Cohen's BIG Surprise

Friday morning, after registration,  Cohen and I headed to Charlotte.  We were having a girl's weekend with my WAIFS!  We met Tina and Tara and headed up to Tara's house and later Jessica met us there.  Cohen had no clue what we were doing other than just spending the weekend up there and she was excited about that in itself.  Once we were all at Tara's we had a big surprise for Cohen.  We all asked Cohen if she could do anything she wanted what would she want to do.  Her answer: "go to McDonald's"--my child is easy to please!  We then asked her if she could go to any show what would it be, and her answer was: "Taylor Swift".  RIGHT ANSWER!!  We told her that is where we were going and she smiled but didn't say too much.  I was videoing her reaction and to be honest this child isn't one to give you a big reaction so I didn't think too much of it.  I turned the video off and we were like, "well we hope your excited because we sure are."  At that moment she looked at all of us and said, "Well I just don't believe that's where we're going."  I wish so bad I had still be recording that because her face was priceless.  We had to convince her a little more and then she got excited.  She wanted her hair curled and wanted some of Jessica's red lipstick.  Jessica had gone all out, finding the "perfect" Taylor Swift outfit for the night, and she was right on of course.  We quickly changed and got ready to go.  Of course we had to sit in traffic but we got there in plenty of time, got parked and headed to get the tickets.  Cohen was having little squeals the whole way in.  I loved seeing her so excited!  We had GREAT seats for the concert, right beside the stage.  A HUGE thank you to Matt for getting us such awesome seats!   Ed Sheeran opened for her which Cohen wasn't all that into.  She knew 1 song but when it was time for Taylor I held her up and she was doing these little screams for her.  It was precious!  We had such a fun time.  Taylor Swift knows how to put on a show so we were very entertained!  The show was great and she played for a full 2 hours.  Cohen did start to get tired about halfway through but she was a trooper and would stand in her seat every time she would sing a song she knew, which was most all of them.  On one song she actually came over right to our seats.  The final song was "We Are Never Getting Back Together" and the big confetti drop was a hit!  Cohen still has a few confetti hearts from the show.  I can't thank my WAIFS enough for everything they did to make this such a special night for Cohen--It definitely was!

Ready to go...RED lipstick and all!

Cohen wanted to take a picture of all of us :)

Ticket in hand and ready to go in!

Of course we had to get the cotton candy

The start of the show!  ITS TAYLOR SWIFT

So Close!

Cohen's reaction to seeing her for the first time

Coming over to our seats

CONFETTI!

Cohen crashed 5 minutes after we got back to our car.  I know she was worn out from such a fun day.  She was up early on Saturday though ready for more fun.  We had a lazy morning then went out for some shopping that afternoon.  At the mall Cohen was wanting her picture made with all the mannequins.  She has always loved those things...weird I know!  She also had a fit when she saw the Easter bunny.  Now how she can love seeing a giant bunny but be scared of Santa Claus is crazy but she had a fit to see him so we let her.  We all had our iPhones out so we would have our own pics instead of buying theirs :)  I asked Cohen if that felt like a person in a bunny suit and she said, "no Mama, that was the real bunny and he was soft."  LOVE HER!  We finished our shopping trip with some take-out and headed back to eat in our sweats!  Nothing better!  Cohen and I drove back that night since I thought it would be easier for her to sleep during the drive.  It was such a fun time.  I love any time with the girls and this was such a special trip.  NOTHING LIKE IT!

Silly girl!

bunny love

Donuts with Dad and Kindergarten Registration

We had a very busy, exciting weekend, especially Cohen!  Friday was Donuts with Dad at school and Cohen was excited about that.  She did keep saying she was ready for Muffins with Mom but she was excited about Daddy's turn too.  She kept telling me she had made Daddy a tie picture but I have yet to see anything so she must still have that at school.  I did get a quick picture of them as they were leaving.

Friday was also kindergarten registration!  After eating donuts Kelly brought Cohen back home so I could take her.  I'm still in denial that this is so close but it became more real for sure!  Cohen was pretty funny as we were going through the stations.  She didn't quite understand that we were at the county's central office not at the actual school she will be going to.  She would point at things and ask me how that "thing" was going to teach her.  At one station I had several papers to fill out and she was given a color sheet and she looked at me and said, "I don't know why we are doing this and not learning."  She is very into learning right now and I had to laugh at her when she said this.  My little nerd :)  Each child is given a little test and they go in a room alone with one of the kindergarten teachers.  She was getting a little unsure while we waited for her name to be called but she jumped right up when it was her turn.  When she walked into the room and I was left to wait for her the tears were starting to come.  I kept trying to think of other things!  I never want her to see me but I am just tore up that my baby is already starting school!  Everything went great though and the teacher told me she was brilliant.  Cohen was ready to do it all again when she came out.  I know she is more than ready and that is what I'll tell myself.  

After registration we were on our way to Charlotte for the weekend.  We had a big surprise in store for her!

High Heels

Kate has a new love...high heel shoes.  She loves to get into the dress up shoe box and while she used to put the shoes on and they would fall right off, she recently has been able to keep them on and she LOVES to wear them.  I will find her regular shoes and socks in the floor and when I find her she has on her "heels".  My favorite is watching her and Cohen go through the house pushing their baby strollers in their high heels.  She will walk by and say "bye Mommy" and I will play right along with her.  Recently I was doing a little shopping in Commerce at J Crew and both girls were with me in the store.  They both went around the display I was looking at and when I got to them I found them looking at the clearance shoes and trying them on.  I couldn't help but laugh!  I'm sure the store workers wouldn't have thought it was as funny as me but I snapped a picture with my phone anyway before making them take them off.  The apples don't fall far from the tree, because I love shoes myself!

