Kate is Eight!

This weekend we celebrated Kate's 8th birthday!!  This year, we rented the Trousdell Pool for her party and since the morning was already booked, we chose the evening time from 6:30-8:30 pm.  That time ended up working out because my big work deadline was the Friday before (a month earlier than normal).  So on Saturday, we had all day to get the final things needed for the party that night!

The Invitation:

Before her party, we let Kate open her birthday gift (in addition to the huge party) from us - a mermaid tail! 

An hour before the party, it was pouring rain, but thankfully it stopped just in time for the party to start!  We took a few pictures in the rain before all our guests arrive. 

Our little mermaid!

 Another present from mommy and daddy - a new bathing suit that says "Mermaid Party".  Perfect for the occasion!

 The two birthday girls!

 And a big thanks to Mrs. Marleni for taking this family picture!

 Kate with CJ, Bree-Ana and Millie.  

Mimi and Papa also stopped by the party but I wasn't able to get a picture of them with Kate before they left.  Maybe next year!

 Our party tables - complete with pizza (Little Caesars at the birthday girl's request), bread sticks, chips, grapes and a cookie cake!

 The older kids had a blast on the big water slide!

 Sweet little Cooper.

 Kate and Emily (one of her friends from Roberts and After-School)

 Noelle, Kate and Emily

 Group shot!  

Noelle, Emily, Audrey, Kate, Sterling, Izzy and Caroline.  It was hard to catch all of Kate's friends that were at the party but here were just a few. 

After an hour of swimming, we gathered the girls together to sing Happy Birthday and eat cookie cake!  I had asked for a seashell for the cookie cake but it turned out to look more like a shield.  Haha.  It still tasted great and there wasn't any left by the end of the party.

 Opening gifts!

Shortly after this picture, the bottom dropped out and it stormed on our few remaining friends.  We had a wonderful time and are so thankful for all the friends and family that came out to help us celebrate!

Sunday was Kate's actual birthday and she decided she wanted to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel to celebrate. 

 The night at evening church service, Kate wore her "I'm the Birthday Girl" shirt and princess crown that says "It's My Birthday"!

It was a fun-filled weekend celebrating our big eight year old!

Wearing her birthday crown to bed.

Happy Birthday, Kate!  We love you!!

Hurricane Irma

Almost one year to the day, we were hit by another hurricane (on September 10th).  This time, Hurricane Irma, was a monster category size 4 that hit Naples and moved up the west coast, straight towards Tallahassee.

I didn't realize Irma was even a threat until late Monday night which was Labor Day.  Apparently Governor Scott had issued a state of emergency earlier that day and people were already starting to buy up fuel, bottled water and generators.  The projections kept shifting and by Tuesday and Wednesday, it looked like the east coast would be affected.  However, as the storm neared Florida (moving less than 10 mph), the projections showed it hitting the west coast.

The Governor closed state offices for Friday earlier in the week but we were hopeful that schools would not be closed.  But, late that Thursday night, a decision was made to close all schools in the state.  I'm glad we were off Friday because we had plenty of time to prepare for the storm. The one good thing about the hurricane is it forces you to do chores that have been put off.  Justin cleaned out the gutters, which had a fern, pine tree and a crete myrtle growing in them. Does that tell you how long it's been since we cleaned those out?!  On Saturday, Papa and Justin worked hard to haul off a huge pile of tree stands that had been stacked in our backyard for a couple years and took them to the dump.  I can see the back corner of the yard now - hallelujah!

Thursday before we left work, we had to put our computers and monitors in trash bags...very official hurricane prepping.  That evening, I met Justin and the kids for dinner at Applebee's and then Kate and I attempted to go to Walmart to get a birthday gift for Sterling's party on Saturday.

Since Walmart was out of bottle water, bread, and batteries we were only able to buy ice cream bars, toys and some candy.  Who needs anything else during a hurricane? :)

 Friday morning we went to two different Publix's trying to buy a few more supplies and then on to Books A Million to get books for our anticipated power outages. 

 How we entertain ourselves.

 Friday afternoon, we attempted to fit the boat in our garage.  Sadly, it's worth more than either one of our vehicles so we decided it was better to shelter it during the storm. 

 Thankfully our neighbor Brock and his father-in-law came over to help Justin maneuver it in and it fit!

 Once the boat was secured, we moved on to cleaning out the gutters.  

 He's a good man.

Gas stations were either out of gas or packed.

 Our last errand on Friday night was to fill up our two gas cans for the generator and top off the truck.  We decided to fill up at Costco since there's an attendant there - which meant a stress-free fill up despite the circumstances.  By Friday, the interstates were packed with South Florida evacuees and getting gas involved a long wait time.  We picked up pizza at Dominos and let the kids eat in the car while we waited at Costco.  Thankfully it took less than 20 minutes and we were back home for the night.

Saturday morning, I took the kids to Sky Zone for Sterling's 8th birthday party!  It worked out that we were able to go and let the kids burn off a lot of energy. 

 Ready to jump!

 Sterling and Kate

 Rhiannon and Mason

 Anytime we were home, I was glued to the weather channel even though it's basically the same information over and over again.  When I wasn't watching the weather, it was fun to get on Facebook and see all the memes about the hurricane.  It was good distraction and something to lighten the mood.  

But of course we were very worried about all our loved ones and friends that were in the path of the storm!  

Thankfully, the storm started to fall apart once it hit Naples and Tallahassee was spared when it finally made its way up to our area.  We heard back that all our loved ones in Naples were fine and Aunt Linda even had power back quickly because she's on the same grid as the hospital. 

State offices and schools were closed on Monday and Tuesday after the storm, which allowed us plenty of time to clean up.  We were without power all day on Monday (6am - 7pm) but I won't complain about that!  On Tuesday, Granddaddy left for Miami early in the morning with his car loaded down with generators and fuel to help his family in Miami.  Since he was gone, I took the kids over to my parent's house to help clean up their yard while daddy cleaned up ours, which had minimal limbs.

 Ready to work!

 Before

After!

When had finished with my parent's front and back yard, Nanny called and said her big freezer had stopped working, so we all headed over there to help her salvage what food we could and throw out the rest.  It was a busy day and the kids worked hard, but their hard work payed off and were treated with a trip to Target to spend the money they had earned that day.

I hope that was the last hurricane of this season but either way, we were extremely lucky here in Tallahassee that the storm wasn't anything more than it was.