Birthday Sleepover

For her 12th birthday, Kaitlynn wanted to have a couple of her closest friends over to celebrate. She invited Sophia and Lily over for a sleepover with some low-key birthday fun. It is always so neat to have them over because the 3 of them get along so well together! The three girls enjoyed some pizza and then played outside with lots of swimming, jumping on the trampoline, and even some water balloons.

For an extra birthday treat, we gave the girls a little spending money and headed out to one of Kaitlynn's favorite stores - Dollar Tree! Ha! Yes, it's one of her favorite places to browse and spend money. It was so cute watching the girls shop. They wisely budgeted and were happy with their selections.

Of course, no birthday celebration for Kaitlynn would be complete without her all-time favorite treat: Freddy's frozen custard. She will take any excuse to enjoy her vanilla custard with M&Ms! Big smiles all around for these girls! 

Morgan Family Summer Reunion: Kaitlynn's Birthday and Shopping Adventures

As if we hadn't enjoyed enough fun already, we still had one final day of Morgan family time together before the majority of our group was heading home. And this last day together was extra special, because it just happened to be Kaitlynn's 12th birthday. We began the day by taking our annual birthday photographs at home. Gosh, this baby girl of ours is looking so grown up and mature. Sniff sniff!

Although we weren't able to commemorate her special day with a big birthday shindig, we made sure to give her a few gifts to open on her special day. As has been the case for the past MANY birthdays, the theme of the day was all-things-zebra. Seriously, WHEN will this phase pass?? Lol!

To wrap up the Morgan weekend activities, the cousin gang decided they wanted to do some thrift shopping together. We went to Goodwill and Dollar Tree and marveled at all the fun finds, especially the funny t-shirts with random names that the kids couldn't resist purchasing. It was a cute way to soak in the last of their cousin time together.

And while it has nothing to do with Kaitlynn's birthday or the shopping adventures, I couldn't resist closing out the stories of our Morgan family reunion by sharing these cute pics of Charlotte and Ben. We don't get to see them as often as we prefer, so we love to take advantage of their company when they are able to join the group. As evident from their shirts, Bucee's is always a super popular stop when everyone is in town, ha!

That wraps up the photos and stories from our June 2021 reunion of our Morgan family. What a whirlwind extended weekend loaded with great memories and fun! We are so blessed to have a family who enjoys being together, and we're beyond thankful for every moment we get!

Commemorating my Parents' Golden Anniversary

How blessed our family has been with my parents' beautiful example of marriage and their unending commitment to God, each other, and their family! To honor and commemorate their milestone 50th anniversary during our extended weekend together, we hired a photographer to capture some outdoor portraits of my parents and our extended family. I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out - gorgeous! 

Of course, like any other photography session, so much goes on behind the scenes to get those oh-so-perfect shots. The photographer was planning to arrive at 7:30, so naturally I informed the family to be ready by 7:00. When she arrived, we decided to drive to an alternate location to take advantage of the prettier setting. 20 people hopping into multiple vehicles while struggling with last-minute outfit changes and hair/makeup touch-ups... well, it was a chaotic scene to say the least! 

Upon arrival at our chosen location, the humidity was approaching 100% in the summer heat and the beads of sweat started to roll. But the biggest challenge of the evening by far was the unexpected host of visitors that crashed our party - MOSQUITOS! The Texas-sized, blood-sucking, unwelcome tiny beasts feasted on our group during our first batch of photos. Painful, swollen welts emerged followed by tears and drama, but we Morgans persevered. Luckily our photographer, Carrie, saved the day with a stray bottle of bug spray found in the recesses of her minivan. We rallied for the final batch of photos, but not before losing some patience and good attitudes amongst the group. Ha!

Despite the challenges, I'd say that the professional photography session was a resounding success. The beautiful photos of our Morgan family are ones we will cherish for a lifetime. 

God blessed our family beyond measure with such a wonderful example of love, commitment, and unity. Congratulations, Mom and Dad (a.k.a. MeMe and Grandaddy), on your beautiful golden anniversary! 

Morgan Family Summer Reunion: 50th Wedding Anniversary

On June 11, 2021, my parents reached the amazing milestone of their golden wedding anniversary - 50 years!! Yes, this truly was the most momentous occasion that our Morgan family has ever had the privilege to celebrate. And celebrate we did, but in the typical Morgan way: with minimal fanfare but an abundance of love. We enjoyed a lovely celebratory dinner of ribeye steaks with all the fixings, and the kids did a great job decorating the backyard with some fun patio decorations and lots of candles surrounding the entire pool. It was a beautiful evening topped off by an adventurous experience in the kitchen creating MawMaw's famous caramel cake, a Morgan family favorite. The cake wasn't pretty but it was oh-so-delicious (and sinful!) and truly made with love. The entire evening was as typical of a special Morgan family night as we could get - perfect for celebrating MeMe and Grandaddy's amazing milestone day.

After our yummy dinner, we all gathered to recognize the special occasion with a custom memory video that Madison created. She had managed to gather so many photos from my parents' lives together and put them into a beautiful format we could all enjoy. Such a neat way to conclude the evening by reminiscing about the incredible life my parents have built over their 50 years (plus) together.

But the celebration didn't end there. We decided to make sure we honored and commemorated MeMe and Grandaddy's golden anniversary by hosting an activity that had NEVER been done before in our history of Morgan family get-togethers. More to come, but here's a quick sneak peek...