Good Morning, Birthday Girl!

I love Pinterest. I "pin" ideas, recipes and crafts and then forget about most of them. But not this one.

The night before Carly's birthday (after she was asleep), we hung streamers on the outside of her bedroom door...

...and covered her floor in balloons.

Lola didn't much care for the balloons, but...

...Carly loved it!

What a fun start to a special day! Thank you, Pinterest!

Happy birthday (March 13) to my sweet, sassy, smart, receptive, loving, heart-warming THREE YEAR OLD, Carly!

Carly's Birthday Weekend

We made Carly's THIRD (yikes! when did that happen?!) birthday weekend extra special.

We ventured out to Grapevine Mills Mall and she rode the carousel. She liked it okay as long as daddy was right by her side, holding tight.

Then we did something that I may come to regret- we took her to Build a Bear (with a coupon, of course). I am hoping that I didn't start a new addiction. But, hey! Better Build a Bear than American Girl, right?

We let her pick out her teddy bear and all of the clothese.

She picked out a giggle to put inside. The bear stuffer forgot to add it, so poor Harper had to have surgery before she was even 5 minutes old.

Her favorite part was the bath. Harper had quite a few of those while we were there.

She even got to ride one of those silly...games?...rides!...in the middle of the mall. She was semi-thrilled.

And when we got home she planted the strawberry plant that bought her - because she can eat her weight in berries - especially strawberries and blueberries.

messy spaghetti

When Carly eats spaghetti, it's not just her that gets messy...

...even Lola needs a bath on spaghetti night.

Carly Cuteness

Carly is stinkin' cute. And I know that isn't just me that thinks so.

She did some cute things while I was on a blogging hiatus.

She LOVES to clean the fridge. She asks me to spray it with the cleaning foam and she goes to town for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. If only she were interested in doing floors, windows, base boards, fans...

And she finger paints with her food (berries mostly). Should this be cute to me?

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Melanie's daughter, Claire, turned FOUR! And she had the most adorable party - Pancakes and Pajamas!What kid wouldn't want to party in their pj's?!

They ate pancakes (of course) with cake and ice cream (of course) for dessert. They even decorated their own pillow cases with their names on them. This party was no yawn.

I had to check with Melanie to see which pajamas Claire would be wearing. Our taste in clothes for the girls is so similar that their closets are nearly identical and I didn't want to have a "Who Wore It Best" blog post.

Of course Melanie and I had to take a pic of us and the kiddos - minus. Brady. Where was Brady?

Vegas Part 2

Did I tell you about the celebrities that we met in Vegas?...

Mickey and Minnie Mouse! Carly thinks that we are sooo cool now! Not that she didn't before, but you should have seen her light up when she saw this picture. I won't tell her that they were likely drunken, middle-aged men down on their luck and making ends meet by dressing up in filthy, stinky costumes on Fremont Street. No, I will let her believe that mommy and daddy are so cool that they know Mickey and Minnie personally.

So, this year we made a point to make it down to Fremont Street because the blisters on my feel kept us from making it there the last time we were there.

It was totally worth the cab limo fare.

We were tourists to the 100th degree. Cameras were out in full force.

Austin won a little money betting on football. And betting on football was one of the reasons why we chose this particular weekend to go to Vegas. Freddy really wanted to go during the NFL playoffs.

Of course the girls did some more shopping. And more Sex and the City slot machines.

Of all of the wonderful things to see in Vegas, this floral...picture?...was one of my favorites. I thought that it was SO COOL!

 

The girls (minus Mandy who still wasn't feeling up to par) near the end of our day of shopping.

And, yes. Yes, I did buy Freddy that ipad. We had to haul our cookies to the mall at the end of the strip and wait in a very long line, but I got it. I did not, however, get a good picture of me at the apple store thanks to the swarms of other apple customers that were in and out of the store.

And then we got picked up in style - a stretch hummer limo that our hubbies took back to the hotel from the golf course. Lucky for us they sweet-talked the driver in to picking us up ALL THE WAY at the other end of the strip from our hotel. Our feet were very thankful.

Of course we went out later for a nice dinner together and I busted out the camera to take pictures of everyone.



Andrew

Austin and Sara

Mandy and TJ



Leslie

Kacie and Leslie



Freddy and Hag



Freddy and me



Sara and me

Freddy, Hag and Andrew

Andrew, Kacie and unborn baby Jaxon

We liked to hit the slots together - strength in numbers, right? Or maybe it was because when you were watching someone else bet their money, it meant that you were holding on to your own - at least at that moment.





Me, Kacie and Brittany

Me and Hag - people-watching buddies. It's what we love to do together.

So there you have it, four months later - that was our super fun trip to Las Vegas to celebrate Freddy's 30th birthday with friends.