A Baby and a Birthday---Virginia Style!

**WARNING: LONG post with lots of pictures!!!!***

I don't know why but I always have it in my head how things are going to go and they usually never go that way. For example, I just knew that when we told Caroline we were going to have a baby, she would jump up and down, giggle and scream. She didn't: (this is really long, so seriously, if you don't watch it, no biggie):



RoyBoy is clueless. He just knows I have a "beebee" in my belly. So, funny me, I put this cute shirt on him so he could help spread the news to my family. I thought for sure, they'd see him run down the hallway and say, "YOU'RE PREGNANT?????!!!" (Don't worry...he's crying because I took his picture when he didn't want me to, not because there is a baby coming):

Dolly came over and I just knew she'd pick up on the shirt right away. Nope. We sat in the family room and talked and she would look at RoyBoy and smile and I would look at her with a weird smile, like "come on, Dolly!". Finally Caroline told her I had a baby in my tummy and then she got it! Daddy thought his shirt said "Big Bird". Denise had the best reaction. I was holding RoyBoy when she came to the house. She looked right at him and saw his shirt and said "Hi, Big Bro!" and then went on with her conversation. Right over her head! Finally it dawned on her after we all looked at her like she was crazy:) There were some funny reactions.

Caroline woke up to all of the balloons that the Birthday Fairy left. Good thing she knew Caroline was at Grammy's house:

For her birthday, she wanted a Princess Tiana party. So, I decided to bring the Bayou to Virginia and I had fun decorating for it. Roy gathered some branches from the woods and we hung them from the ceiling with white lights and added moss and butterflies:

I used mason jars in the center of the table with candles. When all the lights were turned out, it was really pretty, if I do say so myself.

I also became an etsy shopper for this party and I love it! I bought the cupcake toppers from a seller on there and Caroline's Tiana tutu came from there, too!

On the menu was shrimp and grits. I'm not a grits fan, but if you like butter, bacon, cheese, shrimp, more cheese, and tomatoes, this if your kind of meal. Click here for the recipe. I knew some of the kids wouldn't eat it so I had "frog legs" (chicken fingers) for them. They were nervous to try them because they really believed us!

But before the dinner began, Caroline wanted to be introduced and perform a dance number to one of the songs from the movie. She did such a good job. I thought she was going to back out, but she was serious!It's a tradition in my family to go around the table at birthday parties and tell the person why you love them. I had her stand up on her chair and look at each person when they talked to her. She was beaming with pride while each relative took their turn telling her why they loved her:

Here are some other pictures from the party:

We had fun in VA the rest of the week. We had lunches with my sisters, relaxed, played outside, went to see a movie, had some of Grandaddy's famous pancakes:

....and had a few sleep overs. Margaux had her first sleep over and these girls were excited!!!

They didn't go to bed until about 11:00:




RoyBoy loves Nuggett (my parent's dog). And he loves Nuggett's cage. I found him in there a few times:

On the last night in VA, Maddie, Grayson and Janna performed a praise and worship routine they made up for the family to "Washed Away". It was impressive and they did a great job:

So now Easter is over, Caroline's party is over. Back to attempting to clean my house and keeping up with the laundry: