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What I heard...
"Mom. Haywee (Hayley - the cat) was hungry. So I gave her some food."

What I saw...

I know I've said it before, but I'm so glad he's cute. 'Cause it helps.

kitty and the beast

So - we got a cat at Christmas this year.

Correction: Avery got a cat at Christmas this year.

And Charlie loves to torture it.

A lot.

The first week we had her, I caught Charlie "hugging" her tightly around her tiny neck at least twice.

Thankfully, after only a few months of life with Charlie, Miss Kitty has definitely become smarter and more protective of her nine lives.

This picture, taken in January, may be the last one I'll ever see of Charlie holding Kitty. Because now, as soon as he comes near her she takes off in a full sprint.

And I can't say I blame her.

thankful for thanksgiving

My brother and sister-in-law moved to Savannah, Georgia earlier this year. From the moment they told us the news of their move, David and I have been excitedly planning our Thanksgiving trip to visit them.
Mostly because it means we get to see them.
But also, because it's Savannah...y'all...

Being in Savannah with all the beautiful people, southern hospitality, historically old buildings, and Paula Deen souvenir's made me just want to say, "y'all" after every phrase.
It was kind of obnoxious.
Even looking at the photos from our trip makes me want to bust out my Scarlett O'Hara accent. 

Our first day in Savannah, my brother and sister-in-law took us Downtown where we checked out beautifully ancient trees laden with Spanish Moss.

By the way - did you know that all that pretty moss is FULL OF MITES and whatnot? It's seriously a "look but not touch" situation - which is why, when Charlie tried to pick up a handful of it, I lost my ever-loving mind.

We watched the kids play for a little while before walking over to the fountain in Forsythe Park.

After walking around Forsythe Park, we took a tour of Downtown Savannah...y'all.

While downtown, we walked past the Mercer House which was used in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Look at the architecture on the building...

The next day, my brother and sister-in-law took us to Tybee Island where we spent some time playing on the beach.

And later that day, we went to see the 270 year-old Tybee Island Lighthouse.
Once we got there, we decided to just look at it.
You know, enjoy the beauty.
From outside the lighthouse.
Without walking up loads of stairs.
Because all the adults agreed that the only thing less appealing than paying tons of money to climb a million steps would be to climb a million steps while carrying 2 kids. 

Then we headed to The Crab Shack to eat seafood and check out some gators.

That night, we went to City Market in Savannah to visit the Savannah Candy Kitchen.

 

Charlie and Avery were in Heaven.
Evidently, Heaven has a gigantic pixie stixs dispenser and barrels of candy.

On Saturday, we decided to do a little shopping downtown.
One of the places I was dying to see was The Paris Market.
Everything in that store made me drool. The prices were kind of crazy, but loveliness and inspiration was everywhere.

(Can I just tell you what Charlie would do with those pretty books if I put them on my stairs? It would be anything but pretty)

After shopping a little, we headed to the roof of The Bohemian Hotel and watched boats on the Savannah River.

We took a stroll down the most beautiful streets ever...

...in order to get to our dinner destination: The Pirate's House. It's been serving people since 1763 and is the oldest house in the state of Georgia.

The Pirate's House's big gimmick is to have a "Pirate" walk around to greet it's guests. Which, I guess is cool.
If you're not 5.

If you are 5, and told that you were going to eat at a Pirate's House, you may be expecting something like these guys:

So, when the reality looked a little more like this guy:

Avery's 5 year-old reaction was...not good.
My brother had to literally tell the guy to leave the table because Avery was clinging to my neck in total fear.

The next day, we took a marathon of a trip home. An awesomely long, terribly extended, seriously arduous journey back. In the rain.
But our trip to Savannah was totally worth all of the travel inconveniences. I can't wait to go back to Savannah... y'all.

Charlie's Superhero Party

Charlie turned three on November 21.
He is unbelievably obsessed with superheros and "bad guys", so it seemed only fitting that he have a superhero themed party for him.

For this party, I decided to make the cake from scratch. Which, as it turns out, is a pretty nerve-racking decision since the only way to know if it's good or not is to serve it to everyone.
At the party.

Thankfully, Al Gore invented the internet.
And the Food Network invented Ina Garten.
And Ina Garten invented a seriously amazing chocolate cake recipe.
And included a handy video to watch while you make her amazing chocolate cake.

Bless you, Barefoot Contessa. You and your fancy scmancy parties, smugly overpriced ingredients, and fantastically intricate recipes are a-okay with me.

And - Charlie.

We rented a giant bounce house for the day which arrived at 9 or so that morning.
Charlie and Avery probably bounced in it for 7 of the 8 hours it was at our house.
The energy they have astounds me.
I bounced in it for 15 minutes and had jello legs the rest of the night.
Which either means that bouncing in a bounce house is hard, or I am seriously out of shape.
I can't be sure which...

Happily, a few months ago, I discovered that my brother Joseph is a close, personal friend of Spiderman.
Charlie insisted that he be invited to his party and talked about how "Piderman" was coming to his "bewrfday pawty" for weeks and weeks.

The next picture is what he did when he saw "Piderman" come around the corner:

 After greeting him, we sprayed him down with Spidey Spray.

 And Charlie opened his present from Spiderman.

Everyone loved Spiderman, but none more than our little friend Spencer.
She asked him to hold her hand and take a picture with him.
Then she sang him the Spiderman theme song.
I think it's safe to say that Spiderman's heart melted just a bit.

 

My Boy is Three. And announced to me the other day that he is no longer my baby, but a Big Boy.

Sorry, Kiddo. You may be a Big Boy, but you'll always be my baby.

 

*** Special thanks to my friend Spiderman for donning what he called a "grownup onesie" in public. I owe you one. Or two...

fall mantle

It's gone now.
Because half of the pumpkins rotted. And because I'm the kind of gal who gets rid of holiday decorations the day after the holiday is over.
But here's how it looked pre-rot.

I'm looking forward to adding a few more gourds next year. Having a mantle to decorate has been so fun!

if i twittered

I just found this post hanging out in the "drafts" section of my blog and thought I'd go ahead and post it... It was written in 2009. Remembering how life was for me just a couple of years ago makes me smile... Because now I can take a 5 minute shower with minimal consequences. Hooray.


I'm sure that most of you know what "Twittering" is, but I've just recently learned about it. If you don't, here's the definition according to Wikipedia:

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS (receive only), or through applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, and Feedalizr. The service is free to use over the web, but using SMS may incur phone services provider fees.

I don't have any interest in doing it, but if I did - here's what you might have read today:

- Jennifer is stirring her coffee with a baby spoon.
- Jennifer is trying to remove a penny from her CD player.
- Jennifer is changing a poopy diaper.
- Jennifer just found a moldy cheerio in the couch cushion.
- Jennifer is wondering if she'll get to take a shower today.

You get the point.

Riveting.
Fascinating.

Who wouldn't want to read that stuff?

halloween

It's Fall, I'm obsessed with Pinterest, and I'm not afraid to copy a good idea from someone smarter than I am.

inspiration source

...So that's what I did.

 A lot.

inspiration source.

A whole lot.

inspiration source

These guys, however, are total originals.

Happy Halloween!