Storytime

We haven't been to storytime in WAY too long because I really dislike the whole way our town's library does it. So today we went to A Real Bookstore to give theirs a try. I was a little leary of going to a store because I pictured myself spending the whole time keeping him from pulling books off the shelf. But they actually had quite a bit of stuff out that they were supposed to play with so it worked out.

They read a book about a scarecrow- which I was glad to see because he is going to be a scarecrow for Halloween. He didn't listen to much of the story but he really enjoyed making a scarecrow and then he got a cookie. He's going through this little phase right now where he says no regardless of what you ask him. The lady chuckled when she asked if he liked his cookie and he said no with a mouthful. :)

Puzzles with daddy

Congrats Bailey

Today we threw a little get together for B because he made the bowling team at school. He was on the team last year, and he shot a 300 at practice for tryouts, so it was no shock he made it, but we wanted to celebrate.

When my mom asked me to get a little something together, of course I went straight to Pinterest. All the party ideas were more for 8 year old boys, not teenagers. So I was on my own. Gasp!
I found these awesome free clip arts online and was super excited. To me, they are way better than just bowling pins and bowling balls.

I used them as inspiration for the whole party.
The banner was made by printing the clip art onto sticker paper, and backing it with shades of red, orange and yellow to match the flames.
Then, I stuck the squares onto a clothes pin. Sooo easy to hang up. I will be doing them this way from now on. 

I found this acrylic container on sale at Hobby Lobby. Its intended to be a personalized desk organizer, but it worked perfectly for silverware.
It was just clipart, sticker paper and black cardstock. I'm almost embarrassed how easy this all was. :) 

Just a flame print bandana from Hobby Lobby and black plates from Dollar Tree.

I just printed this out on sticker paper, and stuck it right on the cup.  They looked better in person... 

I'm pretty sure she just wanted me to bring cupcakes, but I saw an opportunity to make a fun party. :) I'm very pleased with how it came out. 

Sparkling lemonade- Country Time lemonade mix made with 7up instead of water.  We all really loved it. 

I was trying to do everything at the last minute and Nana helped. She formed the cheese ball into more of a loaf, but it was a huge hit non-the-less. Its coated with crushed cheese Doritos! 10 of us ate the whole thing in minutes. 

I had never made tortilla roll ups before, but I'm going to be making them again. I combined several recipes and came up with a very yummy end product.

I tried and tried to get a good picture of M in showing his support in his bowling shirt, but he wasn't being very cooperative. But here he is. 

Painting

Today my mom's group had a painting play date. The host rolled out huge pieces of paper and they were supposed to paint with their hands, feet or whatever. M wasn't really sure about the whole situation. He had a great time playing with the other kids though. And one mom brought warm homemade bread.

I hope next time he actually gets into it a little more but we both had a great time. :)

Bath time

I just love this boy <3

Catch up: C is going back to school!

One of the things that first attracted me to C was his ambition. He could be President of the US and still be wanting more. He knew that he had reached the top of his career without a degree, so he decided to go back and finish.

He applied to Texas Tech for their Horticulture and Turfgrass Sciences. The community college took their sweet time sending his transcripts so it took *forever* to get a decision. So long that he had stopped checking. But I hadn't. :) So when I checked and it said accepted I knew a quick little surprise was in order.

M and I whipped up some cupcakes, I made cupcake toppers, a banner, blew up balloons, and decorated the table all in red and black. The quality of the decor was affected by my extreme rush and a toddler "helping" me, but C doesn't care anyway.

I just wanted to make it a little special because I am so proud of him, and I think I succeeded. When he came in from work he was like "what is all this?" but in a few seconds it all clicked and he was so excited.

Catch up post: our anniversary

This August was our fifth anniversary so we wanted to do something special. We decided to spend the night at Miss Mollie's, a historic hotel in the Ft Worth Stockyards. This was perfect for us because it was less than an hour from Maverick- we weren't really ready to be too far away from him quite yet.

We got there in the early afternoon so we could walk around and shop and eat. I could tell a huge difference in my stamina since I've been losing weight. I was actually able to keep up with C and didn't need to stop every 5 feet to rest and catch my breath.

As we were walking around, the sky was getting darker and darker. We knew a storm was imminent but chose to keep walking because we didn't want to just sit in the room. I hoped it was going to be a quick summer shower- it was not! It poured and I was wearing flip-flops so I couldn't really run. So we got SOAKED. C was so sweet, he walked slow with me and go soaked and gave me his hat so the rain didn't get in my eyes. <3 We made it to The Maverick, a western wear store because I really wanted to get M a shirt but they didn't have any logo shirts.

When we were done, it was still pouring, so we went a few doors down to The White Elephant Saloon. It was one of the places I really wanted to go, just maybe not at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. :)

Since we started drinking at 3, the rest isn't super clear but we did go eat, and checked out a few more bars. We ended up spending most of the night in The Basement Bar, a cute little dive bar right downstairs from our hotel.

We had a GREAT time, made a lot of new memories, laughed, shopped, had WAY too much to drink. I'm so glad we went and I can't wait to go back.