Flashback Weekend Recap

Hey there, blog friends.

:o) ♥

I'm coming off of a busy weekend without photos or a whole lot of news to share, so today I'm giving you photos that were actually taken last weekend while Carrie and I were in California.

It just so happened that my sister and her husband had plans to be out of town the weekend that we were visiting - poor timing on our part. But! It also just so happened that my 6-year old nephew, Stone, needed a date for his school's annual mother/son dance - great timing on my part! When he called me a month before our trip and asked me to go with him I was so happy I almost cried.

The dance theme was Hawaiian so Stone and I were appropriately decked out. We had heard there was going to be a hula dance contest, so we worked out a little routine to bust a few moves when the time came. Here's a photo of how we planned to finish our dance routine. Makes me smile every time...

No date would be complete without dinner before the dance, so Stone and I went to his favorite restaurant. When we got there he told me he had a favorite table there too, so we asked the hostess to be seated there. Oh my gosh he was so cute during dinner. His menu is standing up in the next photo to hide the picture he was drawing for me.

 

And there was this:

So the hula dance contest? Well, it turned out to be a hula hoop contest. They invited five mom/son teams at a time up to the stage and Stone was reluctant to go. {See his mad hula hoop skillz at 1:34 in this video.} I told him, "Dude! I've got this! Let's go up there!!!" so he trusted my lead and up we went.

Once on the stage, five "moms" and five "sons" spun the hoops and in a flash there was one little boy left spinning, along with yours truly. sigh. I could've gone all night but then I thought, "Uh, Deb! You can't beat a little kid!!!" so I let my hoop drop. LOL - you should have seen the look of disappointment on Stone's face. {Sorry, Stoney!}

Boy oh boy! A whole room of little boys, aged 5 - 11, was a crazy, crazy time. Something quite different for this aunt, but I loved every minute of it!!!

Getting Stone to slow down for some selfies was a bit tricky but I came up with the idea of holding out my phone and letting him press the button. Score. He also called out, "Smile" - "smile with no teeth" - "silly face..." And so it went...

Needless to say, I loved my time with Stone that night. It's a time I will always remember and I hope he will too.

And with that I'm off to discover what surprises this week holds.

Keep smiling, my friends. Keep smiling!

♥

A weekend recap on Tuesday

Good morning, blog friends!

Oh what a wonderful, whirlwind weekend we had!

Three days packed with driving and celebrating with family.

♥ 

My sister surprised her hubby (our brother-in-law Brad) with a 50th birthday party, and Doug and I wavered back and forth a bit on whether or not to make the trip. Even though we are a bit worn out this morning, we are both so happy that we did it. This morning I have some random photos from the weekend to share with you, then I'm off to tackle a busy week ahead. Yay!

 

My sister chose "The Godfather" theme for Brad's party and all of the details were so much fun. I was assigned as the photo girl for the night, but in our rush to leave our hotel and get to the party, I left my camera lens and external flash behind. Nice. So we ended up with a bunch of grainy photos from my phone. ~sigh~

 

Fantastic party, the guest of honor was super surprised, and a great time was had by all! :o) Sunday morning we met at my sister's house for a big breakfast and a day of relaxing with family. I loved spending time with my nieces and nephews, and even got to give this little peach her first Christmas present.

 

Sweet baby Olivia. She's growing so fast! She let out a sad little cry when the paper was torn back to reveal a little dolly underneath. The baby in the box scared her just a little. Aw!

 

If you had told me two years ago that either my sister or I would be dog owners I would have laughed. And if you had told me how much we would love our pups, I probably would have said you were crazy. But it's true! We have Lucky, and my sister has Walker: 

 

Have I mentioned before how much I love being an aunt? This photo of Presley, Stone, and me makes my heart want to explode. Gosh I love these kiddos!

 

And now it's game on. The rest of this week is jam-packed with places to go, people to see, yoga to practice and teach(!!!), and Christmas to prepare for.

 

Taking deep breaths and trusting that everything will fall right into place...

Enjoy the rest of your week, my friends!

♥

Just a Quote for Friday

This is my nephew {Stone} at his swim lessons, but this is not my photo.

"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson