Gingerbread in the House

Today we visited the Bear Moon Bakery. We invited our friends to join us in decorating gingerbread houses. What a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday. The wonderful owner of the bakery laid out all the goodies and set the kids a decorating. They all truly took the job seriously. They had so much fun and we went home with works or childhood art. I really hope we can do it again next year. What do you think, Jen? We'll see how long these works of art last. They are just so yummy.

Daddy helping V. When she gave him permission to help.

What fun is decorating a gingerbread house if you can't taste it? No fun at all. Cutie pie Trevor.

Good thing we didn't have to clean up! What a blast the kiddos had. This last one will be My Best Shot for today. For more festivities head over to Picture This.

GNO

Girl's Night Out, much anticipated. Last night we went to Spa Jane for ice cream pedis and then for late dinner. Spa Jane offers pedi parties. Jen brought yummies so we ate a little and drank some while we got our piggies pampered.

The pedi room is round. So we could almost all get our pedis at the same time and still gab. Crazy, but I found out that one of the other moms and I went to middle school together. Who woulda thunk. Can't wait for next month.

Oh! And changes coming soon! Stay tuned.

Girl's Night Out

I have been waiting so long for this. Last night, we had our first GNO! Six hot mommas met for dinner and drinks. We had so much fun and it was long overdue. I'm already looking forward to next months adventure. Don't let us down, Jen. Once again, I realized how lucky I am to have such great girls friends in my life.

Hot momma Dawn. Doesn't she look so glamorous? Not many pics turned out because it was so dark and orange in the restaurant. And I forgot to change my lens.

This was dessert. It started out as Tres Leches. It didn't last long enough for me to take a picture. Some one last night mentioned making one so here's a recipe. Yum.

Any of you veteran GNOers have great ideas for evenings out, throw 'em at us. We just might consider just about anything.

Gone Fishin'

Last Sunday evening we got together with our best pals for picnic and fishing. We all brought a few dishes, our poles and the bug spray and had a fun time. We will be doing it again soon. We are so fortunate to have great families surround us and our children. I know that the girls realize how lucky they are to know such wonderful people.

Natalya has been really really wanting to fish for a very very long time. She loved it. And did so fantastically her very first time fishing that she even caught one! I think she may have a new hobby.

As for Vienne, well, we'll chalk it up to her being just a little too young. She didn't have the patience to wait around. She was gone in 60 seconds. But she had great intentions.

Our pretty little fishing hole with a view.

And Vienne's second big sister, Priya. Every time Vienne sees Priya she say, "I love Priya."

Antiquing We Will Go

OK, so we really didn't go "antiquing" by definition. We weren't searching for anything old and collectible. But the whole event is considered the Texas Antique Weekend. They did have antiques but we probably passed them on by. We had our eyes on more funky wares and came home with some fabu stuff. A couple of places that we visited that can also be visited via the web: Rhinestone Cowgirls; The Junk Gypsy Co.; Salvage-Style.

We stayed at a cute little B&B called The Katy House in teeny tiny Smithville, TX. The town has a claim to fame, though, being the place where they filmed Hope Floats. We had two days of the most fantastic food. We happened to stop at a gas station/bakery and ate the most wonderful fresh baked pastries. We can definitely say that we had a fantastic trip but our Spring trip will have to be longer. One day just doesn't do it. This place was huge. Enormous. If you don't find something to take home you just have lost your mind.

The Spring show dates are posted as the first week of April 2008 so let us know if you wanna join us fun shopping and great food. The more the merrier.

Angelia's bedroom...

...And the kitchen. Would have been very convenient to make cookies at 2:00 AM.

The sign says it all.

We weren't officially shoppers until we got the bugaboo cart. We did make several trips back to the car but, boy, was this a life saver.

Angelia and Laurie. Laurie met us there since she came from a different city. And, no, we did not buy that frog. That's how this restaurant found us to bring our order.

Road trippers. Can't wait to do it again in the Spring. We'll have built up our endurance, bought some more maps, and gathered a few more friends. Thanks, Angelia and Laurie, for an fantastic time.

One more for the road, this is the only one that I really edited. The town was an old rail road depot. So the b & b was train themed.

Ritual

This is very late but I decided to post it anyway. Tracey's theme for this Thursday is ritual. We probably have several during our day but the main one lately is our get ready for school ritual. It's typical, nothing out of the ordinary. But today was special. Today Daddy decided to go in to work late (we had two appointments at the house that we made early). He takes Natalya to school most days but he has never taken Vienne to school. And V has been wanting him to. So today we got ready as usual but instead of just Daddy and Natalya leaving the house, we all left (in two cars because Daddy did still have to get to work). We had planned on dropping N off, going to the bakery for muffins, then dropping V off. We got to Natalya's school, unloaded and OOPS- no backpack. Natalya giggles. Daddy goes back home to get it then meets me and V at the bakery. We have our muffins then take V to school. We unload at her school and OOPS no school bag! Vienne giggles and I go get the bag. Greg heads to the house for our construction meetings but not before saying, "I'm never doing this again. It threw everyone off." Our usual ritual was interrupted and not without a price. There is a reason we have rituals. It keeps us all sane.

Tomorrow, a super fun friend and I are heading to what is said to be a famous antique show a couple of hours away. A girls road trip. We're staying a night then shopping Saturday. I'm hoping to find at least one good treasure. And it's not even the shopping that thrills me the most. It's the idea that this will be the first time that I've been away over night without Greg and the girls. Ever. Don't judge. I'm just overly attached. I'm learning to let go. Hopefully I'll bring back a good story.

Craft Day

So me and some fellow hip mommas decided to get together today for our first Craft Day. A little something fun to do while the kiddos are in school. We all brought over a project, gabbed, and had lunch.

They only project that I could come up with was painting these letters for V's rooms. They have actually been sitting on my bedroom floor for months! Thank goodness for Craft Day.

Hula Wants to Have Some Funna?

We do! We had a blast today celebrating Labor Day with a luau with our Fab Friends the Fab Five. I can't say enough how lucky we are to know 'em.

Festivities of the day included "Hot Potato". Err, um, "Coconut".

Water balloon toss. LOTS of busted balloons over here. This was the first time the girls had played it and they loved it.

The girls also got to make thier own leis.

The Hip Hubs probably talking shop. Or gossiping. You know how they can get.

My pretty island princesses putting their feet in the water. It only reached about 81 degrees today but it was very humid. We didn't swim because the water was cold. I somehow don't think the kids would have minded very much.

And where would we be without our friends. We love 'em.