Cooper's School Birthday Party...

Friday Cooper celebrated his birthday at school with his friends.  I sent Elmo cupcakes and juice for them to enjoy at snack time.

 

 
Go ahead and laugh...Anna Lauren and I did!  The lady at Wal-Mart was so confident she could make me some Elmo face cupcakes.  We don't think these quite look like Elmo, but hey, Cooper and his friends didn't care!

Party favors for his friends...

I think someone knows it is his special day...

Layne...

Love this picture of Bristol...

Sweet birthday boy enjoying his cupcake...I'm sure the teachers were thrilled I sent red cupcakes.

Cora...

Owen...my oh my...look at his hands!

Needless to say, I think they were excited to have something besides their "normal" snack!  And Cooper told me he had an Elmo party at school so I think he must have enjoyed himself.

Birthday Boy...

Yesterday we had a fun day and enjoyed celebrating our little man's 2nd birthday!  Today we celebrated his birthday with an Elmo party in the "flooding" rain at the park.  Despite the rain, everyone seemed to have a good time and the kids actually LOVED playing in the rain.  Thankfully, my sweet friend Christy took pictures for me so I'll post party pictures when I get them from her.

 

Cooper woke up to donuts for breakfast...

As soon as he saw the donuts, he got so excited and said "cupcake"...he calls lots of things cupcakes..  Then he quickly tried to pull one off the plate.

He wasn't so sure about the candle being lit and us singing to him...

Was much happier after sister blew out the candle for him...

We let him open one present before school...he LOVES buses so he was thrilled!

When we got home from school, he got to open a few more presents...Pop Pop and MeMe got him a fun race track.

We got him a Saints football uniform...couldn't get him to put the uniform on, but he loved the helmet!

He wore it around the house for a long time...exactly why we didn't let him open it before school.  Don't think his teacher would have been happy if he had shown up for the day with his helmet. 

Happy 2nd Birthday, Cooper...we love you!

62.82 Miles...



You read that right...62.82 miles!  Matt and our nephew, Reid, rode in the Century Ride yesterday and rode 62.82 miles!  So very proud of them!  They both agreed the first 50 were good...the remaining 12 were umm...just not fun.  They said it seemed like they were riding uphill and against the wind. 

 

Reid and his parents (who had to be out of town this weekend) ride 30 to 50 miles almost every Saturday morning.  Matt had trained very little so he was a little concerned to say the least.  And...he has always done triathlons...he's never just ridden for that long. So when it was all said and done, he was pretty proud of himself as he should be.

 

Jake and Anna Lauren cheering them on at the start...

 
Reid and Anna Lauren...

Matt starting the ride...

Reid starting the ride. They were all smiles at this point...I wasn't there to see the finish...I have an idea I would not have gotten a smile from either one of them.

And they are off...hoping to return 62 miles later!

At the turnaround...still feeling good! 

Matt wasn't sure if he would see this sign...but he did!  So, so proud of him!

33rd Birthday...

Last Tuesday I celebrated my 33rd birthday...it was just a normal day of work and taking Anna Lauren to tumble/cheer.  However, we did do a little celebrating.  Matt and Cooper met us after tumble/cheer, and we enjoyed dinner on the patio at McAlister's...the weather was great!  After dinner, they surprised me with a HUGE cupcake we all shared.  Then...they headed home before me and had balloons hanging on the front porch along with some flowers.  Love them and could not think of a better way to celebrate my birthday!

 

I mean who could resist flowers from this little man?

 
Of course "my" balloons were their pick...

Cooper was very proud of his Barney balloon...it was Elmo for a while but now he is liking him some Barney too!

Let me just say...I'm so blessed to have this man! 


Cooper was "cheesing" it this night...he has funny smiles in every picture...

Sneak Peak...



Let me just say...I highly recommend traveling with a photographer!  I CANNOT wait to see all the pictures...love, love, love my sweet friend Christy who was willing to spend some of her time at the beach taking pictures of my family.  Have ALWAYS wanted professional beach pictures and now I have them.  And not to mention, my kids are typically "angels" for Ms. Christy...she can at least get 15 minutes out of them!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you Christy...cannot wait to see all of them! 

