Happy *early* Birthday, Carson!

Carson's 4th Birthday isn't until late next week but since my Mom will be out of town then, we went ahead and had a mini-celebration a bit early, complete with a mini-cake. Carson loved it - especially the singing. He's a bit of a ham (and I have NO idea where he gets it!)

And just because he looks so tough and grown up (looks can be deceiving) I had to share this photo too. Soccer also started this week and my little man thinks he's big stuff! Love this photo - even though he was *supposed* to be practicing and instead was *breaking!*

Happy *early* birthday, little man. May all your birthday wishes come true! Love you tons!
P.S. I was directed to these super-cute doodle frames at Heather Ann Designs by the awesome Kelly P. LOVE them!

Best of BasicGrey on QVC

Hi All! I just wanted to give a little PSA that BasicGrey will be featured on QVC's Craft Fair - a 24-hour Mega Day of Scrapbooking products on Tuesday, August 14th! We will have 3 segments airing at 1 am Eastern, Noon Eastern and 5 pm Eastern.
During these times we'll be featuring our awesome 15"x15" Magnetic Mat, our Blush Lunchpail Kit (1 Lunchpail, Blush Paper pack and fibers) along with a BEST of BasicGrey that will include our 48 top selling papers from past lines. I have to admit it's been really fun revisiting some of these amazing lines and playing with them again. I think you'll love them too especially if you missed out the first time around! We hope to see you there! (And here's just a bit of what you might see...)

Pure Summertime

Today, on an impulse, we decided to stop by the Louisville Waterfront on our way home from a day of movies and ice cream with Jammie and D.D. Hoyte and I had wanted to see it for forever as the city has been giving it a vast renovation for several years.

I was in awe. It was absolutely spectacular. The grass was so green. There was an awesome playground, a skate park, and the best of all - these water jets. Nothing says summertime like streaking through some water sprinklers in the middle of downtown in your shorts and britches! SO fun!

The 1st Day of School

Well Monday was the first day of school and immediately we had to get into the (EARLY)swing of things. School administrators decided to bump up the start time up for class by almost half an hour so it was a big shock from our summer schedule! But the boys were raring to go - my big 2nd grader and my almost-as-big kindergartener. We all drove in that morning, completely loaded down with the mandatory school supplies, and got them settled.I knew Ethan would be fine, he already knew 1/2 his class. I was a little worried about my Turner, but I shouldn't have been! He immediately spots a friend from preschool, Maddie, and was so excited. He settled right down into his seat and started coloring like the teacher had asked. It made it much easier to leave him that morning.

All in all it was a great day for them and they made it home safely to me! :) But with the horrid heat and lonnnnng day, were quite cranky the rest of the evening. It's getting better but I still think it'll be another week at least before we're fully in the swing.. It can't come soon enough! :)

The Draft...already?

THIS is the face of one happy boy. Yesterday he was drafted to play with a football team - complete with full gear - helmet, pads, pants...and cup ;) The shoulder pads have hardly come off, but thank goodness I got the rest of it away from him! And YES - I said drafted! Believe it or not for our football program, the kids go through a draft so that everyone has a chance to pick from certain age brackets/sizes/weights, etc. Its a way to make it fair for all teams, but it felt really odd to hear his name called and that he had been drafted for such and such team.
Anyhow. This boy is very, very happy. That is until tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the first day of school.
Well, bud - you can't have it all.

Horse Country & A Funny

On any message board I frequent, I list my location as "beautiful horse country of Kentucky". But I have to admit I take for granted the beautiful area in which I live way too often. So tonight as we were taking a leisurely drive, I made Hoyte stop at practically every farm we passed (and we passed ALOT) to take some photos of the horses in the fields.
I was fortunate to get some wonderful photos as the horses were actually close to the fence this evening. They are amazing animals. I particularly loved this little guy. He was fascinated with the human taking his photo. He just had to trot over and see what was up. His mama on the other hand wasn't so sure about it all and tried to nudge him along. I love summers in Kentucky. This is us at our best. Ok, second best - the first is Derby Time!








And overheard from the backseat of the car as we were on same said drive:
Ethan: "Mama, can we ride our bikes when we get home? Just in the driveway?"
Me: "Maybe, E. We'll see what time we get home first, ok?"
Ethan: "Ok."

five minutes pass

Ethan: "Daddy? Can we ride our bikes when we get home? Just in the driveway? Mama said we could."
Me: "Ethan, I did not say that. I said 'Maybe'. Do you know what 'maybe' means?"
brief pause
Ethan: "Yeah. It means 'no.'"

Um, yeah...sadly this time he was right! ;)