SOUND OFF: Namecalling

What's in a name?  Does a rose by any other name smell as sweet?  I've been thinking a lot about names.  I read an article in the Statesman yesterday about how the British PM spent thirty minutes visiting a lady in her home after he called her a bigot.  Actually, his exact words were, "She's just sort of a bigoted woman." Gordon Brown had been on a radio program and had been answering some tough questions from the gal.  After the program was over and unaware that he was still being recorded, he griped about what a disaster the whole thing had been and made the remark.  Brown has since received quite a backlash for the comment, has tried to offer an explanation for it, and finally ended up meeting with the woman in her home to apologize in person and make amends.

You know what really galls me about this?  Is that it seems that no one can have a moment of frustration, that no one can have an opinion, and God forbid anyone from expressing the latter during the former.  There are some who argue that a man in Brown's position should never utter such things, but the last time I checked, prime ministers and presidents were still humans, and as such, are prone to making mistakes too.  To assume that the minute a person of power and position instantly morphs into a mindless robot who has no opinion of their own and never utters a harsh word is illogical, impractical, and just downright impertinent.

When was the last time you were driving in your car and somebody cut you off?  If you're living here in Austin, it probably happened today.  Like most people, you probably took offense and you might have called him a jerk, asshat, or whatever colorful name you have for terrible drivers.  Or how about when your spouse or friend rubs you the wrong way and you're left fuming?  "That jerk!  How could s/he!?"  Or perhaps you have a difference of opinion with someone, and while regaling it to a sympathetic ear later, you make the comment, "And can you believe they said _____?  They are so ignorant!"  If you've ever had a moment like that, newsflash people: You've just had a Brown moment.


Whether we like it or not, we are all name callers.  We've all done it, and we all continue to do it.  Even among the most gentle and charitable of my friends and colleagues, name calling exists.  But allow me to make a distinction here: there is a difference between calling names because you're frustrated and calling names because you are out to hurt someone intentionally.  It's one thing to call someone a jerk when they cut you off in traffic; it's a totally different thing to spit the N word in someone's face to pick a fight.  I don't think Brown was out to hurt that woman or start a fight.  He was frustrated by the circumstances he found himself in and called her a name.  Get over it!

Some of the most sage wisdom my mom's mother passed down was this: "You have three names in life.  You have the name you were born with, the name you make for yourself, and the name others give you.  It's the last one you should care about most because it's the one that will stick with you forever.  So will you be known as Honest, Trustworthy, Dependable?  Or Dishonest, Unfaithful, Lazy?"  Smart words.

We should all strive to be more patient and less accusatory, but at the end of the day, I think we all need to practice a bit more tolerance.  Let's work towards making a good name for ourselves and giving people the benefit of the doubt.  You never know, when you have a Brown moment, you might be thankful that you're on the receiving end of it!

Cheers,
Kelly

Billa Babble: Potty Training

Tonight we went to dinner at Chuy's and while we waited for our food, Daddy went to go use the little boy's room.  While he was gone, Billa suddenly turned to me and says, "Wet!"  I wasn't sure if she meant her diaper or her shirt, as she had spilled milk on the latter and it was indeed still wet. 
"Where are you wet?" I asked her.  She grabbed her crotch.  Alright.  I like a girl who's up front and honest!  So when Daddy came back, she and I went to the little girl's room and changed her panties (diaper).
When we got back to the table, she ran up to her father, threw her hands in the air and screeched, "Daddy!  I got new panties!"
Everyone at the table next to us cheered out loud for her.
[sigh]

Yep, that's my kid. 
Next step after potty training?  The difference between quiet voice and loud voice.

Pooped,
Kelly

Random Tuesday Thoughts 4/27

Ah another Tuesday in my so called random life...

You know it's time to clean out the freezer when you find something in there you didn't realize you had.  Case in point: I discovered a pork tenderloin in all it's meaty goodness hiding underneath a mound of frozen fruit, vegetables, some random containers of I don't know what, and a pizza.  Sweet!  You'd think it would be easy to find something in a freezer so small, but the lack of space means everything has to be jammed together like Jenga blocks in order for it to fit.  Note to self: when we someday buy our first house, I want a nice fridge with ample freezer space.  And a game of Jenga, because that's always fun to play at dinner parties!

