Tea Party

Sunday afternoon we went to a tea party for Eliza's birthday.
(I was well past Frisco when I realized I forgot my camera. So these have all been swiped from Abbey.)

All the girls started out by having their nails painted and a little sparkly eye shadow applied.

Audrey would only allow her to paint one nail, and only after I had one nail painted.


Audrey checking out her tiny bit of eye make up.

Then the girls got to pick out gowns and jewelry to wear to the tea party.

And once the dresses were on, they all got tiaras.

Then it was time for tea.

This is when Audrey finally quit being two and started to enjoy herself. She only had a tiny nap in the car on the way to the party so it took a while for her to cheer up. Cookies and lemonade will speed along that process.


And after they had tons of sugar in their systems....the birthday girl made her wish and the cake was served.


Lily and Audrey holding hands after the party.
(Audrey has tiara hair.)

We had a great time with some special friends and were happy we could be there to celebrate with Eliza!

Where it all began...

This morning we went with some friends to the Dallas Arboretum.


Only one of the girls wanted to smile, which is quite unlike them.

Luckily, I prefer when Audrey shows her serious face.





I think their favorite part was riding the deer.

Audrey had to ride the baby deer,


Daddy deer,


and Mommy deer.

On a side note, the Arboretum is on White Rock Lake, the site of mine and Barker's first date : )

Less than a year later we took our engagement pictures here, so it was nice to bring Audrey back to where it all began, to a place that holds some very special memories for us.

Have You Seen My Baseball

A couple of weeks ago Barker told me to pick a night and we'd go to a Ranger game. We've been super busy this summer, and we of course no longer live in Arlington, so we're not at a Ranger game once a week, as we'd love to be. So I picked a hot Tuesday evening, when the Rangers would be playing the Yankees.

Audrey keeping cool


She loved wearing Daddy's hat and clapping. Sometimes she'd wave the hat around like the guy in front of us.


We sat next to Barker's bestfriend Tom's dad who just happens to be THE biggest Ranger fan you'll ever meet. We always seem to run into them at games which is just icing on the cake for us!



funny faces


My two favorite people at my favorite place in Arlington


And wow, I picked out a great game to attend! It was a long, hot night but the Rangers beat the Yanks and we had a great time!

Fort Worth Children's Museum

Monday I took Audrey to the Fort Worth Children's Museum to play with some of her friends.


Most of the kids had a good time...however my TWO YEAR OLD made this face the whole time....

and threw herself on the ground. It was not a good time.

But every once in a while she'd quit being two long enough to giggle with her friends.

closet of mirrors


riding the horse with Ella


yee haw


blocks


Baker and Barker Ambulance Service


sweet friends


grocery shopping with Ella (in pigtails! so cute)


yes, that's a buy they're buying...Audrey was not a fan of leaving things where she found them. It was a long day.


here she weighed and washed the baby...


then dried it off with one of these filthy lab coats


All and all I think she had some fun, but was just over stimulated. She wanted to run and go see everything like any curious two year old would, and did not like that she wasn't free to do that. It was just too packed for her to be away from me so by the time we left, we were both well past ready to get out of there.
Little did we know our day was about to get even busier. Barker called and was swamped at work. We've been going in with him on Sundays and some week nights to help him take care of some things. There just aren't enough hours in the day for him to do all that needs to be done. So Audrey and I went to Cabella's for lunch, to see some fish and kill some time until it was time to head to Barker's office to help him out. I think we made it home around ten that night. Whew! What a day. Well, the whole week has been like that really. That's why this post is being thrown together on Friday, instead of last Monday. Busy, busy.

Just Dance

Just a couple pictures from ballet class.


Audrey really enjoys it, as do I.

2 Years Old

My sweet girl is two!
(I swear she wasn't this big when she went to bed the night before she turned two.)

Audrey's 2nd Birthday

I can't believe my sweet baby is already two! Every day I ask her to stay little, but like any two year old, she doesn't listen.

Last year on her birthday we picked up Daddy at his office and went to lunch. So I decided we should do that every year that her birthday falls on a weekday, since she's a summer baby. This year I found a Chuck E. Cheese near Barker's office. She'd never been before so I had no idea how she would react. I didn't really think she'd eat with all the lights and games. (She's not the most fun to go to restaurants with the past few months. She wants to eat right away and then wants to get out of her chair and go back and forth between Barker and myself. Sucks, but she's 2. So it just kinda goes with the territory.) But to my surprise she actually ate a slice of pizza and some pineapples. And I think it was the first time I ate a slice of pizza since Nov. or Dec. when I got food poisoning.

