A Table for Five Thousand

Yesterday, Kylie participated in the children's musical at our church, CSUMC. This was the 1st year that she was old enough to participate and she loved it! The children's musical was called A Table for Five Thousand and told the story about the boy who shared his 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and was able to feed a crowd of five thousand. All of the kids did such a great job!

Martha Ann and Kylie

So thankful to have such an awesome group of kids at our Church. =)

The Yes Man

Ok, ok I admit it. I am one of those nagging wife's that gives her husband a hard time every now and then alot =). One of the main things I always tease Lee about is being what I call a "Yes Man". By saying this, I mean he says yes when anybody asks him to do anything (except for me of course, ha!). I realize by saying all of this it makes me look extremely selfish, but just trying to keep it real here. I mean the heading of my blog is Sugar and Spice and MOST everything nice, and since I get a little bored with the same ol', same ol' scrapbook photos on blogs, figured I would stay true to my title and keep it real. Just a little caviat before going on further.

So Lee, Mr. Yes Man, commits and serves our community in a way that blows my mind. I have always given him a hard time as I feel that sometimes his commitments stress him out which stresses me out and takes time away from our family. But this week, something clicked for me. Given that I work in Montgomery and am stretched sometimes on projects in over 8 states, it is easy for me to somewhat not really feel like I need to participate in community activities here. Sounds strange I know, but when I think about it most people are active in their community as a force of their job. And to be truthful, I always thought that was the case for Lee as well, until I saw him in action this week. This year Lee chaired the Chamber of Commerce Golf Tourney, which is the Chamber's only fundraiser other than their annual membership drive. This was his 2nd year to Chair the event, but the 1st time that I was able to go and actually see what he works so hard on. I was SO proud of him!!!!! And I could tell that this was not something that he was doing for his job or because he had to, but he was doing it because he cares about our community and the businesses that make it strive. There were 26 teams (which means the tourney was full!!!). Lunch was provided, door prizes and raffles were arranged, the list goes on and on.

And even better, I think everyone had a great time which probably concerns Lee more than anything.

And a blog post about a golf tournament, would not be complete without a photo of the winner!!!! Congrats to Paul and Andy for winning the tournament -- they shot a 52 which is supposedly very good (I do not know anything about golf :)) This pic was taken before the tournament began, the winner clearly had a serious strategy!

Thanks to everyone who came. And thanks to Lee for being so willing of your time to make things like this happen for our community. On behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, the NWTF, the Quarterback Club, the CSUMC Finance Committee, the Salvation Army, and the list goes on, thank you Lee for being a YES Man!!

Wordless Wednesday...a day late

Fleet Week in the Big Easy

Last week was a fun one! It was back to New Orleans Wednesday through Friday of last week to check on the status of our current project, check on our existing portfolio, and scope out a potential new deal. I was thrilled to have my co-worker come along for the ride. It was great to have a travel partner. We arrived Wednesday afternoon and met with our achitect to discuss a new project we are trying to put together. After viewing the site and going over details, he was nice enough to take us to dinner at Cochon. This is one of the restaurants I have not been to, so I was excited to check it out. The fried alligator aoili did not disappoint! Think New Orleans creole with a modern, contemporary twist. Very cool. After dinner, Patti (my co-worker and I) and Mark (my other co-worker who actually lives in New Orleans) braved Bourbon Street. It was packed. The French Quarter Fest was two weeks ago and Jazz Fest does not start until this weekend so we were totally confused by the crowd. As we made our way on Bourbon, we began to notice a sea of white. Sailors in uniform packed the street. After asking a few questions, we found out that it was Fleet Week. I have not read the linked article, but according to our cab driver there were 7 ships from all different countries in NOLA for the week. I remember hearing about New York Fleet Week on an old Sex and the City episode, and let's just say that this was very similar if not the exact same!!! I think there could have been a video made called "Sailors Gone Wild". It provided the best people watching I have seen done there, which says ALOT! Ha!! This guy was all about entertaining everyone walking by in the street.

They all reminded me of Jersey Shore characters :) Patti and I at Pat O's

The next day, we went to check on my deal that closed in November. I was thrilled with the progress!!!! This is a picture of the place before

And here is my work in progress...

