Birthday Celebrations!

I had a lovely birthday which really started the night before when CK and I went out with our friends Thelma and Harvey to one of our favorite restaurants, Next. Thelma and I share the same birthday so we have gotten together the past few years which has been fun. It was a great night with good friends.

The next day, my actual birthday started off with me taking Sofia to school in the bike trailer and then Olivia and I continued on to Starbucks where we met the two other room moms - Vy and Bonnie, to discuss the Fall Festival basket that we're pulling together. Ana, one of my friends gave me a Starbucks gift card so it was fun to get a treat on my birthday. After the meeting, we returned to the house for Olivia's nap and I ended up getting many surprises throughout the day - bouquets of flowers from Rob and Margee, Becky and Mike and family, Joseph, CK and Connie, and red roses from CK! The house looked like a florist and they were each SO beautiful and such a surprise!

That evening CK took the girls and I to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants - Gloria's. It was a delicious meal, as usual and a fun birthday celebration. We returned home to enjoy Sprinkles cupcakes - delicious! CK put Olivia to bed and Sofia helped me open my presents! CK got me an awesome atlas which will be fun to use with the gals and is fun to explore now. Sofia and Olivia gave me a red heart jewelry box and a cupcake cookbook! It was a great day and a fun way to welcome the last year of my 30s.

The birthday gals!

This is how I found the girls the morning of my birthday - "reading" together in Olivia's room

My girls and me before dinner on my birthday

Sprinkles Cupcakes!!

Our happy little girl

Birthday cupcake

Olivia wouldn't hold still for this photo

Opening presents

I LOVE this note written by Sofia

Sofia helping me open my gifts

Olivia got a "mini" Sprinkles and loved it..big surprise!

Figuring out what cupcake we'll make first!

Olivia at the Arboretum

Today Olivia and I visited the Dallas Arboretum with my fellow Colleyville Garden Club members while Sofia was in school. Every year the Arboretum sets out thousands of pumpkins for the fall and I wanted to be sure and see it this year so I figured Olivia and I would scout it out for a future visit. Plus, I wanted to try and get a few cute pictures of our little one. I put Olivia in one of my favorite dresses made by her Mimi for Sofia and it really has a "fall" feel to it. I also brought the white hat that Uncle Steve and Aunt Shirl gave her for her birthday this year. It's so cute and knowing that it will soon be too cold to wear until next year, I wanted to get a few pictures.

It was fun getting pictures of her by the various Chihuly art pieces, but I also learned what a hard job a professional photographer has! I took over 100 pictures and only really captured a handful that I like, with one being very good and the rest just average. Anyway, it was fun!

She Walks!

Olivia started walking about a week ago and has been doing a mixture of walking and crawling since with walking being a bigger part of her movement with each day. Today, while visiting the Dallas Arboretum, I captured her walking...and then getting distracted by another kiddo's car. I love watching her walk and she is determined to stay on her feet!

Heading to school.....in style

So, two weeks ago I started putting the girls into the bike trailer and riding to school. It started as an incentive to get Sofia moving in the morning since she was super excited at the idea of riding in the trailer instead of going to school in the car. The first day we rode, all I heard was "WEEEEEEEEEEE" from Sofia as we biked along.

Now, after I drop Sofia off and walk her to the school's front door, Olivia and I continue on to the gym for my workout. I've found that although the ride home can be tiring, it actually has helped me from being sore the next day. Now, we've biked to school just about every morning. Yesterday it was 60 degrees when we headed out and the girls had sweaters and blankets, plus Sofia wanted me to close the rain cover. By the time we arrived at school and I opened the rain cover it felt like summer inside the trailer! The girls certainly travel in comfort! On the ride home from the gym Olivia generally falls asleep and she's a lot easier to transfer to her crib from the bike trailer than from the car seat.

Over the weekend, CK took my bike to the bike shop for new tires and to have my coffee cup holder installed, which has become very important to me at 7:20am! He also bought a super cool garget that is a stand for my bike, so I can park it in the garage and it's ready to go in the morning! I love it!

It's been a fun way to get to school and I'm thinking that once it gets too cold in the morning I can transition to picking her up in the afternoon.

In the garage, ready to go

The girls snug in the trailer

Ready to get going to school

Stopping for a quick picture

A sleepy little girl after the gym

Grapefest 2012

On Saturday afternoon Sofia and I went with our neighbors, Marco, Stacy and Antonio to Grapefest while CK stayed home with an overly-tired Olivia. We went in the afternoon and because of the unusually cool weather it was very crowded! We made our way down Main Street, stopping to get food and then funnel cakes. By the time we got our funnel cakes (we really should have split one), we were at the carnival rides. Sofia and I started out on her favorite - the dragon roller coaster. It's pretty fun and she laughed throughout the ride! After, she went with Stacy on the ferris wheel while Marco and I took Antonio over to the petting zoo. Soon Stacy and Sofia joined us and the kids had a great time petting and feeding all the animals. Of course, Sofia loved the horse and also spent a lot of time petting and playing with the chicken. From there, Antonio and Sofia played on the kiddie trikes for awhile to get the wiggles out. Finally, Sofia used our last tickets on the super slide and loved it! She really got going fast and ended up doing it two more times before we headed home. It was a great visit to Grapefest and the weather really helped make it enjoyable. CK enjoyed a little down time and Olivia was well-rested and happy when we returned, so everyone had a good day.

What's a festival without cotton candy?

One way to eat it...

Stacy enjoying her first bite of funnel cake!

Sofia and I on the dragon roller coaster

Sofia and Antonio playing together

Feeding the goat

Visiting the llama (the miniature horse was in this pen also)

Playing with the chicken

The super slide!

Looking a little worried

At the end of the slide

That was so much fun, Mommy! I want to do that again!!

Fun with Cousins

Cynthia, Jay, Chandler and Jillian and their friend Tony came to visit us for the long weekend. On Friday after everyone arrived and Sofia got out of school, we drove down to see the Bluebird which Chandler was very excited to see. The kids loved crawling all over the plane and learning about the airplane from "Uncle CK". On Saturday Jay, Tony and CK flew down to Austin to watch the University of Texas vs. University of Florida football game. While they were out, Cynthia and her kids followed the girls and me in our car to Ft Worth where we rode on the little train by the zoo. The kids loved it and had a great time together. We had lunch at Panera before heading home for naps. After the kids woke from their naps, they got their swimsuits on and went for a swim. Chandler and Sofia had the best time filling the dump trucks with water and "delivering" it to the other end of the pool. The kids had so much fun together and it was a great chance to get them together and enjoy each other. We meant to get a group picture of the kids all dressed up before or after Meeting, but ran out of time beforehand and then had crabby kids after.

The kids with the pilot and his Bluebird

Sofia and Chandler are ready for takeoff

Olivia still needs a little help balancing sometimes

Such a cutie!

Having fun while waiting for the train to arrive

All of us on the train

Having fun in the pool with the dump trucks

Chandler and Sofia planning

Dumping the water

Sofia and her sharks dumping water

Sofia loved pulling Jillian around the pool

The littlest swimmer!