My new favorite drink is a Ginger Vodka Tonic.  It's a vodka tonic with candied ginger added to it.  Yum!  Side note, is it wrong to enjoy one midday while you're working from home?  I mean, hey, it's not like I'm driving anywhere anytime soon and it's five o'clock somewhere right?  And to be fair, I made it half strength since it IS midday.  Whatever.  Ice cold gingery yumminess here I come!

If you saw my post from Sunday, you saw my daughter chilling on the new patio chairs we got with her grapes and milk.  It was pretty funny, if I do say so myself.  I personally love this shot:

Hey, it's five o'clock somewhere!

Happy Tuesday ya'll!
Kelly

How did you enjoy your Sunday?

I have to be careful about those moments when the silence suddenly becomes noticeable in our household because it usually means Billa is doing something she's not supposed to be doing.  Those moments are dangerous for any mom.  When raising our children, we often find ourselves in that place where all we crave is five minutes of quiet.  And of course, it always comes back to bite us in the end, because we inevitably never learn to be specific in our request on what those five minutes should entail to whatever higher power it is we're praying to.  But when your child is screaming their head off and you are about two seconds from doing the same, the particulars of any wish are not that high on the priority list. 

So it was today that I found myself wishing for about five minutes of peace to rest my weary butt in front of the computer and just veg for a moment.  Sometimes mommies need to mentally check out too, y'all.  We may be super heroes, but even super heroes need a vacation!  As I sat idly perusing my screen, I suddenly realized that I couldn't hear anything and hadn't heard anything for about five minutes.  Oh great, I told myself.  You've done it again Kelly!  You got complacent and now Sybilla's gone and done something.  Brace yourself, girl, you are about to pay up...

Sometimes we mommies needn't worry so much:

It will all turn out right in the end.

Happy Sunday,
Kelly

Billa Takes Her Meds

Billa's had a problem with her allergies lately so we've been giving her a nightly dose of children's Claritin before she goes to bed.  It's apparently become old hat for her, her nightcap if you will:



Happy Wednesday!
Kelly & the Gang

Random Tuesday Thoughts 4/20

Tee hee...today is 4/20.  And it's Tuesday!  Time for more random thoughts!  Woot!

I'm not the sort of mom who would enter my daughter into a pageant, but WERE there a pageant that was judged on pure spunk alone, my daughter would come out with the crown without even trying!  If the Terrible Two's are defined by a streak of independence and the subsequent naughtiness that follows close behind, well folks, we are in full swing.  This past weekend alone, Sybilla sat in timeout on six different occasions and got spanked at least twice.  And the worst part of all is that even though she hates both forms of punishment, neither of them are enough of a deterrant to stop misbehaving.  Ok, maybe that's the second worst part.  Really the worst part is that I hate having to discipline my child, because inevitably I reach a point in which my patience wears mighty thin and let's face it, there really isn't anything worse than acting just like the two year old whose behaviour is being questioned to begin with.  [sigh]  Parenthood is fun!

And speaking of little Miss Independent, several times this weekend I caught Billa doing things all by her little self without any help from a big person.  For example, she climbed up to the counter to snag a banana.  While I admire her tenacity at doing things herself and a desire for such a healthy fruit, it was the third one that day and I have to draw the line somewhere!  I can only take so many fruity smelling diapers.  Gross, I know, but anyone who's a mom knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about.  Poop should not smell like blueberries, especially when none have been consumed.

She also managed to turn on the water faucet in her bathroom by herself:

And did this too:

Honestly, I have no idea what this was about because it wasn't even close to naptime.  But hey, if she wants to nap in a laundry basket, who am I to prevent naptime?  Seems like a win win to me!

This evening we will be dining on tacos (heh heh...tacos rule!) at my sister in law's apartment, so to kill some time after I picked up Sybilla I took her to Target to try on swimsuits.  Sybilla did really well and I just about died laughing when I put on a suit and she's go, "Mama, dat's coot!"  Hey, at least someone in that dressing room was pleased with how I looked in a swimsuit!  It wasn't as bad as in years past, but I haven't lost all the weight I want and I'm in between sizes right now.  Plus, Target only has three different styles (in a myriad of colors) to choose from, so I may have to look elsewhere.  I just don't want to spend a ton of cash on a swimsuit for one season, knowwhatimean?

That's all the randomness I can muster...time for tacos!

Happy Tuesday!
Kelly

Room Redo!

