The Big 4-0!

Happy Birthday to MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!  I turned the big 4-0 yesterday.  So I had to celebrate!

Katie and Ashlyn came for the weekend to celebrate with me, and we did a family-friendly karaoke party with my dear friend Celeste and her kiddos!

Then we went home for CAKE!

(My kids helped with the candles!)

Of course we had to FaceTime my mom because it was her birthday, too, and it's tradition!  We were really rushed for time so I didn't get the photos I wanted to, but my mom got this cute one of Chloe from her end of the screen:

After that Chase went to his BFF's for a sleepover so the girls got pampered!

Then we rushed home to get ready for an adult night out.  We went to dinner and then to Travis Wall's "Shaping Sound" show, which was great!

Forty, shmorty!  I love my life!

Please Don't Go, Girl!

One of my best friends in the whole world came to Austin to visit me and we had the best time catching up!  It had been waaaaay too long since we had seen each other.  I had to properly introduce her to Texas.  We had Tex-Mex and Texas BBQ, went boot shopping...

...and did a little 2-stepping at the neighborhood country western bar:

To introduce her properly to Austin, we did a little graffiti-ing:

(That picture should totally be in a RUST-OLEUM advertisement!)

And then we went on a segway tour around Austin!

We tried to see the bats, but it had rained that day and apparently they are only fair-weathered friends.  Boo!

When we got home we were inspire to get ready for the NKOTB concert the next day!  So we stayed up til 3am watching their old videos (yes, I had to bust out the VCR)!

The night may or may not have ended in several feeble attempts to breakdance on the living room floor like Danny Wood.  Ahem.

Before the concert the next day we explored the west side of Austin with all the beautiful hills (and homes!):

And we particularly liked this creative map of the US at The Oasis:

Later that night it was time for........................ NKOTB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know Joey was singing only to me!

It was such a great weekend.  At the end of it I felt like singing Joey's "Please Don't Go Girl!" to Nicole!  Luckily her plane was delayed and we had time to get dinner and go out for coffee.

In true Nicole form, she was disappointed in her drink.  Until she realized it said "Luis."  Whoops.

Love you, Nicole!!!!

My Spring Break!

The kids went on vacation with their dad for Spring Break this year, so I got the break all to myself!  I decided to spend the week in Houston with my BFF Katie!  Boomerang came along for the ride and he was surprisingly good in the car!

During the day while Katie was at work I would sleep in, do a little work in my PJ's and then get ready for fun at night!  We spent a few nights at the rodeo with our friend Melissa!

We even made it on the jumbotron!

We had some interesting Uber drivers...

...but we got to see Sam Hunt and Luke Bryan!

We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day at a museum party, which was interesting!

It was a great week... the perfect balance between chill, work, and fun!

Fun With Katie & Ashlyn!

Our friends Katie and Ashlyn came to visit for the weekend!

We had to go to the water park...

...and eat cotton candy:

We went downtown to see Shrek: The Musical at Zilker Hillside Theatre:

And the next morning we just had to get donuts!

We had lots of fun going out, but we also had a great time just staying in:

Friends are forever!

Happy 6th Birthday, Chloe!

Chloe's actual birthday was June 30th, but we had to have her big birthday party later due to the timing of our vacation and the 4th of July.

On her actual birthday we went to the water park and then did a family dinner at Gattiland, per her request:

And of course she got to open her birthday gift (experience, per tradition) from me!

She is super excited!

She had a Pokemon themed birthday party, so I got to make another fun cake (also per tradition)!

She had fun opening her presents...

...and SWIMMING!  It gave her a chance to really have some fun with that new waterproof camera Grandma and Grandpa K gave her!

And of course you can't forget her boyfriend Mason!

Awwwwwwwww...!

Our friends Katie and Ashlyn came to visit for the weekend so they could come to the party, so we busted out the water balloons...

...and the girls played Just Dance on the XBOX (yes, Katie and me included):

Chase went to a friend's house one night, so we just had to have a girls nite!  We decided to hit the water park for family night, where they had fireworks!  We got the girls to go down water slides with us, and when Katie and I teamed up on a double tube there was no stopping us... literally!  We were going so fast we crashed into the end of the pool and Katie catapulted out of the front of the tube!  Luckly we're tough and everyone survived.  The girls were completely oblivious.  Haha!

Before Katie and Ashlyn left, the girls headed to Charming Charlie's, where my little birthday diva just had to model some accessories for me:

Six?  Really??  *sigh*