sterling cooper mowrer smith plays smart - NOT dumb, celebrations, art & other neat things

you may or may not know, but we competed in the KNOXVENTURE 2010 (a la amazing race, knoxville style) race this past weekend. it was SO MUCH FUN. megan wrote it all up on her blog so i will direct you there, she did a great job recounting everything (way better than i would have done or did here). we ran our little hearts out and made 13 stops, kicking b-u-t-t and taking names each time. but seriously, go to megan's blog and read all about it - it's very entertaining. 

oh yeah, we came in 11th overall and then 6th in our division - WE ROCK!

 6th place, quite awesome

i did steal some photos from her, here are some highlights...

before the race talking strategery - play smart, don't play dumb

this is our first clue, look at the focus and drive apparent on our faces
(especially matt's)

running running running

megan climbing the rock wall

shooting hoops at the basketball hall of fame

drawing megan at volunteer landing

playing a memory/matching game at the movie theater

(i seriously think we did this in less than
a minute, the dude was way impressed)

post race, happy happy happy

oh yeah, here we are the night before modeling our shirts. they were so bad they were good. tommy designed them and that was the good part, matt and i ironed them on and that was the bad part. 

matt said they looked like a kindergartner did them.

 

front

 

back (it up)

i am already looking forward to next year - sign me UP!

friday night we threw a wedding shower a la "game night" for shawn and marty. i meant to take more photos (one of shawn and marty would have been nice) but i have a few. 

we played "charoids" (charades on sterioids) - we combined charades, humdinger and pictionary and made the funnest game ever.

group fun

i had to black out a section of this one 

so that was friday and saturday, after the race on saturday we drove up to the lake. on sunday we celebrated THREE family birthdays: daddy/grandaddy, rowdy and aunt shirley. it was FUN! here are a few shots...

bb reads to the babies

 lottie sue gets a few gifts

rowdyman with his bb

 rowdyman with his granbunny

rowdy surrounded by gifts

loving on a stuffed monkey 

rowdy admires his birthday hat

lottie sue helps her baby brother open gifts

three sleeping beauties 
 

phew, last weekend sure was busy. i need a nap. alrighty, here are my items of interest:

1.  if you are looking to buy new fall items, just go to j.crew - it's the only place you need to shop (this is for kids and adults, democrats OR republicans, young and old - btw) - they can do NO WRONG i say

 

i mean, come ON...

2.  something else i'm loving - this union

i think he is oh-SO-funny and i basically love every kp song - i can't help myself

3.  you may or may not know, but i love me some jt - this is just one of the many reasons why...

see?

4.  is she??? or is she not??? i just don't know!!! (the times has a story on keeping an eye on joan)

preggers or not, THAT is the question

5.  the new york times released its top reader's dishes this week...yummers

it's times (haha) like this that make me wish i cooked

6.  here's a Q&A with mötley crüe's vince neil, talk about raising h-e-double hockey sticks...  

7.  also newsworthy, matt's cousin, halli, was featured in an asheville zine and we have the little article here 

8.  if you use nike+ or have a garmin and use garminconnect.com, go to this site and sign up: earndit.com - register your device and every time you run/walk/bike/whatever you get points, once you get so many points you get free stuff like gift cards, bars and etc. 

9.  becce and tri-cera-tops, you may want to check this out: using at&t over wireless when you have a poor signal 

10. this totally blows my mind: two physicists won the nobel prize in physics for arranging a form of carbon a single atom thick, it is not only the thinnest material IN THE WORLD, but also the STRONGEST - a sheet of it stretched over a coffee cup could support the weight of a truck bearing down on a pencil point (think about THAT - whoa) 

11.  paris rediscovers monet's magic at grand palais - the first chance to see the whole sweep of his work in a quite a while

speaking of artists...here are a few of lottie sue's recent works of (brilliant) art...monet has nothing on her! hmphf!!! 

a lottie sue zoo

black and white

um...hello - this is titled "ernie"

(if you don't know, ernie's tail is ALWAYS in a question mark)

painting with apples

red + yellow = orange

 

 our minimalist

alrighty, looks like that will do it for this post. i have a few photos i am signing off with...

nephew/cousin knox giving us a big-time smile

rowdy at his one-year appointment eating goldfish

lottie

ok, yay for hump day! post to ya later.

surprising beth, gran torino & 4th of july swimming

we threw a surprise 30th birthday party for beth on friday - she had NO IDEA. brandon wanted something big for her birthday and, by george - that's what happened. here are a few photos (beth, i stole some of your photos from crackbook for my blog, thanks!) of the materials made for the big night...