Spring always inspires me to do STUFF. Whether it's trying new recipes, revamping my wardrobe or gardening, the energy of the season flows through me and I find myself up to my eyeballs in DIY projects of every kind.  This spring, I have unofficially resolved to not start new projects unless they are related to finishing an old project (does declaring it on my blog count as officially declaring it?).  The first one that comes to mind is decorating Sybilla's room!

Long before she was born, I had decided that her nursery theme would be "Family Tree"– I was going to make a huge tree mural and hang small photo frames of various family members from the branches and create a giant family tree.  I had chosen this sweet bedding set because it had all the colors I wanted to use and while still feminine, it was not overtly girly or pink:

This is "Secret Garden" made by Lambs & Ivy

Alas, despite it being on the registry we never received a single piece of the bedding set as a gift.  Our budget after baby got increasingly tight and so I never really got to buy any of it much less actually decorate Billa's room.  Then we moved and I resolved to actually decorate her room this time!  I got as far as painting her walls her favorite bright green color.  I did make some cute curtains for the room, but Michael's hand injury prevented us from being able to hang them right away and as more time passed, I grew to dislike them.  Ok, and I decided not to paint the mural but instead make a set of canvases, but that has yet to be finished.  Alright, alright.  And I also stripped, sanded and painted the dollhouse shelf with new paint.  But that was far from my dream of the perfect kids room!

Now it's a year later and another spring and I am hankerin' to get decoratin'!  I have decided to change up the theme a bit from "Family Tree" to "Whimsical Woodland."  I'm going to finish those damn canvases if it kills me and I plan on adding bird and critter accents to the room.  The walls will stay green and the dollhouse shelf will stay white with red trim.  We are in the process of getting Sybilla a big girl bed and she received a lovely mirror vanity from Gigi for Christmas.  Depending on what they look like, I may repaint them all, I haven't decided.  I have some old cabinet door panels from the carpentry job gone wrong that are made from cherry wood and I plan on using those for the bed's headboard. 

I've been looking at inspirations for bedding and accents and I found lots of different things.  Target's Circo has TWO adorable woodland themed bed sets, but while I like them, I don't LOVE them.  One of them is way too pink and the other just doesn't have quite the feel I want.  Plus, I need to do this on a budget.  I have fallen in love with this lamp and nightlight though and I just might splurge on them, I don't know yet!

The bed set on the left is just too pink for my taste.  The bed set on the right is perfect colors, but it just doesn't feel right.  Plus, they don't actually have it in store; you have to order it and I don't know that I want to do that for something I don't adore.  The lamp and the nightlight though are just too cute!

While I love Target and the bed sets I found were cute, they just didn't grab me like this from Pottery Barn Kids:

PBK Brooke Bedding set...I love it and it's perfect for what I want to do!

I just adore Pottery Barn.  It is totally my style and always will be.  It's classy, chic, and memorable all in one.  They always add a touch of unusual to everything, they have the best inspiration pictures, and the colors!  Everything is always so colorful without being over the top.  But their prices leave my bank account in pain, so I very rarely buy.  When I saw this set at PBK, I fell in love.  I love the colors on the quilt, the varying fabrics, the whimsical touches, and yes, he almost vintage feel to it.  It's almost shabby chic, but not.  But at $160 for the quilt (which would be the only piece I'd buy), I just can't do it.  So I'm going to make a version of it instead!  I've made quilts before and I have years of sewing under my belt, not to mention I have some cute fabrics I can use already.  I think it will be more special anyway if I make it, and there's the bonus of being able to customize it to my color scheme.

So the to do list is thusly:

• Finish canvases and hang them
• Make new curtains (and hang them this time!)
• Make quilt and buy solid colored sheets to coordinate
• Get big girl bed and refinish/paint if needed
• Procure a couple of cute woodsy themed accents

And hopefully by the end of all that, I shall have the cutest little girl's room on the face of this planet.  I'll keep you posted!

Cheers,
Kelly

Kitties, Weddings and Gardening, Oh My!

We had another one of those "I need a weekend from the weekend" kind of weekends.

Friday evening we got our new kitty, Snack. She's petite, gray, adorable, and such a little snuggle muffin. She's very talkative, however and we discovered that she has no problem talking to you about ANYTHING. Not very shy, that one. And yes, we're keeping the name.  So far, our favorite nicknames are Kitty (Billa's), Snack Attack (Michael's), and Snicker Snack (mine).  She is also a very good sport because Billa likes to carry her everywhere and not very gracefully at that.  She constantly worries that Snack is not well fed and watered, and she tries to rectify this by spoon feeding the cat kibbles and water. 

