Monday, August 24, 2009

Bubba's B-Day

My baby turned 8 years old a week and 1/2 ago. Holding that teeny little infant in my arms seems so long ago... In our family, we take birthdays very seriously. Having experienced what it means to deal with a child who has a potentially terminal illness, we feel that every year we have been able to share with our boys deserves a big celebration! This year, we did a Chuck E Cheese/Slumber Party combo for Bubba. Actually, he really only wanted the slumber party...but I "forced" him to have the Chuck E Cheese party, just in case he didn't get any takers on the slumber party. I think a lot of parents are more wary now of letting their children sleep over at another family's home (I'm one of them). Luckily though, we did get one little boy to stay for the full night and one who stayed till ~10:00. Bubba was THRILLED - it was his first sleepover at our house. I'm still glad we did the Chuck E Cheese party though - that way all the family and some of the younger kids got to share Bubba's birthday, too.


As you can see, he had NOOOO fun at Chuck E Cheese's. :) Actually, the only thing he didn't like was that they made him wear this ridiculous inflatable crown while they sang him Happy Birthday. When the song was over, that crown was immediately removed from his head and he was trying to let the air out of it so there wouldn't be any chance of them making him put it back on! I guess he's finally reached that age where PLAYING at Chuck E. Cheese's is fine, but having a party there is too "babyish". :(
I feel old...



The best surprise of the day though, was the limo ride! My cousin's husband works PT for a limo service as a side job and had come to Chuck E Cheese's for the party straight from work - with limo. When the party was wrapping up, he offered to take the kiddos back to our house in the limo - they LOVED it. Bubba really thought that he was the s**t, pulling up to his house in that thing. I told my cous, that he had just given Bubba the best present ever - what a cool memory for Bubba and his friends.




Slumber party went well, too. The men-folk all camped out in the back yard, which meant I got the house all to myself. :) Bubba really solidified some great friendships through this whole party deal as well. That, for me, was the best part!

Whew! Well, I think I have finished my party throwing responsibilities for this year... no more birthdays in our family till March. I guess I'll have a hard time topping this party next year... :)






Thursday, August 13, 2009

Summer is finally over...

I haven't had much time to blog over the last few weeks, most likely because every week it seems like we have visitors in town or are out of town ourselves visiting others. That having been said, we just got back from Austin, TX and had a wonderful time while we were there. We were visiting my sister, Jette.


Haven't seen her in 3 years. It was so nice to hang out with her and my niece, Maddie.

We also got to meet Jette's fiance, Mike - my husband LOVES him (in a manly "I love you , dude" kinda way, of course). They are total "bros" now and spent almost every waking minute together. They were so tight, I was surprised that they didn't start taking trips to the bathroom together. :)


Anyway, it was a great trip...HOT, but great. It was ungodly hot; cook an egg on the sidewalk hot. But we managed to stay cool by going swimming in the local springs, hitting up the water park at the lake and hanging on the patio under the misters drinking lots of "fluids". My sister looked great and my niece Maddie is getting so big. Such a beautiful girl! I had never seen their house before, but fell in love with it instantly - a cozy little place out in the hills. Everything was so green and there were tons of trees everywhere.
Very quiet and so relaxing! I definitely needed this break - probably could have used a few more days there actually.


Oh well. Now it's back to work, and the kids are back to school next week. Summer just flew by...

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Latest yard pics

I don't have time to write much, but felt an update on my yard project was long overdue. We are ALMOST finished - mostly just wrapping up little final details and clean up. It's really starting to look the way I pictured several months ago. Such a nice change! :)

Side yard BEFORE


Side yard TODAY


Back Wall - BEFORE


Back Wall - TODAY


BBQ Area - BEFORE


BBQ Area - TODAY


We added this bench seat on top of the wall near the BBQ area - love it!

Front Courtyard - BEFORE
Front Courtyard - TODAY
Hot Tub - BEFORE
Hot Tub - TODAY