Celebrating Babies

Each month we get together and eat dinner with a group of friends that are very special and unique to us. There are nine families (Banks, Causey, Gladden, Greer, Hudak, Lancaster, Larkin, Tang, Sutton) and each family is from Gadsden. Many of us in the group have known each other since birth and our parents are good friends. It is funny to see the cycle repeating itself as our children are also growing up friends. Jared always laughs that he doesn't know how all the guys in our group landed their wives. The group of women are a bunch of over-achievers and Jared says it took the guys just a few more years to figure things out, ha!

A few fun facts about our group of friends:

• 13 out of the 18 of us actually grew up in Gadsden


• 3 Auburn Families... one of us was an Auburn Basketball Player... War Eagle!


• 6 Alabama Families... one family even includes Big Al!


• 8 Gadsden High Graduates including a homecoming queen and a tennis doubles state champion... Go Tigers!


• 5 children with 3 more due this spring

Our group loves to eat and chat. Since we all know each other so well, the conversation is normally endless and always funny. When you are around people you know, there is no telling what comes out of our mouths...

This month Claire hosted us for a "Baby Celebration". Margaret and I are having baby number two in April and Jennifer is due with baby number one in May. Each girl is already having a shower, but we wanted to do something special to celebrate as a small group. Claire got all three families to bring their baby picture and guess who was who. It was a hoot. Alie won and got all six of us correct. Alie knows us all really well so it was no surprise that she was the champion. She even called winner before the "grading" officially showed her as the champion. Claire also had us to bring money and start a pot predicting each babies birth weight. Winner will earn the "pot of green". We wanted to predict who would be the next family to have a baby, but some families were too nervous. They made sure to drink wine because they are afraid after hearing all our baby stories.

The night was a lot of fun: talking baby, telling funny stories, and just generally enjoying one another. Thanks Claire and Casey for a great night!