All Aboard!!

Since my sister is in nursing school during the week, she is only able to work on the weekends. This typically leaves her with a childcare issue, since her fiance also works on the weekend. Usually, my mom and I take turns watching Madison on Saturday & Sunday, depending on her dad's work schedule.

Yesterday, I thought it would be fun to take her up to Hermann Park and ride the zoo train for the first time. She has been to the zoo before, but she has never ridden the train! Since Sarah works at Memorial Hermann hospital, we decided to pick her up for lunch and then go ride the train.

We had lunch a Goode Co.'s Armadillo Palace:

Madison enjoyed looking at all the fun western memoriabilla and playing on the saddle bar stools! After the Armadillo Palace, we hooked it over to Hermann Park to ride the train. When we got there, we noticed that a lot of the area was under construction, and the Houston Zoo now has new and improved trains!

After riding the train, we had to drop Sarah back off at work, and then it was time for the relaxing car ride home with a good book :)

Semi-Annual Girls' Slumber Party & Jean's Baby Shower

August 30, 2008

Twice a year, the aunts and cousins in my family get together for a Girls' Slumber Party extravaganza. This year, we included an intimate baby shower for my cousin, Jean, who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her first child, Miss Eva Kelly Hays. Eva will be blessing us with her presence just in time for Christmas. Since Jean and her husband Wendell are currently living in Orlando, we wanted to make sure we could throw her a shower before the baby came.

We started out the party in the afternoon with mimosas (sorry Jean!) and some light conversation before heading to the nail salon for manicures and pedicures. Since the majority of the family has fall birthdays, this was Aunt Linda's gift to everyone. It was wonderful to have a day of pampering!!

After the nail salon, Baby Eva decided that she was hungry for cake. We couldn't turn the growing baby down, so we bucked tradition and ate our cake before dinner. Jean says that Eva feels if she has dessert first, she will always have room for it. We actually had two cakes. One for Baby Eva (chocolate with a chocolate mousse filling and a super sugary icing) and one for all the birthday girls (yellow cake with cream cheese filling, cream cheese icing, and chocolate covered strawberries). Sorry chocolate cake - the yellow cake was DIVINE!

Once we had our fill of cake, it was time for dinner. We had a yummy firehouse spaghetti (compliments of Aunt Mary) and my famous Mexican Cornbread Casserole. There were also many delicious appetizers, a great salad, and Aunt Linda's famous crockpot tortilla soup. My cousin Doug made his appearance, as he is often a staple at the parties.

After dinner, we finally let Jean open presents. She was really excited and thrilled at all the great loot! My sister showed up with Madison and she helped with the present opening. She really is a great little helper! I can believe how big she is getting!!

After all the presents were opened and we had ooohed and aaahed all we could, it was time for the slumber party. This basically consisted of laying around talking and laughing until we couldn't keep our eyes open. It was a ball spending time with family. Thanks to Aunt Linda for hosting the event, as usual. I can't wait for the next one!