Birthday Boy!!!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to my fabulous, wonderful, awesome husband Jay!
Happy Birthday to you!

I have been excited about Jay's birthday all month! I woke up when he left for work and had to have a picture of the birthday boy! He was all smiles and ready for a day at the Fargo. I had a schedule planned out for the day so everything would get accomplished. I had a little set back when I decided to go back to bed and my phone went into airplane mode and the alarm didn't go off! ooops!

I asked Jay if he would celebrate his birthday at a restaurant or would he like a home cooked meal. He chose the home cooked meal. I knew the meat choice would be a meatloaf recipe that my momma gave me and then I would think of the sides. My next question was what kind of dessert would he like. I wasn't sure if he wanted cake since we had the yummy one from Carolina Mountain Bakery but he was positive that he wanted a red velvet with cream cheese icing!

Jay's Birthday Menu:
Meatloaf - Momma's recipe
rice casserole - Leicester Cookbook
squash casserole - Southern Living magazine
glazed carrots
deviled eggs
crescent rolls

When Jay arrived home from work everything was ready! I turned in burn for 3 hours straight!

Before we ate I asked if he would like to open his gifts and he said "Yes!" I always ask him to write me a list of the things he would want. I chose two things off his list and the third present he gets on July 6, 2010! :-)

He was a happy boy with his new Vans!

I love baking and making this recipe makes me think of many things:
*My grandmother - She used to make this cake for Heather and I during the holidays!
*Cupcakes - This is a favorite among the friends!
*Jay - This is one of his favorite cakes.

The candles were lit and the birthday song was heard!

I had forgot I had put the never ending sparkler kind in his cake..oops!

To a Wonderful husband on his 36th birthday!
I love you and here's to many many more birthdays!

Happiness!!!

Fiesta Retirement Celebration!

We are ready to celebrate!

My Uncle Tally has done his time as a fabulous Art teacher

in North Carolina and is now retiring!

For the fiesta we had to have bright tissue paper flowers. So the morning

of the party mom and I had a blast - as you can see! I think mom was running

on little sleep, so the paper flowers will be a memory forever!

My beautiful Cousin Besty - this is a photo we have to take every time we are together. Betsy and her husband Todd live in New York City. We don't get to see each other often but when we do fun is bound to be had!

Betsy is very talented! She made and designed her dads retirement cake. What an amazing job!

The day wouldn't be complete without one Whitlock sibling photo!

Celebrations!

In our family birthdays have always been very special and important! I think its important to celebrate your birthday for at least a month. Since Jay and I have been together I have rubbed this idea off on him as well. Since we were not going to be with mom and dad on Jay's birthday we celebrated a little early!

What a happy birthday boy!

The famous birthday cake....Thank you Carolina Mountain Bakery!

Being a Tourist!

After a week of learning, Jay and I traveled to the mountains! It is always so nice to go home! When we arrived Thursday night momma had a yummy dinner ready and yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing! Yummmo!

We woke up Friday morning refreshed and ready to be tourist! It was so fun walking around downtown Asheville with no agenda just taking it all in!

No, we didn't plan to math! lol

In our walking travels we found these two unique young ladies. They were very still until someone dropped money into their basket and then they would begin to move. It was so cool and they moved with such grace. I know I stood and watched them for a good 5 minutes!

As we walked on Jay noticed this sign.

"Choose A Positive Thought."

I loved it and had to take a picture of it. I am thinking of using this saying in my classroom this coming year.

Jay made him a new friend!

We had a fabulous time in downtown Asheville and are already looking forward
to going back and being tourist!

A Week Of Learning!

What a great 4 days of learning! I was given the opportunity to participate in the North Carolina Teacher Academy READING INTERVENTION WORKSHOP. We learned so much and was able to network with other teachers from and around this area. Here are just a few of the many things we made. I only made one shower curtain activity but will be turning our house into a workshop later in the month!

After tracing this off the original, I stood up and had marker all over my arms and legs!

