Potluck friends

My Potluck friendships are so deeply rooted in me that no blog post can tell you how much they mean to me. Whenever we have a get together (which is usually once a year)it is top priority to be there. This year baby Knox's birth was my top priority and I had already prepared myself to miss the planned gathering at Sarah's bay house in Bon Secour.
The timing was just too good to be true when baby Knox decided he was coming early on the day before my friends were to all go down to the reunion. (I love that my grandson is already consious of showing up on time for a party.... he is starting out already as a kind and considerate child!)
Sarah was our unbelievable hostess with the mostess. She fixed a shrimp dinner for our first night there that put Southern Living and Martha Stewart to shame.


that crazy nut went out the week before and got a fake crab tatoo to joke us! We never underestimate the pranks of this gal!
Sarah's family has entertained each one of us here as children at the bay house. We all have some favorite memories of our times together here.
Miriam is our animal lover and she had a good time walking Sarah's 2 puppies during our stay at the bay. (Sarah's husband is a Veterinarian and they have pets galore)
a 5 month old corgie (Woogie) and a 7 week old lab mix (Harper)
Fancy Nancy entertained us during cocktail hour with charades from our past! Sarah of course had some of our old music from the 60's & 70's playing on her IPod on the deck.
Try to picture 7 friends from childhood sitting and dancing on the deck of the bay. Fun Fun Fun....Hooping and hollering too......


Ree forgot to wear her sunscreen on the boat ride but she tans so pretty afterwards that we did not fuss at her too much :)
Our boat ride through the bay was a highlight!
"Captain Leggs" gave us a great tour. We rode all the way to LuLu's and by the Wharf at Orange Beach on the bay. I heart ♥ riding in a boat and I extra heart ♥ being with these friends.

We were thrilled to see porpoises so close to the boat while we cruised around the bay!
Martha is the baby of our group and was "voted" in after we originally started meeting as "Potluck" in High School. All of us grew up in the same church but we went to different schools. From the church nursery to the MYF youth group ,we have been together all our lives. Sarah even had our youth group minister call us the first night and that was really neat to hear from him and also for him to hear all of us together after all these years.
Kay and I love Sea N Suds and have some special memories of this place from our 20ish years. Kay has had a very tough year and we were all so pleased and blessed with her presence. She has to travel the farthest from Memphis so her trips to be with us are very valuable.
Sweet Kay brought each of us special dish towel favors. As you can see the Bama girls outnumber the AU girls (Kay, Sarah and I went to Au). But make no mistake, the college rivalry shared between us will never separate the friendships here.
I have noticed we don't plan any of our reunions in the Fall months though:)
I wish all of you could have a group of friends like this! I love love love em!
♥ ♥ ♥

4 Days old

Just thought you blog fans would like to see day 4 of baby Knox. He is home and doing well with just a little jaundice. I stopped by on my way home from the beach trip with my potluck friends (that post is coming next) but just had to share day 4 of Knox. I could hardly wait to see him again.

p.s that froggie paci is the cutest thing and he loves it!

Baby Knox

Introducing Lolli's newest love !!!
Knox

born July 26

weighing 7 lb. 9 oz.
his proud Daddy
his adoring and exhausted mommy
he is 21 inches long ***look at those long legs already!

What joy I had meeting and holding my new grandson. Isn't he the picture of pure love not to mention he is simply beautiful?
I wish I could put into words how I felt looking at this precious baby boy just hours after he was born and watching his mother cry when she finally got him back into her arms after he was weighed and cleaned up and all the things they do in the hospital nursery to a newborn. It was a moment in time I will never forget and one I will always treasure.

Boys on the ponies

some of you might like to watch and listen to the farm trip in action! The girls did not know I was videoing their singing on the way to the farm :) The music is Sydney's cd that she brought with her. Turn up your speakers!

No Coincidence

It is no coincidence that God would bless me with granddaughters who love crafts and themes and creating fun stuff to remind them of all the fun we had together.

It is no coincidence that Sydney drew a heart on her pillowcase without knowing exactly what hearts mean to me this summer.

