child!!!  He didn't get very much facetime on this blog.  But today is he is 23 months old, which means that next month he will be TWO!I can’t really wrap my mind around the fact that my baby is almost two years old.  It’s just hard to believe.

 

John Brantley has developed quite the personality lately.  He is extremely aggressive and I believe shows more forceful behavior because he is frustrated with the language barrier.  But, the little guy has started talking a lot more lately.  Now you can’t necessarily understand all that he says, but I have picked up on some words…. “bye bye, no, cah (car), tuck (truck), ma’ma (means thank you), ku-key (cookie), dink (drink), momma (me), dada (Trey), Maaaaaaaahhhh (when he is calling someone), De-ta (Delta), Pah (Pops), Boom (BoomPa), Gan (Gran), Tac-ter (tractor), and he has a word for milk and couch, but I can’t even begin to explain them.

 He is still tiny with little bird legs.  At the doctor he recently weighed 22.5 pounds, which puts him below the 5^th percentile.  He wears a size 3 Luvs diapers, wears a size 4-5 shoe, and 12-24 months clothes.  He naps about 1.5 hours each afternoon, and goes to bed around 7:30 at night and gets a good 12-13 hours every night.

 He is strong willed, determined, opinionated, compassionate, loud, rough, sweet, energetic, and my little dude.  I love Bitty!!!