Our Memorial Day Weekend

I need a vacation from our Memorial Day Weekend extravaganza! It was packed full - lots of food, boat rides, sun, On-Your-Butt Punch, and sleeping late! Thank goodness for my iPhone, or I would have absolutely no pictures from this weekend and the only ones I got were on the boat!

Saturday night we had our 3rd Annual Memorial Day Shrimp Boil. It was a blast! It was kid-friendly so Clay had all of his buddies over to play! He was WORN out! There was WAY too much food to eat and I was stuffed! I made a new appetizer which I'll share in another post (Buffalo Chicken Pizza Bites- YUM) and it was literally gone in about 10 minutes. People were asking where it was because they never got a chance to have any. Guess that recipe is going to be a staple at my parties from now on!

The next day we went out on the lake with some good friends of ours. They have 2 boys - Clay calls them the Star Wars boys because they introduced him to Star Wars last Labor Day on the boat.

Clay enjoyed sitting on the front of the boat throwing the rope in - he was pretending to fish. Hey... whatever keeps him occupied!
And that's a fancy, new life jacket he's wearing! We've been meaning to get him one of these because it's so much more comfortable and it keeps him cooler than a big life jacket. He seemed to like it...

He was obsessed with his buddy's shark swim cap.

He wore sunglasses long enough for me to get this picture! I keep trying to get him to wear a hat or sunglasses, but he's not a big fan of either!

With all the mess of the party, at least we had a little help. Clay did pull out his broom and sweep a little bit.

Then on Memorial Day, we had our good friends, Emily and Jeremy and their boys over for Shrimp Boil part 2 and a boat ride.

The Captain...

Emily, Wyatt and Jeremy

And it was this little guy's first trip on the boat! Is he not the cutest thing in his little bathing suit and hat?!?!

So now I need a couple of days off from our Memorial Day Weekend vacation! I'm burnt, sore, bruised and tired! It was rough! :o) Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!

First Boat Ride of the Summer!

I LOVE riding on the boat!

I wished we did it more often! We took the boat out for the first time this past weekend and went on a quick little ride.

Clay is doing so much better on the boat this year. Last year he was all over the place and I was certain he was going to fall overboard. He was just content to look at the water.

And eating Toy Story Fruit Snacks out of his sand pail...

And relaxing while drinking some juice!
I have a feeling we're going to be spending a lot of time on the water this summer!

32 Months Old - Or Way Too Close to 3

My sweet Clay... you are so close to 3 it's starting to make me very sad! I look at pictures of you now and the "Baby" is completely gone! You have one speed - light speed! You do not stop and definitely keep Daddy and I very busy! You are definitely "all-boy"! Your new favorite thing to do outside is dig up rocks. We go out to the field behind our house and you dig up the biggest rocks you can find and save them in your wagon to play with later.

Someone's got some major bed-head here!

You say the funniest things!

The Friday night before Easter we went to the local wing joint to eat dinner. You are typically a very good dinner companion, but his night your were AWFUL! When we were driving home, we were explaining to you that you made Jesus very sad with how bad you acted and you needed to tell Jesus you were sorry. A few minutes passed and we heard your cute, little voice say "I'm sorry Jesus. I'll be good so I'll get a prize." Not exactly what we had in mind, but it was hilarious!

Another time I got a call from your daycare saying you had a strange rash on your back. I came and picked you up and took you to your doctor to see if it was anything to worry about. While we were in the waiting room, you told me that you had the "Chicken Pops". The teachers at daycare had mentioned it so you decided that was what you had and made sure everyone we ran into knew it. It, of course, was not the "chicken pops".

Another cute thing happened the day of the tornados... we were driving home from picking you up from daycare and had the radio on. They were telling everyone in Marshall County to take cover. You piped up from the backseat and said "I'm a Marshall!".

Your 32nd month birthday happened to be on Mother's Day this year. Just spending time with you on Mother's Day was all I needed! We even managed to take some cute pictures (obviously, Mark and I took turns taking the pics since there is not a family pic).

This picture makes me sad because you look so grown up!

A couple of fun pics!

Pictures with your daddy.

My absolute, FAVORITE one from the photo session! So sweet!

I've started planning the big 3 year birthday bash. I originally thought we were going to do a Toy Story party... but it's looking like it might be a Cars party. With the new Cars movie coming out next month, I'm sure you are going to be completely obsessed! I'll ask you what kind of birthday party you want and you tell me you do not want a party... Hmmmm... if I really thought that was true, it would make my life a lot easier! Nah... I LOVE party planning!

Easter

So I was going to fake all 3 of you who read my blog out by back-dating my posts so it didn't look like I was as lazy about updating my blog as I have been. Actually, between the storm knocking our power out for 4 days and piles and piles of work, the last thing I want to do at night is get on my computer and blog. But, I must or I will forget everything that's gone on in our lives because I have the worst memory!

So back to the point of this post...Easter... which was more than 2 weeks ago! My parents came over from Atlanta and Mark's mom, sister and our 2 nieces came over as well. I took the easy way out and sent my hubby out to pick up some BBQ and all the fixins'. I didn't want to spend the day in the kitchen when I could be visiting with family. I don't get to see my parents all that often, so it was nice to spend some time with them (Ha! Little did they know that in a matter of a couple of days after Easter we would be moving in with them for a little while!).

My nieces hid Easter Eggs for Clay to search out in the backyard. He's mastered his Easter Egg Hunting skills this year with participating in at least 3 Easter Egg Hunts. He's a pro at it now!

Another thing I was lazy about on Easter was taking pictures so I apologize that these are not the best in the world.

Here's my mom and dad and Mark hanging out watching Clay hunt for eggs.

Clay worked up an appetite hunting for eggs... and this big plate of cookies and the BEST chocolate covered pretzels IN THE WORLD were not helping! Oooh... very tempting...

And he goes in for the kill!

As I noted in another post, we let Clay pick out his Easter Basket this year and he opted for the Elmo basket. I'm glad he did because it makes a nice, warm hat that we can use for next winter...

And I completely forgot to mention that Clay did manage to be good enough for the Easter Bunny to visit our house. The Easter Bunny was very creative. He brought Clay a tent and some "play" camping gear to play with. He also brought him some little cars from the Cars movie (new obsession alert!!!) and some Thomas the Trains in Easter Eggs. So he made out pretty good! Happy Late Easter!