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!

Finally Back Home

For the past month, we have been living with my parents in Arlington while Lane has been working in the ER at JPS hospital in Ft Worth. The month has flown by! We stopped by Lane's mom's house in Whitney on our way back & stayed the night. We had a relaxing time swimming & riding around on the golf cart. Elliot had fun swinging & playing in the little pool.

The last 2 pictures are outside a little soda fountain in Whitney. I have been trying to get Lane to stop there for the past 3 years & he would always say "next time". Then it went out of business. But to my delight, they opened back up & I made him pull the car over. I just think it's the cutest place.

Project Mom & Dad #2

I didn't even plan on tackling this project, but the opportunity presented itself. Here is my parents' living room before paint. I should have taken the picture before we moved everything to the middle.

Here it is after. Now I can't take full credit for the paint job. We hired someone to paint the walls because we have 2 that are super high & impossible to do on our own. The color is called Gray Timberwolf. On the little color swatch it looked more gray with maybe a hint of blue. But on the walls it's blue. My mom refuses to call it blue, but either way it looks way better than it did before.

Now what I will take credit for are the curtains and all the woodwork in the living room, including the fireplace. I repainted it all white. I didn't realize how much woodwork we actually have. It took me FOREVER. In the top picture you can see part of the banister. It has wooden poles that I had to do & that was really tedious. I will also take credit for convincing my parents to hire a painter. It's been about 15 years since they painted the walls & now things look fresh.

I look 20...

...According to the kid at Quiznos. I know his credibility isn't much, but I'll take it!

I had E in my arms & he asked if she was my kid. I replied yes. He then asked my age. I said 27. Then he looked stunned & said I look like I'm 20. Sadly, I lit up like a Christmas tree I was so flattered. Give me a break though. Lately I feel like I look beaten down chasing after Elliot all the time. She is definitely in her SQUIRMY stage & won't sit still for a second. Especially when you go to 3 hours of church & try keeping her contained. That day I took a 2 hour nap to recover.

Hurricane Harbor

Lane had the day off today & suggested that we go to Hurricane Harbor. I was not totally on board with this idea at first. I probably haven't been there since high school & even back then it was a bit trashy. Well, I had a change of heart & decided that I needed to get some sun, so off we went. We had to rent a locker to put our stuff in. We thought we were prepared with a ton of quarters, but it ended up being $12! I was only thinking it would be $5. That's how they make their money I guess. We had a great time riding all the tube rides. Those are my favorite. One observation that I made was the number of people with tattoos. I was shocked at the big, ugly tattoos that almost everyone had. Our favorite was this guy who had grilling utensils on the back of both of his arms...classy.

Fossil Rim

Personalize your own photo slideshow We visited Fossil Rim in Glenrose, TX today. I highly recommend this place. Elliot just loved the animals, which was surprising since she's never seemed to care about them at the zoo. Maybe it was because they came up to your car when you fed them. In fact, I know that's what it was. Anyway, we had a nice time driving through and checking out different animals. The ostrich was pretty fun. I got a little worried there for a minute because he was trying to stick his head into our window. I was afraid he would peck us, so I rolled it up!

Elliot Time

Lately I've felt like Elliot hasn't gotten to do anything just for her. So Lane & I took her to the mall to play at the kids spot. I hate that place because there's too many people, but she loves it & that's all that matters. Before we left, we decided to let her try out the carousel. I had no idea if she would like it, but these pictures speak for themselves.

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Walking Practice

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My Dog the Escape Artist

As I'm sitting in bed reading I hear this noise coming from the kitchen. So I get up to investigate. It's my dog, Winnie. Well I guess technically she is my parents' dog, though they don't claim her. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take her with me when I got married. Anyway, she is trying to squeeze through the gate we have up between the kitchen & living room. If you notice, they even have one of her old collars locked around the gate to secure it. I get her situated & return to my room. Five minutes later I hear the same noise. Bless her heart, she never gives up. I waste no time & grab my camera. Here she is, caught in action.

Project Mom & Dad #1

While we're staying with my parents for a while, I have all these projects in my head that I want to do around their house. The house is as old as I am & I have lived in it from age 1 up to age 24, when I got married. I don't think many people can say that about their childhood home. Needless to say I have many great memories there & would love to get it back to where it once was. Since I nor my parents are made of money, we're sticking to simple things that will make a huge difference...aka...paint. And the first thing we did was turn my old bedroom in the basement from this:


That's right. I had stripes & polka dots on my wall. And I used all 70s colors. I did that piece of work when I was in high school & thought it was the coolest thing ever. I have to admit, that I still like those colors & it was a bit sad painting over them. But the finished product was a little more mature & pleasing to the eye.

Now it looks like this:

Simple & clean. I am really happy with the end product. It's so light & airy. The blue looks lighter in person than it does in the picture. So that's 1 project down & thousands to go!

4th of July Weekend

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The past 2 days we've been in Whitney with Lane's mom & Rich. A lot of Lane's family were there. My parents came along. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone & eating. We stayed in a condo on Lake Whitney & it was so relaxing. They had a fireworks show & all we had to do was go out on our patio. So nice! We were for sure the fireworks would wake up Elliot, but somehow she managed to sleep right through it. We went out on the boat & did some knee boarding. Well, everyone but me, Kate & Eryn. I'm more of a tube person. I actually just prefer to stay in the boat & get a tan. But the guys of course all took turns. And then there was Lexi who put everyone to shame with her mad skills. I was a really bad picture taker, because half the people we hung out with this weekend are not in any of the photos. Elliot played so hard. She got to hang out with Vinny. He's only 2 days younger than her. We also went to a nearby park where she had a blast swinging & going down the slide. She was so tired that she passed out on Lane. Good times were had by all.

Arlington Parade

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Today we went to the Arlington Parade. I haven't been in forever & have always loved going. It looked like it was going to rain the entire time, but it was perfect. There was a little breeze & we had front row seats. It was a great time.