What? 

Saturday morning we all got up early and took over a bunch of stuff to the Marino house for the neighborhood wide garage sale. We got rid of a ton of stuff and made $175 profit. Not bad for our first garage sale ever! The neighborhood association is having another one in October and we are looking forward to culling a bunch of stuff then. Part of our profits went towards buying a trike for Billa; the Marino's neighbors were selling a Radio Flyer trike which I snapped up for $10. I met a mom at the park recently (and ran into her again on Sunday, how crazy is that!?) and she had highly recommended it. It's the perfect size for Billa and she LOVES it.

After the garage sale, we all went out to Tres Amigos for lunch to celebrate and then Michael's mom came and picked up Sybilla for Gigi Slumber Party Fun.  Michael and I had a wedding to attend and we were really looking forward to a night out.  I have to say, we've been to a lot of weddings, and while we think ours is one of the best, Andy and Nadine's wedding was ah-MAZE-ing! The bride outdid herself in creating a simple, whimsical, and warm atmosphere and the weather was just perfect. The event was held at the Hummingbird House which is apparently owned by the folks at the Great Outdoors. Nadine is Indonesian, so part of the ceremony included a traditional Indonesian egg-stomping ritual. The bride and groom each stomp on an egg and then clean off each other's feet. I'm not sure what it's supposed to symbolize honestly, but it was very cool and very funny to watch.  

Andy is an old friend of ours from Michael's Winedale days and does a lot of improv comedy around town–he's a super funny guy and so nice to boot!  And of course, Nadine is just a dear too.

Andy and Nadine are both very funny people and there was no shortage of love and laughter at this wedding. I also loved many of the personal touches that they incorporated into the wedding, like the name tags, the stuffed animals from their childhood, and board games on all the tables. We had so much fun catching up with all of Michael's Winedale family that we eventually moved the party to a bar by UT until almost 1 in the morning. Or maybe later, I can't remember really, because I'd had a few too many tequila sunrises mixed by the really hot Italian bartender. Another perk of this wedding? Meeting new people, like the gal who teaches dance lessons for couples and is a big theatre dork/food junkie like we are. Heck yes! Dance lessons and dinner parties, here we come!

Clockwise from left: Each guest stamped their fingerprint on the tree (which was hand drawn by the bride) and signed their name on their fingerprint.  Talk about an unusual guest book!  All around the grounds you'd find random stuffed animals paired together and the tables had board games on them for folks to play with.  The bride and groom opted for cake balls in lieu of the traditional wedding cake (no, I didn't do them).  Nadine made name tags for all the guests that also included two or three talking points–it was so much fun to see what people had and it really helped start some great conversations!

Unfortunately, Michael had to work Sunday morning, so I slept in and nursed my little self-induced headache before Billa arrived back home.  We went out and picked up kitty stuff and shopped, then came home for a nap, before we all went as a family to Natural Gardener to look at plants and then grocery shop, before wrapping things up with dinner at our neighbor's house. George and Maho used to live across the hall from us, now they live across the courtyard from us. Maho cooked the most amazing seafood pasta I have ever had, with shrimp, salmon, and bay scallops. She also made a delicious chocolate sformato for dessert that was to die for.

Billa enjoys some airtime on the tree swing at Natural Gardener

What's so funny, guys?

Why these old billy goats, that's what!  The goat in front kept bleating at Billa and Michael, as if he were an old man yelling at them.  The other one just sat in back and chewed his cud quietly.  I love how goats are like old men!

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend spent with friends and family and nothing but laughter and good times. And even though we are exhausted and left desiring some additional vacation time, we'd do it all again in a heartbeat if it left us this happy and contented.

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend,

Kelly, Michael, Sybilla, and introducing Snack

Something to "Snack" on...

Ok, I've officially lost it.  We are getting another cat.

My brother's girlfriend texted me the other day and asked me if I would help her find a home for her cat, Snack.  Yes.  The cat's name is Snack.  Blame my brother Philip.  He also named my mom's iPod "Vince Clorthos, KeyMaster."  He has a weird sense of names for things.

