We have spent at least part of this weekend preparing for the outer bands of Hurricane Gustav - we're right at the breakpoint between the Hurricane Warning/Tropical Storm Warning line, so we're not having to evacuate, but we're doing a few things to get the house and the girls ready for what could be a day of pretty nasty weather tomorrow.

But, last weekend was a different story - we were only dealing with a minimal tropical storm and we weren't even under any warnings for Tropical Storm Fay.  The girls had been invited to two birthday parties on Saturday.  One of the parties was cancelled and in the morning, the winds and the rain were starting to pick up, so Abigail's swimming lesson was called off by the teacher.  We headed to the first birthday party and on our way over, we called our friends to see when the other party was rescheduled and they told us that it would be next month, but that they were still having cake and ice cream and we could drop by after the first party.  So, we were back to two parties.

The first one was for this little cutie - oh my goodness, he is a so adorable you just want to kiss him (or, in my case, follow him around with the camera )


It was his first birthday - it seems like just yesterday I was holding him in the hospital two days after he was born....

Here's his adorable big sister



Their parents are friends of ours from several years back.  I worked with their mom in our pre-stay-at-home mom days and their daddy, Kevin, was in Steve's National Guard Unit.  Or I should say, Steve was in Kevin's National Guard Unit, since Steve is no longer in the Guard and Kevin still is....Any prayers that you can offer up for Kevin and Brooke and the kids would be greatly appreciated.  He leaves for Texas on Tuesday morning to start his year-long deployment in Iraq.  I have a lot of opionins about of lot of things, but here's one I think everyone can agree on.  War sucks!  I'm not sure how you go about explaing to a one year old and a two and a half year old that Daddy will be gone with work for at least a year.  We still have trouble explaining the concept of today and tomorrow to Gracie...

You may wonder what my kids were doing at the party while I was wandering around taking pictures.  Well, Gracie was stealing stuff from the centerpiece and using them for toys (to her credit, she wasn't alone in her petty larceny)



and Abigail....well, she was doing what she always does...finding whatever she could to stuff in her mouth

while I took some more shots of the birthday boy


Then, Steve started getting antsy that we were going to be late to the other party, so we said our goodbyes
(this is Abigail's new way of saying goodbye - to attack the person she wants to tell bye)





and headed out into the weather again.  It wasn't until we were about two miles down the road that Steve realized his watch was still set to Eastern Standard time from our trip to Atlanta the week before, so it was really an hour earlier than he thought it was....ooops...

Our next party was for Madelyn, the daughter of two of Steve's friends from school.  Our girls love, love, love Madelyn.  She's right smack in the middle of the two of them agewise, and it's so funny to watch them together.   Madelyn makes me smile...she has the sweetest personality and who wouldn't love this grin?




After cake, Madelyn opened her presents from her grandparents and since Gracie didn't have any centerpieces to steal at this party, she just tried to take the presents!  Yikes!  I promise I'm trying to work with her on party etiquette




Then, the three girls settled down to watch a little bit of Charlotte's Web...


Then, we headed outside for the pinata.




After the dads finally got the candy to come out and the girls loaded up their brown bags with lollipops and tootsie rolls, the wind really started gusting and the rain started to come down a little heavier, so Steve and I loaded up the girls and made our way home.  I'm so glad that the weather didn't rain on any of our parties!