Evan's 40th Birthday Bash

2009 is a big year for Evan and I. Luckily, it's a big year for Evan before me (my 30th is in September) so I could throw a killer 40th surprise birthday party for him. The party was amazing and really couldn't be more perfect. We are so blessed to have such great families and friends. We had a huge turnout (I believe the final count was 53 people)! He was definitely surprised too! Just look at that face- he he. Brownie points for me for the entire year! I really hope everybody that attended had a good time! Thank you so much for coming to make this celebration great!

It's been awhile since I've written so I'll do my best to update you on all of the fun and exciting things happening on Sandersville Road.

We had a rough week in January after we were hit with an ice storm. We, fortunately, were not affected as severely as some in Kentucky. With our house being built in a newer subdivision, all of our electricity is underground- thankfully we never lost power. Also, since our house is new, we don't have any large trees- thank goodness. We do have friends who live on the other side of town that were out of power for 5 days- brrr.

Because of the severe weather, schools and daycares (along with some places of business were closed) so I had the pleasure of watching Dylan for several days and Owen for one (Grace's buddies). Dylan is with Grace in the laundry basket and Owen is the one in the snowman towel. He he. The girl at the table is Kate- Grace's new buddy. It is so much fun to watch them interact and play together. I think Grace learns so much from other kids- I can't wait until she starts preschool!

Which brings me to another topic...we found a preschool for Grace. It's a Montessori based preschool. The Montessori method is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child and clinical observation on the part of the teacher. She will be in a classroom of 3-5 year olds. I think she'll really like learning from the older children in the classroom- and I think they will learn a lot from her also. I like the idea that it's not a "structured" classroom, instead is a learn as you go and learn from doing hands on activities rather than sitting with paper and pen. She has enough structure here at home so I really think she will thrive! She will start in August and will go 2 days a week. We are also considering putting her in a beginners ballet class around that time. Grace here is showing off her big muscles...so big!

Back to the weather, just several weeks after the ice storm (aka earlier this week), we had a horrendous wind storm. I thought we'd be in the clear, considering we didn't have any large trees with broken dangling branches. Mother nature decided to still get us though...and took part of our siding off of our house. Boo hoo- Luckily, our homebuilder sent a crew out today and replaced the damaged/ missing pieces. We weren't expecting this generosity so we were thrilled. Happy Valentine's Day to us!

Last but not least, we've been remodelling our master bathroom. We went from not so attractive towel bars, white walls, and vinyl flooring to amazing new towel bars, sage walls and new slate tile flooring. We did the project ourselves (took much longer than we expected) and are absolutely thrilled with the outcome. Home improvement projects really seem to bring Evan and I together- we are a great team!

Hope this blog finds you all well. I'll try to update more frequently!