She enjoyed riding the rides and playing the games.



And with all the tickets she scored...


She got a necklace, ring and a sucker.


Then when we took Daddy back to his office we had a cookie.

Yum.

Then we went home and spent the entire afternoon in the pool.
Barker brought home sushi for dinner cause he said it was as much my special day as it was hers, since I did all the work.

And after we ate we opened gifts.

This has been the first time she's really been into tearing the paper.

She was the most excited about her little Toy Story figurines. She always plays with them at Jane's house so I made a trip to the Disney store to snag her some of her own.
(Her hippie hair is a result of being in the pool all afternoon. Probably should have washed it before I took so many pics.)


Then on Saturday we had her 2nd Birthday Party. I had it in Dallas at Slappy's Puppet Playhouse. It was a magic show that also featured creepy puppets. It was supposed to be a showing of Willy Wonka but they had to move their venue and didn't have time to build the stage at the new place. I was less than thrilled with having to order new invites and design a new cake but as long as I could still have it indoors, I couldn't complain too much.

After planning the Willy Wonka party and then having to throw it all out the window, I just didn't feel like putting too much into this 'magic' themed party. So I just had a cake made to match the invites and planned the shirt and balloons around it.
Thanks to Sherri @ Chloe's Wings for the shirt and Sarah @ Sweet Art Bakery for always making my cakes.


Birthday girl


Birthday cake, chocolate with cookies and cream filling. Yum. Want some? I've still got a ton left over.

We had tons of friends show up to celebrate with us! I know it's a busy time of year and I really appreciate everyone that found the time to attend!

Rebekah and Henry


Lily and Sherri


Connor, Aunt Weenie, Dixie Gray and Misty


Connor Bug


I love this face Eliza is making. Abbey makes it all the time, but she probably doesn't even know it!

I think all the kids really liked the magic! The magician started out with a feather...


And the kids all got to see if they could balance it, too.

Then he juggled, but Audrey decided to get up there and put him to shame with her skills.

You would have thought they rehearsed it, the way she tried to steal the show. It was very entertaining.


He kept dropping his magic wands and her favorite thing to do is "clean up" so she was happy to help.


The least creepy puppet of the day.



They also enjoyed the 'squirrel bit'


And Audrey loved the rope trick.



Eliza was a great helper with the rings. I knew when she sat in the front row for the show that she was ready for business. She's Slappy's Puppet Playhouse's biggest fan!


Nolan, Lily, and Isabella were great assistants as well. Nolan's face was just priceless. He had people in stitches!




Ella's kisses from Mommy


V and Isabella...who left not too long after this picture was taken due to the 'dancing bear' which wasn't as much a dancing bear as it was a bear eating another large puppet. It was by far the most disturbing thing I've seen in a while and I'm shocked that Isabella was the only one who seemed to be bothered by it.



But despite the hungry bear, the Daddies seemed to have a good time.

Then it was time for cake!


We sang but Audrey didn't blow the candle out, which is fine by me, as I think blowing all over something everyone is about to eat is nasty.


Lots of happy toddlers.


Nom, nom, nom


Johanna took this picture cause she thought it was funny how unlady-like my child was sitting. Nice.


Barker managed to squeeze in some quality time with his best friend's son. We miss living in Arlington and being so close to them. I loved our Tuesday morning walks.


My little brother and his wife came. He must have thought it was a costume party cause he came as Enrique Iglesias. (I kid, I kid Chase. I actually quite like the long hair.)


After cake the kids enjoyed a little ring around the rosies, a favorite past time.

I love how dramatic Addy's 'all fall down' is in this pic!

And then we got some of them in chairs for a group pic. I wish I would have thought of it sooner, before so many guests had taken off. Oops!

Henry, Camden, Ella, Gray, Baby Audrey, Addy, my Audrey, Lily, Dixie and Eliza


Our happy little family of 3

I hope everyone had as much fun as we did! I really appreciate everyone coming out to celebrate with us. Audrey loved all her gifts but liked the magic and playing with her friends even more! We feel so lucky to have some many awesome friends!