Back To School Bash

Every year, our church has a school supplies drive before the beginning of the school year. Since we decided to forgo Vacation Bible School this year, we thought that a Back to School Bash would be a dynamic start to the school year. We rented blow up houses, obstacles courses, a slide, and a mini bouncer for younger children. There were hot dogs, desserts, and drinks, as well as a special surprise at the end of the evening: the Snow-Cone truck and fireworks!!! Parents and children grabbed a bag of school supplies on the way out. It was a great success!

Ruby Tuesday With Daddy

We LOVE Ruby Tuesday! We always use the $10 off of two entrees coupon when we eat there and it saves us quite a bit of money! ($10 to be exact :D) 

 Ava grabs for the fork.

Looking away!

My Bucket List-What I Want To Accomplish Before I Die

1. Live a life that is pleasing to God. I have to work at this every day.

2. Raise godly and righteous children.

3. Be a supportive wife for my husband.

4. Set up a college scholarship fund. If it weren't for a scholarship, I would not have been able to go to college.

5. Ride a camel around the Great Pyramid at Giza.

6. Visit the Seychelles, the Maldives, Tahiti, Zanzibar, Easter Island, and the Galapagos Islands. To me, these are the most exotic places on the face of this planet. I want to go there!

7. Go on safari in Africa.

8. Live in Nepal for a year or two doing mission work.

9. Take a Cunard World Cruise (110 days)

10. Spend a week at the Biltmore Estate relaxing and learning to fly fish. :)

11. Go bird watching in Costa Rica.

12. Renovate a barn.

10 Random Facts About Me

1. The letter "A" is my favorite letter of the alphabet. It is extremely aesthetically pleasing to me.

2. I gained 52 lbs. during my pregnancy with Ava. I will not tell you the starting weight or the ending weight, though!

3. The Ankylosaurus is my favorite dinosaur. I know that it is so weird for a person to have a favorite dinosaur, but that is just me.

4. When I was in 4th grade, I would get home from school and pull out the Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia and read for pleasure. At one time, I could tell you almost every U.S. state motto and state flower.

5. I played "Hard to Get" with Jeremy when we were dating! :)

6. I am extremely competitive. Since Jeremy is also competitive, we do not play games together anymore. We have found other ways to have fun without feeling like we have to compete with one another. :)

7. Jeremy proposed to me in the Opryland Garden Conservatory in Nashville, TN.

8. Jeremy was my 1st kiss!

9. I came up with Ava's name when I was 16. I read in a tabloid that Heather Locklear named her daughter Ava, and I loved it ever since!

10. I hate barbeque. I know that it is practically a sin to hate barbeque when you live in the South, but meat should not look like that. It should come in a filet or a slab. :)

Storytime Zoo Trip

This past Tuesday, instead of planning a traditional storytime, our group went to the Birmingham Zoo. We loaded up our church bus with strollers, diaper bags, and lots of kids!! Even though the heat index was 111 degrees that day, we had a great time! We sat in the air conditioning as much as possible and then wheeled the kids around to look at all the animals. Ava even snuck in a nap! It was hot, and I felt like I was having a heat stroke when I got home (no lie) but the actual activity was great!

We've Got Cows!

The title is a line from the movie Twister :) I hope that made you laugh!

In all honesty, we do have cows. My parents, that is. My mom, dad, brother, and sister live on 25 acres of land that is part of a larger 150 acres owned by my grandparents. Every day at the same time, the cows cross the pasture in front of my parent's house to go to the two ponds where they will sleep for the night. Jeremy, Ava, and I arrived at my parent's house just in time to see the cows cross the pasture. We took her outside to see these cows! She thought they were so funny! Whenever the cows would breathe on her, she laughed really loud and really hard. It was too cute!

 This is my brother, Brendon (the cow whisperer), and his heifer, Jessica (Jessie for short) He named her when she was born and has somehow trained her to come to him. He probably had some help from my dad and grandfather, but she clearly likes Brendon.

 Brendon introduces Jessica and Ava! Too bad Ava isn't looking!

 Ava notices Jessica for the first time.

Ava got to pet Jessica several times with lots of help from my mom. Ava's favorite part was patting Jessica on the nose. Jessie would snort and the air would make Ava giggle! She loved it!

Crossing The Mississippi River

If you read my blog regularly, you know what a complete nerd I am. I am the type of mom that will have my kids on the side of the road taking pictures of state line signs every time we pass into a different state. At least it isn't county line signs!

Here are the pictures I took of Ava and Jeremy as we passed into Mississippi:

New, New, New, and New!

The Pate Clan visited the Watkins side of the family in Texas last week. We had a great time getting to see Gigi (my mom), Papaw (my dad), Uncle B (my brother), and Aunt Britt (my sister). We also got to meet Aunt Britt's fiance, Eric, for the very first time! Brittany and Eric will tie the knot on January 7th, 2012. Miss Ava will be a flower girl in her wedding! I will write a more extensive post about my trip when I have more time, but right now I want to post some of my new goodies from our Texas trip:

 My new Coach purse that my mom gave to me! It has been previously owned by Lori Aguilar (my mentor teacher when I was in my last year of college. She is an amazing teacher who taught me so much about children, learning, and discipline. I know she took great care of it!) My mom no longer uses it, so she gave it to me! :) Lucky me!!

 My new Clinique make-up bag! This is a bonus bag that my mom never used! I love it! (My mom also loaded me up on Clinique make-up that she bought and never used!) 

Ava's new diaper bag! Whenever I visit my family, I always make a trip to Sam Moon Trading Company, a wholesale shop in Dallas that sales knock-off brand purses, jewelry, home decor, luggage, belts, and much more. I found this piece of luggage right as I walked into the store. It is not actually a diaper bag, but I am using it as one. When Ava grows out of it, she can use it as an overnight bag.

It's a brand new car! (In Bob Barker's voice, of course!) We totally did not plan on buying a new car in Texas, but we had a fortuitous encounter with this Buick Enclave, at Stewart Motor Company, in Corsicana, Texas. As a last minute decision, Jeremy put his Nissan Titan up for sale on Ebay the week before we left for Texas. As luck would have it, the truck sold on the Sunday afternoon of our visit with my parents. We were looking at new vehicles that afternoon! The Enclave is my dream car! I never in a million years expected that we would be able to have one. But, we have some very good friends who happen to own Stewart Motor Company, and they gave us a great deal. It is a 2009 and has been owned by one other person ( a girl that I went to high school with) I am completely happy with everything on this car. I feel so much safer driving this car with Ava in tow. The 11 hour drive back home was so much nicer because there was so much more room!

Pasta With Lentil Bolognese...

In an earlier post, I mentioned buying a new brand of baby food that I wanted Ava to try. Sprout is an organic baby food company co-founded by celebrity chef, Tyler Florence. While I do not eat organic food exclusively (or even regularly), I did think that some of the flavors available in this brand were interesting. The first food that Ava tried was called Bananas and Rice Pudding. I tasted a bit of it and was pleased (I always taste her foods before I give them to her) It was all organic foods and spices. It was a bit tart, but Ava downed it. The next few things she tried were all regular veggies and fruits. But the last one, well the last pouch was a little different. Pasta with Lentil Bolognese. The name is a little fancy and exotic. I tasted it: spaghetti toned down. I love spaghetti and ate lots of it while I was pregnant. I gave her the first bite and couldn't quite decide if she liked it or not. Maybe you can decide:

 I definitely got some funny faces from her! Below are pictures of dessert (what was left of it, anyway!) She loved her mangos so much that she decided to lick the bowl (inside and out!)