Special Guests and Helpers Extraordinaire: Aunt Barbara, Grammy, and GranAnn!

Elsie's 3rd Birthday: The Bash

We could not believe our good fortune: all our local peeps at the bakery and BBQ in town came through. The troops (Grammy, Barbara, GranAnn, and Roy) arrived for back up. And the weather was glorious! Among adults, kids, and kids-at-heart, we hosted lots of folks, and we had good times on the trampoline out back, relaxing times on the new patio lounge set-up, and cheerful times inside bringing home football victories. Yummy fun was had by all!

Happy Birthday to Elsie, Happy Birthday to you!: Grammy's Birthday Cake

Kit Girl: She May Be Sweeter than Any Cake!

Elsie's First Bike: Thanks Grammy and Poppa!

Post-Swimming, The Actual Birth Day: Dinner with Grammy and Poppa

Check out Elsie's Salty Dog shorts from Poppa and Irish T-shirt from Grammy. And she'll tell anyone who will listen: "Elsie is three!"

Seff and Carowyn and Taywer: More Peeps

Seth quickly became one of our other favorite peeps in town. He was my hairdresser and became D's hair guy and then Elsie's and along the way became a great, always-can-be-counted on, call-at-the-last-minute, need-a-favor kind of guy. He and his wife Carolyn are great hosts and wonderful guests and have helped us coast through many a happy hour on the way to little people's bed time. We have found their advice sage and our parental philosophies in synch--moreover, the girls dig each other. Seth was our go-to guy when we wanted some help making sure we had the birthday trampoline together. Here are Elsie and Taylor enjoying some post-trampolining, post-dinner, end-of-the-evening popsicles.

Starbaby, the Sequel: We Got Peeps




One thing that happens after you live in a town for a while is you have "people." I always tease about my mom's people in Atlanta: her "camera guy," her waiter, her "wine guy"... My mother has a lot of other men in her life, but now after eight years--yes, EIGHT years in Savannah, we have our fair share of people, too. Theresa is one of "our people"--she taught Elsie swimming lessons at 6 months. Now, she is thrilled to be teaching Kit lessons as well. Kit had her first lesson weekend before last and Theresa even used Elsie as a model for the Starbabies. She's come a long way--our girl. And Kit, well, Kit is already a star. David says she's been even more quick to take to it. So watch out, E, here comes Bear!

Joy! Joy! Elsie is Three!








Our beautiful Elsie is three today, and she marked the joyous occasion with her exuberance. She woke up singing "I am three today!" She sang "happy birthday to Elsie!" She listed all of the people at school she would share her birthday cookies with. She loved on her Nonie and her baby sister. She was a star swimmer for her lesson with Theresa! And then when Grammy and Poppa came for birthday dinner with their present, she reacted the way you had hoped she would: "A bike! A bike? For Elsie? A bike? Is it all mine? Can Elsie ride it all the time?" Yes, Elsie, you can! And she did--fast and far on that Dora Huffy, with stops at the "library," "the beach," "the ice cream store," and "Poppa's store." "Bye Mommy and Daddy," she waved as she rode off with a smile on her face.

And that is just it, after only three years and she can do so much and so much by herself. We are so proud of her and perhaps most proud that she finds such joy in the world around her and what is there and what she imagines is there. She was giddy with just the candles on her mini-birthday cake from Grammy, licking the chocolate from them with wide eyes. That was enough for her right there. But we let her have her cake, too--that is what birthdays are for! She had her cake and ate it--just a few bites, really, enough to get it all over her face and then went back to dipping her candles in chocolate. Happy 3rd Birthday dear, sweet, spirited, maddening, loving, unmatched, joyful Elsie girl!

Be patient, and I'll get the real birthday pictures from Grammy and the party pictures from Saturday will come soon!

Courtney's Visit














It was clear Elsie and Court became fast friends... Last week, Courtney came for a few days all the way from England to visit us. She told Elsie all sorts of censored stories about my ND days including the shocking revelation that we slept in bunk beds in college and Mommy slept on the bottom bunk! Courtney shared other stories of her fabulous European adventures and we can't wait to celebrate her upcoming nuptials. Thanks for visiting us Courtney and come back soon!

End-of-Summer Celebration

We headed to Atlanta for Labor Day to mourn the end of summer and celebrate the opening of our favorite season: college football season! And we held our wake/reunion in high style with the best Atlanta could dish up. Friday night we celebrated Barbara and Mike's anniversary at a rooftop bar--Whiskey Blue--atop the W Buckhead. We may have strained ourselves attempting to be young and hip, but it did give us fond memories of what we once were or could have been. Happy 6th Anniversary Aunt Barbara and Uncle Mike!

Saturday morning, David took Elsie on a pilgrimage to ESPN's College Gameday (with the Boukaters) down at the Centennial Park--they worshipped at the Corso-Herbstreit-Fowler alter from afar and cheered for our Tide. We all met up with Meredith at the Flip Burger Boutique for a lovely lunch before the afternoon cheerfest began: Go Irish! Roll Tide! And we did! We sent David with Jim Walker as our Roll Tide representative to the actual Tide-Hokie showdown at the Dome. Sources tell us that it is a good thing we don't have visual footage of their representation.

Sunday allowed us to rest and prepare for Poppa's Bacchan Birthday Bonanza with a Greek Feast. On the menu: a Greek Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Fish Roe, and olive platter served with flatbread for first course; a main dish dinner of Johnny's kabobs (lamb, chicken, and shrimp, our favorite Greek pasta, and now-famous Greek salad; and finally, we rounded out the decadence with an indulgent chocolate birthday cake. Don't worry--Greek vinos kept us from being parched--and five grandbabies kept us far from bored.

**photography credits for the weekend go to Grammy.
****And Happy Birthday to the baby Bacchus--Bryce turned 3 yesterday!

Happy Birthday Poppa!

We enjoyed Poppa's birthday in Grecian style with a delicious feast and festive celebration. Donna, Joe and Gwynne Davis joined the Howells-Boukater-Thompson gang, Addie included, for some Bacchan revelry.

I Feel Pretty

Elsie was treated to an adorable birthday gift from Aunt Addie. Look at the fun dress-up tiara and tutu! Much thanks Addie!

Eight Months Old

Kit is 8 months old today and she is rocking and rolling--up on all fours ready to crawl. She loves loves loves standing and puts her hands out when she is sitting to be pulled up to stand and she'll even go into a "downward dog" to try and stand on her own.

Elsie swam a whole lap at the pool today, but she'd better watch out because Kit starts swim lessons next week and she'll soon catch up. Our girls are on the move.