30th birthday month - Happy birthday to me! :)

I have to admit, I was a little weary of my 30th birthday. For the past 3.5 years (since I had Ali) I have secretly been wishing I could say I was 30 years old when people (other moms) asked me how old I was instead of being treated like a baby! :) I would always say that 30 did not scare me...until the past few weeks/month. I started to get sad at the ending of a decade (I am NOT good with change) and reminiscent and lived it up saying I was still in my 20s! :) I think I was down b/c I had made all of these (well, maybe 1 or 2) goals that I did not think I achieved in time - but, looking back, I have achieved much more! :) The whole month of May - my birthday month- has been one of the best months of my life. The official celebration, though did not start until May 22nd, when Ryan through me a 30th birthday fiesta. Nothing huge b/c I didn't want to make it so big that I would start leaving out friends - I just wanted to keep it small and fun! Our favorite restaurant, La Parilla, catered and I had the best time. Here are some pictures from my 30th birthday party!Ryan brought out this get-up for me!
The party scene

A few different table views....in the above picture you will notice my best surprise of all!! I think that I am so intuitive and that no one can get a surprise past me but I am SOO wrong! I had absolutely no idea that Ryan, Anna Margaret and Kate had the best surprise ever up their sleeve. Kate is my oldest and one of my best friends on this planet - she lives in New York and is a very busy girl. Never in a million years would I have thought she would be at my party!! She had regretted even! Anna Margaret was one of the first to show up and she came in while I was last minute finishing getting ready. I came into the kitchen with her to catch my breath and say hey and immediately lost my breath when I saw Matthew walk in with Kate - who flew in from NY for my party! I freaked out and started bawling and still can not get over it! It was the best birthday surprise I could have asked for! :)



The Tumlin kids...


I am SOO grateful for all of these fun friends who came to celebrate my 30th birthday with me (and those that are not pictured who were there!) - it meant the world to me. We had a great time - and when we were on our way back in town this past weekend, my mom called to tell me that the party made the paper...which is always fun! http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/7744736/article-McBee-makes-a-beautiful-bride--resident-hits-milestone?

My birthday weekend kicked off this past weekend in Landrum, SC! Amy got married and I got to be matron of honor in her wedding - it was such an honor and such a fun weekend getting to spend time with these girls!!! (and boys!)



And, I was soooo excited to come home on Sunday to these precious little girls! Ryan had originally planned to take me to the Grove Park Inn (b/c it was not too far from Amy & Corey's wedding) but we changed our plans and I could not have been happier to get to spend my birthday at home with my girls!!!
It was so nice having my 30th on Memorial Day b/c Ryan was off of work and he let me sleep in and enjoy every second. I had so much fun celebrating with Ryan, the girls, my parents, Sig & Frances (Ty & Ashley were in SSI) and this truly was the best birthday ever! Just had to make sure I blogged all of my little memories so I never forget this birthday!

Last day of school 2010

The girls had their last day of school on Thursday, May 20th - tried to get a good picture of them that morning dressed and ready to go - but these are the best two I could find (where at least one of them was looking at the camera!) I put up comparison pictures to their first day of school last September (the last two pictures) - what a difference a year makes! They look so different to me in their pictures from last year! Summer - here we come!

Brown bag lunch!

We had so much fun today at the last Brown Bag lunch/concert on the square today - hopefully it won't be the last one ever!! We had lots of fun friends there and Ali and Rhodes had so much fun eating, dancing, running around and playing in the fountain with their friends! It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. Unfortunately, I had some camera thieves after my 30th birthday party last weekend and I didn't have a camera to take pictures :) - but luckily our friend Jennifer was there with us and took some great pictures!! I am so grateful to capture these sweet moments...

Ali was so excited to see her friend Caroline from school! It had been a long week break since the last day of school last Thursday! :)
Rhodes dancing to the music!

Ali's first ballet recital

My little star had her first ever ballet recital yesterday!! As soon as she put on her outfit, she turned into this little character and could not wait to get to the recital. She was so excited to have makeup on her face and especially lipstick! I was so very proud of her and she did a perfect job during her performance - she was on cloud 9 up there with her little friends!! Congratulations on a job well done to our sweet little ballerina princess!!!

