two musicals and a wedding

Happy Monday friends! I'm up bright and early today for the start of theatre camp which I'll be sharing details about soon, however, I wanted to share a bit of our weekend with you first because it was craaaaazy busy.

Just like the title said.

"two musicals and a wedding"

Hubs and I had tickets for the opening night of Gypsy on Friday, so we gussied ourselves up and left early enough to have a kid-free meal before the show. We headed downtown with a craving for chicken pesto pizza from DePalma's and after 15 minutes of searching for a parking spot within a mile of the restaraunt, we decided we'd better try somewhere else. We'd lost too much time. We needed to get a'movin. "Let's try the new Shrimp Basket!", I said. "I think it's near the theatre anyway!" Off we go in the direction of the theatre, heading South. Ten more minutes elapse. We pull into the parking lot of where I think this new seafood place is located only to discover I'd gotten my wires crossed. We weren't looking at the new Shrimp Basket. We were looking at the new Pizza Palace. Not the same. My directionally-challenged brain had gotten confused. Again. We were running out of time and since the only other alternatives nearby were mexican (Pepitos) or mexican (Taco Casa), we opted for some breakfast at the newly constructed Waffle House.

Our food was served in under five minutes, leaving us plenty of time for a quick stop at Walgreens for show candy. And that was the best omelette and hashbrowns evah. Mean it.

The show was fantastic and runs through next week- if you're local or even within driving distance, you do NOT want to miss it. You can purchase Gypsy tickets HERE.

On to Saturday. Hubs and O went to a birthday party while the girls and I went to see another local theatre camp's production of The Little Mermaid. The girls loved it, but got confused and thought the show was over every time there was a blackout. Sheesh.

Kudos to the staff and campers for putting the show together in a week!

After a mad dash home and a quick costume change, the Mathews 5 headed out to see hub's cousin get hitched.

That's Mr. and Mrs. Brady Wayne Sanders right there.

 It was a beautiful family-only ceremony followed by a huge country club partay, complete with a photo booth...

Baby Owen even donned a tux for the occasion-

how stinkin' cute is he?

Hubs even posed for a pic with me.

Without making a crazy face.

Or grabbing my booty.

I'm as shocked as you are.

May Day, Tea Party, and Baby Dedication

I heard this statement over the weekend and had to share, because I completely agree...

"May is the new December"

Do you feel that way too? There are so many events and parties and graduations packed into the month of May that it's become just as busy, if not more so, than December. Friday was 'May Day' at school, and at our school, there are activities planned which last almost the entire day. It's non-stop fun, lemme tell ya. Since my classroom is turned into the disco dance room every year, I got to hang with O's class and be a Mom. Their May Day schedule started with the sack races-

and included a magic show,

 tattoo station,

 disco room, complete with fancy-shmancy lights and glow necklaces,
sorry for the blurry pic...

giant blow-up slide,

 train ride,

and a giant caterpillar. The kids also had a karate lesson, ate snow cones, and had playtime on the playground, which made for some very tired kiddos. That night, hubs and I sent our very tired kiddo and our not so tired girlies to my parent's house and we had ourselves a hot date with a couple of friends. I somehow managed to not take a single pic all evening. Not even of my bread pudding, but we had ourselves a grand ole' time.

Saturday morning was our church's annual ladies tea party. Is it wrong to say I look forward to this day almost as much as I look forward to my birthday? I mean, getting dressed up and wearing a hat and decorating a table and being all Southern, well...it's just right up my alley.





 Before I show you pics of the table my friend Melanie and I hosted, let me first tell you that there are rules. Rules about what you must have at your table, as well as rules about what you must not have at your table. You must have water glasses, tea cup & saucer, plates, and silverware for everyone at your table. You must not have plastic or paper of any kind at your table. As in, you need to bring the good stuff. Well, Mel and I? We have 6 kids between the two of us and even though we knew the rules, we thought we'd try to get away with a bit of plastic and paper. We were the Clampett's of the tea party, so to speak, so before I show you our table, here are just a few of the others...

While I was shooting for the 'most elaborate table decor', I must admit that I was a bit jealous of this next table and the fact that it had decor hanging from the ceiling. Yup.

Color me jealous.

 The theme of this table was birds, as evidenced by the hanging bird cage. The cupcakes on the stand were iced like nests with jelly bean 'eggs' on top. Brilliant.

 And now, the Clampett's table, complete with plastics and paper napkins. I used one of the metal towers from THIS shower, stuck flowers in the top and wrapped it in tulle for the center piece. I used the cake stands I picked up at Sams, and some flowers and tissue poms I grabbed out of my dining room.

And those gawgeous, shiny, hot pink plates? Well those came straight from the hob lob y'all.

 Despite a few looks we got from the event coordinators, we's real proud of our plastics and the fact that clean up at table 8 was super-easy.

 The speaker was Debbie Hannah Skinner, and while she traveled all the way from Texas for the event, she was born and raised right here in Tuscaloosa. She has a website you can check out HERE. She painted during part of her presentation, and she spoke about savoring scripture and writing it down and framing it, or just keeping important verses somewhere near you. I need to do more of this.

At one point during her presentation, she asks us to open our mouths and act like baby birds. Just thought I'd share.

Once the speaker was done, it was back to the tables for tea and desserts. Did we have an actual tea pot at table 8? Nope.

