{ Nine is Fine! }

Emma Taylor turns 9 years old today....so hard to believe!  We celebrated her birthday with friends last month, but did a little more celebrating this week with just our family.

Here's Emma Taylor opening her present.

She asked for a hundred dollar bill.  She said she'd only received checks for $100 or 5 $20 bills, in the past, so she wanted the real deal.

She was pretty excited about her first Benjamin!

Me and my birthday girl! 

We had Gigi's Cupcakes after dinner at the place of her choosing...Pizza Factory! 

I love the birthday plate that she got from her birthday party at Wet Paint.  Perfect for eating birthday cupcakes! 

Hope the wish was a good one!

Since the cupcakes are so huge, I just bought 3 for us to share.  Birthday Cake, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Mississippi Mud.  Yum!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Emma Taylor.  Love you to the moon and back!

{ Instagram Saturday }

Instagram is all the rage these days and I've just joined the bandwagon.  Anna Grace couldn't believe I didn't have an account, so one night (since I was so very uncool not having Instagram...LOL!) I uploaded it and have been hooked ever since.  It's fun! 

Here's our Saturday in Tuscaloosa!  Started at Courtney's adorable new house in Northport.  Love it!  Then we all went for lunch at Wintzell's.  Delish and fun!

fun in the Target dollar aisles!

 waffles cones at TCBY

then back home to pick up Harrison who opted to spend the day with Ben and Cameron...probably a good choice!

That was our Instagram Saturday!  Hope yours was happy too!

{ Wet Paint Party! }

Emma Taylor decided she wanted to have her birthday party early this year, so she could easily get invitations to her friends.  She also decided she wanted to do it at Wet Paint, the new pottery painting studio in Tupelo.  She loved it!

We had a room full of girls...plus Harrison and Cameron for her party on May 22nd!

Everyone is hard at work!

Proud of her piggy bank!

Papa D even gets involved as the boys paint their Hummers

Time for cookie cake.

Making a wish!

Now time for presents!

 She loves it!

 

All the girls!

Ali Grace, Brenna, Chloe, Carlin and Avery Kate

Kailey, Anna Grace, Ansley, Emma Taylor, Sarah, Mia and Addi

Such a fun party!

{ Cozumel Excursion }

After sailing for a day and a half we finally made it to port in Cozumel.  The water was beautiful!  We were happy to see dry land and were ready to find the beach!

Silly girls waiting for our taxi!

We took an excursion to Paradise Beach and it was fantastic!  PB is a resort with beach access and a gorgeous pool.  It was the perfect place to spend our day in Cozumel.

The kids searched for shells and coral...

paddled around on surf boards...see our 3 girls?  Emma Taylor is the little speck by the trampoline!

They also loved playing on all these water toys.  The slides were the favorites!

Harrison and Kailey

These two little daredevils went parasailing and LOVED it!

I would have been scared to death, but they had a ball!

The big kids went diving with 5 minutes of instructions. YIKES!  Jennifer, Ann and I decided we'd pass!

Kevin and Lee had fun, Lee's eardrum didn't fare so well.  He says a bursted eardrum is pretty painful.

We ate a great lunch on the beach and spent some time in the pool. 

What a fun and relaxing day in Cozumel!

We took a taxi back into town and stopped at souvenir and surf shops.  Everyone came home with a t-shirt or hat from Ron Jon Surf Shop.  Ben and I grew up loving to stop and shop at Ron Jon, so I thought the kids might like it too!  No pictures of all that....sorry!  We were worn out after the long day at the beach, so we hopped back on the boat to relax and EAT!

We didn't get nearly as many pictures as I'd like, but we had a fabulous time on our trip.  The kids especially enjoyed every minute of it.  Such a fun experience for them!