Kaylinn's 3rd Birthday

A few weeks ago we went to the Rukus Room in Cypress for Kaylinn's 3rd birthday. It was nice because it was a scaled down version of Pump It Up, and we all stayed in the same room, for food and play. Kaylinn is like every other three year old girl I know right now - a Little Mermaid lover. So there was a subtle theme of Ariel in certain places.

Ariel cake from Dessert gallery. Long story short, Kaylinn was told she can try chewing gum again when she was three. So Katie put gumballs all along the edges as her first chewing gum retry experience. Justin was clueless as to what to do with it.

Birthday girl with her crown of glory. Ariel plates.

Justin climbing the bounce house. Kaylinn's crown barrette.

David, John David, Kaylinn, Katie

4 generations of women

Major staring off. Lily giving me a smile.

Kiddos getting their drinks.


Hudson ready to play. Aubrey is always good to smile for Mrs. Michaelis (that's what she calls me).

At the end the owner made balloon creatures for the kids.


Another great party! We're going to start running out of ideas as this group does so well with thinking out of the box....

Coldplay concert

A week ago we went to our second Coldplay concert. The last time they were in town performing I was 3 months prego. The concert was the most amazing one I had ever gone to (no, I haven't been to U2, and I know they had a rockin' concert as well). So we coughed up twice as much for the tickets this time around to go with friends on a Tuesday night.

Shane, Kaki, Derek, & I were walking to the concert from the parking area. Stephen & Jenise decided to have a bicycle take them in for a quicker trip. The irony is that those of us walking in and getting our exercise beat the bicycler since he had to go one way down certain streets.

About 9pm and after two openers, Derek and I were both yawning. We were laughing that we were getting too old for this (staying out late on a "school" night). Here is a photo of the sleepy couple.

But then the lights went out, and I never sat back down. The concert didn't disappoint and I knew every song. Here's Chris Martin on one of the 3 HD screens that we got to watch.

The group played in 3 locations at the concert. One of which was one section over from us. They were awesome. Such a talented band - at one point all 4 of them were playing two instruments at once. We had to split our group of 8 into 2 sections of tickets. Let's just say we were pleased with our location when Coldplay came our way.

Another photo of them playing right by us.

At the end they had confetti come down during Viva la Vida, their "Apple song", as I call it.

Viva

Stephen, Shane, Derek, & Paul

Kaki, me, Tracy, & Jenise



When we arrived home a little before midnight, yawns failing to escape from our mouths, we still had big grins from the concert. We've all caught up on our sleep, and it was a fantastic show!

Jenny's Baby Shower

Surely not, you must be thinking, that yet another baby shower is being posted on my blog. Oh yes, friends, and still more to be posted (not to mentioned the birthday parties that I am behind on). I do have 20 prego friends, so the countdown of showers has already been in progress over the last 3 months.

Jenny is pregnant with baby #2, a boy. We went out for dinner and giftcards - my kind of evening. Went to Brio in the Woodlands for some yummy food.

Jenise & Jenny


The giftcard box. The Yankee Christmas candles were our favors.

Erin, Heather, Jenny, Kim, me, & Jenise. The photo is kind of fuzzy, which makes you wonder why the person rolling their eyes at me when I was giving instructions on how to take a photo (how hard can it be) could have messed up. More shower posts to come...

Allison's 2nd Birthday Party

This is a photo of a little boy who decided to push his mommy's buttons. It was subtle, and unfortunately I let him get the best of me. It's sad when you act the same age as your child! All that to say that I literally took 6 photos of this little girl's birthday party (which is a first by far for Shani standards). It was at the Children's Museum, and Justin did not want to obey like every good little boy should. The irony is that a few ladies at this party are doing a biblestudy with me on disciplining your child (I'll post more on the book later, but every mother of 2-3 year olds should purchase Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman). Kids really know when to put the pressure on when us mommies want them to "perform".

