Abby's Spa Party!

These Silly 8 year old Girls...

had a GREAT time at the spa together! They were very excited.

Brooklyn * Abby * Tegan

They enjoyed kiddie pedicures, simply strawberry lemonade, and of course fun with the "NASA created" massage chairs.

Cute and Pretty Toes!

We came back for Oreo Ice Cream cake and made up a silly Mad Libs birthday story at the table to match their silly energy.

Some thoughtful cards and gifts.

(I forgot how 8 year olds have a shorter attention span than 10 year olds! so quickly thought up a game to tire them out.) We finished with a fun rousing game of Noodle Ball! It's like soccer but with pool noodles.  I think we had a sweet fun party for a sweet fun girl :)

Frets Visit!

The Frets flew in for a great visit to Houston!

While the kids were in school, we did the tram at NASA space center.

 

This control room is being used for training with a mock mission (with all the problems getting thrown at them while the real control room is quite boring), but in a few years will be a real control room because they'll have 2 missions going on at the same time.

Frets got to be here to help celebrate Lydia's birthday! 

Family Swim 

Smiles!

Levi

Naomi

Shared some real Texan BBQ with them at Rudy's.

We enjoyed having them visit us!

Lydia's Pedi Party!

Friends and a pedicure...what more could a 10 year old girl ask for?

OK, I'm smiling, Mom. 

Digging her cute frog cake.

Friends arrived at 1 and then we rode over to Tiffannie's for a special 1:30 appointment.

First they got to choose a foot bath scent; they all picked the almond. 

For nail polish, Sasha selected classy white & gold, Shravya a magenta and sparkle/speckle, and Lydia pink sparkle to match her totally pink ensemble!

The girls were pampered and their nails were buffed.

yes, those are real fresh rose petals in Shravya's foot bath

yes, they served them mini cupcakes and sweet strawberry lemonade.

yes, this is Sasha's first pedicure, and it feels weird but good.

 A little gab time and...

"That was amazing!" they said.

 Then we brought back our pretty toes to the house for cake and more fun.

Sasha wanted to make it harder for Lydia to open her present. She suggested a blindfold!

A birthday Mad Libs story got everyone to LOL!

The game of Limbo got really looow.

To polish off the party, the friends played with the gifted Jumbo slime kit and Kinetic Sand.

Happy birthday to my sweet gabby loving girly girl!

Happy Birthday Ben!

I'm going to feature this picture again to help me say, 

"Happy Birthday!"

to the man I love and dad we adore.

That week we decorated cookies (because we never decorated Christmas cookies)

and joined the Houston Zoo on MLK day

It was a little chilly so the gorilla was walking around with a blanket!

 Big elephant exhibit.

 On his birthday we went to church and then biked to Cole's Mill Pond for a picnic.

We live in Houston now. January can be as bad as cloudy and rainy and as good as sunny, refreshing and beautiful!

 Got to show him how special he is to us

 and he had fun playing with his toy boat from his mom.

The Calafels helped us eat his brownies the day before. Candles to represent 36! Hahaha...Rio loves to be in pictures.