happy birthday to me!

Isn't it strange how birthdays seem so everyday when you're an adult?  No all-day celebration of turning (ugh) 38, because we had Cammy visiting and some kid activities to attend!  First up, both kids went to school, and the hubs and I went to early vote.  I love having it out of the way, so now I can ignore all things election-related until November 8th.  Sweet relief!  Then the hubs and I ripped some rose bushes out of the front flower beds and replaced them with shrubs and lantana.  Cammy babysat Sadie while she sunned her belly.  

After lunch, the hubs, Cammy, and I went to Britton's school for her Adventure Dash.  All week her school has been fundraising, and today every class got to do an obstacle course.  It was hot (of course, because you know, Texas), but the kids loved every minute of it.

Britton is in the pink shorts in the middle

The school raised almost $40,000 in just five days!  Britton's class raised the most for the second grade, and won a popsicle party and a pajama day.

Then, before my birthday dinner at El Canton - the fantastic wood-fired pizza place, we went to watch Barrett in his costume parade.  All of the kids participated, and they were ridiculously adorable in their costumes.  

Barrett would wave every time his class walked by, and tried to escape and come hang out with us.  His teacher said one of the kids had a skeleton mask, and it really scared Barrett.

Nothing like icing and decorating cookies right before dinner!

When we got home from dinner, we had cake, because you have to have cake on your birthday!  The hubs got me the pumpkin spice cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes, and it delivered.  The cake and cream cheese icing weren't too sweet, which was a nice change from usual birthday cake.  

I let Britton take the photos, and she captured this gem of me blowing out my candles!  But it's real and silly and I get a kick out of seeing it.  I think 38 is going to be alright alright alright (the hubs and I may or may not have watched "Dazed and Confused" last night.  Yes, we did).

mummy, can we go to the museum?

The hubs heard that the Houston Museum of Natural Science is hosting a mummy exhibit, and mentioned it to Britton. She really wanted to go, and seeing as we're so close to Halloween, we figured it would be a fun excursion.  We picked two special exhibits, "Mummies From Around the World" and the "Bill of Rights," then explored the rest of the museum.

First up, the Bill of Rights.  The real one!!!  Admittedly, the hubs and I were much more excited than the kids, but they entertained themselves with a video about how a bill becomes law. 

I raved about the penmanship, and Britton was surprised to learn that this is handwriting - no printers in Colonial America!

The exhibit included vignettes of the first ten Bill of Rights.  This is the original jury's finding in Al Capone's trial.

We moved on to the gemstones and minerals exhibit, where Britton fell in love with all the stones.  There was a chair carved out of a single boulder of agate - amazing!

Then we saw the mummy exhibit, and sadly, no pictures allowed.  They had mummies from all over the world, and Britton quickly learned that these were real people, not just strips of bandages!  The ticket lady had warned us that some kids get upset and scared, but Britton took it in stride.  There were mummies from Germany, the New Zealand bogs, and of course Egypt.  Barrett fell in love with the mummified cat, and for the rest of the visit asked to go back and see it!  Sadly, the gift shop doesn't sell stuffed animals of a mummified cat, because Barrett would have loved one.

Then it was on to dinosaurs!

My favorite - the triceratops!  

The exhibit was huge - they had more dinosaurs than I've seen anywhere else.  The giant sea turtles, pterodactyls, and wooly mammoths were firsts for me, but they also had old favorites like the Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Britton had her journal with her, and was writing down dinosaur names and descriptions.

Barrett was excited to find little dinosaurs - these are as small as chickens!  He and the hubs had fun checking out all the fossils too.

After the dinosaurs, everyone was getting a little hungry and tired, so we went to find some food and go to the gift shop.  There were two more floors we didn't get to explore, but we got a family membership today, so we can come back later and check out the rest.  This shirt was at the gift shop, and if they had adult sizes I would have bought it!  Working in the oil and gas industry, I got a laugh out of it.  The kids picked out some trinkets too, and we headed home.  Next time I want to check out the planetarium and butterfly garden!

mi casa: before and after

We've now been in our new home in Texas for over three months, and we're finally getting to the point of finishing touches.  When we first moved in, we had the entire house painted.  The main color is "Mindful Gray" by Sherwin Williams.  Here are some before and after pictures of the first floor!

The dining room before:

After:  paint is "Guilford Green" by Benjamin Moore, the table was my grandparents' (the chairs are Target), and the bookcase was a save from Memaw and PawPaw

The family room before:

And after!  The grid of pictures are from the Rifle Paper Company.  Sadie is of course sleeping.  We couldn't use the saddle bar stools at the island like we did in Pennsylvania, so I used them as side tables - worked like a charm, and added some warmth in the sea of white.  The rug is a bound remnant from Lowes for around $80 (it's huge!), as I don't want to invest too much money in a rug that the kids and dog will destroy.  I couldn't find any throw pillows I liked for a decent price, so I made these.  The best part?  The covers are zippered, so I can take them off and wash them!

I've always wanted built-in bookcases.  When we toured the house, I loved how the previous owners had pulled the couch off of the back wall and put a large bookcase there.  The room is large, so we had the room to put a bookcase there too.  It gives us room to display photographs, books, and trinkets, and keeps all of the kids' toys tucked away and out of sight (the ottoman holds toys too).