Daddy got in from Vegas right in time to leave for the performance - we were all SO excited to see him!!

Daddy and the star!
Mommy and my ballerina!
Daddy's home!! (This was right when Rhodes woke up from her nap)
Hooray!
Ali doing a little practicing for us...


Ballerina in action... (I am so sad that most of the pictures are pretty blurry - but here are some of the best ones)





After the performance with her special surprise from her teachers...
And, of course, her trophy!
Ali with all of her beautiful flowers!

I tried to shoot the performance with my Flip camera and I move around so much, it is kind of hard to watch! (Sorry!) I think I had Rhodes on my lap. I focus in on Ali most of the time so I missed some of the funny/cute things going on with the rest of the girls - but I had to zero in on our own little star! Enjoy!

Happy Mothers Day!

I am having a perfect Mothers Day today - enjoying lots of breaks, naps, breakfast in bed and time with my family! :) Thanking God today for these sweet surprises that came into my life and made me a mother 3.5 years ago (and 1.5 years ago!).

Wishing all of the mothers out there a happy Mothers day - especially my mom (our Mimi!), Grandmommy, Great-Grandmommy and Great-Memama! (and Tootoo and Gindy in Heaven :)) Hope your day has been wonderful!

Happy 19 months, Rhodes!

Rhodes got moved up today at church to the next room in the nursery - it was then that I realized that my baby is 19 months old today! Sheesh! Love her to pieces!

I am so disappointed in my blogging skills lately - when I do blog, it's rushed and not as much thought as there used to be. It was so much easier to blog with just one baby who took a three hour nap. Now that baby is a 3.5 year old who has given up on naps and during "quiet time", while her sister naps, she enjoys playing games on the computer on pbskids.org - so finding time to enjoy it and tell our full story is how to do! My goal this summer is to find a way to be better and record more of these precious moments. I love looking back at it now and know I will love it even more 20 years from now - so, we'll see what I can do!

Ryan and I have both been so busy lately - with work, etc. I don't know how parents with older kids do it (although I know I will be there before I know it) with after school/night activities. Ali has been taking swim lessons on Mondays/Wednesdays at 5:30-6 and has ballet on Thursdays at 5:45-6:30 and I feel like our evenings are shot on these nights - and it can be so hard what to fix for dinner/when to eat dinner. I know this sounds like such a minor thing to make a big deal out of but it really throws a kink into our stay at home, eat dinner, take baths, go to bed evenings! But, it is also a lot of fun. Ali has her first ballet recital ever coming up in a few weeks and I can not wait! She takes it her swim lessons with her sweet friend, Caroline, and they are two little peas in a pod (with bows in their hair while doing it!) and so cute. We can not wait to take these girls to the pool this summer and see what they've learned.

Rhodes is such a trooper during these night activities and most of the time, she goes with me. She wants to be a big girl so bad and thinks she is just one of the girls - when I get Ali dressed for swim, she has breakdowns when I won't let her put on her swimsuit too - so we compromise with a coverup. :) And, she patiently waits, (and tries to get in) as her sister swims and dances at ballet. She can not wait until she can play in there too....not too much longer sweet Rhodes!! She is a ball of energy who loves to play in the dirt, swing on the swing, slide down the slide and takes tumbles on the time but comes up smiling. Amazing. She went from saying barely any words to saying pretty much every word we say in the last few months - but her favorite word is still "No!" (said with the cutest accent!). Kills me! She had her "unbirthday" party at school this past week since she didn't get to celebrate her birthday with her friends in school this year (she is in the toddler class even though her birthday is after the 9/1/08 deadline for the class - b/c she was walking and bigger than a lot of the kids in the infant class- and this class is the perfect fit for her!) They had munchkin donuts and she got to wear a birthday crown with her name on it. I was taken back when I saw it with the number "2" on it - not my baby, not two yet!! Let's don't rush this any more than it is already rushing on it's own.

Anyway, I pledge to be a better blogger to fill you all in on the lives of my sweet/wild/funny/tantrum throwing girls! :) Blogging with 2 kids is not as easy as it looks but I don't want to forget a second of these fun filled years of our lives so I will do my best to be better!! Happy May, everyone!! I am in the final month of my 20s - yikes!!