The Night Before & More...

I can't believe after over a year of planing, visualizing, and simply chatting about it, "The Wedding" finally arrived.

We've just returned home from a near week of celebrating Uncle Jon & Aunt Bailee.  The wedding festivities took place on the beautiful beaches of Ponte Vedre, Florida.  Lucy headed down on Sunday with Grandma.  I flew in on Tuesday morning.  And Clay and the big kids arrived Wednesday evening. 

We spent the days before the scheduled activities hanging at our condo, playing on the beaches, and doing a lot of crafting & putting together. 

Those first few days were pure relaxation.  

It wasn't until Friday that things got a little CrAzY!  Like the true essence of wedding crazy...

So here we go.  Friday morning was the first scheduled event.  All the girls attended a bridesmaid luncheon while the boys hit the golf course.

My sweet girls were beside themselves to be in the presence of the gorgeous bride and her beautiful bridesmaids.

Aunt Bailee gave all the girls their gifts {remember those bags my Mom and I slaved over?}.  Well, it was totally worth it, because all the bridesmaids loved them and the goodies inside!  My girls got the sweetest knit dresses to wear for pre-wedding getting ready.

Come Friday evening, our side of the family was up.  Talk about work!  I can only imagine what it was like to be on the bride's side.  My mom and I spent the whole afternoon setting up and decorating for the party.  I then raced the kids to the actual rehearsal, raced back to the condo to get dressed, and then raced to the dinner.

Needless to say I was exhausted come party time.  But, as they say, the show must go on.  So I put on a smile and my most comfortable heels {is there such a thing?} and prepared to celebrate.

We set up a sweet little beach themed craft table for all the kids.  You know, the kid's table is my specialty.

I spent the remainder of the party bouncing around meeting and greeting and taking lots of pictures.  This is one of my fave.  The bride and groom "The Night Before"...

And GG too...

This is my other fave...all the Dumbacher's and Bailee's parents...

Me and my Godbaby, Paul...

My mom did the most amazing job on her speech.  I was in tears, as was the groom.  It was so heartfelt and sweetly sincere.  I don't know how she made it through.

My Mom and GG...beautiful ladies. I pray I got those genes.

As the night wore on, so did the fun!  It was an absolute perfect "Night Before".

So much fun, in fact, that I managed to skate out of there with only two pictures of the decor!  Ugh..how did that happen?

You must know by now, how much I adore the decorating part and the pictures of it.

Let's just say it was a beach theme with lots of fish nets, lanterns, and sea shells.  Oh, and the must have...burlap.  It was absolutely lovely.  You'll have to trust me on that one.

Next up, the big day...

Game Ball

Have I mentioned we are playing Fall Ball on top of the rest of the October madness?  Well, we are.  And just look who came home with the game ball this past game...

His best game of his baseball career!  We are so proud of him!  Go Timber Rattlers!

My Favorite Fall Farm

We made our annual October visit to Southern Belle Farms this weekend.  This is my absolutely  favorite farm and in turn, one of my most favorite Fall traditions.  If you don't believe me just check back at my October posts from the past three years....I pretty much gush about it.  

I think I just might be heartbroken when my kids out grow this.  As Clay so kindly reminded this weekend,  "we only a few years left of this with Jack".  {sigh}

As I mentioned, our October is always a little crazy, but this year it is absolutely NUTS! Between Uncle Jon and Bailee's wedding and Halloween falling on a Saturday, I had a moment of panic when I thought this Fall tradition of ours just might not go down this year.

We pulled it off despite the chance of rain {and the confirmation of lots of mud} and even made a pit stop at Lucy's Fall Festival before hand.  Shew...it made for a busy weekend, but we kept the tradition alive!

Oddly enough, this turned out to be one of my favorite visits.  The farm was unseasonably quiet {we were one of the only foolish families brave enough to face the potential of thunderstorms head on} and the temperature was perfectly ideal.  Not too hot, not too cold as we've experienced in the past.

But let's be honest, the bottom could have fallen out of the sky for all I cared, AFTER and only after,  I got my beloved pumpkin patch pictures.  And that this is exactly why we did the farm in reverse order this year.  

We started at the patch, I got my sweet little pumpkins to smile, they were still mud free, and then we hit the rest of the farm schedule free.

And don't even tell me it wasn't worth it?....

Just look at my delicious pumpkins!...

I just couldn't stand the cuteness...I had to jump in there with them.  Am I a lucky mommy or what?

And the only downside of a "quiet farm" is there are not a lot of folks to solicit for family pictures.  Divide and conquer...thats how we roll.

Once the pictures were out of the way, the kid's grabbed their maps and headed out onto the farm.  They wanted to do everything...and we did!

First up, the Cow Train.  Which was pulled by a tractor through a wet soppy muddy mess.  Jack and Lucy thought it was great fun...Maggie {the princess} opted out.

The U Pick Flowers was much more up Maggie's alley.  The Cow Train happened to loop around the flower garden so Lucy, Jack, and I waved to Maggie and Daddy as we slopped around the track.  As soon as we disembarked our ride Lucy raced over to pick some flowers of her own.  That girl is a little bit of everything...and we adore her for it!

We rode the Pedal Carts next.  The track was pretty muddy as well.  Jack had to bail Lucy out a few times.  Thank goodness for a big brother!

We managed to avoid any rain until right about this point.  As we were in the petting animal barn {the covered barn, mind you!} the sky broke open.  It poured for about 20 minutes.  It was just enough time to feed the animals and then all was clear.  Pretty ideal timing.

Don't you just love when things work out like that?

By the way, this hen "bit" Lucy.  Or so she claims.  A huge hug, a giant kiss, and a snack later, Lucy had forgotten all about it.

With the rain gone, we headed outside to hang with Belle and Bessie.  This is the closest they have ever come to us.  The kids had a grand time admiring their udders. {I can't make this stuff up}

Our next stop were the Pig Races.  Again, closest seat we've ever gotten.  They even built a new race track and pig house...might fancy up on that there farm.

And wouldn't you know, the announcer asked for volunteers and wouldn't you know Lucy was the first to raise her hand.  We were actually close enough that she was chosen.  We all get the biggest kick out of Lucy's bravery.

As if that weren't enough...Lucy's pig won the race!  And check out her prize.  I love the spice this girl brings to our family.

We made sure to visit every other attraction on the farm before braving the Corn Maze.  We did the Duck Races...

The Singing Chicken Performance...

The Corn Cannons {which Jack refuses to do every since he loosened a tooth about 2 years ago on this thing}...

And finally the Corn Hut {which I can NEVER get my kids out of}....

At this point, I felt like if we never made it out of the Corn Maze, at least I could say we made the most of our day on the farm.  So Daddy and I caved and we tackled Maze 3 per Jack's request.

Surprisingly, minus the mud, it was pretty painless.  I hate to admit it, but Daddy was a pretty swell navigator.  We were in and out in about 30 minutes.  Which left us time to enjoy the last few activities on the farm.

We giddy-uped over to the Kid's Corral where my pumpkins did some jumping, swinging, and more corn burying in the other corn hut.  Those corn huts can seriously keep them entertained forever.  The only way I got them out was the promise of picking out their pumpkins at the patch.

We ended our day right where we started...at the patch.  The kiddos grabbed three mini pumpkins to paint and then each picked out a large one to carve at home.

As the sky seemed to turn ominously dark, we scooted out of there just in time.

We now have a porch full of pumpkins and I couldn't be happier.  Just the October touch we needed!

Another happy October day on the farm!