The foyer before:

Foyer after:  Mindful Gray paint, the arched gate in the art niche is from The Country Store and it looks small here, but is actually 50 inches tall!  The gingerbread table, mirror, and decor are the same from Pennsylvania.  We chose not to put anything on the walls upstairs so that it didn't get cluttered.

The breakfast nook (between the family room and kitchen) before:

After:  one of the biggest changes was switching out the white knobs with black iron ones I originally bought for the new bookcase cabinets.  The new hardware makes the cabinetry pop.  We bought the new table and chairs in the breakfast nook before we moved, and hoped it would fit the space - it does!  The table opens up into a square, if we need seating for eight.

The kitchen before:

The kitchen after:  ignore my mess!  Our fridge in Pennsylvania wasn't magnetic, so when I discovered that this fridge is, I went crazy and started sticking everything up on it.  We haven't filled up all the cabinets, and I hope we don't.  Not that the counters back me up, but I prefer a cleaned out kitchen.  

Formal living room before:

Formal living room after:  our catch-all room!  This is the last room we've touched, and I only just yesterday ordered a new area rug (from Wayfair) and throw pillows (from Wal-Mart).  The safe has been moved out, and we plan on selling the desk.  It holds a computer we don't use, and is filled with files we could easily move to a small filing cabinet.  In its place we'd like to get a piano, but I'm not in a rush.  Two white bookcases we had in Pennsylvania are in the corner.

That's it for now!  We've settled in well, and I'm ready to finish up the living room and downstairs half bath (no need for pictures of its bland wallpaper).

pumpkin patch time!

We checked out the two week weather report, and the hubs saw that Sunday would be the coolest day.  So we packed up the kids and headed to Dewberry Farms for the pumpkin patch!  In full disclosure, "pumpkin patch" is a bit of a stretch - yes, there were pumpkins, but they weren't grown there and just thrown into the field.  Definitely not the focus of this place!  I got discounted tickets at work, so luckily we walked right in without waiting in the long line.  Every weekend it gets closer to Halloween, the more crowded this place gets!

There were hand-pump well duck races...

The goats were adorable!

Britton panned for rocks with the sluice box (you buy the bag of rocks and dirt, dump it into the pan, and viola!  Rocks!).  

The kids played on the "fort" and then we stuffed ourselves with corn dogs, roasted corn, fried oreos, and lemonade.

There were geese and ducks on one side of the carousel, and every time we came around the kids and I quacked at them.  We'd get them all riled up, then rotate around and do it again.

The hubs hit the bell on the strong man game!  The kids and I, not so much.  Britton really wanted to try the big hammer, but even I couldn't get it over my shoulder!

We went on a train ride through the corn fields and Christmas trees, then Barrett found his true love - the fire engine.  He has been obsessed with any fireman-related since we got him a fireman Halloween costume.

We left without pumpkins, but in Texas there's really no need to buy pumpkins 3 weeks before Halloween!  They'd just wilt and rot in the sun.  So, we'll save pumpkin-finding and carving until we get closer to Halloween.

barrett: 41 months old

Be still, my heart.  This boy just surprises me every day.  Today Barrett's school had a "parade of countries" (more below), and after it was over one of Barrett's classmate's mom came over to introduce herself.  She said that she had to meet Barrett's parents, since her daughter Elizabeth and Barrett were such good friends.  Well, I don't do drop off or pick up, so I hadn't heard the story.  She filled me in - Barrett and Elizabeth play together, sit next to each other at circle and hold hands, and in general won't voluntarily separate from each other while at school.  Seems Barrett has his first girlfriend!  I asked him about Elizabeth on the way home and he said, "She's sweet."  Awwwww.

Barrett's class was "China" in the parade.  Poor Barrett, so ecstatic to see us show up, then devastated to learn he had to participate in a parade and in fact wasn't heading home.  As you can see below, he was crying, forlorn, and eventually accepted that this parade was going to happen and he was going to wave his drum.

Barrett would give us these sad eyes when we circled past our post for the parade.  After the second lap he was just resigned.  

He survived!  He was so excited about that new shirt that he wanted to sleep in it tonight.  It has the Chinese symbol for "friend," or so we're told.

Likes:  Elizabeth, pizza, hot dogs, play doh, reading time

Dislikes:  typical nonsensical mess, like not wanting to wear socks with tennis shoes or insisting he can bring his Kindle into the bath

86 months old

Our beautiful girl is now well into being 7 years old!  Britton's school just put out progress reports, and Britton is doing a fantastic job.  Her favorite subjects are social studies, art, and music.  We have a parent-teacher conference later this month, and I'm excited to hear from Britton's teachers.  Yes, more than one teacher!  The kids have one teacher for math and science, then switch classes for the afternoon, where they have English and social studies with another teacher.  

Barrett can't get enough of Britton.  He follows her around, and they have recently been obsessed with playing "pretend" - pretend house, where they pile pillows and blankets on the floor for "beds," then pretend to get up and get ready for school.  Britton loves that she can be in charge, and Barrett loves that Britton will play with him.  Win win!  

Likes: her BFF Kaitlyn, anything with arts and crafts, helping me make her glitter Tinkerbell shoes for Halloween, reading to me at night (instead of just me reading to her)

Dislikes:  remembering to clean her room, wearing her retainer at night