Two other examples of how to use a shower curtain or table cloth to teach our students!

NoDa Art Crawl and Fun Filled Weekend!

What a fun filled weekend! Charlie and Carolina arrived Friday afternoon and we were so excited to see them.

These two people are pure fabulous! I met Carolina while teaching in Pitt county. We became great friends and she stood beside me on one of the most important days of my life - my wedding day!

NoDa Art Crawl was where we headed Friday night. The streets were full of life! People were singing, dancing, chatting..just having a great time. We new Charlie and Carolina would love Cabo Fish Taco http://www.cabofishtaco.com/menu/charlotte so that's where we made our dinner plans.
We had to wait for just a bit so we decided to stroll down the street to see what was happening.

We stopped to listen to a band and they were from
Asheville!

Our food was fabulous (sorry about the picture) and the company was even better!

Saturday morning we wanted to show Charlie and Carolina one of our favorite spots...

Davidson, NC

This little town is full of happiness! They have a local farmers market, yummy restaurants, friendly people and a college. We chose a great breakfast place called "Toast." http://www.toastcafeonline.com/davidson/index.html
We decided on outside dinning and were greeted with an outdoors air conditioning unit! How excited was I? Very, because it was very warm! They have so many yummy choices but one of my favorite is the peanut butter and banana stuffed french toast! Wholly cow is it fabulous!

Today I chose an omelet, sourdough toast and hash browns (kind of like home fries)

We said our "see ya laters" in Davidson, but can't wait to create more great memories with our fabulous friends!

DIY at the Casa de Coqueran!

With summer here Jay and I have found many fun projects to start and complete! With our wonderful friends coming in this Friday we had a couple of things to accomplish. When we moved in February of 2010 our lovely bushes were not taking over our side walk. Well as time has it they decided to grow and grow! So we decided they needed to be removed and we would replace it with a smaller plant.

That's a man with a happy heart! He loves DIY day!

Next...I grab our candle holders and a can of yellow cream spray paint and went to town. After
1 1/2 cans and a trip to Lowes they turned out beautiful!

After a while Jay and I both were getting cabin fever so we took a small break and ran to Lowes - Jay's favorite store.. and Rita's for an ice cream treat - since we had worked so hard!

This little M&M has been traveling around with me in my purse for awhile! I love bright colors and wanted our downstairs powder room to be painted a beautiful color such as this. So we went to Lowes and picked different paint samples trying to find the best fit. We think we have and will begin painting hopefully soon. Stayed tuned for the finished project!

We treated ourselves to a yummy Rita's treat!!

If you have one of these in your town stop by and have a yummy cool treat!

Hello Summer!

Wow, where has the time gone?  I am sorry that Jay and I have been MIA but we are back and ready to share our summer adventures with you!

Last weekend we helped my mom cater Matt and Sandra Wallace's wedding reception.

The happy new married couple!!!

 It was a beautiful array of color and yummy food.  We hadn't worked as a catering team in a while, but it came back like it was yesterday!  Here are a couple of shots of the bride and groom, the food and of course us working hard (and playing :-)

Heather and I ready to get our serve on!

                                                                  Jay and Daddy had the job of stuffing momma's chicken salad  

                                                          into mini croissants.

Momma and her two girls.

                     Look at my handsome daddy!!

                                       

                                                      My beautiful sister!  We go no where without our jewelry!

It was a fun filled weekend with lots of laughs and wonderful memories.  Jay and I have this thing after a wedding we talk all about it.  One thing we loved that Matt and Sandra did was during their ceremony they knelt at a large wooden cross and their family and friends came up on stage and prayed around them!  I can't think of a better way to start a marriage! Prayer is POWERFUL!!!

Happy Birthday to the BEST MOMMA EVER!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MOMMA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

I have truly been blessed with the absolutely best momma ever.  Momma I pray you have had a fabulous birthday and I love you bunches and bunches!!!