Madeline's school goes to two week sessions in the summer (as opposed to one month). This is cool because Liz takes her out of one session each summer and she gets to spend time with my parents (her Grandma and Pappy) and us! I remember being a kid and spending time without our parents at our grandparents and aunt&uncle's houses! Liz and I were talking about this recently and agreed that some of our favorite childhood memories happened in these magical weeks when we were independent from our parents, and got to need and bond with other family members. Zac and I look forward to this week with Madeline to ourselves so much and plan fun activities for her, so she can develop the unforgettable type of memories that I cherish. I think our time with her this year was even better than last. She is such a SMART and FUNNY girl, as well as caring and kind. I'm so proud to be her aunt. Anyways, here's what we did this year: Sunday we met my parents for dinner in Waco to make the exchange. We ate at Texas Roadhouse and Madeline was instantly very affectionate towards us. Sunday-met for dinner in Waco, drove home, went to the park, raced home Monday-made Mosaics, went to Top Golf (a fancy schmancy and much more fun driving range)
Tuesday-had a playdate with a friend and her kids, drove to McKinney to see the Enrights and Falcos Wednesday-had lunch with my coworkers for lunch, went swimming at a friend's pool, saw Toy Story 3 Thursday-went to the park (twice!), made cupcakes, and drove to Austin Friday-lunch with Baw and Eli, then bowling with Eliza and Tatem and Scott, then headed out to Breck's lakehouse, where Liz and Andy and Owen were reunited with their favorite girl! :) Phew...see how fun and action packed it was? Not to mention all the amazing memories we made (and memorable quotes we got) just hanging around the house in between all the activities!
Wow, it's been too long since I blogged about something fun in my life. This month has already been action-packed! We got to go to Katy to see Madeline's very first dance recital, which was about the most cuteness I can possibly stand without exploding. I even teared up a bit...that's how precious it was! :) I taught her some fun poses on the way... the pout the kiss this is her blowing the kiss. Madeline and one of her friends after the show. Hadley bought Madeline flowers. Precious! After pics and hugs and lots more pics, we went to BR31 (some call it Baskin-Robins) to celebrate. Madeline chose a neon blue and pink ice cream, which was "cotton candy." Owen is still as perfect as ever, and growing much bigger. He smiles often and gets lots of attention. Molly thinks his face tastes delish! :) On the way home from Katy, we met Ramsi and Bez in Bryan to look at puppies! Ramsi's been wanting a Sheltie since I met her and Zac found this litter listed online. We got to help them pick her out. Ladies and gentlemen...meet... Worley! :) Friday, May 7th I had to take my state Special Ed test (which I found out later I PASSED!) and then was the second annual Cinco de Mustache party. There weren't as many mustaches this year, but the fun was multiplied. I played flip cup for the first time and turns out I'm not very good at it, but it was lots of fun. There was also a pinata, silly girlfriends, and yummy food catered by Nicole's dad, who is a chef in Dallas! Obviously it was an AWESOME night!Unlike a lot of our PO5(ish) events, the boys were invited this time. In fact, Zac and I rode to the fiesta with Ramsi and Bez and Cody and Rheanna. So yeah, I was awful at the pinata, but I still got some candy...off the kitchen counter! For some reason we spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Nicole has a gorgeous shower, and it only seemed appropriate to take a weird picture in it...
See? I told you the bathroom was like the cool place to go! Rhe-T and I even took this pic with a sign that SAYS bathroom, just to prove it!Molly and Worley are quickly becoming besties, just like Me and Ram. Aww...two generations of BFF's...how sweet! :) In a few weeks I turn 26! OMG!! :)
My sister texted me awhile ago. She told me she was watching the Olympics and bobsledding was on, which reminded her of one of our favorite childhood memories, Cool Runnings. That made me start thinking about some of our other favorites. I guess I just had fun looking at old trailers and whatnot, so thought I'd share some of our faves with you. Did you watch some of these? What did I leave off? What did YOU love to watch? Enjoy... (the title of the movie has a link to a youtube video)
The Witches Hocus Pocus Forever Young Polly This is the African-American version of the classic Pollyanna. Mom must've recorded it off of TV, we loved watching it! It has some major stars in it too! :)
Last weekend I went to Katy to spend a few days with my sis and her family, and to host a shower for her. It was a quick trip, and I would have loved to spend much more time with them, but it was a blast and a much needed visit. Liz is an amazing mom and impresses me with all she can juggle. Owen is still as perfect as I remembered him, and Madeline is so smart and fun. I'm such a lucky Aunt!! The shower was beautiful and the food was delish. We had bellinis, which was a treat, and I got to pop my first bottle of champagne! :) Here are a few pics from the weekend...
