Caught Red-Handed...

...What happens when your mom leaves the pantry door open, and you just happen to find an Oreo!!!

{and notice, your very loyal buddy doesn't leave your side in times of trouble...clearly because she's got your back, not because you have a cookie in your hand}

"Who, me???"

"It's a good thing I'm so cute!"

:)

Mills' first day of "school"

Last Wednesday Mills had his first day of "school"...well, Mother's Morning Out to be exact - of course my little booger is not old enough for school...YET!! {Although I have no doubt it will be here in the blink of an eye!}

Bag's all packed {with diapers, wipes, and juice...you know, the necessities}!

"What's this thing, Mommy?"

"I think I kind of like it!!!"

:)

MOST.precious.boy.ever.

And his first day went SO well!  He went right to the sweet ladies {it helped that they were playing OUTSIDE - his favorite}!  We're only doing two hours in the morning, three days a week {technically it's offered for three hours, but my little guy likes to sleep in, and I'm not waking him up for "school" at this point, that's for sure!}, and if I want to have him all to myself more than that, he can stay home, no biggie!  And if I have something to get done around the house or an appointment, we can do an extra day or two - completely flexible and I like that.

Mainly we just wanted him to have a little socialization with some other kiddos his age, and the bonus is that I can actually get some laundry done, floors mopped/swept/vacuumed, etc - it's a win/win!  Really, this little two-hour playtime is just the perfect thing for us.  And the added bonus is that Mills' cousin is in the same "class," so all the way there {all three minutes of the drive}, he says, "Gray! Gray! Gray!" :)

Oh I could just eat him up!

Wordless Wednesday: The Lawn Boys

City and the country...

The weekend before last, Nicholas and I headed back to Charleston for his Internal Medicine Boards.  I met my mom and Phil in Columbia Thursday afternoon - so that Mills could spend the weekend with his grandparents and fam in the upstate - and then Nicholas and I headed down Thursday night.  As soon as we got into town, we met our precious friends, the Yoes, at Rue de Jean for a late dinner.  They were so nice to let us crash with them again, too! {Sadly they had to head out of town Friday night, but at least we got to get in some quality time beforehand, AND their little downtown penthouse is like staying at a hotel - thanks, guys!} I dropped Nicholas off early on Friday morning for a fun day full of testing, went back and slept for a few hours {heaven}...and then in true packing-in-all-the-good-Charleston-food-you-can-after-living-there-for-three-years-and-now-living-in-a-small-town-and-missing-gourmet-food-at-your-fingertips-every-night-of-the-week fashion, I grabbed some pad thai to go from Basil before getting an afternoon massage...ahhh.  Right after I picked Nicholas up, we got some unsettling news about our house we sold in Charleston {more on that later}, so Nicholas decided he needed a couple of drinks before dinner. :p  We had reservations at S.N.O.B for dinner. The appetizers and salads were DELISH, entrees were just okay, but the dessert made up for it! :)  Then we met our friends, Ashley and Chris, out for drinks at the Market Street Rooftop - love.  Saturday we went to Caviar & Bananas for brunch...WHY THE HECK DID WE NOT EAT THERE NONSTOP WHEN WE LIVED IN CHARLESTON?!?!?  Tons of people had raved about it, and we stuck with our favorite brunch spots like Fat Hen and Hominy Grill...but we were SO missing out!

Nicholas had:

B.E.L.T. :  bacon trio/ fried egg/ arugula/ heirloom tomato/ black pepper aioli/ sourdough

I had:

cheddar & chive house-made biscuit:  “local” pancetta/ fried egg/ cheddar/ black pepper aioli

And we split:

“caviar” & bananas:  bruleed bananas/ sweet tapioca/ local honey/ brown sugar marscapone/ almond tuile

Holy amazingness...now we were miserably stuffed afterwards and couldn't eat again until dinner, but it was totally worth it - one of the best brunches E.V.E.R.  And please, if you live there, don't miss out on this little gem like we did! I'malready daydreaming about the next encounter I have with that delicious homemade biscuit amazingness and those heavenly "caviar" & bananas...ahhhh.

We spent the rest of our Saturday with the Schonfelds...so wonderful I can't even put it into words...just typical hanging out on a Saturday. We were going to head to the beach, but the weather got a little hazy in the afternoon so we just took it easy.  For dinner we couldn't pass up our typical weekly spot, Taco Boy, for some delicious guac and margaritas!  Plus, we got to spend more time with Leah, Matt, & cute little Callahan, AND see the Schreiners and sweet baby Charlotte! It was a seriously great weekend with friends...the only thing we missed was...

MILLS! :)

We met mom and Phil at Za's in Columbia {our former, former weekly dinner spot} for lunch on Sunday to pick up our little guy and hear all about his weekend {not like I didn't talk to mom 20 million times over the weekend to get updates, ha!}.

Here is what this little guy was up to all weekend {in pictures...A LOT of them...}

driving his cars around the house...

playing with cousin peyton at the pool...

swimming laps - look at my little fishy!

having some SERIOUS fun!!! :)

Playing with his great aunt myra at the pool, too!  My grandparents built this pool for me, the first summer after I was born.  Totally giving away my age here, but it's gotten a lot of use since 1983. ;)

hey handsome!

juice break!

swimming with Philly!

And "racing" with Peyton!

{play-by-play} :)

Sad he had no one paying him any attention...at all...right?  ;)

Look out, big boy on the move!!!

{this face - above and below - was him singing "do do do do, " the shark song while he was on this "shark" floatie}

Then it was time for a lunch break with Peytie...

fries and ketchup?? yum!

Mills also enjoyed riding Peyton's old Barbie jeep... :)

he loves anything that he can ride and/or moves!

Mills and his great-grandmother, MaMa!

And what is a weekend in the country without some apple-picking???

{which reminds me that I have a really good recipe to share with you later this week involving those apples, picked by those sweet little hands!}

Oh, and Mills also got his first pair of rainbows, compliments of GaGa and Philly!

More country fun...golf and baseball with apples!

Mom said he would hit the apple with his "bat" then throw it and run like he was running bases, haha! I have no clue where in the world he saw/learned that!

And of course, his very favorite toy - the hose!!!

Doesn't he look like he's really missing his parents in this picture??? {wink wink}

I mean, this boy had some F-U-N!!! That's for sure! I think his grandparents had something planned out for him every minute of the day - he was probably bored when he got home! :)  Thanks, everyone, for taking such good care of him and letting him have so much fun!

Oh, and he even came back with a DVD player for the car that GaGa and Philly got for him...spoiled rotten, ya think?? :)

And thanks to our Charleston friends, too, for hosting us, spending time with us, and just being awesome friends. We love y'all!