more august birthdays!!

Last week was full of birthday celebrations!

Pepa - 86 years old

We celebrated Pepa's 86th birthday with dinner at La Bistro in Hurst. Pepa is so sweet and sentimental and is always happy to celebrate with his family.

Ashley Pattison - 25 years old

Thursday was Ashley Pattison's 25th birthday and we surprised her at her house with balloons and cupcakes!

Love the nose picking...

Then, Friday night we went out to eat at Piranha in Ft. Worth and hung out in Sundance Square. If you like sushi and haven't eaten at Piranha, you haven't lived. It is amazing.

Luke Harden - 1 year old

For even MORE fun....Saturday, we had baby Luke's 1st birthday party! Pony rides, petting zoo, Western theme, tons of family....need I say more?

The birthday boy!

I made Aubrey a matching Western outfit for her birthday last weekend and of course, we had to get a twins pic!

Aubrey rode the pony great....

Kinley would rather pet it and look from the side...

Even better was the tractor.

Bart's boots were totally worn out again

very excited about a balloon for some reason???

Then there was the petting zoo...goodness....at first Kinley was a little shy of the animals...but, she warmed up quick and was devastated when they were put in cages and had to leave! She was picking up the cages to take the animals home with her.

We love a Howe gathering! Here are a few cousins...

Please lets have some more birthdays! They are SO, SO much fun!

swimming lessons

Over the summer Kinley took her first session of swimming lessons. We decided with both sets of grandparents having pools and with the lake house it would probably be a good idea. We started late into the 12 week session and had to miss 2 more lessons...but, it was so worth it! For each session we went, Kinley gained another second of breath control under the water and now can hold her breath 6 seconds. We took Waterbabies lessons at Emler in Southlake and we really loved it. The teachers are so patient and sweet. We made some other friends in the class and it was just fun to go every wednesday morning and swim together. She "graduated" from her class last week and got a cool t-shirt and a ribbon and now she just loves to swim all the time! I am SO going to miss the lessons and really want to take them this fall/winter session too. I just haven't decided 100% yet. She still has so much to learn! Here are a few pics and a quick video of her swimming at Honey & Boss's.

Crazy "cheesy" baby, more like "Popeye" face...

Her t-shirt says "I rule the pool"

Ladybug Birthday Party

Saturday was cousin Aubrey's 2nd birthday party! It was ladybug theme and I have been anticipating this for a while now! Kinley got this amazing ladybug-like skirt for her birthday from Natalie and I have been saving it since then for THIS occasion! Of course, to dress the theme,I had to make Kinley a ladybug shirt to go with it. I screen printed the ladybug using the freezer paper method. It was my first time doing 2 colors with this method...but, for one t-shirt it was SO easy and I loved it!



Last weekend I helped Kristy with some party brainstorming and a trip to Hobby Lobby. Kristy had a fabulous vision of red and black candy favors, red and black clothes for all the guests and ladybug decor, including turning her house into a garden with oversized flowers and ladybugs everywhere! We made an adorable "Happy Birthday" banner, started on the cute antenna headbands, and I helped her design the water bottle labels, table labels, and birthday sticker labels. Kristy had all the ideas in her head and it was so fun to see them come to life on Saturday!

Kinley is really excited for the party







For Aubrey's party they requested that in lieu of gifts we bring donations for The Warm Place. They set up this cute picket fence to hold the donations. I just love this sentiment!

Fondant ladybugs on delicious grass icing cupcakes were so cute..and delicious!

We played pin the dot on the ladybug...



..and put a bow on cousin Luke...look for his western 1st birthday party post after this weekend!


Happy Birthday sweet Aubrey girl!

family friday night

Tonight we decided to have a family date night in Grapevine. I forgot my camera and all these are from the iphone but, it was too much fun not to take some pics.

We started the afternoon at Grapevine Mills Mall. There are SO many things to entertain Kinley at this mall. We rode horse carousel, got a monkey at Build-A-Bear, and visited the Rainforest Cafe store.

After the mall, we went to the Gaylord Texan to see the Alice & Wonderland exhibit that they have this summer. Everything was so cute and decked out from the story. It was all so adorable. There were so many shows and things you could do..but, we just walked around and took it all in. It was so cute. I wish Kinley was more familiar with the story because I know she would have loved it even more.

I loved everything that was related to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. They had an amazing sand sculpture scene, an actual dinner party show, and HUGE crazy teacups.

After all that fun, we ended the night at Los Amigos for dinner. Los Amigos is a fave of ours. Ben and I have been going there for like 10 - 11 years. We actually went there on one of our first dates and then night we got engaged. We just love it. Kinley has really gotten into dipping her chips in guacamole lately, so she loved it too....such a big girl.

We are so fortunate to have so many fun things in Grapevine and can't wait for another family date night!