augusta: Birthday Tea Party

Addie and Kira's birthdays are only a day apart. So when we went to Augusta for Jessica's wedding, Gramma, along with Grandpa and Ms. Gail,  decided to have a little Mad Hatter Birthday Tea Party for the big girls!

Complete with tulips,

tea cups,

and butterfly tiaras!

it was a beautiful, sunny, almost hot day! we brought some of girls favorite bubble wands, and everyone enjoyed blowing mega bubbles!

love her!

Audrey Kate loved sitting with Ms. Gail!

Gramma and Aunt Millie made sandwiches and Ms. Gail made cupcakes.

We all sang happy birthday to Addie and Kira, and Addie loved blowing out her candle!

There were presents for the big girls...

fun masks from uncle jay and aunt millie

and we stuck with our bubble theme of the day for kira's present! i think she might have enjoyed it!

John was so cute putting on/taking off this hat!

and what's a day at gramma's without a few laps around the flower bed railroad tracks!?!

John got brave and crawled all the way across the yard after a few of the balls.

but thankfully grandpa rescued him

And Addie continues to be pretty smitten with baby John! They were so cute playing together!

happy Birthday Kira and Addie!

augusta: Jessica's wedding

We headed to Augusta on March 15th to attend Paul's cousin Jessica's wedding.

Augusta was in full bloom and made Montgomery look practically colorless. Even the yellow coat of pollen was thicker and the wind blew yellow clouds of dust! The reason? Among other things, these gorgeous azaleas!

So we took full advantage of the beautiful color! The girl cousins just happened to sit down all together in the same spot for more than 3.2 seconds!

and Millie quickly added John and we had a pretty awesome picture of all 5 wamsted cousins!

of course, it took no time at all for that to move to eating shoes, pouty faces, tongues out and distracted gazes! But John just kept right on smiling! 

I think this one of the big girls is one of my favorites though. they are SO sweet together!

but these two are simply adorable! i love how john's looking up at his big sister!

we grabbed a few pictures of jay and millie's family, but kira was not about to crack a smile. she really wanted to be down playing with addie!

love

and love!

this was the first wedding i've actually attended in i don't know how long. i've been shooting weddings with allison for over a year now, so it was super hard for me to turn off my 2nd shooter mode. but i did, and even managed to stay incognito for a while and get some pictures of our families without getting in anyone's way!

the little girls look like they were having one serious conversation here...over drinks!

and Addie has really taken an interest in little ones recently. I can't wait to share the pictures of her, Cady and Cady's new baby brother Davis! She's smitten with these new little boys!

there was lots of playing and just chilling before the dancing begin.

even time enough to grab a picture of the wamsted men! handsome you say? why yes, i agree!

but all addie wanted to do was dance! so dance we all did! (she's doing the electric slide out away from the group in the first one. check out ms. gail in the background!)

alone...and with others!

but this picture holds a funny story. Audrey Kate was dancing with Gramma and Papa Al. She was seemingly quite content and enjoying herself. Until she looked up at Gramma. Looked up at Papa Al. Rolled her little eyes. Dropped their hands. Turned and walked away. It was like she was saying: I won't have anymore of this silliness! All 3 of us got a good laugh out of it!

of course, there was a ramp off to the side that provided ample opportunities for running races and acting a bit like swinging monkeys!

but when the ribbon/bell shakers were handed out, it got even sillier! it quickly went from uncle jay silliness...

...to all 4 little girls joining in the silliness while daddy sat trying to keep a straight face!

i intentionally didn't take a single picture of the bride and groom (bc our girls wouldn't stand still long enough to be in one!) or cake/cupcakes or food or others dancing or flowers or table details or anything not related to our little ones that i'd normally shoot at a wedding reception; but as you can see from our crew, it was a fun celebration!

And we decided it was time to take everyone home for bed when the little girls laid down on the floor and practically fell asleep! ♥

Congratulations Mike and Jessica!

Thanksgiving

Yes, I know. Thanksgiving was almost 3 months ago. I wont go through the gazillion things that have happened between then and now, but oh well! There were several pictures from Thanksgiving that couldn't not be edited, so better late than never, right?

We ate Thanksgiving at Gramma and Papa Al's with Grandpa and Ms. Gail, Uncle Jay, Aunt Millie, Kira, John, and other family.

Kira and Addie only seem to become sweeter friends each time they play.

We always attempt to grab a picture of the 5 cousins. And while clearly everyone was not smiling or even looking at the camera...no one was crying!!! i'd consider that a success!

There was lots of playing outside.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

And ended the night at Gramma's with Kira and Uncle Paul quite seriously blowing out the battery powered candle!

Our family stayed at Grandpa's, so we headed back there for bed where the dogs were anxiously awaiting our return...or not!

but a good bedtime story sure was!

we woke up the next morning, and Grandpa took us to a playground at a local church. the girls had a blast!

Of course what's a toy if you can't sit and ride on it!

There was lots of climbing...

and more climbing...

...and playing in the sand (together!).

and riding dinosaurs with grandpa!

we had dinner at Grandpa and Ms. Gail's that night with Jay, Millie, Kira and John.

and since our kids are never at a loss for finding fun, the doggy door became a huge source of entertainment ...

that everyone seemed to use except the dogs!

there was jumping (and laying) on the covered jacuzzi...

and just sitting in the yard and loving on cousins (love addie's hand on kira!)

the next day, we went to the Savannah River for a picnic with Gramma and Papa Al.

to say it was gorgeous is an understatement...

we took a long walk...

some of us walked...

and some of us soaked it in from up higher.

...some of us snuggled and slept.

and some of us walked away only to run right back to (by then very tired) mommy's arms!

everyone had a blast on the playground...

climbing and...

and sliding...

and swinging!

we ate lunch under a pavilion,

with Paul's cousin's children as well.

after lunch, there was a quick game of big girl hide and seek.

lots of jumping...

and blowing bubbles.

but one of the sweetest moments for this mama was when Addie took little Lily's hand and led her over to where everyone else was blowing bubbles. i just loved how caring and nurturing she was, making sure that Lily was just as much of a part of things as her baby sisters.

here are the 6 girl cousins that were there. there are five (yes 5!) more girl cousins and baby john!

kira and john both had on some variation of star wars shirts, so a picture with their daddy was a must!

but my favorite picture from the week...

baby john!

and now, i am officially caught up...at least through the end of January that is!

happy... 'er...ummm...Valentine's Day! :o)