Liz and her shower hostesses (her sis-in-law Anne, and Breck) Madeline and two of her cute cousins. I can't wait until she has a cousin on MY side! :) I rode from Dallas to Houston with Liz's college roomie Jen. It was a lot of fun, and gave both of us some company in the car. Here she is with Liz at the shower. Mom and cutie Owen in the outfit we gave him for Christmas ;) Madeline and I went shopping at Katy Mills on Saturday morning. She was such a trooper. We got kind of lost and ended up walking A LOT. I carried her as much as I could, but I had a purse and bags and it was so hard, so she volunteered to walk even though her legs were very tired. hehe, what a sweetie! :) Last but not least, check out this cute video of Madeline on the phone with Zac, singing to him that there are seven continents. (He has high school kids who can't name them, but this three year old can!) Have I ever mentioned that she is a genius? I'm not even saying that because I'm her aunt. She really is gifted!
The good part of this weekend was really good, and the bad part of this weekend was really bad. A roller coaster of emotions, if you will. Let's start with the good. Saturday we left around noon to head up to McKinney for Claire's third birthday party. I always love spending time with my cousins and their families, but this was an especially great day. We started out at the Allen Natatorium (for an indoor pool party), then went to Ellen and Breagan's house for cake and presents. Claire was so excited to have everyone there and told "Zaccy" and me several times "thanks for coming to my party!" Very cute. After everyone started leaving their house, we stuck around (as well as Amy and Gian), to visit and laugh. We decided to have dinner together before we headed back to Midlo, so we went to Scotty P's for some yummy burgers. We ended up staying there for almost two hours, just visiting (and the guys watching the Cowboys game). It was finally time to go and we hugged a million times...it was so nice to spend the day together. Here are a few precious pics (although Ellen's were MUCH better than mine)... Above, my lovely cousins. Below, please notice Nati's sweatshirt!! :) What a little poser! Haha, too cute! ;) Ellen made Claire's cake, and it tasted as good as it looked...AMAZING!The happy birthday girl and her proud Mama at the restaurant. Ready for the bad part? We got home from McKinney (about 10pm) and Molly met us at the door...looking nothing like Molly. She was having some type of allergic reaction, and who knows how long she'd been suffering. This is what she looked like: Just looking at these pics again makes me hurt. Her appearance alone made me kind of panic and cry, but the guilt of leaving her all day was unbearable. We never found what it could have been (it looked like she just slept the whole time we were gone, there was no food or trash or anything different than when we left). We gave her a benadryl and a bath (in case it was topical) and tried to calm down a bit. I was very worried that it would start affecting her breathing, so I planned on waking up every 30 minutes to check on her. I didn't have to worry about waking up to check on her though, because all three of us didn't sleep all night. Mols was very restless and uncomfortable and we were worried, so we watched her every move. We finally settled in around 5am, and then she woke up vomiting about 7. It had been eight hours, so we gave her another benadryl and went back to sleep. She woke up throwing up again around 10 so we all got up for good. We thought things were getting better, but around 1 the swelling and itching came back. Hives everywhere. This time it bothered me even more because she'd had two rounds of benadryl, so why in the world was this still happening? It also has been driving me mad that we don't know what caused it. Anyways, she wasn't allowed to have another benadryl until 3:30, and it obviously wasn't working much anyways, so we took her to the doctor. Of course, being a Sunday we had to take her to an Animal Hospital, which automatically means super expensive, but it's our baby, the money wasn't even a thought. The vet gave her an IV with steroids and we sat and waited. He would normally give her a benadryl shot (fast acting) but since she'd had two doses in the past 14 hours, he didn't want to overdose her. We watched and the bumps slowly started going down a bit. It was pretty pathetic...bless her heart. This is what she looked like when she was "better" and we took her home. It was a long and horrible night and day. I am doing better now that I think she is started to get better, but for awhile, I thought my heart was going to break in half. I HATE seeing her in pain, and she's a dog...I pray my kid never looks so pathetic, because I don't know how I will handle it. That probably sounds dramatic, but I really felt weak today, the sadness was taking over me. :( I love that girl so much. I know people who don't have a pet like that probably don't understand, but she is a part of our family, and when she is miserable, Zac and I are miserable too. Haha, we were probably more upset today than she was. Thank goodness we had such a wonderful day Saturday to make up for our rocky night and Sunday. Okay, enjoy this cute video. Ellen, Braegan, Amy, and Gian love The Office, so they borrowed this little practice from the show, and it has now become a family tradition for them. I love it! :)
Friday-lunch with Baw and Eli, then bowling with Eliza and Tatem and Scott, then headed out to Breck's lakehouse, where Liz and Andy and Owen were reunited with their favorite girl! :)