Birthday girl Allison. Only photo I took of her with the cake. All of a sudden in my view finder I see a little boy in a brown shirt coming over to blow out the birthday girl's candles. If you remember, that same little boy likes to put a candle in his food and sing happy birthday a few times a week. I've never moved so fast as I put my camera down, grabbed this unnamed little boy, and let the poor birthday girl have her shining moment.

The fun favors.

Lots of lessons learned on this day, mostly my yours truly. Children will catch you off-guard at the most random times. I shouldn't take it personally and I shouldn't return the lovely behavior....

Pear Tree Greetings

Stumbled upon another fun Christmas card website where you can create your own card or use what they have. They have a fun thing called photo pockets, and when you look at each individual photo, the prices in bulk start dropping significantly. Not sure of your budget for the holidays., but they have some great prices with some original ideas. Check it out Pear Tree Greetings at the link here.

Karen's Baby Shower

One might wonder why I post so much about kids' birthday parties and baby showers. Basically it's what takes up my time these days. And I love it, so don't think I am complaining. It's just the truth. How could it not when I have 20 friends that are pregnant! Yes, I did make a list to see if I really had the number right. I get a phone call at least every other week with a new buddy that is pregnant. It's almost hilarious when you think about it. The Lord has truly blessed the majority of the women in my life. And these aren't friends of friends or acquaintances - these are girls that I either host a shower, go to a shower, or get a nice gift because I am that close to them.

All that to preface that this post is about a shower I was invited to, not hosted. It was nice to be on the other side this time :-) Karen Chang married one of Derek's fellow Rice basketball buddies. Alex still plays ball in Italy, so Karen came home for a short while and in the process had a shower.

4 of these girls went to Rice and all but one is married to a Rice athlete: Martha, Brianna, Karen, Casey, and Courtney

Karen opening gifts

The diaper cake

Gum cigars

Cupcakes

It was great to catch up with these ladies - I always seem to have a conflict when Derek gets together with this group of people. On to the next baby shower, which I am hosting this weekend (I really am not kidding)....

Emily's Baby Shower

Hosted a baby shower two weekends ago for my buddy Emily. She is having baby #2, a girl this time around. So I decided to piggy-back on the Pickles and Ice Cream shower theme that both Caryn and Wendi hosted. I combined decor from the two and this is what we came up with.

Table with the giftcards, food table, pickle jars and ice cream cones with gerber daisies in them.

Ice Cream cone cookie favors and Izzys, Emily's favorite drink (and the one who got me started on them).

Mantel decor and napkin station.

Flowers, wreath with pink pacifiers and pickles, and cones.

Pickles and ice cream side of the table. We were celebrating because Emily, who delivered Chance at 28 weeks, was already 29 weeks at the shower! Praise God!

Emily had a few gifts to open. We usually do giftcards for the second baby showers, but some wanted to bring gifts as well. She got a gorgeous Christening outfit for when that sweet baby girl comes out. We don't know the name yet, so I can't wait to hear what it is.

Emily & Casey, a buddy from Tech. Emily & Jennifer, a fellow stroller fit junkie, who had baby #2 three weeks prior.

Brooke, Emily, & Jodie - all Gymboree buddies.

YMCA buddies (and most of us met at Stroller Fit): Sophie, Heather, Emily, Erin, & me. I look like I am eating Erin b/c whoever was taking the photo needed us to get closer together. I took it very literal...

6 pregos at this shower: Kim, Christy, Jenn, Emily, Jodie, & Heather.

Emily with her mom and Dirk's stepmom

The hostesses wearing one of our gifts - it's a Roundtop Christmas decor that is super cute. One guess as to who was the dork that suggested we wear them for the photo...


Since Emily never really got a proper shower (meaning before she delivered the baby) last go around, it was fun to treat this shower as her first official one. She is at 31 weeks and her body is starting to act funny again (same symptoms that caused her to deliver early last time). As a full time believer in the power of prayer, I am on my knees praying that the Lord keeps this baby in that belly for a few more weeks!