the invitation

the cake

the giant (it was something like 20 feet long, no
kidding) banner that we hung on the building

the sash that amy made

the crown that i made (with help from matt's mom*)

i am not sure who made this but it was so CUTE

the theme was "some things are timeless" - matt photo doctored a few images to use for the party. they are awesome!

mona beth

a picasso

warhol

whistler's mother

pinkie

queen elizabeth

frida kahlo

the egyptians

marie antoinette

girl with a pearl earring
(my favorite)

with those images i made table tents...


and brandon had t-shirts made...

pretty sweet party favors

the party was at the bridgeview grill and they arrived via boat. we saw them coming in and everyone was out on the deck when they arrived. it was super cool, beth might have shed a tear or 10. she had no idea this was going down, when she saw the banner and all the peeps she did this...

WHAT THE???
(the birthday girl with the mastermind behind her)

the giant sign and all of beth's friends yelling for her

once inside, she was adorned with her sash and crown. it was time to mingle...

beth meeting her public
(attention jo - look at how pretty your hair looks - glossy!)

crowd shot

kristina and megan

another group shot

beth and matt

the food

me

clint (the birthday girl's bro)

here we have beth blowing the candles out

another group shot

matt and i on the dance floor

group shot of us girls
(with matt photo bombing and tommy
laughing at him photo bombing)

m & j

another shot and another photo bomb

me and clint

so that was super fun! happy birthday, beth! what a fun night!

then on saturday night we had a dinner/game night with the masons, tommy, lindsay and new friends stacey and christian. the food was good (wine and cheese tasting early on with a vodka cream sauce pasta dish for dessert) and games were so much fun!

lindsay is momentarily distracted by legos

the boys learning they are all on the same team
(we drew names for teams and ended up with the grouping
we were trying to avoid, notice shawn's face of disbelief)

lindsay pondering

tommy drawing his charade paper

christian and matt enjoy the show

lindsay and i high-fiving after i drew
gran torino and lindsay guessed it
(we totally rocked that one)

i thought tommy was with me in this photo. but no.

here are two action shots with matt...he's good!


now i have a few photos from the 4th of july, aunt shirely and uncle stan planned a bbq up at johnny and judy's house - it was so much fun! brad, rita, alexis and matthew were in town for the holiday and it has been YEARS AND YEARS since we've seen them. it was a very pleasant afternoon - more pool fun! stan sent these photos to me, thanks stan!!!!!

matt and rowdy swimming around

rowdy loved being sent back and forth on the float

lottie ONLY wants to jump in the pool and go underwater

that's alexis on rita and me with lottie sue on top
(notice how lottie has her hands on my eyes, i could not see)

alexis conquers the walrus
(trust me, it's near impossible)

lottie sue and rowdy get ice cream (and love it)

miss alexis

alrighty, that's all i have for you today. as always, i leave you with a few interesting reads...

• pressed for time? get your one-minute portrait right here
• talking mad men with the creator, matthew weiner, and terry gross
• does anyone out there make shakes a lot - i have been thinking about how i could put everything in a shake and be done with it (i really hate to cook, making a sandwich is pushing it for me) and thought this would be cool to have: blender bottle
• i love james franco
• time magazine has 10 questions for john hamm

*oh yes, i have a few photos of the making of the crown. i saw a project on a blog (it was for a stuffed frog, but i saw beyond that) and thought these hats were so cute. so when i had the chance to make one i jumped at it. matt's mom helped me, she is way technical and i am NOT. she's good for me.

mom started out with making a pattern (out of thin air, poof)
(i never would have done that due to laziness but
like i said - she's technical (and so smart to do it))

then after some measuring, pinning, ironing,
cutting and sewing you get a super cute crown

you can decorate it however you like

i also need to thank grandmother for watching lottie sue during the making of the crown.

lottie sue and grandmother watch the genie

ok, now for realz i will leave you with our bride princess, lottie sue. when i say that is all about princesses SHE IS ALL ABOUT BEING A PRINCESS. this week she has turned it into a bride princess and she put this outfit together all by herself.

i did not help at all. yeah, she's smart like that.

skirt as a veil, princess shoes and one of rowdy's toys for flowers

she is very interested in marrying someone. this morning she asked me if i fell in love and i said, yep - i fell in love with daddy. then she told me that she fell in love with cj and would marry him. lottie sue gilmore has a nice ring to it. don't you agree?