Virtual Coffee - Birthday Edition

It's time for some Virtual Coffee!

In my case, however, it will be Virtual-Late-Night-Snack-Of-Birthday-Cake.

Won't you join me?

******

Today Griffin turned 3.

I spent the entire day thinking about that day 3 years ago.

Do we all do that?

I hope so.

Let's not forget our toughness.

:)

At 6:32pm I gave birth to chaos.

And joy.

We named him Griffin Rockstar and he is the funniest, kindest, most polite,

opinionated, fiercest, loudest, best kid I know.

He easily tests boundaries but is always quick to amend with a stern look from me.

How did I get so lucky?

Matt and I both took off work today.

It was a fabulous day from beginning to end. 

 We got him a bike for his birthday and he just loved it.

Hugged it.

Kissed it.

Sat on it while watching T.V.

 We went outside first thing this morning to ride for a few minutes before it got nasty hot.

 We went into his room when he woke up and the first thing out of his mouth?

"I WANT CAKE!!"

Cake it is, sir.

For breakfast.

(Don't judge.)

 It was a simple cake but I loved it.

Dude loves sprinkles.

Luuuuuuuuuuurves sprinkles.

Puts sprinkles on everything.

So I just baked a cake, iced it, and put every last sprinkle I had on it.

"WHOA! THAT'S SO COOL!"

(yes...fist pump to myself)

 Dive right in, bud.

Happy breakfast!

 Every now and then I get in front of the camera.

:)

 For his special birthday treat, we took him to his very first movie at the movie theater.

Cars 2

He. Was. Psyched!

Wore his Lightning McQueen shirt and sat through the whole movie like a champ.

Better and more fun than I could've imagined.

No foolin'.

It was awesome.

The kid that can't sit still and talks and talks and talks just sat there.

And every now and then would get out of his chair and just stand there in front of it.

He was ready to go about 15 minutes before the end of the film so I'm glad I brought

Mr. Frog and some juice with me.

Content once more.

 Hubs said it best.

Today was the kind of day that made you really stop and take in every moment.

It was such a good day.

Such a special day full of firsts.

The kind of day that will get you through bad days when you think back on it.

We had our cake and ate it too.

Happy birthday to you, my little Rockstar.

God knew exactly what I needed in a child when He sent me you.

We just get each other.

I so so so love that.

I will never take your genuineness for granted.

I will always strive to let you be loud when you need to let it out.

I will always be there to listen.

I will strive to breathe in every squeezy hug you give me.

(Because you give the very best hugs)

I will strive to be the very best person I can be for you.

I will strive to lead by example.

I will always give you my last BBQ potato chip.

I will always kiss your ouchies.

The ones on your knees now.

And the ones on your heart later.

And I will fiercely love you.

Always.

Always.

Always.

*sniffle*

I am linking up with Amy today.

(Hi, Amy! Soon we are going to try to make ice cream in zip lock bags! Love!!)

Oh Happy Day!

Grant's Farm, Turtle Tongues, and Sprinkles

Rachael visited us a few weeks ago.

Matt took the whole week off work and I took a day too.

It was actually one of the very last awesome weather days here in St. Louis before it

turned dangerous hot.

We went to Grant's Farm.

For all of you who might live near the St. Louis area, check out their website.

It such a neat place to take your family!

It's free, the only way to get there is by a little TRAIN (awesome),

there's a carousel, brats, free beer tasting for the adults (it's owned by the Busch family),

and you can get SO close to the animals.

So close.

See?

 The only lens I had with me was a 50mm fixed.

So yeah, CLOSE.

The picture above makes me laugh every time!

This Llama was just like a cat, rubbing his lips and gums along the edges of things.

 Excited to be on the train headed to the farm!

The ride there is awesome.

You get to see lots of animals roaming around and pass the cabin that 

Ulysses S. Grant built himself!

Awesome stuff.

Yay history!

 The owl was beautiful.

Carmelita is her name.

Rachael and I were there with her and her handler and we found out that she is

14 years OLDER than Rachael!

I didn't know owls could live for so long!

 Griffin had his first ever carousel ride.

He LOVED it.

Then about half way through he didn't.

Nope.

Did. Not. Love. It. Anymore.

It was a long last few minutes.

 You can feed all the animals too.

Griffin giggled when the Llama's lips tickled his hands.

