#thankful

My brother and sister-in-law are here for the weekend!  We live far too far away from them, and visits are far too far inbetween... so it's so nice with four extra hands to help us with entertaining and horseplay and snuggles!  We love that they're here, we stayed up until midnight last night just drinking them in, and as we head into the late hours tonight, and plan for an early morning hunt tomorrow we know that we cram as much as we can into these visits!  It's going to be a great weekend!!!  Happy Thanksgiving from the Cahill family table!

Happy Thanksgiving

Lorelai's school had a fundraiser bake sale (this isn't your average bake sale... profits for the school average between $25,000 to $30,000 every year). So I always like to make something festive because it falls on the Thanksgiving holiday.  I was still undecided about what I would make because my past two years were pretty time consuming and I was still undecided the day before they were due... as luck would have it I was tinkering on my mom's FB and saw an inspiration!

A Rice Krispie Turkey!!!!!  Yum!!!!  Easy, cheap, and they sold out and people were asking for more!!!!  

CHEER

We're a now a full on cheer family!  I absolutely LOVE it, Lorelai's team is amazing and took first at the NCA Championship this past weekend!  It's an awesome high to watch her compete! 

Rusty and I have cheer MOM and DAD shirts!  We couldn't be prouder!  Our photo buttons arrive this week so we'll be ready for the next big competition!

Lorelai competed sick on Sunday.  It was hands down the most impressive show of character and sportsmanship I have ever seen in real life. I teared up. She never complained or even considered not performing.  Her coaches let her bring the wining plaque home from Nashville back to the gym where it is on display!!!

Awwwww

Quote for 7 years

"Give me a child until he is 7 and I will give you the man." - Jesuit Saying

Happy Birthday Mom! Happy Halloween!

Mr. Incredible is elk hunting... but the rest of the super hero family had a fantastic time trick-or-treating and handing out candy and celebrating our favorite witches birthday!  My BFF and her family came over for a bit too, it was a great night!

7th Birthday American Girl Art Extravaganza!

The welcome sign, painted by the birthday girl!  23 girls and 38 dolls had the greatest time celebrating Lorelai's 7th Birthday!

Opening the first gift of the day, a Rebecca doll from Meme and Grandpa!

The perfect picture!

The family!  My apron says "American Mommy"!

I made aprons for all the girls and their dolls!

Lorelai wanted an at home party, so I turned the living room into a American Girl party room!

It was gorgeous!

The girls and dolls got aprons, party hats and matching necklaces upon their arrival!  The necklaces had charms that said "Lorelai's Friend"

The place settings!  Notice the tiny cups, plates and canvases for the dolls?!  They also had tiny paint brushes on the cups!

AG wall art!

The florals!

The birthday cupcake!

The dolls!  Lorelai has 15 of her own!

Each girl received a miniature Girl Of The Year Doll, Isabelle... just like the one on Lorelai's cupcake!

The favor bags!  

Filled with Isabelle paper dolls!  And CDs with the Isabelle soundtrack!

The food station!  

Champagne punch!

23 girls and 38 dolls!

My little living doll!

The guests!

The present opening extravaganza!  Notice the Isabelle wall art?!

She said it was the best day of her life, mission accomplished!  Happy 7 baby, you deserve it, you're the best!!!

The piñata!

Get it girl!

Awww!

T- One Week to the Big 7 Party

Lorelai's first ever friend-birthday party is just a week away. And I'm pretty sure I've done more prep work for this party than I did for my wedding. Lots of little favors and tiny details.  The theme is American Girl Doll Art.  It's like Pintrest threw up in my living room. I've made hats, necklaces, aprons, and canvases for the dolls and girls, my fingers are burnt from the hot glue gun.  It's going to be fantastic, and I know Lorelai is thrilled. She's been a huge help with party preparations!  Here's a sneak peek at the mantel display, and the welcome sign L painted!  

HYDY

ESPN Game Day was there and we hopped in the car planning to just watch the game from The Grove, but with the magic of Ole Miss on our side... we got tickets!  Ole Miss won! It was an amazing game!  What a day, a perfect beautiful fall day!  Topped off with dinner at Old Venice!  

There's a hamster in my pocket!

Lorelai got a hamster last weekend, she'd been dying for one and began checking out books at the library on how to take care of them... so we got one!  And as soon as she got the hamster she started asking for a shirt with a pocket so she could carry it around. Yesterday I found a dress with a pocket purse and she is thrilled!!!  

Clean Homemade Pumpkin Lattes!

This morning we made our own clean healthy cheap pumpkin lattes!  They were ahhhh-mazing!  I got the recipe from Pintrest, and ta-da they were fantastic!  Two cups of coconut milk, a fourth a cup of pumpkin puree (we used the canned kind from the baking aisle), some cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice, and about six cups of strongly brewed coffee!  The Pintrest recipe suggested two hours on the crockpot to warm this, but we don't get up early enough to make that happen so we opted for a stove top warming.  It made enough for more than six lattes... so next time we'll probably scale down the serving size.  But, what a deal and the house smelled sooooooooooo good!  

Fall is here y'all!  And with it comes my bae's birthday and Halloween and costumes and layers and all the things of the season we love most of all!

Fair Talent

Lorelai did amazing in the state fair talent show!!! She sang Goodship Lollipop and knocked my socks off!  

Dinner for 3, $5

There's nothing I love more than a good challenge and feeding my family for less than $5 is right up my alley of fun games!

We had whole grain spaghetti ($1.09 for the box) for dinner tonight, with store brand traditional marinara sauce ($0.89), head of romaine lettuce ($0.60)... we used salad dressing we already had. And we made sausage meatballs ($2.99 for the pound of sausage but it made enough for two meals, so a cost here of $1.50). 

Making the grand total of the meal for three $4.08 plus tax (and plus whatever the small cost of the dressing, salt/ pepper and garlic we already had on hand... so less than $5 total).  Go us!!  Healthy-ish and economical!  And we actually have leftovers too so it's really a win, win, win!!!

Front Porch Make Over

Ta-da!  New stone border, new dark rockers, and Ls rocker painted, and I painted the end table for the time being!  It looks so fresh and clean!  

New Flower Beds!

I wish I had some more before pics of how bad my flower beds were.  We got a quote from the nursery, and it was shocking. So we did the work ourselves (seven hours and four trips to lowes) and we saved $800+.  Yippee!

I'm not sure Ls little rocker has ever made a blog appearance, we've had it for years though. How cute?!  Although I'm thinking we need new rockers for the front... seven years in the sun has taken it's toll. 

Round off Back handspring

Sky Zone

We have a trampoline park in Jackson now, and it's awesome! Lorelai has been a few times for birthday parties and play dates and absolutely loves it!  Last night she threw her first ever round off back handspring... and I have it on video!  

http://youtu.be/HKPgzFIjY7w?list=UUQxh5MFbVK3KikS2eStoBBg