2 different shoes, wrong foot, who cares:)

sweetest feet!

Luckily they did keep their own shoes on when trying these shoes on!

This picture has nothing to do with the shoe fetish but I wanted to add it anyway.  I loved catching them both going to town on the beaters from my mixer.  I was making a cake and these two were more than happy to lick the beaters.  Cohen of course was hanging around waiting to have one, and this was Kate's first experience.  I think she is a pro already!

Color Me Lucky Run!

While 99.9% of my posts are usually about my kids, every now and then I have to throw in one that isn't to remind myself I do have somewhat of an identity too :)  JK, but only a little!  Last Saturday was another fun 5K for Dawn and I, and this time her daughter Grace ran it with us!  It was in Anderson, SC and was a St. Patrick's Day themed race.  Throughout the course people would throw green powder on you to turn your white shirt green and at the end everyone was grouped up at the finish line and threw gold powder into the air.  It was a fun time.  I think I was colored on one side mostly.  They had also provided everyone with a pair of sunglasses to wear.  We rocked those I think!  We did have a laugh on how it was warmer in January at the Hot Chocolate run.  This crazy weather can leave anytime and give us spring!  We had a fun time though and it didn't take us long to warm up!  Now we on to looking for our next "fun" 5K :)  Kelly was asking me about some we may want to do coming up and I told him we wanted to look for a lot of fun, interactive ones and he asked me if we were becoming 5k snobs.  Leave it to Hubs, I think he's jealous :)  I'm still pushing him to do some with us, so we'll see how that goes.  We are looking forward to the Kade's parade in April!

Before...I think we're shivering in this picture!

After!  All nice and green

Zoo Day!

Today we had a fun day off from school and spent it at the Greenville Zoo.  Luckily the rain held out and we ended up having a beautiful day.  We loaded up at Stacey's house, picked up Caron and headed to Greenville.  We let the kids have an early lunch at McDonald's then headed on to the zoo.  The kids loved seeing all the animals and would run from each one so excited.  Its so fun to watch them have such a fun time and be so excited about each animal.  Kate really loved the monkeys and Cohen didn't really say what her favorite was but she always enjoys the giraffes and we got to see the baby giraffe, Kiko this time.  We had the most excitement with the lions.  The first time we went through to see them they were resting on the rock like they usually are.  We walked on to something else and happened to look up and see the lions pacing in front of the glass. I walked back up there just to let the girls see them up close and a lady was with her family and was laying on the ground taking a picture.  She told me that the zoo keeper had told her that if she laid down it would get the lion's attention because they would think she was something to eat.  Kind of scary...yes!   We ended up rounding the kids back up to go see if they could stir those lions up too.  We knew they would get a kick out of it.  Well we definitely had the lions all stirred up!  They would pace back and forth and one got real frisky...jumping up on the glass, licking the glass, showing his teeth and gnawing at the glass.  We have lots of photos, and of course I didn't have my good camera again so it was all up to the phone!  Kate decided to lay on the ledge in front of the glass which must have really got the lion going because he was all over the glass in front of her.  You can see in one picture he looks like he's biting her head!   Rest assured she was totally safe and actually oblivious to the big lion!  It is a little freaky but we had ourselves a great laugh!   We finished seeing everything at the zoo, spent a little time on the nice big playground, and then headed home to get ready for dance & baton class.  It was a fun day with friends!

Group shot!

Another of the sweet group

Love the giraffes!

The first time seeing the lions...see how they are on the rocks being nice?!  Now here is where the fun with the lions starts!!

laying down getting the lion all stirred up!

the stare down...

As you can see, Kate is more interested in her Cheerios than this lion's big teeth!

FREAKY!  He thinks Kate is a snack size meal!

Still clueless even when he beats on the glass with his paws

I think he wanted in our picture!  Down Kitty!

Kate was trying to stir up the leopard but didn't work:)

fun on the swings!

UGA Basketball AND Gym Dawg Fun

I have been a slacker on the blog lately and we really haven't been up to much.  I feel like we stay busy but with our normal routine.  I know one thing, we are on a countdown to permanent springtime weather!
Cohen did get to have a lot of fun last week.  On Thursday night she had a special date night with Daddy.  Kelly got tickets for them to go to the Georgia vs. Kentucky basketball game.  Cohen had been to a women's basketball game a couple of years ago.  I was taking some photography classes at UGA so while I was in class one night, Kelly took her and Brock to the game.  She LOVED it especially all the dance music that they play and she was on the T.V. camera!  So getting the chance to go back to a men's game was exciting for her.  She really gets into all the music they play.  Kelly told me she would ask "Who's winning?" every  time someone would make a basket.  She did get to see something that doesn't happen all the time...Georgia beat Kentucky and by 10 points!  She was very excited about this and she called me as soon as they were in the car to tell me that Georgia had won by 10 points and she had got a pretty pom-pom.  I loved hearing her so excited.  I asked Kelly to take a picture for me while they were at the game and he sent this one to me.

Saturday night a group of us went to Athens to watch the Gym Dawgs!  Cohen had seen them for the first time last year and she still has talked about that.  I had told her we would be having a special girl's night out and she thought that was something special!  We headed to Athens on Saturday afternoon and we all went to eat then headed over to the Colliseum.  Cohen again loved dancing to all the fun songs they play.  I wonder how much of the gymnastics she takes in because she's too busy dancing to all the songs.  Its nice that there is always something going on to keep the kids entertained.  She & her best friend, Josie had a blast dancing to all the songs.  It was such a fun time for both of us.  I enjoyed the girl's night out as much as she did!
I have really been slack on taking my camera with me so I'm relying on my phone to take any pictures. They may be a bit blurry but its better than nothing.

The whole big group of kiddos!

a blurry one but one of us together