Memphis in May--NOT the festival, just the fun!

Here are some highlights of our visit to Memphis for James and Reese's birthday parties--and a week of hanging out afterward!!!  Mario had to travel for work, so the kids and I just stayed in Memphis the whole week leading up to the following weekend when we left for family vacation in Florida!




Happy Birthday, James and Reese!
My boys with the birthday kids!

They had a bounce house party at Pump It Up!

It was so much fun...and not just for the kids--I crawled through this obstacle course with Lucas!

there were gigantic slides...

and a wrestling arena!

(lucas and james beat up mario!  haha!)

but the slides were their favorite!

they slid down over and over and over!

love this sweet snapshot of lucas and big 4 year old james!

these two look like they could be brothers with all that blonde hair!!!

love my mom and my sisters!!!

little sissy michelle who's way taller than me!!!  ;)

my best friend kelly and her littlest darling, micah.

(kelly and i have been bffs since we were 6 and took gymnastics together!  so fun to catch up with her when we go back to memphis!)

now time for the AMAZING cakes!!!

(i love how mandy celebrated each of her children's FAVORITE things even though they were totally different--monster trucks and dora!)

(and yes, she made both of these herself!!!  wowsers!)

james and reese get to sit on the throne and blow out their candles!!!

sweet, happy smiles!

happy 4th, james!  happy 2nd, reese!

(these balancing cakes strike a chord of fear in me every time i look at this picture!  if this was one of my children's parties, a cake would surely have ended up on the floor!  haha!)

the four amigos eagerly trying to get their juice boxes open...

bouncing definitely works up a good thirst!

mandy was an amazing hostess/birthday director!

time to dig in!!!
the monster truck cake was definitely the one requested by the mammina boys!!!

later in the week, meme worked on making some sugar cookies with the kids...

lucas makes a tiny cookie!

reese and lucas working hard!

sweet reese wearing her cookie cutter as a bracelet!

now it's anthony's and james' turns!!

very deliberate with his cuts

these two are best buds when they are together

let's just say the finished product didn't last long...yum!

one night we found the boys asleep on their covers but off their beds!  haha!

we definitely squeezed in some trampoline bouncing time!

papa reading some books...

or maybe lucas is reading to papa???

the tradition of the tractor ride...

i do believe this was the first time anthony drove all by himself!

and we had the pleasure of meeting up with kelly and her kids once more to go to the splash park...

lyla and reese even had matching swimsuits--not planned!  unfortunately, little parker wasn't in a picture-taking mood!

these cousins!  always laughing!

wouldn't have it any other way!!!