Cupcake Day, Half Birthday, & UT Bike Ride

Bailey and I have had lots of fun these past few days. Last Friday, we hit The Cupcakery and enjoyed the most delicious cupcakes in the world!! We went to Lilly's Bead Box, too, and I made a cute pair of earrings while Bailey played in the beads. Over the weekend, we celebrated Bailey's half-birthday with half a cake and half of a card - it's been our little tradition since she turned 4 1/2 - any excuse is a good excuse for cake! On Monday, we rode our bikes on campus and checked out the Art & Architecture Building, the main library, and the Ag/Vet Library. Bailey had such a blast and, since the library has a Starbucks :) I did, too! I think this has been our best summer ever!

Lovin' Summer

We have had the best summer!! Until last week, I was regularly posting pictures of our adventures on my Facebook page but, last Sunday, *someone* (who shall remain nameless) broke my camera and now it's being fixed. Luckily, I have my old camera as a back-up, but it's not digital so the summer pictorial is on hold for now!! We've been swimming a ton this year and Bailey has been jumping off the diving board like crazy. Sadly, that led to her first bout of swimmers' ear, but she's feeling better and we now know what to do to prevent it. We've gone downtown quite a bit, too. The fountains there are so fun and there's lots of shade for relaxing and reading (that's for me!). We now have Rita's Italian Ice on Market Square and it is our new favorite treat spot! We've had lots of treats this summer and lots of fun times with friends. We've also seen several movies, done a photo scavenger hunt, ridden bicycles, and Bailey spent a fun-filled week at zoo camp. It's been a wonderful summer and I can't wait to get my camera back!! Have a good week!

Second-Grade Field Day

OMGosh! I cannot believe that there are only 4 1/2 days of school left! This is going to be a busy week with lots of fun activities going on at school. Last week, the second-graders had their Field Day and I was able to watch all day. It was so much fun! Hot, but fun! Bailey did the Sack Race, Sponge Relay, 100 meter dash, and 400 meter relay. Her class did really well and Bailey is turning out to be a great runner! The teachers even got in on the fun! It was so funny to see them doing the water balloon toss and get soaked!! The first-grade teachers put on plastic ponchos for their toss - very clever! Have a great summer!!

Happy Mother's Day!

We had such a wonderful weekend!! We had friends over on Saturday night for dinner and the new "Star Trek" movie, which is so completely amazing that I want to see it again! Chris has had Star Trek china for a long time and has been anxiously awaiting a new movie so that we could pull it out for a party! The table looked beautiful! I loved the candies Chris bought for the candy dish that matched exactly! It was a great evening! Bailey spent that night with Mom & Dad, so Chris and I slept in on Sunday and met them for church and lunch at The Creamery - very delicious!! Bailey & Chris showered me with gifts - beautiful flowers, a wonderful balloon, Barefoot Contessa cookbook, funny hoops & yoyo talking card, and a cool cookie cutter set. I am a very blessed girl!! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too!

UT Vet School Open House

Our trip to the UT Vet School today for the annual Open House was amazing! I expected to see some horses and dogs, maybe a cat or two, but what we saw truly exceeded all our expectations! The most amazing (and unsettling!) area was the anatomy room, a huge room filled with all kinds of animal body parts. I have always been squeamish around this sort of stuff, but I was trying really to be the "cool" mom - it didn't really work! I didn't touch anything and you could hear my upset stomach rumbling when we saw the two-headed calf, the many hearts and intestines, paws of varying shapes and sizes, and miscellaneous other internal organs! Bailey was very interested, though, and I pray she is never as squeamish as I am!!

My favorite animals were the dogs and the two giant bunnies we saw. There were also eagles and hawks (impressive!); parrots and cockatoos; a pile of baby possums; three adoptable ferrets (right . . .); and a lion. Oh, yes, you read correctly, a sick and sedated lion rode by us on his way to have several tests run. Apparently, there is something wrong with his brain. We weren't there long enough to get an update on him but, suffice it to say, that it was more than amazing to watch this giant animal be wheeled by on a gurney. We hope he's OK! It was a beautiful day and we had a blast at the vet school. Perhaps Bailey will go on to be a veterinarian . . . :o)

Happy Easter Bunnies!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We took flowers to church to put on the cross outside - so beautiful! The service was very meaningful, especially the music, which is always my favorite part. The choir sang "The Hallelujah Chorus" and it was so amazing! After church, the butterflies that had been "sleeping" in their chrysalises emerged and were released. One flew directly to Bailey's hand and stayed there till she passed it on to a friend. We enjoyed a delicious lunch with my mom and dad at The Bonefish Grill and then drove my Crescent Bend to take a few more pictures with the beautiful tulips there. We ended the day with a bike ride and many more beautiful tulips. It was a wonderful day! Happy Easter!!

Vera Bradley Heaven!

Where do I begin? I took a little solo road trip last week that was so much fun! It all started with a little e-mail from Vera Bradley that Patricia Miller (VB co-founder) was going to be at the Phipps Plaza Vera Bradley store in Atlanta to introduce the new spring patterns. Immediately, I wanted to go, but was a little uncertain about going alone. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got and by the time I finally made my hotel reservation on Tuesday afternoon, I was completely pumped! I totally lucked out and got a room at the 4-star Intercontinental Hotel through Hotwire at an amazing price and was blown away by how luxurious my room was. As you can imagine, there was quite a crowd at the store, and it was such a beautiful store - so colorful and bright and happy!

I ate some delicious meals while in Hotlanta! You can't beat the fried macaroni and cheese at The Cheesecake Factory - and that Tiramisu Cheesecake was almost too good for words! The Flying Biscuit is another great restaurant that serves giant biscuits and Creamy Dreamy Grits (and they are!!), and The Horseradish Grill had scrumptious shrimp & grits and biscuits with honey/walnut butter (I think the butter was better than the biscuit!).

If you've never been to Phipps Plaza, it is a shopping wonderland! If I had had a lot of money, I could have done some serious damage - Tiffany, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom's (where I gracefully sprayed very expensive perfume in my face!), and so many other high-end stores - and a $222,000 convertible Bentley that was too gorgeous not to photograph!

I even went to the World of Coke Museum! It is one of the most fun places - what could be better than a place where you can drink all the Coke you can handle? I was literally sloshing when I left!! My favorites were Fanta Pineapple and Birch Beer. After tasting Tab, I can't believe I ever loved that drink - it is so flat! I had a great little getaway, but I'm so glad to be home with my sweet family once again!!