Family Reunion, church with grandparents and school totes

While Josh was on his deep sea fishing trip down at the Gulf, the kids and I headed north to Chattanooga to the lake for the Crowe Family Reunion.  Lots of pictures, lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and one precious grandmother.  Thank you for having us Uncle Kenny and Aunt Julie!  So great to see everyone!  As we were leaving, Caroline said ‘I wished they all lived in my town.’  I do too sweet Caroline!

eating with Aunt Dianne

feeding the ducks with Molly and Isaiah

wearing my grandfather Toline’s old hat

charming Aunt Amanda

Molly and Caroline, sweet 2nd cousins

Clark and MawMaw Crowe

Aunt Julie and Caroline after riding the boat and swimming!

Clark with JuJu and Aunt Julie

Ethan and Clark                                      Trey, Zachary and Matthew

Helping Aunt Julie with the homemade ice cream, yum!
Me, Amanda with sweet MawMaw Crowe

Matthew, Julie, Andrew and Kenny…love this family!

I think Caroline is ready to move in with them!

Hugging the cousins




Since we were already in East Tennessee, we decided to head up to visit Mimi and Papa John (or Pop Pop) as Clark calls him.

Pop Pop and Clark

Mimi, Pop Pop or Clark

Caroline showing everyone how her dress twirls!  I’m not sure Dawson and Nolan were too impressed.

Love these sweet, sweet siblings.
Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” 
This is my prayer for these two and they truly, truly teach me more about forgiveness everyday.  Clark likes to say ‘mine’ for things he really likes and Caroline quickly corrects him..”no little buddy, who does it belong to?’  To which Clark responds, “God!”  If they wrong one another, they are quick to forgive and quick to give hugs and say they are sorry.  They HAVE to give each other hugs and kisses before bed every night.  On the way home from Josh’s parents Clark fell asleep outside of Chattanooga and his hand was hanging off his carseat.  He LOVES to hold hands and have his hands rubbed.  Caroline asked me first and proceeded to hold his hand all the way to Gadsden.  LOVE!

Sniff!  School is starting in early September for these two.  Clark will be going two days a week and Caroline will be going everyday from 9-12.  Looking forward to still having lunch together!  Their school requires a tote bag.  I have lots of spare fabric that I purchased from a sample sale 2 years ago for nearly nothing, so I found this tutorial and made these, which both cost me $0.00!!:

I made a little flower pin for extra cuteness

It is reversible with a pocket:

Their bags must be labeled, so I made a little fabric leaf and wrote her name on it.  I showed the pictures to my MIL and she suggested that I hand embroider it, do I did…nothing too fancy, just a little backstitch:
Then I had even more strips of fabric left over, so I made Caroline a crayon roll from this tutorial.  I had some left over whale fabric from some shorts that I made Clark, so I had just enough to make his tote.  The inside fabric is from one of my dad’s old dress shirts and the handles are from a stained longall from last year.  It is a totally repurposed bag.  He couldn’t wait to show our neighbor, Catherine.  He had it on his shoulder walked over there, rang her doorbell and made her cry.  Me too!  Hard to believe he is ready for school, too.