Sassy and Seven

Nothing is more exciting than a child's birthday party! Isabelle was so thrilled to turn 7 years old and to invite all of her friends to help her celebrate. We debated several party options and locations but finally settled on an American Girl Pajama Party with all the girls in her 1st grade class in our own backyard.





Friends of mine gave me the idea of "building" doll beds and so with the help of friends and family and Ben's wallet, that is exactly what we did. All the girls, and their moms, loved this activity and the beds all turned out so cute. The girls helped Ben screw in the last few screws and then had a great time painting their special beds all different bright fun colors. We spent the rest of the night eating, jumping on the trampoline, coloring our own jewelry tattoos and playing with 12 American Girl dolls. Isabelle opted for a Sundae Bar rather than a birthday cake and loved every moment of her special party.

Thankfully I had a lot of help from my family and our friends, the Martin's, and the night turned out 7 year old perfect. Isabelle had a wonderful birthday eve...starting with Ben escorting her to school as the Watch Dog for the day, passing out donuts to her classmates at lunch and then partying with all her besties all night long. It's days like this that make all of the work worth it.

The following day, on her actual birthday, she had a bright and early soccer game. Her team got creamed but like usual, Belle still had a great time. She passed out donuts again, this time to her teammates, and loved the extra bit of attention her birthday brought. That afternoon Grammie had a birthday/Easter party planned for all of our family so we spent the rest of the day celebrating in Cypress.


Aunt Alee made an awesome multi-level and color egg shaped cake and Grammie and Grandpa hid tons of plastic eggs to be found. Aunt Tara was able to fly over for the weekend and of course Leo was there to sing to her. We opened presents, ate Mexican food and talked about our favorite things about little Jelly.

Seven years old sounds so old so I am somewhat struggling with being the MOM to a 7 year old, but what a fun age it is. Isabelle is such a sweet, smart, thoughtful and kind soul and I find myself looking forward to the moments we get to spend together more and more as they sadly are becoming less and less. She has been our parenting "experiment" and what a lovely subject she continues to be.

Isabelle at age seven:
* She is still so innocent and sweet. She believes in all things magic and still plays make believe.
* Isabelle is a great big sister. She micromanages Olivia's every move and is her biggest fan. She often says to me, I hate her to grow up mom, don't you? Touche little one.
* She is a wonderful student. I get nothing but praise from Mrs. Cordera and Isabelle most always brings home perfect school work.
* Isabelle is a great mix between girly girl and tomboy. She loves to play sports and run...but often does so in a skirt.
* Little Jelly continues to eat mostly cheese.  There are some times when she says I just need something cheesy fast! Once she gets her fit, she can carry on.
* Isabelle is a great friend and includes everyone.  Her teacher called me one day from school to tell me that Isabelle is so nice and patient with a little girl in their class that doesn't quite fit in.  And you better believe that that little girl was at Belle's party.
* She loves and needs to be busy.  She has dance on Monday, piano on Tuesday, Soccer on Thursday and Saturday and Girl Scouts in between.  But, she is begging to add swimming, tennis and basketball to her schedule.
* Isabelle loves to travel.  School has really cramped her style and she probably packs her suitcase at least once a week.
* She still goes to bed listening to classical music.  We started this when she was three and we were making transitions without a Nuk and so on.  Maybe this is why she is so smart?
* Isabelle is starting to grow-up.  She asks us questions we aren't quite ready to answer yet sometimes and we wish we could shelter her from the cruel world a bit longer.

 Happy Happy Birthday Isabelle Dear.  You are loved by many.

Houston Stock Show and Rodeo

Spring in Texas means one thing...rodeo time. We have got quite accustomed to this tradition and usually spend a few days wearing our boots and hats and acting like real Texans. This year was no different.

Happily for me, Gary Allan made an appearance, again, so I bought 4 tickets the day they went on sale and Ben escorted my sisters and me to the show. We had a great time singing every word to every song while eating junk food and staying out way later than our normal bedtime. Thankfully, Grammie stayed with the girls while Grandpa stayed with Leo so everyone was happy and had a great night.

The second trip we took downtown to mingle with the cow-folk was the last day of Isabelle's Spring Break. The four of us went and spent ALL DAY at the arena and in true Texas style, sweated our brains out. The girls rode ride after ride at the carnival, played game after game until they won a prize, walked around the Stock Show and saw some huge longhorns, ate snowcones, popcorn, giant pretzels, fries, soda, corndogs, nachos and bought light up wands...and that was all outside the arena. Inside we watched bronc riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing and so on and stayed as long as we could until little Olivia could not sit still any longer. It was either throw her in with the calfs or head home, so home we went.

My girls really love the outdoors and western life so it is fun to escape the burbs every once in a while and pretend that we fit in...oh wait, we have two native Texans in our house. Yeehaw!

Spring Break - Texas Style

We have decided that it is way more fun to skip school and travel when it is quiet than during Spring Break and with a trip booked in April we thought it best we stay close to home this year. Fortunately, the Texas Gulf Coast is only 80 miles away and Ben is a sucker for vacations, so we booked three nights at the San Luis Resort on Galveston Island and made the quick drive down to the beach for some sun and fun.

The girls honestly don't have a lot of beach memories since we typically choose more fast pace city type trips, so they were excited to get in the sand and play. We lucked out with the weather being cool in the mornings and warm in the afternoons, which is a rare treat in the Loan Star State. We all had fun building sand castles, gathering shells, playing in the water and just enjoying being outside.



The highlight of our trip was our hotel, The San Luis Resort. There are few things kids love more than staying in a hotel and this place did not disappoint. Three-fourths of our time was spent in the resort pool. It was heated to a nice 89 degrees and had a fun water slide. Since it was Spring Break the resort was smart and had several kids activities every day. The girls went on a treasure hunt with a pirate, touched real dolphin bones and won dolphin necklaces, enjoyed s'mores when the sun went down poolside, ate lots and lots of popsicles that a giant monkey carried around and passed out, and so on. Isabelle met lots of friends at the pool and was in heaven being free to play and roam as she wished.

One afternoon my mom drove down to surprise the girls. We had a fun time with grammie and rented a surrey to drive around the beach. We also ate a yummy lunch at The Rainforest Cafe where they sang to Isabelle and delivered her a HUGE volcano dessert since we were just a few days from her 7th birthday. Olivia particularly loved Cha Cha from the cafe and spent half of the day looking for, dancing and playing with the giant frog.

It was a super fun Spring Break week and we felt lucky to share so much free time together as a family. The girls were sad to leave the hotel and said that their favorite part was all four of us sleeping in one room together. Ben and I try to savor these moments because we know someday they may prefer to sleep in their own rooms. Hooray for family vacations!