Thursday, June 30, 2011

See ya soon!!

We decided to leave a day early for vacation.  I'll be back on July 8.  I have an interview for a teaching position on July 11 (yea!!), so I'll post vacay pics soon after.  Adios!!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Countdown to Colorado!!

The countdown begins...five days until we leave for our Colorado vacation!  I can't wait!!


Friday, June 24, 2011

Wyatt's Diego Party

Wyatt just turned 3 and is obsessed with Go, Diego, Go!  Of course, this was the theme of the party.  My parents brought my nieces (Addison and Ashlyn) and nephew (Trey) from Perryton to join in the fun. 

We decided to go eat at Chuck E. Cheese and let the kids burn off some energy before coming back to the house for cake, ice cream, and presents. 

The girls enjoying the show!


My mom and Trey.  He did not enjoy the show as much.  He gave the band the evil eye most of the day. :)


Casey and my stepdad Denny.

I honestly did not get one good picture of Wyatt because he was like a bolt of lighting through that place!  Once we got home, the fun really started.


The party table.  I found most of the Diego party supplies at a local party store on clearance for $1.00!! 


How cute are these Diego and Baby Jaguar cupcakes!  I found the instructions at Nick Jr.com and literally decorated them a couple of hours before Abby's sleepover started.  Like I said, I am seriously considering buying cakes from a bakery next year.


The birthday boy getting ready to open his gifts.


He covered his face when we started singing "Happy Birthday" to him! :)


Trying out his new bike.  He looks so big!

Happy Birthday, Wyatt!!  We love you so much!!



Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Father's Day...finally!

Father's Day fell right amidst birthday celebrations around here, but we could not forget Dad!  Since we are gearing up for our vacation to Colorado, Casey wanted tickets for a Colorado Rockies game.  We were able to get some tickets and it should be a fun game.  We also decided to surprise him with a spa pedicure at the salon.  Now, my hubs is not the type to go get a pedi at all, but he really needed one and I thought I might be able to get him hooked if he tried one.  Well, he loved it!!  Maybe this can be a new hobby we enjoy together. ;)  I normally would have cooked him his favorite meal or we would have grilled out, but since we were still pretty exhausted from the birthday bash, we decided to eat out.  It was a relaxing day.

We love and appreciate you, honey.  You're a great husband and a wonderful dad.  Most importantly, you're my best friend. 

Happy Father's Day!!



Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Abby 7th Birthday Party

We've had a crazy weekend!!  On Friday night we celebrated Abby's birthday with a sleepover.  Then on Saturday, we celebrated Wyatt's 3rd birthday.  There birthdays are only 5 days apart and our families live out of town, so it takes a lot of energy and planning to orchestrate the birthday bash weekend every year to ensure that our families can be here.  But it's always fun!! 



Abby really wanted to have a sleepover this year since she is growing up, so that's what we did.  We originally invited 4 little girls to stay over but only 2 ended up being able to make it.  One was out of town and didn't make it back in time as originally planned.  The other one had a wedding rehearsal that ended really late in the evening.  It was still a blast and maybe a blessing that the group was as small as it was. :)

The Theme: Sleepover!  I took my color scheme from the invitations and favor bags; pink and green with polka dots. 




The Decorations: I kept it pretty simple.  I made a few tissue paper pom poms and wrapped some tulle around the chandelier in the dining room.  I just stuck to a pink and green color palette.














The Food:  Abby wanted hot dogs so we grilled up some dogs.  I found a bucket at Walmart that was the exact color of the green I used to decorate, so I bought it to put bags of chips in. 




These are rice krispie "pops" that I dipped in pink candy melts and sprinkled with jumbo confetti sprinkles.  They were a huge hit with the girls!


A painted flower pot filled with jumbo blow pops.  Another hit, especially with Wyatt. ;)


I had to have some fruit to balance out all of the sugary treats!


I found this sparkling strawberry lemonade at Walmart.  I fit the girly theme well.


The Cake:  I always like to make my children's birthday cakes but it was seriously a lot of work this year since I had to make them so close together.  Abby's was pretty simple.


