Party Time

For some reason, my children have a pretty good number of friends with Spring & Summer birthdays. So, party season has officially started for us. We attended Amari's 8th birthday party this past Saturday, and have another party to attend this Saturday. The kids had a great time at his Pump It Up party, jumping and sliding on all of the bounce houses. Demaris came along with us to the party.

After we left the party, we headed over to Don & Shirley's for a late night cook-out. Grace and Derrick spent most of their time ewwing and aghhhing over baby Devin with breaks in between to jump on the trampoline. The boys played video games and jumped on the trampoline. We ended up leaving with an extra kid when Dillon decided he wanted to stay the night with Hunter and Demaris.

Sunday afternoon, I met up with some girlfriends to carpool to our friend Susan's non-shower baby shower. Susan had asked that we all bring an appetizer and a bead, but no gifts. One of our friends is stringing the beads together for Susan to have with her during her birth. I hope it reminds her of the love and strength that will be sent her way on that special day. I had a blast at the shower eating yummy foods and hanging out with my tribe of women. I have been so blessed in the last few years to really develop an awesome core group of friends to share my journey of motherhood and life with. The first few pics were taken by the amazing Rebecca.
Susan-checking out a bead

My Old Skool Mom Crew (Amba & Beth)- I'm a dork, but I just realized that we're A, B, C...
Me & Susan

And here's a few that I took..
Love the nursing Mamas!! Krysta and sweet baby Sam.

Mel & Mabel

Rebecca the Photog

Susan is really funny. Just ask Donna.

The beautiful backyard

Oh, and I forgot to tell ya'll. Hunter has been saving his money up. This weekend Wes took him to Academy to buy a skateboard. He's been asking for one for a while, and I kept reminding him his birthday would be here soon. I guess he decided he didn't want to wait. He's been riding it everyday. I see ramps and rails in our future. How freakin' cute is my sk8er boy?

Monkey Love

So Friday, Grace and I headed to the Dallas Zoo with her buddy Ty and his mom Lorie. Grace hadn't been to the zoo since she was an infant. She was really excited when she found out we were going and had lots of questions. "Do I get to ride on a giraffe?" "Will I get to pet a monkey?" She didn't seem very impressed when I told her we were just going to look at the animals.

Grace at the Ft. Worth Zoo in 2005

Well, we ended up having a really great time. It started out a little rough with me having to answer questions that I hadn't come prepared to answer, thanks to that rowdy Mandaril...Questions like, "What is he doing to her butt?"

Here are a few more tasteful pics from our fun day.

I know it's not Wednesday, but....

this is a great White Trash story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080412/ap_on_fe_st/odd_pool_theft;_ylt=AuELVM1uB3jEATDP6LIitcguQE4F

The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life

Did anyone see Primetime tonight with the story of the man behind this speech and book? It was so freaking good--a complete tear jerker, but it was so beautiful and inspiring. If you have about 2 hours to spare you can watch his entire lecture. I haven't watched the whole thing yet. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6210445735760041077 I am definitely going to buy the book though. You can read more about him and his speech at the link below.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jUbqY2gJjF82vI28Q0sUXKn5V96gD8VTFB1G3

White Trash Wednesday #9

Where do I even start? First of all, you should NEVER EVER wear brown socks, unless you are wearing a brown suit and dress shoes. Period. Second, if you are a redneck over 6 feet tall and have a mullet, you should never stand with your hand propped on your hip like that. People might get the "wrong idea" about you. Third.... Oh, hold on a minute, my phone is ringing.....Nevermind, that was just Poison calling to say they wanted their hair back.

Oh and speaking of that hair. Just in case you wanted a better look at it. Here ya go.Not only is he sporting a mullet..He has a comb over mullet. You can see a bald spot on the top of his head that he has brushed his luscious locks over. He thought I wouldn't notice, but I did.

Family Pictures and More!

Well, we've had a busy and fun past few days. We started off Saturday morning by going to have family pictures made. My friend Susie has a photography business.. http://www.adorablephotography.com/. We haven't had a family picture taken since before Grace was conceived. I was so excited to finally have pictures taken and she did an amazing job if I do say so myself. You can see a slide show of the images here. http://adorablephotography.com/Slideshow/040508/

After pics, we headed to our neighborhood park to enjoy some of the great weather we were having. Hunter, kept wanting me to take pictures of him doing tricks.

After that we came home for a little bit before heading out to see our friend Hayden's t-ball game. Hayden and his family are so great to always support our kids and come see their activities, so it was nice to go see him play for once.

We returned home just in time for me to see the dope head that lives across the street get arrested. It was turning out to be a really awesome day!!

Later that evening we hung out at the Owen's house and then later with the Moore's. You can read more about that at http://moorewar.blogspot.com/.

On Sunday, Wes' cousin, Carolyn, came in town from Mississippi to attend a conference in Fort Worth. Wes' family and us all went to lunch at The Jalapeno Tree. The weather was perfect for patio dining and it was great to visit with Carolyn. Although the service was nothing to write home about, the food was really good-especially this guacamole dip they had. Yummy!

Carolyn & the kids

Wes & Carolyn

Grace enjoying a tortilla.

Cami, Hunter, and Wes' sister, Kim

Then yesterday, we headed to the Dallas Arboretum with some friends. I invited Carolyn to come along with us, and she seemed to really enjoy herself. The kids had a great time. We let Hunter take the day off school to join us for the fun.

Susie & Me

Renee, Me, & Elaine

Grace trying her hand at photography with Cody.

Justin wanted to be a frog. He settled for a green tiger.

Grace as "Hello Kitty" with Carolyn

Fun in the fountains. So much for the face paint.

White Trash Wednesday #8

So, we had the opportunity to go to a little league baseball game this weekend in Kauffman to see our friend's son play. I had to narrow it down between two guys to select the winner of this weeks WTW. I've decided that this week's winner is someone I like to call Scratch Pad Man. As many of you know, I am a lover of body art. I only have one tattoo to date, but have plans to get more in the future. I think tattoos can be a beautiful form of self expression. That being said, I do not encourage anyone to use their body as a scratch pad. Scratch Pad Man on the other hand clearly has differing views from me, as his left arm was covered in a bunch of chicken scratch. Honestly, it didn't even loook like someone was learning to tattoo on him. It looked more like they were learning to write their letters on him and perhaps they just couldn't find a blank sheet of paper laying around the house.