 Oh the mist machine.

I might get some more housework done if I just built one of these for the backyard.

Griffin went through it about a million and one times.

Dragging him away from it was quite a scene.

 Happy to be soaking wet on a hot day.

I love this picture.

I don't think I've ever seen a turtle tongue before this.

I don't think I've even thought about a turtle tongue before this.

What do I think now?

It's kinda gross.

But how cool is it that this turtle is almost 60 years old?!

So cool.

****

Today Griffin is 2.

Tomorrow he will be 3.

Tonight I'm baking him a cake.

A cake with as many sprinkles as I can get my hands on.

The kid puts sprinkles on everything.

Dude is going to love it!

:)

Happy Monday!

10 on 10 - My First!

My first 10 on 10!

Rebekah at A Bit of Sunshine started this and I think it's awesome!

On the 10th of every month, take 1 picture an hour for 10 hours.

Love that.

Here we go!

 8:00am: Good morning!

 9:00am: Out and about.

 10:00am: A rare getaway for some girl time and a movie!

 12:00pm: The movie lasted more than an hour, so I had to skip an hour. Ah well. Laundry.

 1:00pm: Vacuuming.

 2:00pm: Silly pose time for Mommy.

 3:00pm: Dishes.

 4:00pm: Our weekly library grabs.

 5:00pm: Inspiration for my evening photo shoot from my favorite photographer.

6:00pm: The set up for this evening's photo shoot. Love!

There you have it!

Thanks for tagging along on my day with me!

I'm linking up with Rebekah.

Head on over to A Bit of Sunshine for more 10 on 10 eye candy!

Happy Sunday!

Wordless Wednesday - "The Goat Encounter"

Okay, a few words.

Yes! He's fine.

Very hungry goats.

Very little boy.

Very dusty day.

Happy Wednesday!

4th of July, Success, and Selfishness

4th of July this year made me think about myself.

I thought all day about where I am in life.

And I thought about the country I live in.

Nothing has quite hit me about the gratefulness of living in America like

owning my own business.

How many millions of people can't even begin to think about

one day maybe mulling over the possibility of thinking about

doing something on their own?

I live in a place where I can truly think about myself.

What makes me happy.

What drives me.

What I can imagine myself doing for the rest of my life.

What I can do so that one day I can be more of an

"at home" figure for my child.

 AND THEN I can put those wants, needs, & desires into action.

With a few clicks on the 'ol keyboard I can

own a business name.

Cassie Allen Photography.

I can work very hard at building from this.

I can fail or I can succeed.

And it's all up to me.

 I love my life.

And I love that I have the freedom to make it whatever I want for myself.

And for my family.

And there are actually people -

people I don't even know and will most likely never meet -

that fight and die for me to have the power to live my life the way I want to live it.

This all might sound selfish to some...thinking about myself on such an important day.

But when you are in a good place in your heart...

In an attitude of gratitude...

Everything around you changes.

It's the looking inward.

The selfishness of looking inside yourself

that makes that happen.

This is a great country.

I have an amazing family.

I have yummy light in my future.

I am happy.

I am grateful.

Happy Tuesday!

**EDIT**
I am linking up with Amy at Lucky Number 13 for some virtual coffee today!

Firecrackers & Fears

This evening we went outside to check out some Firecrackers that the neighbors were shooting off.

A loud one caught him off guard and Dude started to cry.

He spent the rest of the evening swearing that

"Firecrackers are going to eat my house".

At bedtime he wanted to get "cozy".

And hide from the noise.

In the dim light of his room I saw a little boy

work through his fears.

I don't think we'll be taking him to the riverfront for Fireworks this year.

I certainly don't want anything eating our house.

Happy Saturday!

Shut. The. Front. Door.

Fourth of July weekend is one of my favorite weekends.

I love to bake more for this holiday than any other.

Not sure why.

This year will be super low key.

Just relaxing at our house, eating tons of great food,

playing in the sprinklers, crafting, and watching movies.

I. Can't. Wait.

I went to JoAnn's today to nab a blue bandana and red ribbon to make a

festive bandana apron and this material jumped up and BIT ME!

 I gasped!

SHUT. THE. FRONT. DOOR!

Is this not the ca-utest material EVER?

3/4 of a yard of pure apron bliss.

Can't wait to make it!

Happy Friday!