Claire's 9th Birthday

Claire had a wonderful 9th birthday! She woke up to presents and a fun birthday breakfast.

She ate on our family birthday plate.

I can't believe how grown up she is!

Here she is with our birthday plate through the years.

She has worn the same birthday bow for every single birthday. I hope she still wears it when she's 100!

Two friends came over to celebrate and spend the night.

We also celebrated with family at Fazoli's ~ her choice. The girl loves her breadsticks!

Claire is so special, and we are so thankful for her. I am so blessed to be her mama.

Claire's 9th Birthday Interview

Every year, I always ask the kids to answer the same interview questions on their birthday. I love looking back at their answers from years past. I hope one day they will enjoy reading about themselves when they were younger. If not, it can just be one more thing that they remember their crazy mama making them do every year. I'm sure it's a long list.


Claire's 9th Birthday Interview 

1. What is your favorite color? pink
2. Who is your best friend? Sydney Mains
3. What is your favorite thing to do? play outside and watching Full House
4. What is your favorite food? macaroni and cheese and poppyseed chicken
5. What do you like to do with your family?go out to eat
6. What is your favorite toy?makeup and iPod
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? a pop star
8. What makes you happy? when I get presents, when I get to play with Sydney, going on vacation, eating chocolate
9. What makes you sad? when I get in trouble, when nobody can come out to play, homework
10. What is your favorite show to watch? Full House, ICarly, Teen Titans Go, Clarence
11. What is your favorite book? Meet Addy
12. What do you love to learn about? animals and research
13. Where do you like to go? shopping, Disney World, Myrtle Beach, lots of places
14. What do you think about before you fall asleep? secrets and singing
15. If you could meet someone famous who would it be? Ariana Grande
16. What is something you are really good at? drawing, acting, singing
17. What is something new you'd like to try? ice skating and dancing
18. What is your favorite song to sing? "Bang Bang"
19. What is your favorite movie? Harry Potter (all of them)
20. What game do you like to play? hide and seek in the dark

Keep On Survivin'

It seems as if I should have added one more thing to my list of 39 things I don't want to do while I'm 39.

Find a frog in my house in the middle of the night.

Technically, I wasn't the one who found the frog. The story goes a little something like this...

Parker came into our room in the middle of the night and told Brian that there was a frog in the bathroom. I was sound asleep, so I had no idea all of this went down until the next day. When Brian went to investigate, fully intending to find a frog shaped piece of fuzz in the corner, what he found was a frog. A real frog. When I heard this story, I pictured this only even uglier and bigger (the size of the bathtub for example).

Brian assured me that it was a tiny frog that looked suspiciously like Claire's African dwarf frog that resides in a tank in her room. Claire's frog, Ella Katie Murray, is known to be a survivor. First of all, she's lived almost three years. Parker's frog only lived about a year. Secondly, she's survived for months and months in the dirtiest, nastiest, can't even see through the water it's so foggy tank. Maybe we aren't the best frog owners, but that's beside the point. Yep, that girl's a survivor.

My theory is that Ella Katie was so deprived of clean water that she managed to find a way to escape from her tank in a search for the nearest water (the bathroom). I seriously can't find any way that she could have escaped, and it's a mighty long way from that tank in Claire's room to the far corner of the bathroom. Somehow she did it. So Brian, in his middle of the night sleepy stupor, gave her what she was looking for. Water. (Insert flushing sound here.)

We are hopeful that she's swimming in the sewer somewhere singing (in the words of Destiny's Child), "I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it, I'm a survivor, Keep on survivin'".

Swim on, Ella Katie, swim on.

What I Learned In October

1. Elderly frogs are surprisingly strong and determined. (More on this tomorrow...)

2. Claire officially has what my family refers to as the "Friday Foot". Listen people, my side of the family has big feet. Since my maiden name was Friday (yes, like the day of the week), we've always called it the "Friday Foot". I bought her some new boots. They are a size 8 1/2. IN WOMEN'S. May I remind you that she just turned nine years old?

3. Parker's foot is pretty big too. Time will tell whether it will officially be a "Friday Foot".

4. I really like to sleep in my own bed. (I already knew this, but since we traveled a lot in October, I got a big reminder.)

5. However, I really love to travel. I seriously can't get enough of exploring and seeing different places. New places, places I've been before, places I've never even heard of, etc, etc, etc. I love it all. (I already knew that too. Ha!)

6. We need a much longer fall season. The beautiful colors and the cool (but not yet cold) weather just doesn't last long enough.

7. I really love Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks. Since I'm not much of a coffee person, I never gave them a chance. Until this year. And even though I'm late to the party, I'm hooked. Now for the bad news...

8. Starbucks told me yesterday that they are out of Pumpkin Spice FOR THE YEAR! I looked at the girl like she must be seriously mistaken. She told me again. FOR THE YEAR. I just don't understand. PSL has to be one of their best sellers. Why would they quit selling them at the end of October? Please. Somebody. Do. Something. For. The. Love.

Let's just stop there. I'm not sure I have the will to go on. (See #8)

What did you learn in October (silly or serious)?

Halloween 2014

What a fun Halloween! On Thursday, we carved our jack-o-lantern. The kids drew on the face and took turns cutting it out.

On Friday, we made homemade pizza before heading out for a rainy, cold Halloween.

Claire was a beautiful butterfly and Parker wore his woopie cushion costume for the fourth year in a row. I'm not sure if it's just tradition for him now or if he really likes it that much. I don't mind though because it's a whole lot better than the costumes in stores for boys his age. They are all so evil and gross! Not to mention, reusing a costume is free. Mama likes free!

We have a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating. There are kids everywhere, and lots of fun neighbors who enjoy handing out candy.

They both came home with buckets overflowing! We definitely won't run out of candy for a long time!

We hope you had a fun Halloween!

Halloween Through The Years

Happy Halloween! We always have a fun Halloween around our house. Our neighborhood has lots of kids AND lots of friendly neighbors who give out candy. People who don't live in our neighborhood even come because it's the place to be on Halloween night! Parker and Claire love trick or treating with lots of friends. Here are a few pictures from Halloweens past. (I didn't have time to go back farther than 2008!) 

You may notice some recurring themes with Parker: pirate, pirate, pirate, whoopee cushion, whoopee cushion, whoopee cushion 

Any guesses what he is dressing up as this year???

2008

  

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

I'll be back soon with a recap of Halloween 2014!

Sixty

October 30, 1954. Sixty years ago today.

Paul Friday and Shirley Humphreys stood before family, friends, and our wonderful God to commit their lives to each other and to serving the Lord together for the rest of their lives. That was the beginning of a beautiful legacy. But a marriage like theirs doesn't just happen.

As everyone does, they had lots of ups and downs. Military service, building a home, death of parents and siblings, job changes, birth of three babies, six grandchildren, and now even two great-grandchildren. These things were all part of their story together. I'm sure there were many other small and big things during the years. Through it all, their love remained constant because of their commitment to each other and the Lord.

I am so thankful for their commitment. I had the privilege of being raised by parents who never discussed divorce. Never once did I worry that it was even an option. The security of that is priceless. Brian and I are committed that our children will never have that worry either.

As they stood up and said their vows sixty years ago, I can guarantee that they didn't have any idea what was in store for them throughout life. Together they walked through it all.

Even today, as my Daddy spends his 60th wedding anniversary in heaven and my mama spends it here on earth without him, their love is still strong. We are all eternally blessed by their legacy. I am forever thankful.