It is no coincidence that I would find lollipop earrings that both girls liked at Christmas time and that they wore them everyday they were here and without me suggesting it. (That thrilled my heart)
It is no coincidence that both girls love to scrapbook and that I have lots of scraps saved from over the last 12 years for them to use.
It is no coincidence that both girls love painting Luau things and that they are just as excited as I am about the annual Luau.

It is no coincidence that these are girls after my own heart and they both brought cameras with them and took pictures of their own.
and they love lollipops too :) :) :) :) :) :)



It is no coincidence that both girls are related by blood to this man and by God's divine plan for my life, they are now related to me.

Everything you have read on my blog is no coincidence. It is all part of who I am and how God is working in my life. I believe God has blessed me with the time and the energy and good health and the relationships and the resources to do all these things with the children in my family and the children on my mission trips. I take none of it for granted. Everything is a gift from the Lord.
I am constantly amazed how spending time with a child can remind you of His gifts to us in such different ways. I am one blessed Lolli!

Beanie Baby Fun

Being a planner, I had the whole visit mapped out for the kids. I did not have beanie baby fun on my agenda but it ended up being a big part of our fun! (I'm making mental notes for next year)I had no idea that Susan was going to invite them over and give them beanie baby treats and I had no idea that the girls themselves would bring several of their own from home. The only thing I did was find these two adorable costumes for the beanie babies to give as prizes for our mexican dominoe games but I figured they would use them for barbie dolls.
And I had no idea that one would highly prefer the duck one and the other the pig costume! They were as happy as could be with these prizes.

A funny little side note for my blog readers --- we went to CVS and the pharmacist offered the girls a lollipop. Both girls had on their lollipop earrings so I pointed that out to him and I had to tell him about me being Lolli and about Pops and how I looked for lollipop things all the time. The Pharmacist then told us that his 2 grandfathers' names were Daddy Duck and Daddy Pig.
Can you believe that!!!!!??? Both his grandfathers last names had the words duck and pig in them. What a funny world we live in.

One day when we went to the pool, Sydney brought her beanie baby, put him in the carseat and left her glasses with him. I thought it was pretty cute:)

I was even more surprised to find all the beanie babies asleep in the real baby crib one night when I went back to tell the girls good night!
I guess it is the right moment to tell you mexican dominoe players that yes, I got beat again by a Downes grandchild! Lauren beat us bad and her score even beat Corey's score. And I got my mexican dominoe fix taken care of for a while now!

Scavenger Hunt

Traditionally, I come up with a scavenger hunt for the grandkids when they are visiting. I did not make it with the older boys this year but I came up with one for the girls to the mall.
They had 17 things to do in the mall ( I won't put ALL the pictures but just some of the highlights from it.) I think they were so glad they were away from their home malls for this:) and did not see any of their friends!

They were to find a person with a hat on. He was the first one we saw upon walking into the mall and he was very cooperative with getting a picture:)

the girls had to rub sample lotion on their legs in Bath and Body Works.

this was their favorite find of the whole hunt=the biggest bra in the store!


They had to pretend to sleep somewhere in the mall and snore outloud
They had to find 3 clean kleenaxes and hold them over their head and walk around that store for 5 minutes waving their kleenax:)
both had to get some make up put on = they liked this one!
This one they had to find a store that would give them a pen with the store name on it and this nice lady at Dillard's found them pencils instead --- she also wanted to go play with us and she got down a manequin for the girls to pose with!
they had to find a picture frame they could both get behind and they did!
I loved this one- they were to find a person with an Auburn shirt on and get the person's autograph on the list as well as say "War Eagle". This cute college guy was the perfect find! On the back of his shirt it said "Top 10 reasons to date an Engineer"! Lauren's daddy graduated from the school of engineering here at Auburn! When I read his shirt and asked him to turn around so I could get that shot with Lauren, she gave me one of those teenage looks that made me laugh outloud in the store!


Last one they had to find a store to let them model in the store front window. One store told them no. This one let them do it!