UA choreography competition, or lots of photos of Big AL

Happy Friday, friends! It's homecoming week here at UA and last night was the choreography competition between sororities. Seester took E last year and she loved it, so this year, I went along and took MM as well. While I'd planned to show some great photos of the dancers as well as some video, this post has turned out to be, "Look at these awesome photos I took of my girls with Big AL".

Because I did.

They met him, they loved him.

He (or whomever was wearing the costume last night) let them play with his ears and trunk, and even gave them high fives. Awesomeness.

Pretty fun night if I do say so. Many thanks to seester's new hubby for having a job at UA and for being homecoming advisor and for letting us bring the girls and sit in the front and eat barbeque. Fun night, y'all.

That is one patient Big AL.

Seriously.

Did I mention we saw lots of booty shakin?

Because we totally did. Nothing too crazy, but I did feel like I shoulda covered E's eyes up 2 or 3 times...

Big AL even did a lil' jig with the Crimson Cabaret,

and then came and sat down next to us, which of course means...

more pictures.

And now, for a little game I like to play called "shorts, or no shorts".

And because this was so funny to me, I have to share:

I found the girls sharing their juice when we got home.

So sweet, and yet, so germy all at the same time.

***

We're headed to the parade tomorrow to see the floats, and to hear the band, and to see the 'princesses' riding on the tops of the cars. That was, by far, one of E's favorite parts of last years parade.

Have a great weekend!

Pumpkin Carving: 2012 edition

Monday night was pumpkin carving night at the Mathews casa, and if you've been hangin' round these parts for any length of time, you're probably aware that we take our carving pretty seriously.

As in, mess with me while I'm workin' on mah pumpkin and I will cut you with this teeny little carvin' knife.

I kid.

Kind of.

The other Mathews clan came over, so there were 4 kiddos a' singin' and a squealin' and 3 pumpkins spilling their guts. No kiddos lost their guts, thank the Lawd. Here are the results of our labors from Monday, as well as pumpkins from years of yore. Or, from yester years. Or from long ago....

Oh whatevs...the past 7 years or so.

My 2012 Pumpkin

Ursula

Hubs 2012 Pumpkin

Mona Lisa

...and since we had an extra,

Hubs other 2012 Pumpkin

Angry Bird

And...the Mathews pumpkin Hall of Fame:

The hubs 2011 pumpkin:

Ironman

My 2011 pumpkin:

Barbie

complete with eyelashes.

do you see them?

I worked hard.

Here's the hubs 2010 Death Star Pumpkin-

and my 2010 Storm Trooper Helmet-

I think we skipped over 2009.

Probably due to lack of sleep from a little girl.

Her name rhymes with Schmeliza.

2008-

hubs is Darth Vader, mine is Thespians.

obviously

2007-

hubs Transformers symbol thingy

and my sweet lil' Nemo

2006-

hubs Star Wars

and my Charlie Brown and Snoopy

I also carved this Blues Clues punkin' that year for my preschool classroom-

And, I just so happened to have dug up a pic of my musical pumpkin from 2005.

So there ya have it! Our pumpkin carving history in one post.

So tell me...

do you carve pumpkins?

Are you as competitive as we are?

Is this your first time to see the Mona Lisa on the side of a pumpkin?

Hmmm??

Do tell...

p.s.- I published a post of pics + videos from seester's wedding day last night, so if you missed it- click HERE

Wedding Day pics and videos via iphone

Here are a few photos I snapped on my phone during seester's big day, and my sincerest thanks to J. Crew for putting pockets in their bridesmaid dresses.  How would I have ever made it through the day without picture-taking abilities....

Baby girl was able to squeeze in an hour-and-a-half nap after pictures and before the wedding. Nevermind that when she woke up, half her dress was soaked in sweat, as was mine. Nothing like trying to quickly air-dry dark wet spots on your dress before you walk down the aisle...

Leave it to my girls to be the first to jump onto the dance floor after the Father/Daughter and Son/Mother dances...

And this? Well that's just Chad's Grandmother who happened to give hubs a buck to take his shirt off. Which she then put on herself. You know...nothing crazy about that.

Not to be outdone, Chad's Grandfather decided to take his shirt off too.

No worries...grandma had a dollar for him as well.

Meanwhile my girls were having a grand time walking the runway in the loo...

I also lost my 7 year-old for a bit.

And then found him.

In the bar.

Watching the game.

Sheesh.

Here's a little dance floor fun for ya-
the Groom goes on a Magic Carpet Ride



....and who doesn't love to Shout?

 Roll Tide send-off...

And because I removed the last photo of these gals per request, here's another better shot.

Yes?

We had three kiddos snoozing in the back when we finally made it home a little before midnight, but oh what a fun time we had. Congrats to Mal and Chad on a beautiful wedding and one heckuva shindig! We love you lots-and to Chad...welcome to the crazy family!