More Chirstmas Parties & Fun!

On December 18, we had a little gathering at our house.  Our friends, the Stensgard family, are here in Texas from Denmark.  We wanted to have a little Christmas gathering with our kids,so we had a mini celebration at our house.  It was a simple little gathering with friends,but it was a lot of fun.  We had a veggie tray--you like?  It's a cute idea I got from a family magazine.  

We also had gingerbread house making for the kids.  What a mess that was!  But it was funny to see the grown ups and the kids trying to make a gingerbread house that actually would stand up!  I am not a fan of those gingerbread house making kits.  We did it once and it was a lot of work.  It is way easier to make them from the stuff you already have at home. 

We took the chance to take some girl pictures.  I love how all our girls are growing up together.  Just love it.  And I really love my friends--we all have a blast together.  Fun times, fun times...



And before the night was over, the kids unwrapped gifts from each other!  Loved the pre-Christmas celebration!

Since Ericka, Steffen, and Catelyn are in town, we decided to go to Kemah for a fun day.  Leanna and Kayla went to San Antonio with Pat.  So, it was Mia, myself, and Avery plus Sylvia, Ericka, Steffen, Catelyn,and Camila.  We used our free passes that Pat got us.  We had a great lunch at Saltgrass.  Yummy!!  Plus we got to decorate cookies at Starbucks.  And then we got to feed the stingray too.  We had a great time.  And I got some super cute pictures of the girls.  The funny part about this trip--all the girls are 3 or almost 3...so we tried to get them passes for 2 year olds---too bad that they do passes based on height!!  Mia is tall and Avery is even taller, but both Camila and Catelyn are short, but we still had to get passes for all of them!!  The things we do to try to save some money!!

Kayla Turns 4!!

I just can't get over that my Kayla bear is 4! It's crazy I think! But I've been preparing myself for this. Just this year, she has grown in inches and for sure in shoe size! LOL! Well, she wanted to go to Kemah on her actual birthday. Since we haven't been there in forever, Leanna, her and I took a trip out there. We didn't take Mia because it would be impossible to do any rides with her on my lap, and it was too hot for her!

We got our wristbands once we got there--thanks James. And we rode the rides they like. We did the carousel 3 times!! Really? I thought we were going to ride very animal on there! I think we were riding rides for about an hour and a half! Can y'all believe I lasted that long in the heat?! Trust me, I think I lost a good 2 lbs, if not more. My shirt was sticking to my back, I was dripping sweat off my nose, it was ridiculous! I don't know how I ever worked at Astroworld! LOL!

After the rides, we called up Pat to see if he could have lunch with us since he was working that day. Of course he said Yes. We ate at the Pizza Oven--I had never eaten there. It's been there as long as Pat has worked there and I've never even been inside the building! Anyway, they have an amazing Italian Sub! The girls had cheese pizza. It was so cute to see how happy Kayla was that she was having lunch with her daddy1 And she was really happy because everyone was telling her "Happy Birthday!"--and I mean everyone. (She wore her Birthday Girl tee from carter's!-Great Deal!) We would walk by people and they would tell her as we passed them up. And I was so proud that she always replied with a sweet, "Thank You!" and her cute signature crooked smile!

We finally left around 2:45. I was so tired and was ready for a nap. And apparently, so was Kayla. She fell asleep as soon as we got on the road!

That evening we had a mini celebration with a few of our friends. Ericka made her a super cute poodle cake. A pink poodle cake. Let me back up: Kayla's party theme is a pink poodle party. She watched an episode of Wonder Pets where they saved a poodle, and ever since, she's obsessed with poodles--not necessarily in pink. But all poodles. Or as she calls them, "plutos"!
Moving on...since Ericka and Catelyn won't be here for her party on Sunday, we decided to get together on her actual birthday!
So we went to McDonald's and met up Linda and her kids. Sylvia and James joined us as well. And we had a mini celebration. All the kids, and even grown ups had a good time! After McDonald's we came home to open a few presents. I had been searching for a Jessie doll and didn't have much luck. Well, Pat found a small one that talks,s o we wrapped that up for her. And she loved it. The previous night I had ordered the big one from Disney.com, so hopefully that will be here for her party!

So she had a fantastic day. Thanks everyone for making her day extra special. Now we have her party to look forward to! I can't believe she's 4!!!

Happy Birthday Kayla bear!!

Oh, and on another note: Pat's 11th anniversary of working at Kemah was on the 6th of July too!

Going to Kemah!

Last Tuesday we decided to take the girls to Kemah. We had a very special visitor from El Salvador visiting mom, so we figured we would take her to Kemah! She is the 2008-2009 Beauty Queen of one the major Carnivals held in El Salvador. She is a very sweet and beautiful young lady. Her dad let her come to Texas for a week and a half. And she stayed with mom. So, that Tuesday, we all headed to the boardwalk. We rode a few rides as soon as we got there. The girls LOVE this place so much, they aren't even afraid of any of the rides. They want to ride all the rides, even if they aren't able to. I took some pictures, but most of them aren't very good becuase I hadn't charged my battery. And of course, I noticed when I got to Kemah!
After riding a couple of rides, we went to have dinner at Landry's. Besides Saltgrass, this is one of my faves of the Landry's restaurants. We had a wonderful dinner of course. and as usual, we all eat too much! After dinner, we went to feed the sting rays in the Sting ray reef. We hadn't been inside this part of the stores since Hurrican e Ike. So it was a treat for all of us. They themed the inside of the store like the Rainforests, so there are animals around the area. Pat got like 3-4 things of fish to feed the sting ray. And oh my gosh, these sting rays are huge! I had only seen the little ones from Aquarium. But these are very big...and very active. They love to be fed! But everyone, except for pat and Juan , was afraid to feed them. They just jump up to you and they beg for the food! It's crazy.
After feeding the sting rays, we went to ride afew more ries. But notbefore running throgh the water fountains. Well, Elida, Nancy, Leanna, and Kayla did. The rest of us sane people just watched them get wet! Al in all, it was a great evening tripto kemah. It wasn't too hot, so it was very enjoyable. I know the girls had a great time, and I'm sure Nancy did too!

Here is the website that tells of Nancy's election. It is in spanish, but you can at least see her pictures! Her post is dated december 26, 2008.

http://reinasdebellezasalvadorenas.blogspot.com/