Back at home again ...

trying out the idea for an art area in the kitchen

the wonderful big sis with her sisters' friends

Lydia and Eleanor

babysitting a grad student's cat, Boris ...

Seeing the girls ...

After our weekend at CoCo and Britton's (complete with tower building, lots of time with their cousin, and Lydia willingly going into church away from me being carried by her Uncle Britton -- this was the highlight of the weekend for me!!), the girls and drove after church to Allison and Jeff's where we had a chance to see the girls. EB was so excited to spend time with Fable and Ever. I was pretty excited that Graham was flying in to Memphis that night!

Before Graham arrived, we had time for some theater make-up courtesy of Fable ...

... and time for painting ...

... and playing ...

... and of course for watching movies.

The girls of course wanted to stay another night and we were completely tempted to do so. But we decided that we were just tired enough to need to make it back to BR. Since CC and Granddaddy had already left Jackson headed to the College World Series and CoCo and Britton were headed to Memphis to catch a flight to Omaha, we decided to make the drive from Olive Branch to BR all in one day.

Miracle of miracles, EB slept all the way from outside Olive Branch to Madison where we stopped for lunch. This girl NEVER naps. We guessed the week of traveling finally caught up with her. We couldn't believe our good luck to have a 5-year-old fall asleep and a 2-year-old who also took an early nap in the car.

It was a whirlwind week, the trip that made me just as tired last summer, but thankfully Graham was with us for the drive home this time. It was tiring but completely worth it ... I got to see my girls with their cousins, Lydia willingly went with her Uncle Britton, we were there for Winters's first birthday party ... really, it doesn't get much better.

Celebrating Henry Winters!

my childhood friend Anne Dorsey McCauley -- 

her daughter Sarah Jane is in Winters's class, MS is a small world

My favorite photo of the day -- love when family can get together

Fable - 11, Ever - 6, EB - 5, Lydia - 2, Winters almost 1!

The party was really great. Court's theme was an outdoor Southern-style party -- the decor and food were amazing. I love this last shot because it looks like a styled shot for Southern Living ;). You can tell Court and Britt are in the design-construction world!

Goodness we loved being able to celebrate this little man!

Our trip north ...

At the end of June after a few uninterrupted weeks in the new house, Graham headed to Montreal for a conference (for real), and I packed the girls up in the car for our trip north. That makes me laugh every time, since the farthest north we'd go was Oxford, MS.

While we were on our drive on Thursday, I got a message from Mica asking if I just happened to be in Jackson if I just happened to want to go to dinner with friends. Yes!

Jennifer, Mica, me, Christy

I love catching up with these girls.

We had fun swimming with CC and Granddaddy and visiting (hence no pics) and on Friday during naptime we headed out again for Oxford. We made it a few hours but ended up having to stop during this drive. Everyone needs to stretch at the rest stop ...

We did make it to Oxford safe and sound and started loving on the star of the weekend -- Winters! We arrived early on Friday so that we could help CoCo and Britton get the house ready for Winters's party on Saturday.

I was so happy to be there early -- I always like being the person that's "in" enough to be asked to help set up. Maybe that's weird, but we had a lot of good visiting time for the cousins and for me, Court, and Britt. Up next -- the party ...

Coke, ice cream, & drums

Today the church had tents out with vanilla ice cream and Coke. So yum! If i hadn't had my hands full I would have made a coke float. The girls plopped down to eat their ice cream in front of the sanctuary as the service let out and caused many smiles!

Lydia was in one of my old dresses :)

The highlight of the day was getting to see Graham play drums in the worship band for the contemporary service at church! He did an awesome job and EB was beyond proud. Kept telling everyone, "My Daddy is playing the drums today!"

Graham said all the practice was worth it to hear her say that proudly :)