When restored, it will serve as elderly housing once again. After several inspections and touring the rest of our New Orleans portfolio with Mark we met up with our equity provider and my boss for dinner at Maximo's . If you have not tried Maximo's, I highly recommend. It is quaint, in the Quarter, and has amazing creole Itialian food and an even better wine list! Afterwards, we hit Bourbon again. The other guys heard our stories about the sailors from the night before, so they had to check it out too. Here is Patti with one of the Captain's

All in all, it was a great trip. We had a lot of fun. I always bring masks back for the girls, we have started quite the collection. Maggie would not pose for a photo, but Kylie was all smiles with her pink butterfly mask

Happy Monday!

It's a Calypso Birthday Party

Kylie's preschool, Leika's school, has a tradition of having a calypso birthday party every year on each child's birthday. The kids love it because on their special day they get to be the line leader and play the birthday bongos to the calypso birthday song in music. Kylie has been asking me since the beginning of school when would it be her birthday so she could play the bongos. Well, unfortunately for her, her birthday is in the summer!!! Thank goodness for us, the month of April is pretend birthday month! So today Kylie bug was able to have a pretend birthday at school and play the bongos. She was so excited. After music we went back to Miss Kathy's class and I brought a special snack. We had a rock star themed birthday with hot pink and purple cupcakes and the kids all got to take home rock star shades. Kylie had a great time and was grinning ear to ear!
Kylie, Fairchild, and Jane ready for music
Kylie and Rhett (the line leaders) leading the class in the Pledge
Kylie playing the birthday bongos with Miss Kathy
Everyone dancing during the calypso birthday song
Getting ready to say the blessing before the birthday snack
Are they not the cutest??? Jane, Kylie & Harper
The Birthday Girl
Sweet friends
The boys decided they wanted a pic as well =)
Happy VERY EARLY birthday sweet girl!

Work of Art

So excited to receive the sketch of my sweet girls from AMR Art. Amanda Roberson is located in Montgomery, AL and is oh so talented!! Check out her site, she is currently running a special on commissioned sketches. Wonderful Monther's Day gift!

Easter 2012

What a glorious Easter weekend we had this year! The girls both really enjoyed all of the activities and it was nice that Maggie was old enough to somewhat participate this year. We started the weekend off with the annual SCC Egg Hunt. This is always so much fun as I get to see every one's little ones and a lot of friends from out of town that we do not get to see often. Kylie was really into it and Maggie enjoyed the marshmallows mostly!
Big Sister tried so hard to show Little Sister how it's done
But Little Sister just wanted to eat!
Big Sister loved seeing all of her friends!
The girls thought it was great o be able to play on the golf course.
Little Sister met the Easter Bunny, she did not like him as much this year!
It took Big Sister a little bit to warm up, but she finally agreed to take a picture.Once we got home, Big Sister also kept pointing out that the Easter Bunny had on tennis shoes. She told me a least a million times that she thought there was a person inside the Easter Bunny! Geez-- I am so not ready for those conversations, I was caught completely off guard. I finally convinced her that he had to wear Nike's in order to hop from house to house to fill up Easter baskets. I never addressed the person inside the costume question! I need to come up with something to justify that for the next holiday. =)
Sunday morning, we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny or according to Kylie, his friend, had come to our house and filled up our baskets with lots of Easter goodies.The girls were thrilled that this Easter Bunny hooked them up for the beach and the pool!
Sporting her new shades!
After all of the Easter Bunny fun, the crew got ready to celebrate a risen Jesus at Church. Lee and I had nursery duty :) Ha! Do you know how packed the nursery is on Easter Sunday? Grandkids, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc -- they are ALL there! We had a lot of fun and Maggie was thrilled that we stayed to play with her and all 30 of her friends in the nursery, hehe. Kylie sat with her friend, Martha Ann, during the service and then attended Children's Church. I hated to miss Easter service, but one of my goals this year is to serve more in the Church and I can't think of a better place in need of serving than a church nursery =)I know I am biased, but my little girlies looked beautiful on Easter!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!