 

 

Orange Beach Mini Vacation...





Thanks to Matt's parents sharing their condo with us, we were able to go to Orange Beach last Thursday through Monday with the Bounds family.  As we always do, we had a FABULOUS time...even if I did spend Saturday through Monday with the stomach virus...at least I got one day of fun!  And you know, for some reason, all things are just better at the beach...even the virus!

 

I think the girls spent most of their time here...they made their way across over and over and over!

Christy bought the girls matching swimsuits...they were darling!  And what you cannot tell in the picture is they were BRIGHT pink (like hunter orange in pink).  Needless to say, we could easily spot them, which was kind of nice.

The wave pool...also a very popular spot!  As Jeremy said, the ocean without the grit!

 
Emmy...

This kid LOVES the water...can you tell?

There are ALWAYS lots of giggles and fun...BUT...you cannot have 5 children together for several days without some meltdowns...here is one of the "who knows why" meltdowns...

This little boy loves a van full of girls, singing, and dancing!

Sweet Elliot...

Friday night dinner at the HangOut...

Rileigh, Emmy, and Anna Lauren...

I hate these are blurry...but...let me just say, Anna Lauren loves to dance and Ms. Christy, unlike her mother, will dance with her...Anna Lauren was loving it!

Just a dancing...

Late night ferris wheel ride...yes, my kids are already in their pajamas.  And sad to say, but those are all the pictures I have from the trip...stomach virus from this point.

I Know...

I know...I know...I haven't posted in a couple weeks.  Nothing really "picture worthy" has happened, but as usual, lots has happened the past two weeks.  For myself, I'm going to do a re-cap of the past couple weeks...you can read, or just wait until I post pictures...I know that is what most of you that read the blog want to see.  But remember...this is the Calvert family scrapbook so I try to keep everything here for us to look back on in the years to come.

August 26th ~ Ms. Ann, my sister-in-law's mom passed away.  We all knew the day would come sooner rather than later, but no one expected it to be "that" day.  For now, everyone seems to be doing pretty good...however, I know the holidays will be hard for my sister-in-law. 

August 29th/30th ~ Along with Hurricane Isaac came the stomach virus for Anna Lauren.  I picked her up from school Wednesday morning, we were at home Thursday due to the hurricane, she went back for a little while Friday before having to come back home.  It was Saturday before she really felt good again.  Hurricane didn't bother us or Matt's parents in Gulfport.  However, my family in Brookhaven/Summit were without power for 4 days.

August 29th ~ I went back to the orthopedic for a follow up appointment.  My knee had not gotten any better so I had an MRI...it showed the same thing he said the first visit...strained MCL.  Doctor started me on some anti-inflammatory...I now have a new knee.  Woo hoo!  I have not...but...this week I've felt like just maybe I could go for a run...I haven't run since the end of July.  Let' just say I've got the fever and will most likely have some running shoes on this weekend.

August 30th ~ Matt and I celebrated our 9th anniversary at home with a little girl who had the stomach virus.  She was feeling some better and asked to go to Mazzios so that was our special "anniversary" treat. 

Labor Day Weekend ~ Nanna came to hang out for the weekend.  We enjoyed having her here with us and just kind of bummed around.  Matt and I did manage to go on a date to celebrate our anniversary while she was here...that was for sure a special treat!

September 6th - 10th ~ We headed to Orange Beach with the Bounds family for a little mini vacation.  The first night and day were great fun...then...I had the stomach virus the remainder of the trip.  Thankfully, everyone else seemed to have a great time! (I hope to post the one day of pictures I took this weekend)

September 11th ~ I celebrated my 33rd birthday.  Between work, tumble/cheer, and recovering from the stomach virus, there wasn't much celebrating.  But...I did manage to have a fun dinner with my little family and Matt/the kids gave me some fun surprises. (Again, I hope to post pictures this weekend)

And now we are up to date...