Chuy's Parade

We always enjoy going to the Chuy's parade each year after Thanksgiving, and the girls loved this one the best so far. I also like taking a photo in the middle of Congress Ave. with the Capitol right behind us. Maybe this will be the Christmas card for 2009...

Happy Thanksgiving

Had a lot of fun yesterday preparing the dinner, getting the tables set for everyone. The table decorations for the kiddie table were hats and seat mats made by Lauren, and the napkin rings were ribbons with each of the girls initials, that they could remove and tie into a necklace (take that Martha Stewart). And I agonized over the centerpieces because the premade flower arrangements at the grocery store were so expensive for almost nothing. Instead I bought two bouquets and made 3 arrangements out of them...for the price of one of those small premade ones. Here is the one for the adult table, the picture of the kids table shows the second one in a tin can and the 3rd one was on my counter top with the buffet of food (not shown). The kids most enjoyed Bill popping popcorn. The turkey was my best thus far...even when I had a slight panic attack as Bill was cutting into it asking me if it was at the right temperature. I realized the timer went off and I just took the turkey out of the oven and let it rest, never checking the temperature. Thankfully, it was done perfectly...whew.

Native American Day

Jessica and I were at Lauren's school today for Native American Day. We made a war shield and then I left after that. Jessica stayed and volunteered for the morning. -Bill

A lot of popcorn

Last night Lauren, Emma and I popped popcorn for about an hour for her schools Native American day. If we keep this up I will need a bigger popcorn machine. -Bill

Church Choir

On Wed I took Lauren to her Choir practice so she can get ready for the Sunday performance. Emma and I ran around the church for an hour and then we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner. The girls are giving me their mad faces in the last pictures -Bill

Deep Fried Hotdog

Yesterday I went to a hotdog place downtown called Franks for lunch. I am not a hotdog guy but when I saw the regular hotdog wrapped in bacon, stuffed with cheese and deep fried I had to try it. It was the best hotdog I have ever had. check them out. http://hotdogscoldbeer.com/eats.html -Bill

Busy Little Bee

I went 31 years without feeling the sting of a bee, until Saturday morning when a yellow jacket decided I needed an early morning wake up call. I hadn't even had my coffee yet when that little thing decided to unleash itself on my shoulder blade. And I had just had a massage the day before, all relaxed and whatnot, so it had to tense me right back up. I cannot believe how painful it was and how long the effect lasted (I'm still "sore" in the 3 spots). I no longer care if there is a shortage of bees, I will be swatting away, protecting my family from the little buggers.

Bye Bye Golf Cart

Today is a sad day. My beloved golf cart has been sold. We had a great time in the year that we had it. Now we will have to walk to the park. That is no fun. But maybe in the future we can get a bigger one with neon lights. There is always next year. -Bill

Turkey Lunch

Yesterday I went to Lauren's school to eat lunch with her. It was the thanksgiving lunch. We had a great time. -Bill

Kids Playroom

My game room has finally been turned into a kids playroom. I predicted this 5 years ago. No more bar, all that is left is the mirror, a few cabinets and the green paint. Now it has all the girls toys so we can keep all the mess in 1 room. I am off to the garage. The last room that is still mine. -Bill

The Circus

While Lauren and Jessica were at camp Emma and I went to Dance, did grocery shopping, Laundry and then out to the Circus. We met some friends from church there and had an interesting time. It was definately a budget circus. They had elephants and most everything you would have at a regular circus but when they called out the Lions 4 little dogs came out. To be fair they did have haicuts like a lion would have. All that mattered was that Emma thought it was the greatest thing. We will have to take her to the real circus when it comes to town - Bill

No Training Wheels!

Bill took the training wheels off Lauren's old bike (currently Emma's) and was going to work with Lauren on the grass. She jumped right on the bike and started riding on the street, without training wheels! She was so excited. I have a video, and will try and figure out how to get that loaded onto the blog. In the meantime, here is a photo of the great event!

Daisy Camp

Lauren and I spent Saturday at the Girl Scout's Camp TexLake, which is inside Pace Bend Park. It was a fun day to spend at camp, walking around the park, cleaning up the shoreline for the service activity, doing many crafts which were hosted by the Girl Scout Cadets. We had a lunch picnic with all the girls and during our break the girls colored a large banner. Lauren had so much fun swapping her troop goodies with the other girls. Here are photos from our day.

Lauren's 50's Party at School

The kindergarten classes at Lauren's school decided to celebrate the 50th day of school by throwing a 50's themed party. I asked Grandma Luci to make Lauren a poodle skirt to wear for the day, and it looked just darling on Lauren! Grandma Luci also made one for Emma :-)

Halloween Night

We had a blast on Halloween night. Our next door neighbors host a party outside for all the trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood, so we spent most of the afternoon and evening there. We went to a few houses once the sun went down, then let the kids bounce in the inflatable until they came to us and asked to go to bed. That's when you know it's been a busy day!

Pre-Halloween Poses - Emma laughing like a witch next to our pumpkin patch

Pre-Game Warm-Up (UT was playing right during trick-or-treating, so they had a TV set up!)

At the Party

Two Worn Out Little Girls

Halloween Fall Festival, Part II

Bill foreshadowed better pictures to come, and I do want want to disappoint the readers of our blog. So, with much delay, but I'm sure much built-up anticipation, here are my photos from Emma's Fall Festival at school. My favorite event was when Lauren's fire fighter friends came and they remembered her from our swine flu episode. Lauren asked to have her photo taken with the nice man who helped keep mommy calm :-)

Emma really enjoyed getting her nails painted. Out of a sea of rainbow colors, she found the only bright orange bottle and made the girl add white dots so she could have a pretty hook 'em horns.

We also found out that Emma has a mean rightie. She loved the dunking booth, had been talking about it the entire week prior, and couldn't wait to get one of her teachers dunked. She was extremely excited when she saw it would be the school's owner, Mr. Dan. After Emma's turn, it was daddy's turn, and he dunked Mr. Dan twice. I hope that doesn't get reflected in our tuition payments!

Halloween day pictures

We had a very busy Halloween this year. Lauren and Emma started the day with dance class while I went to Emma's school to help set up their Fall Festival. I brought my Popcorn Machine and handed out popcorn for 4 hours. The girls had a great time. Jessica has better pictures and will post them soon. -Bill