Elliot's 1st Birthday Party

Elliot had a combined party with her cousin Eleanor. They are 1 month apart, so it worked out nicely. We had it at the Howard Moore Play Pool in Arlington & it was a success. I'm so glad we decided to do it in Arlington, otherwise, her grandparents & aunts & uncles wouldn't have been there. Here are a ton of pictures...

This is the adult food table. There was chicken salad sandwiches, pasta salad & fruit.
That banner says "Happy 1st Birthday". I kick myself that I didn't punch 2 holes in each circle so people would actually be able to read it. I even thought about it, but I was just too lazy. Pathetic I know.

Here's the kid food table.
Each child had their own little sack lunch. And then there's the dessert. My sister did a fantastic job with the cakes & cupcakes.

Here's a close up of E's personal cake.

Kids goodie bags. The sticker says "Eleanor & Elliot's 1st Birthday". Inside there were Swedish Fish & gummy mermaids. (Mermaids were the theme).

Adult party favor. Again, my sister made these & I absolutely LOVE them. There's a slide show for each girl on there.

Here's the play pool area.

Exploring

Sitting with Granpops. Spiked hair courtesy of Aunt Aly.

Grandma & Aunt Aly (Lane' mom & sister)

Amy & Allison

Imogen (My niece)

Caroline

Cru & Kelly

My mom & E

My parents with the birthday girls

Jim, Lexi, Susie & Vincent

Flying high

Vincent

Daddy & E

Regina & cute little Arden

Kelly. It was so funny because he ate the little starfishes off the tops of about 4 cupcakes.

I happened to take this picture at the exact time a little kid fell into the pool. It was pretty funny. Of course they were also concerned :)

Family shot.

Cake Time!

Eleanor & her daddy

Tasting the icing

Yum!

She really wasn't interested in the cake. Lane had to stick her hand in it. She didn't eat much. But she did reach for a strawberry. I guess I should be proud.

Present time!

Great birthday party. I'll post more about her turning 1 on her real birthday.

Sno Cone Search

Summer is coming to an end & I realized that I hadn't had a sno cone yet. I couldn't think of any place around that sells them. I guess it's more of a suburban thing. So I searched it out & found a place in an area of Houston called The Heights. It got really good reviews. So we headed that way this afternoon & it did not disappoint. It's called Mam's House of Ice. I got Tigers Blood & Lane got Raspberry. Both were delicious. I wish we had found this place sooner.

In front of the cute little stand.

E enjoying daddy's sno cone. We chose to sit in the car because it had AC & it was blazing hot outside!

Red stained lips.

Big Girl Car Seat

It was finally time to get Elliot a new car seat. I looked around & narrowed it down to the Graco 360 & the Evenflo 65 LX. After checking them both out, I settled on the Evenflo for a few reasons. If you're in the market for one, here's why I bought this one. 1) The material. Most of the car seats I saw were these suede materials that feel really comfortable, but in Texas the poor babies will sweat to death in them! 2) This is the MAIN reason. The straps are so EASY to adjust! You don't have to re thread them as your child gets older. They are on a track, so you just have to slide them up! And they are so easy to loosen & tighten.

Here she is. Don't her legs look so long?!

Passed out. This is the only thing I DON'T like about this car seat. When she falls asleep, her poor little head just rolls over. Drives me insane. I think the car seats with bigger wings may prevent this, but I don't know. It's possible that all car seats have the same problems. It's really only a problem when we go on road trips. Otherwise, we're not in the car too long. Overall I give this car seat 2 thumbs up!

Galveston Getaway

We spent the last day & a half in Galveston. We started things off by having dinner at Fishtails. This is the first time I've actually enjoyed sitting outside. There was a nice breeze & a great view of the water. You can see the old Flagship Hotel behind us that was torn apart by Ike. I guess that's not so pretty to look at.

We then headed to Moody Gardens to check out their butterfly exhibit. I thought E would enjoy it. Well it definitely was a bust. I only saw about 5 butterflies. I think they were flying out through the netted tent! Lane & I watched one escape. But we did get a few cute pictures.

Sadly E's favorite part of the trip...

...Playing with the hotel safe. She was constantly making a b-line for it.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel. It was actually really good. They had a great selection. I chose a Texas shaped waffle...delish. Wish I had a picture of it. We stayed at the Comfort Suites because they had the cheapest rates. But I was very pleased with it. It wasn't dingy or anything. Our room was very nice, the bed was super comfy, & the bathroom was all granite. I highly recommend this place.

We headed into the historic district to go to one of my favorite places...La King's. It's a soda fountain. Told you I liked them.

Kid in a candy store.

We got a hot fudge sundae. Yummy!

We went back to Moody Gardens to go to Palm Beach. They have lots of shallow pools, splash pads & sandy beaches. E had a good time. She only lasted 1.5 hours but that's good considering we were there right through her nap time.

Arg!