I made a two tier chocolate cake with a vanilla pudding filling.  I tinted the buttercream icing pink and green and piped some various swirls and ruffles on the cake and then sprinkled with the jumbo confetti.  Notice that this is not a professional cake.  I had originally planned on piping stars on the top but my hand cramped pretty bad so I just took whatever came out.  (I've heard that your hand doesn't cramp up when you do it the right way, so I obviously haven't figured it out yet.)

The Fun: Abby wanted to play in the sprinkler, so I had the girls bring their swimsuits.  




I just love the picture of Wyatt.  He played in the sprinkler with a hotdog in his hand and then ate the soggy dog.

Having fun!!

We got Abby a Wii and some games which provided hours of fun.  The played Just Dance 2 and WipeOut.

Opening up presents.  Her sweet friends got her some cute things! 


The Jellybean Challenge!!  I had each girl guess how many jellybeans were in the jar (there were 533) and the closest guesser won a prize.  Since I didn't figure parents would appreciate me sending someone home with a jarful of jellybeans, the winner won a Smencil

Those are the highlights from the sleepover.  I can't believe my baby is already 7 years old.  Time flies!

Happy Birthday, Abby Rose!!  We love you!!!















Monday, June 13, 2011

Summer of the Buzz

With temperatures consistently in the upper 90s to 100s, it's HOT here in Amarillo.  I'd been contemplating giving Wyatt a buzz haircut to help cool him down for a while, but Casey is not a buzz haircut kind of guy.  I decided to do it anyway. :) 


I think he looks adorable!!  Talk about wash and go hair!  The best part is that he'll stay cool as a cucumber in this hot summer heat.  :)

Sunday, June 5, 2011

New Blooms

A few more plants have decided to bloom in my garden recently.  I have several summer blooming plants, so it's always exciting when they decide to open up.




Asiatic lilies.  I just love these.  I have some stargazers that are about to bloom soon too.



Shasta daisies.  These are usually much bigger and all bloomed out by now. 

We are in a serious drought here in Amarillo, Texas.  I think we've had 1/2 an inch of rain for the entire year.  There are so many farmers and ranchers around here that depend on rainfall for their livelihood.  It's truly a desperate situation.  Prayers please. 

I'm hoping the rest of my gardens will do okay.  I water often but nothing compares to fresh, pure rainfall. 



Friday, June 3, 2011

Abby's 1st Sleepover


Actually, it's Abby's 2nd sleepover, but her first time to host one.  We've had a blast having her sweet little friend "A" stay the night.  (Note: I decided not to crop Wyatt out from the picture because he tried his best to hang out with the girls every chance he got.  It just seemed fitting for him to be in the picture.)

After we picked A up, we ran by Papa Murphy's to get some pizza for dinner.  Have you ever tried their S'mores dessert pizza?  Delish!  Next we ran by the snow cone stand for some snow cones and headed home.


The girls played dress up for the longest time.  A was tickled that Wyatt was wearing a pair of the dress up high heels.  Believe me, that's par for the course around here.  (He has an older sister, so what else can you expect?)




The girls asked for some construction paper and tape.  This is what they came up with: giant paper hairbows!  Pretty creative.  Abby had soccer practice and they wanted to wear them, but I didn't think the bows would stand a chance in this Panhandle wind. 



After dinner and baths, we popped some popcorn and settled the girls in Abby's room to watch a movie.  They decided on Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale



After the movie, I made a big pallet on the floor for the girls to put their sleeping bags on.  Despite insisting that it was lights out, it was after 11:00pm before I finally heard silence.  :)




The girls and Wyatt were up bright and early!  I made cinnamon rolls, bacon, and orange juice for breakfast.



Wyatt is always thrilled to have his picture made.  He's a ham!

After breakfast, the girls (and Wyatt) spent the next couple of hours playing inside and outside, until it was time for....



manis....



and pedis!  They loved it.  A was here for Abby's spa birthday party last year, so she remembered all the fun things we did.  She was ready to whip out the face masks and makeup too!

After lunch, Abby and Wyatt said their goodbyes and we took A home.  It was a great sleepover and we hope to have A back over very soon.  Abby has been invited to another sleepover this Saturday from another friend from church.  Two sleepovers in one week!