We did have a honey bear though. Nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

I did find that when your hat is super long and elaborate, it can cause problems when trying to drink your tea.

 We also realized that plastic is super-light and easier to lick clean than real deal china.

Fast-forward to Sunday morning and baby dedication at church. My sweet lil' nephew, Owen, was among the babes being dedicated along with our friend's, Colby & Kathryn's babe Annie Ruth, and our friends Brittany and John Paul's babe Turner McCartney.



After the service, we ate lunch at church and were able to see the plans for the areas surrounding our church's property. A new parkway is included, along with lots of additions to the fairgrounds that includes new buildings for the Boys and Girls clubs, a new gymnasium, a soccer field, and multiple playgrounds. Exciting stuff. The next step for our church will be to start finalizing the blueprints for our new building and to begin construction before the end of the year. God has been so faithful in providing for our every need over the past year and I can't wait to see what He has planned for us in the future.

Hope you had a lovely weekend as well! Happy Monday!

p.s. If you're counting down the days until summer break, today's number is 13

he's here

Hubs and I were texting back and forth yesterday afternoon as he waited with my brother-in-law at the hospital, just moments before he would meet his son face to face for the first time. I wanted to be there so badly to meet my nephew and to support Kent and MK at this most awesome time in their lives, but, I'd just taken a day off on Tuesday for the Lorax field trip with Oliver.

And so I waited.

I taught classes and I waited.

And then I got the text that the doctors would soon be wheeling my SIL back for a c-section.

And I taught a few more songs.

And then my classroom door swung open.

It was a 1st grade teacher at my school, so I kept singing w/ the kindergartners who were in my classroom at the time as I slowly inched toward the door to see what she needed. Only as I looked at her face, it told me that maybe she didn't have a question about music. Her face registered something else, like...

something ain't right here.

And then I saw him, with his teacher.

Face covered in blood.

It was Oliver, and he'd had a fall on the playground and had gone head-first into a metal bench. A tooth had gone all the way from the inside of his mouth to the outside.

Poor guy.

As his teacher hurried him to our school nurse, I helped my precious still-singing kindergartners collect their lunch boxes and as they marched single-file to their classroom, I called our school secretary and told her I'd need to cancel my classes for the rest of the afternoon.

Well God, you were right. I wanted to leave school and go to the hospital, but next time I'll be more specific about HOW.

Don't you love how HE sometimes answers prayers? Like when I prayed a few days before my wedding to lose a few more pounds and, just like that,

I had the stomach virus.

I mean, you just have to chuckle at it, right?

Anyway, after a trip to the nearest MedCenter, followed by a trip to the dentist, followed by a trip to the oral surgeon, my brave boy came home with 3 stitches on the inside of his mouth and a prescribed diet of soft foods for the next few weeks. Sounds like TCBY and Yogurt Mountain are in our future. A lot.

And baby Owen?

Well he made his appearance yesterday as we were leaving MedCenter.

5 lbs, 5 oz

Sweet baby boy

Baby boy is doing just fine, but MK's blood pressure was high yesterday, so could you send up a prayer for her? After Oliver was stitched up, I took him to my parents house and Eliza and I went to the hospital to see the baby. We actually got to see the nurse give him his first bath-he's so teeeny tiny. Pure preciousness. We were only able to pop our head into MK's room to say hello- her blood pressure was rising simply from talking too much. Really hope it's back to normal today. I also hope to have more pics to share of this precious little one soon.

Until then, have a fabulous Friday friends! 



mustache + lips baby shower

Happy day to you friends!

I wanted to share a few pics + details with you from the shower this weekend-

First, I'll let you see pics of the actual party after people arrived and there was food on the table and whatnot. I'm usually terrible about forgetting to take pics during the party, but actually got a few shots this time.

The basic theme of the shower was mustache + lips = Owen

and boy howdy does Owen's daddy (my bro-in-law) have a huge honkin' mustache right now...

Here's the parents-to-be opening gifts,

And Kent trying to diaper a fauxnotreal babe.

Yes, the babe is upside-down.

Here he is again reading aloud some of the wishes that he has for his son.

All of the guests filled out a sheet of wishes for a keepsake book.

And lemme tell ya, they was some doozies.

Funny, funny stuff my friends.

I thought a few folks might pee they pants.

There was a table in the dining room with this on it:

a few photo props,

a chevron-y diaper cake,

and an 8x8 scrapbook with sheets for everyone to fill out for baby Owen.

You know, sweet things that he could read many years down the road.

And some were just that: sweet.

And some were not so much.

Back to the partay-

here's a few pics I snapped before anyone arrived,

hence the no food on the table

I made the table runner and the banner for the dining room in blk/white, but made a red one for the mantel since I plan to keep that one up through V-day.

I found THIS printable with tons of nicknames for a mustache and strung it up in the kitchen-

Here's hubs and me after the party doing the thing that he loves the MOST.

He said he felt silly having a prop, which is funny since he asked for one

on our first date.

So I held one for him...

And as for O man,

he was only too happy to take care of a leftover chocolate mustache.

I've had so much fun working on projects for this party for the past few months and now...

I jump straight into planning another one.

It's Batman mode now, all the way.

Can't you just see Gotham City in my dining room?

I'm off to the Bat cave, friends.

Until tomorrow!

psssst- I've linked this post to