Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Halloween..and everything in between

UH, oh it's a spaghettio!!  This girl and what she will think of next I have no idea!!  She can come up with some Halloween costumes most have never seen before!!  She is always such a hoot because she hams it up for the cameras too.  Halloween is always an adventure when B is in charge. 

and my little punk rockers too.  she helped design her own outfit instead of the "store" kind this time. 




On Wednesday night we headed to the church for a costume contest and games.  The kids had a blast!
Mary Benton and B



needle in a haystack
karoke
and horseback riding all in an hour!!  Can't beat that!


and they ended the night with a huge hayride through the neighborhood!
The next day at school they decided to take treats to the whole class.

and then we were at it again Saturday for some trick or treating with cousins and fun in the neighborhood.

cousin fun,  Francie, Katie Ella, Julia and Lydia are always the most fun to have around!


we got to go through Nicki and Pop's neighborhood gathering treats with this crazy crew all night.
We even tried another neighborhood with friends to get some more candy, because you can never have enough right?!
good times with these kiddos!
Little B tried something new this year and gave soccer a kick in the rear!  She had no idea what it even was when I signed her up but the good thing about soccer is it doesn't take long to figure out what to do!  Once that ball hits the ground they are rocking and rolling all hour long!

She ran and ran and ran..and even got a little ball time.  She played on a boy/girl team so the boys seemed to catch most of the action but that didn't stop this little chick from trying to do her part!
While B was out kicking balls this fall AB and I were on the road back and forth to Atlanta, TX for Nutcracker practice.  She was so excited to do this performance this year and was lucky to be cast as a mouse, which I told her is like a right of passage for any young girl in the nutcracker!!  She had a blast!  She seemed to enjoy every second of bonding with new friends and "being creepy" week after week!


This is the face I couldn't say no to even after I heard about the 10 week commitment she had gotten us into...oh I love my weekends!!
B and a Olivia hamming it up one night at dinner.  These two are trouble when they get together!!


My little models!  Oh what mom is willing to do for a discount!!  They did  a great job for something they were not to sure about and mom got a discount on some clothes so we all won in the end!

The day has finally arrived and AB was so excited for her first turn at acolyting. (not sure if I spelled that right or not?!)  This was the first year she was old enough to take her turn at this lofty job during the church service.  She was so nervous those first couple of times you could just see the stick wobbling!  But she has made great improvements and even helped at communion a few weeks back.  So proud of this girl and her heart for service to the church.

A little Sunday school selfie for the kiddos one night at our monthly dinner!
AB's last practice for Nutcracker before the big performance!  These were all the kiddos in her scene that rehearsed together week after week.  I guess a part of me was sad it was over too, it was a great time bonding with the girls on our drives over and we managed to have a little fun in the process!

Monday, February 1, 2016

Golden Gala

I normally don't do this on this blog.  This blog is reserved for my kids and their doings but the other day I was telling someone about all the cool places I went and the awesome adventures I had in my 13 years as a pharmaceutical rep and I realized something.  Most of those pictures are scattered somewhere and I may find them one day so the girls can see all my travels around the country all those years but on the off chance I never do I want my girls to see all those things that maybe kept me from home or had me stressed out at the time...the reasons for which I work and you know what I want them to be proud of the accomplishments that Mitch and I have been so lucky to be a part of over the years.  So for that reason I have chosen to add on occasion some of those things to this blog.  This is a celebration gala that I did for our 50th anniversary of the college.  We held this event at the McLarty home and had a great time with over 300 guests in attendance that evening.  We did an event were I hired 4 different chefs from around Arkansas and asked them to create some of there favorites.  We assigned each chef his own tent and guests were able to mingle and try a little bit of it all..and we had some crazy dishes like duck, alligator and things I have never even heard of!  WE had a wine sommelier and a craft beer expert on hand to educate guests on pairing and we had a program on an outdoor screen to end the evening.  It was such a special night and I am so proud of the end result after many months of planning.  I have added a few photos I found..none of which really show  how gorgeous the backdrop and the lights were at sunset as we dined in the middle of this field but hopefully it shows some of the creative work of all those that helped make it possible.
Here is a picture of some of our nursing students who doubled as servers for the evening.
The daylight really does this event no justice but I have to share some of the pictures I got as we were still setting up that afternoon.


The lanterns were hung from this beautiful huge tree in the backyard and at dark it was just gorgeous.
The honorees that evening along with the family.  Dr. Bobbitt , UA system president, Dr. Sugg former UA system President, John Goodson UA Trustee, Freddie Smith, Bonnie Routon, Larry Dowd, Ned Ray Purtle, and Jerry Pruden, UAHT Board of Trustees am Venita Allen Turk Power Plant CEO. Unfortunately, we lost Mrs. Bonnie shortly after this program.  I really adored that woman she will be greatly missed!
A few pictures of the decorations from that evening.  Most of them were from before it was all finalized but at least it shows part of the vision for the evening.  However without a full picture of the backdrop in the middle of this field once it got dark and the lights were hung it is hard to see just how beautiful it all was.  There were hundreds of painted pumpkins scattered around and each tent was a certain color theme, we had the white, the gold, the silver and the copper.





The only picture I found of myself...I was on the run the entire evening!
The Mclarty family were very gracious hosts.
Jeff, Mitch and Trevor seemed to have a good time.
some of the helpers from our student ambassador group.

The sculpture that will be dedicated to the honorees that evening.