Soooo...long story short, Lindsey begged me to help her find a home for the cat.  My best friend and her husband are looking at getting two kittens, but they pretty much already staked their claim on some cats a teacher friend is trying to find homes for, so I couldn't think of anyone else.  And then I remembered what Snack was like and I wanted that cat or so help me, I don't know what I might do.  That's the bad thing about motherhood: besides gaining an extraordinary amount of hard-to-lose weight, you're a sucker for any homeless kid/kitten/puppy/what-have-you.  Although if you knew Snack, you might just want to eat her up too.

Snack is gray.  I am a sucker for gray kitties.  And she has a hilarious name.  I am a sucker for animals with hilarious names.  And Snack is lovable, sweet, and super playful.  Need I say more? 

Now I know what you're saying...you got rid of Gumerry because he was too much to handle, Kelly.  And I would respond that you're right.  But that was almost a year ago and Gumerry is now so happy being a suburban farm cat with my brother and my parents right now.  And part of the reason we gave him away was because he was a very high maintenance cat that needed a lot of attention and manhandling that my brother has provided for him.  And Sybilla was very taxing on our energy at the time, so it was always a choice between cat and kid.  Kid wins, hands down.  So Gumerry went off to Aggieland and then came back to Buda where he spends his days wandering the greenbelt next to my parent's house and tormenting their fifteen year old Snowshoe Siamese, Tut-Tut (you can blame me for her name...I had a thing for Egyptology when we got her).

But now Billa is older and is very helpful around the house.  She helps us with laundry and dishes and picking up, and now we can add 'feed the kitty' to her list of chores.  Of course, we'll have to prompt her on when to feed the cat, but still.  It is something that she can take pride in doing and one more thing for her to look forward.  Plus, she LOVES animals and if our friends are going to have cats, well, Billa needs to brush up on her cat handling skills. 

I am seriously stoked about getting this cat!  Lindsey's going to get Snack her shots and fixed before she brings her to Austin, so it will be a couple of weeks.  But we're very excited about her becoming a part of our family...albeit a very crazy family.


Cheers,
Kelly

Random Tuesday Thoughts 4/6/10

Last night Michael told Sybilla (and I quote) "Billa, if your mama was MckMama, you'd be Special Sauce."  It made me laugh, but then I wondered what exactly he was trying to say.  I decided it was better left unknown.

Billa actually slept through most of the night a few nights ago, thank GAWD.  When she finally wandered into our room at 6 am, she whispered, "Mommy?  Mommy!  Up?  Up?" meaning, 'Please can you lift me up into bed with you for some quality snuggle time?'  As she settled into place in my arms, she whispered again, "Shhhh...no wake Daddy."  I wasn't sure whether to laugh at her sneakiness or be mildly concerned, but I was too tired for concern.  So instead I whispered back, "That's right.  We don't want to wake up Daddy."  In fact, I thought, it would be even better if you didn't wake up Mommy either.  Time to find her stepstool and put it back next to the bed so she can just climb in herself!

Since I got sick a couple of weeks ago, I stopped drinking coffee and took up tea.  Part of me felt that it was probably a better choice weight loss wise, because I don't feel the need to add sugar and cream to my tea whereas black coffee just makes my stomach turn.  I can drink black tea blends and still get enough of a caffeine jolt to wake me up until my internal clock says that it's the magic hour of 10 am.  I kinda miss the coffee though.  And the Sunday before Easter when I was at Target I decided to treat Billa and myself to a Starbucks snack before we got shopping (On a side note, does it make me a bad mom to distract my child with juice and lemon loaf in order to keep her from wanting to get down and tear up the store?)  I tried the Dark Cherry Mocha and oh. my. holy. heaven that was the damn best mocha I've ever had.  I want one everyday.  I must figure out to how to duplicate it in real life because otherwise, my already broke self will be more broke.  And we can't have that!

In the past month, I have found two gray hairs.  I was always under the impression that redheads do not gray, they turn blonde.  Apparently, my mother was pulling my leg on that one because the hairs pulled were most DEFINITELY silver.  They were quite lovely and the prospect of having a full head of silver gray hair is kinda sexy to me.  I know, I know.  Give it a few years and I may not think so.  Whatever.  Either way, I know the cause of these gray hairs and it's name is Sybilla.

I've been hankering for gumbo and I am determined to make it before the month is through.  I wanted to make it on Good Friday for a friend's birthday dinner (before we made gardening plans) but then upon realizing that the person is a very observant Catholic, we decided chicken and andouille sausage gumbo was not a good idea.  In the end, we decided to garden all day and I made lasagna roll ups instead, which were very yummy and easy to make.  I will post recipe soon!  But gumbo must happen soon...

