She's my Baby, Baby, Baby - Noooo!

 

Okay, my title is a weak attempt at Justin Beiber's song, Baby.

I cannot believe that we just got home from celebrating by baby's sixth birthday.  She wanted a pool party with a Justin Beiber theme, and that is what she got.  Justin Beiber balloons, cake, napkins and poster.

Beiber Fever even on her cake! It was a cool cake and tasty too!

Thank God that the rain held off all day. The radar didn't look promising this morning, but truly I had a calm in me that we would be okay.  Party was over at 6:00pm and about 6:15 some sprinkles came, but still nothing much.

 We had the pool party at the nearby middle school. There is a City of Austin pool there and then some picnic tables in a shady area.  Perfect-o.  As far as I know, no one who attended had ever swam in that pool. The lifeguards were chill and the kids had a blast. We had 6 pizzas and every single piece was eaten. 

Pizza Time!  These are the pictures I remember from Birthday parties when I was growing up. 

 

Long tables with kids down either side.

Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to you!

I bet she wished for Justin Beiber to show up!

Campbell and Keira. Preschool buddies.

Beautiful Conleigh.

Chalk was a good activity when you needed a break from the pool.

 Campbell, Jessica, Emily and Mallory.

She was opening her new Ipod and was pumped about the JB wrapping paper.

She asked for these glasses. They are just plain glass but they sure look cute on her. And, this is the first time I've seen Alex wear his glasses in a very long time.

Campbell raked in the crafty presents. She will be filled with fun crafts to do this summer.  Tonight her friend Jessica is spending the night. A first sleep over for Campbell. They are in watching a movie now.

Happy #6 Birthday to my sweet Campbell.

Grades UP!

Peter & I challenged Conleigh to bring her grades up in the last nine weeks of school.  She had been on the A/B Honor roll during the first 18 weeks of school. Then, with the spring term, came a little bit of third grade attitude and less effort on the grade front.  And it showed on the report card.

 We know that time with us without her siblings is very special to Conleigh.  So, we offered her a nice meal out  if she would bring her grades up. She didn't know that I was watching the grades from behind the scenes (Home Access Center), but as soon as that offer was on the table, her grades skyrocketed.

 Needless to say, she ended third grade on the A/B honor roll.

 

Peter and I took her out last Thursday evening to Eddie V's. One of our favorite Austin restaurants. It did not disappoint.  She was very impressed.  She loved the wait staff in tuxedos and the ambiance of the restaurant. She acted so grown up.  For dinner, Conleigh had grilled shrimp and then the restaurant treated her to a Godiva chocolate cake with ice cream dessert...complete with Congratulations written in chocolate.

Peter and I enjoyed special time with our girl as much as she enjoyed it!

Cheers to a successful ending to third grade.

Goodbye May

In May,

we had two turtle rescues and discovered: (Alex's interpretation) if mom sees a turtle in the street, she should keep going because on both turtle rescue attempts, she ended up having to call in back ups to do the actual turtle pick-up.

 

In May,

we celebrated eleven years of marriage. 

I am very thankful that we are both in it for the long haul.

In May, we celebrated Mother's Day.

In May,

we began swim team and finished kindergarten, first grade and third grade. Wow!

In May,

we listened to Conleigh play the piano beautifully, we watched Alex finish baseball season and we listened to Campbell tell the story of the first turtle rescue to her kindergarten class.

In May,

we counted our blessings and will continue to count both big and small ones in June.

Hello June!

Last day of school! Hip Hip Hooray!

 Hip Hip Hooray! It is summer.  

Spicewood ended the year with a fantastic field day.  Back in the fall, our school won the Rally for Recess contest.  Five schools around the country won a new $20K playground, AND an $8K field day.  There were bubbles, and slides, face painting and bungee jumping, and a DJ with great music! Dannon snacks and sno-cones. I seriously think it is a kid party that cannot be topped!


The younger grades had 2.5 hours in the morning and the older grades had the equivalent  in the afternoon. It was the best last day of school evaaa!


Some of the parents joked that the kindergartners are going to be disappointed next year when they are making foam door tags on the last day of school. :)

Campbell & her bestie Jessica

Alex & his buddy Ren

Love this picture of my bubbly girl!

Laughing that 3rd grade is over!! Yay!

Conleigh and her third grade teacher.

I think I made Mrs. Corbett really laugh because I went into their class when they were eating lunch. Mrs. Corbett said to me, "it sounds like you all will be travelling quite a bit this summer." I said well we'll be going to Florida and hopefully Idaho.

She said, "Conleigh said you are wanting to go to Washington DC." I said, I have never said that in my life.  She laughed and laughed. Then later outside at the party, I asked to take their picture. I held up the camera and said, "say Washington DC."

Again she laughed and said, "you are terrible!" Conleigh wanted to know why I said that. Little does she know... 

After farewells and adios', hugs and goodbyes, we took off in the golf cart to the after school par-tay!

Thankful Thursday

What I want to share that I am thankful for actually happened yesterday evening.  The girls and I were racing to the ball park to see Alex play his first play-off game.  Because I'm such a prepared mom, we had to go through McDonalds drive-thru for dinner for the girls.  I ordered, we drove up to pay and the employee told me the car in front of me paid for our food.  I couldn't believe it! That was so nice and totally made my day. So,  I asked how much the person behind me's bill was, and I paid for him. I hope the trend continued. It is those types of random acts of kindness that make you believe there is still good when we hear so much bad.

I'm also thankful that Alex and his team won their game. It was a terrific game. The best one all season. So, that adds another baseball game to the agenda. Alex will swim the first swim meet tomorrow evening, hop out of the pool and head to baseball. 

Today I am also thankful for tomorrow being Friday and my mother-in-law coming to town. She'll get to see the kids swim and go to Conleigh's piano recital on Saturday.

Weekend Getaway

Carlos & Charlie's before noon. Ah, vacation!

Peter and I flew to Paris this past weekend to celebrate 11 years of marriage. It helped that he had won the trip through hard work. We are both thankful for all of the sales reps he works with that helped make the win possible. Thank you!

 Here I am at breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi.  I chose a mimosa and eggs benedict.

Peter had crepes with blackberries and peach preserve.

 He said they were the best thing he's ever eaten.

 Oh, I forgot to mention it was the Paris in Las Vegas.

Pool time.

Peter and I flew in Thursday night and went to Auereole at Mandalay Bay. It is a wine bar where you order and girls are dressed like angels and 'fly' to get your wine in this very, very tall wine case. Unfortunately, we got there too late and the 'angels' had gone home. 

Food and champagne were good though.

We loved that both couples we went to Vegas with in the fall were able to join us again. They all came in on Friday afternoon. We went to see Rob Riggle from 21 Jump Street. He was hilarious and we laughed a lot!

Traci was in the chips at the Flamingo on Friday night. We love Roulette.

Saturday afternoon we went downtown. It was good to do that. There is such a different vibe going on and the minimums are lower. Good times.

Prior to our Brad Garrett comedy show, we went to The Wicked Spoon buffet at the Cosmopolitan.

Hello delicious! It was so great! I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of part of the dessert bar.

Here I am enjoying a chocolatopia dessert plate. Happy Anniversary to Peter & me!

About midnight, we took the romantic ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. 46 stories high. It was really pretty and a great ending to a nice weekend getaway.

Viva Las Vegas!

Is this hilarious, or what?