Turtles + Rangers = Happy Girl

We celebrated with our family after the swim party with some of Meredith's favorites - pizza and cupcakes! And we had a really crazy Turtle/Rangers scheme going on, too! I found a cute idea to make Turtle cupcakes while wasting time on my new favorite obsession: Pinterest! Meredith was pretty excited for them. Then we headed to the party store for a few things and she decided to go with her turtle cupcakes, she wanted Texas Rangers plates and napkins. Well, of course! She even got dressed in her fan gear and requested we put on the game during dinner.

Silly Meredith...wonder where she gets it from?

Oh, I see...Meredith and her silly daddy posing with her cupcakes.
You can never have too many wishes, right?
Meredith got to open lots of fun presents, but the highlight was this cabinet my dad refinished for her - it is a closet that my Grandpa made for my mom when she was a little girl to keep her favorite doll's clothes in. Meredith was really excited!
Everyone took this as an opportunity to show how silly our WHOLE family can be.
Papa added this sweet note to the inside of the closet. Love it.
The closet is very useful now that it is at home full of Rebecca's belongings, but that night it was also the most fun hide-and-seek spot. Notice the laughter in Landon's eyes and the tiny hands to the right of him? That would be Jillian, not quite tall enough to see over yet!
I tried to get all my Ranger's fans in one pic - Meredith was feeling too sleepy to cooperate.
Eventually she came around...
Especially since it meant she could be silly in another picture!

Party like a 5 year old

We have been planning this fun birthday party for our favorite five year old for months! The best part was we joined with two of Meredith's friends, who were both in her class and on her soccer team so that we could have it at this great pool not far from our house - it has a super fun splash pool for little ones, a lazy river, and a really big slide for bigger kids. It was the perfect place to have it and it was so much fun to celebrate with these two little girls that Meredith has so enjoyed spending time with!

Meredith, Allison, and Kelsey - the birthday girls! I had fun picking up these identical cakes at Costco - got lots of "TRIPLETS?" questions and looks.
Daddy and Meredith had lots of fun floating the lazy river and splashing in the big pool
The big girls were very ready for cake - the cakes were also ready - can you tell that Meredith's chocolate cake had turned into a molten lava cake? It was HOT out there and it was a good thing we cut the cake when we did!
Making her wish! She told us later she wished for a pool like this one closer to our house. Which is funny because this place is probably only 5 miles from us (if even that). Guess when you are a heading to your 5 year old birthday party that 5 miles takes forever!
Luckily no one cared that the cake was melty - probably just made it tastier!
How could I refuse a slide down the slide with the birthday girl?
So fun!

Playdate with Daddy

Today, the girls and I headed up to visit Neal at work for lunch and a little playdate! He can get us into the Flight Museum by Love Field for free and he had been wanting to check it out, so we all got the pleasure of tagging along on his lunch break.

The girls had so much fun seeing all the airplanes and playing in the Jay Jay the Jet Plane kids area. Luckily, they actually enjoyed all the exhibits Neal had been wanting to check out too! Now we just have to plan a time to go back when we can stay longer than a lunch hour!

There was a fun airplane that the kids could climb in, fly, sit in the seats as a passenger, and then slide out the back
Captain Jillian and First Officer Meredith

Flying Jay Jay
Meredith climbed all the way up to the top of the Air Traffic Control Tower. Jillian started up but was luckily very happy to stay close to the ground. If not, I am pretty sure that Mama in a skirt or Daddy in work duds would have been climbing up after her to get her down - they were some steep steps!
This was one of the real planes that you could actually go in and see some of the stuff you usually don't experience as a passenger - plus they were also filled with Southwest historical memorabilia.
The back of the plane we got to walk through while on the inside of the museum sticks out into the parking lot of the museum so we went to go get a closer look on our way out.
Meredith thought it was really cool to get to stand underneath the airplane
And touch it!
Jillian wanted to touch it just like Sissy, but then was afraid it would be too hot! She was a few inches shy of touching it herself like she would have liked anyway, but I did lift her up to get a little closer look.

Mom's Weekend Out

Last weekend I got to have a great getaway with two of my dear friends, Lindsay and Kelly. These two girls and I met while working at American Airlines and then cemented our friendship by running a marathon together almost 6 years ago. Since that time, we have all left American (Kelly moved to Austin and Lindsay is now a teacher) but we figured out that we have managed to get together every summer but maybe one - not too bad for girls transitioning jobs and having a total of 4 babies. This summer we headed to Lake Travis in Austin and just relaxed by the pool, laughed and talked until way past our bedtimes, and even got to visit a winery that was so much fun! Now, I will just start my countdown to next year when we get to do it all over again!

We had so much fun at Flat Creek Estate - it just happened to be pretty close to where we were so we went on a whim. It turned out to be ranked as one of the top wineries in the nation - pretty great whim!
I am impressed that none of us look even slightly green in this picture...this was post driving through the winding hills of Austin and a dinner on a moving pier. The pretty views and the fantastically sweet hamburger buns made it all worth it!