Girls' Weekend

So I said I'd keep blogging no matter how out of order, and so I will!

The below pics are from our second annual girls' weekend, consisting of aunts Melanie, Catherine & Marian, plus my mom, sister & her gorgeous baby, Audrey. Cousins Nola, Erika, Laura & Valerie made it, Valerie with adorable baby Levi in tow and Laura with pretty Kirsten. Of course Sophie came & reveled in all the female-ness all weekend. Lots of good food was cooked by the aunts & brownies were devoured, which is a long-standing beach tradition. It was wonderful to see everyone & we all had a blast!



















Everyone except Laura, Marian & Kirsten! Me, Allison, Judi, Sophie, Catherine, Melanie, Levi, Nola & Valerie


















Sophie snoozing in Bebe's lap



















Allison






















Sweet Audrey!





















Erika & Melanie





















Melanie helping Sophie into the water






















Val & Levi, her twin!
























Laura & cute Kirsten

Sophie's First Day of School

Sophie started preschool! It was a month ago, but we'll just gloss over that fact. She was so funny, she chose her pose completely by herself, apparently feeling the need to spotlight her ears that day. She started a Montessori school this year & goes five mornings a week. I'm going to miss my little breakfast buddy. We still have our girly lunches often, though. She had a few rough mornings at first where she wasn't too keen on going with the teacher (we don't go in the classroom at all, they come get the kids from the cars). We started carpooling with a neighbor and it helps a bunch to have Colin with her when she leaves the car. But without further delay, here are the pics:

Emma

About a week ago, a local 5-year-old girl named Emma was found at the bottom of her family's swimming pool by her brother, William, who is 8. She's still in the ICU in Mobile, AL, and though she's breathing on her own now, she still hasn't woken up as the doctors had expected. I can't imagine how tough this is on her family. Her father is a neurologist & was able to perform CPR on her right away, until the ambulance could get there.

I taught Emma in VBS last year & she is a truly wonderful little girl, we kept remarking on how sweet & mature she is. She would help us clean up, offer to help with the younger kids, just super, super sweet. Please pray for her to make a full recovery & for her family.

No Worries

We got back today to a pretty calm Ocean Springs - yay! We have a few hundred leaves or so in the pool & some branches down, but that's it. We're very thankful we escaped major damage & hope that those in LA did as well. We heard that a shrimp boat wandered onto Beachview Rd., which is the main road out of our subdivision, sorry we missed that! Really we were lucky with the traffic, we had no major slowdowns coming home & the kids were entertained in the backseat with lots of coloring books/Leapad/Curious George DVD (we forgot all of our other movies, so let's just say I've had enough of Will Ferrell's voice to last me a lifetime).

We had a great visit with my parents & the kids absolutely did NOT want to leave. We also had some cousin time with Audrey & got to see Allison, Nick, Ryan, Melanie & Chuck. Happy (almost) 24th birthday, Ry-Ry! I'm definitely sending out your gift tomorrow.