Baking with Mama

I recently had a helper in the kitchen last week when I decided to make our family favorite - "pink cookies" one evening. Notice the matching aprons courtesy of Jodi at one of our baby showers before Ella made her appearance into this world. Ella's apron had some growing room :) Just thought these pictures were too cute not to share. Funny story: While i was dolloping my cookie dough on to the baking sheet, I looked back and noticed some of the unbaked cookies were missing. Apparently my little helper thought the dough tasted just as good as the baked cookies. LOL. I hope that Ella one day will love baking in the kitchen as much as I do. Here's to many more moments like this......

Ella & "Bobby's" 1st Sleepover & Mama turns the big 3-0

Ella and "Bobby" (aka Robbye- my niece!) had their first sleepover a couple of weekends ago at our house here in Collierville. Ella and I picked up Robbye after work on a Friday night, came home, ordered pizza, and hit the spray park afterwards. We took baths, played, and even enjoyed a birthday party on Saturday morning. It was fun to see what life would be like w/ 2 kiddos......Definitely not ready for that yet- Wow! Of course, Robbye is a busy one and is always talking! I told me sister she must have asked 1000 questions in less than 24 hours. She's a hoot and Ella and her love each other so much. Its so fun to see them growing up together! Below are some picts from our spray park adventure (Griff and Taylor joined us on Sat. evening when we all took the kids BACK to play again!)

Baby Taylor even loved the Spray Park! 

 The only pict we could get of all 4 of them - LOL

 Sweet Baby Girl is growing up TOO fast!

On August 6th, I turned the dreaded 30! And, since I have generally always been the younger of our friends and family (& have so often reminded them of that), I caught absolute HECK from everyone most especially my father-in-law & Ben Parker! It was all in good fun though and I can say that I am completely prepared for any accidents, aches, & pains that are going to be coming my way now that I am half way to 60! In all seriousness, I had a great birthday- one full of love and remembrances of how truly blessed I am. I am just looking at my 30's as me not getting older but "wiser!" :) You're only as old as you feel, right? My sister also threw me a birthday party complete w/ a wonderful meal, yummy cake, and good presents! She even got me balloons for the occasion - I was super impressed! Thankful for such a wonderful family!

On the Saturday following my birthday, my sweet husband took me out on a date all by ourselves- something we hadn't done in awhile- we usually have other couples w/ us! We had a good meal at Cafe Piazza on the Collierville square, dessert @ City Hall Cheesecake, & saw the funniest movie "Hope Springs" at the theatre. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! Not only did I get treated to a wonderful date night, but Tim and Ella got me a fleet feet gift cert to get new running shoes, a charm for my bracelet, and a Vera Bradley camera case I have been eyeing for months! Turning 30 wasn't so bad after all ;)

So, for my 30th birthday (thanks to Amanda Smithers :) I did what is called the Birthday Project. It's where however old you're turning, you do that many acts of kindness. I have finally finished that and in my next post, I will be posting my list of kindness acts I did and sharing with you all that journey. It has taught me so much and really opened my eyes. So, thank you Amanda for sharing your project. More to come on that in a later post. Until then, I have a sleepy little girl that is ready for me to put her to bed, so I am going to go and enjoy my snuggle time. :) Goodnight to all!