Birthuation Festivities!

Not only did Meghan graduate from high school this past Saturday, she did so on her 18th birthday!  It was a fantastic day filled lots of smiles and happiness, and maybe just a couple tears.  It is so cliche to say, but where did all the years go?  Meghan is 18 now!  She will be off to college in just a few short months.  I can barely wrap my brain around it just yet.

My parents came to visit and watch their first grandchild walk across the stage in her cap and gown.  Graduation was held not at her school, but downtown at Reliant Stadium, where the Houston Texans play football!   We had lunch afterwards with Meghan's best friend, Natalie, and her family at Hillstone, which was new to us.  Very good!  Then to cap off the day, we had a small gathering of good friends to celebrate the gradu-birthday.  Meghan was so happy all day! It was a very joyous occasion.

Here are pics from the day:

 To celebrate Meghan's birthday, I created a candy table instead of having a birthday cake.  We had ordered a sheet cake for her graduation and we certainly did not need two cakes.  And Meghan LOVES candy.  We had been viewing different candy tables on Pinterest for a long time, and I knew she would love to wake up to one on her birthday.  She was thrilled!

 Claire and Meg on the drive down to Reliant Stadium.

 We've arrived! 

 Klein ISD graduates all four high schools here on the same day.  Klein Oak's ceremony was 12 noon.

Excited!

 Anna, Meg, and Claire

 The processional....Meghan is between the two people in the foreground.

 The entire graduating class of 2011....888 kids!

 Throwing the caps in celebration.

 Meghan walking out.....the short one.  :)

 Meghan and best friend, Natalie. 

 The girls.  Can't believe our oldest is a high school graduate!

 Family photo!

 Meghan and Natalie at lunch afterwards.  So happy!!!  Meghan celebrated with a filet mignon.  :)

 Back home again after lunch.  I had to get a picture of Meg in front of her candy table. 

 Her birthday gift was a birthstone ring from James Avery to replace her class ring that she probably won't wear much longer.

 And her graduation gift from us was a Vera Bradley laptop backpack with some "how to survive freshman year" books.  We also snuck a check in one of the pockets hoping she won't have to call home and beg for money right away.  :)

 Cake time at the little party we held for the girls.  Yes, we served the infamous Costco cake!

Meghan and her friend, Jace.  They have been buddies since they were 1st grade and kindergarten students.  Now Jace is a high school senior!

It was a fantastic day!  Big smiles and lots of laughter and high fives!  I didn't get too emotional, but I was bursting with pride.  And now I am really excited for Meghan to go to the University of North Texas and begin the next chapter of her life.

Easter 2010

Scenes from Easter 2010:

The traditional Easter egg dying above.  The not so traditional mini-marshmellow Easter sheep below.

I got this idea from my latest issue of Southern Living magazine.  I can't find an online picture, but trust me when I tell you ours are the amateur version.  We amused ourselves so much making these that we topped our homemade carrot cake (thanks dad!) with one:

The bunny brought way too much candy and other assorted goodies on Easter morning.

The pool was 73 degrees on Sunday.  Anna was the only one crazy enough to swim before we had an early Easter dinner.

Here are the girls dressed up for our late afternoon church service.  Below, are the goofy shots.

and a couple more nice ones:

The girls had Easter Monday off and my parents stayed to visit one more day.  Today, I am back to an empty house.  Dangerous being in an empty house with three Easter baskets filled with candy......just sayin.

Anna's birthday festivities

So last weekend, Anna invited 7 friends over to have a tea party for her birthday. We decorated the dining room table and used some china tea cups that were Anna's great grandmother's. Before tea, the girls each picked out a straw hat and some silk flowers to decorate them with. I hot-glued the flowers on. They also decorated placemats. Claire and her friend, Jenna served three courses to the girls: heart-shaped pb&j sandwiches, fruit, and dessert which included shortbread, sugar and jam-filled cookies, and the cutest little tea cake that served 8 exactly. The girls had a great time!
Tuesday was Anna's actual birthday. Jack was in Atlanta and got back home around 7pm that evening. On top of that, Claire had volleyball practice until 8pm, so poor Anna had to wait all day and evening to open presents and have cake. She was SO patient.

Homemade (ha.....out of the box is homemade to me!) strawberry cake with chocolate frosting, per Anna's request.

Jack arrived home with a bouquet of flowers for Anna.

Happy 8th birthday Anna!

Ahh.....no more birthdays until June in this house. But it's a big one. Gulp.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Eight years ago today, our only Texas baby was born! Five weeks early, she was true to her home state's reputation (everything is bigger in Texas) and weighed in a healthy 6lbs, 8ozs. I can't begin to imagine life without our Anna B! (The B stands for banana, and no, that is not her middle name. Do you think I am crazy? I'm not Gwyneth Paltrow.)

I will post pictures of the cute tea party she had on the weekend and also her birthday celebration this evening. We are squeezing it in between Claire's volleyball practice and Jack arriving home later this evening from Atlanta. Stay tuned......

Baking & Making

This is my very favorite day of the holiday season. The girls' last day of school was yesterday and, while a Saturday, it is nevertheless, the first day of Christmas vacation. The girls are blissfully sleeping in. I love the anticipation of two glorious weeks of late night movie watching followed by mornings of pajama-wearing until noon. It doesn't get any better than that.

This past week I was busy making teacher's gifts for Claire and Anna's teachers. Their classes did group gift cards which is so nice for the teachers. But the girls like to bring in something of their own too to give on that last day. So, we baked some goodies: peanut butter blossoms, rolo pretzel bites (topped with either a big yummy pecan to make turtles or an M&M which is the more kid-pleasing), and this new-to-me recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Ritz Crackers. Holy Girl Scout cookie! These do really resemble Thin Mints and are so easy to make!

Here are the Rolo treats. Also an easy, but oh so good recipe.

They look like little soldiers ready to be baked to yummy, gooey goodness:

And I finally got around to making some Christmas buckets to put all of these goodies in. I am so happy with how these turned out and I had so much fun making them. The girls each selected two and we filled them to the brim with cookies, treats, hot cocoa mix and candy canes. The packaging is everything, isn't it?

So fun to make, and it made the ordinary "cookie plate" seem a lot more special.

I will post again soon. With school out, things should be a lot less hectic around here. Having said that, it's time to get ready for football, basketball & volleyball (all Claire) and a birthday party (Anna's friend) ......all today! And how scary is this.......Meghan is going to the mall with Natalie today, and I (gulp) gave her my credit card. Maybe not the best move?