My lemon tree is awash with buds and blossoms.  I have never seen so many on that little tree!  My tree is showing various stages of undress as the wind blows away it's leaves and I'm afraid the blossoms will be next.  I can tell where a couple of little lemons are starting to form already and I have to work really hard to keep from getting overly excited.  I am only going to grow herbs and the lemon tree on the patio this year and we'll go for tomatoes and peppers and other stuff in the boxes at the Marino house!

Left: My poor half naked tree.  Right: That is just one branch.  There are at LEAST 50 buds on it alone!

We finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender series finally and now I am sad.  I really love that show, it's such a great cartoon!  The writing is fantastic and it makes me yearn to write something of that magnitude in novel form.  Now that we've finished it, I find myself in a funk.  The funk could be related to hormonal timings, but I'm going to blame it on the realization that my Avatar fix is now over.  I am going to have to suck it up and buy it on DVD so I can enjoy it whenever I want and not when Netflix decides to send it to me.

Happy Tuesday,
Kelly

Easter Weekend Recap

Where to start...well, how about Friday?

I took Friday off because I desperately needed a day off (working from home while sick with a cold/bronchitis does not count!) and because daycare was closed.  I left work a little early on Thursday so that I could go and watch Billa hunt for candy with her classmates at daycare.  They opted not to stuff the candy in eggs and instead threw it all over the lawn and the kids had a blast hunting for it.  Daycare Lady had made paper bunny ears for each of them and the kids were so stinking cute running around with their buckets and these paper ears!

Billa and her friend Justin pick up some candy.

The kids played with some soccer balls after the candy hunt; the weather on Thursday afternoon was PERFECT!

We're definitely a football family, as opposed to a soccer family!  Billa kept carrying the ball instead of kicking it and would jump on top of it as pictured above.

Good Friday was better than good; it was great!  The Marino family had done some garden boxes the previous year and wanted us to help them again this year.  They are letting us use some of their backyard space to plant our own stuff (although most of it will be identical to what the Marino's are planting) and so we spent all day digging in the dirt, putting together garden boxes, taking a trip to Lowe's and spending some good ol' fashioned quality time with our families.

Taking a snack break

Daddy shows off his gardening handy work

We didn't get a chance to do much planting on Friday since building the boxes took all day, so Billa and I went back over on Saturday to finish up (Daddy had to work, boo).  We also went to the Easter egg hunt at the capitol building, which was ok.  There was no hunt involved at all!  They just spread eggs all over a 20'x20' space and then let the kids swarm all over them, picking them up.  The candy wasn't even that great either.  Billa hunted in the 0-3 age group and I was shocked to find bubble gum in some of the eggs she picked up!  Looks like someone mixed up some of the eggs for the older kids!

Billa eating her cupcake that she decorated.  For some reason, she decided that it was better to eat out of Mommy's hand like she was a bird.

Before the hunt started

After the hunt started (which lasted all of 30 seconds)

There was also a cupcake decorating station, a fishing booth, face painting and some other activities for the kids, but we didn't really participate in much because Baby Hayden was not happy about his nap schedule being thrown off.  All the kids passed out in the car on the way home, so we took the time to drive to Natural Gardener and pick up the rest of our planting.  By the way, if you've never been to Natural Gardener, you need to go.  It is one of the coolest nurseries I have ever been to!  The kids woke up when we got there, so we got our plants and headed back home.

We finished up our planting and then Sybilla and I raced home about 5:45 to meet up with Michael so that we could go have dinner with his mom.  We had a lovely evening with Gigi and Papa Carl and Riley the Beagle.  Gigi had given Billa all sorts of fun goodies in her basket, including a light up wand that looked like an Easter lightsaber, which is Billa's. favorite. toy. EVER.  Seriously, all the way home she kept flicking it on and off and waving it everywhere.  Fortunately, she did not take it to bed.

Sunday, we went to brunch at my parent's house and enjoyed homemade waffles and bacon.  Afterward, we watched the Princess and the Frog before doing an Easter egg hunt in the yard.  Billa had a blast hunting for eggs and running around the yard. We got a couple of bluebonnet pictures which are out en masse this year thanks to some much needed rain we got in the fall. By the time we took off at 3, Billa was wiped out. She promptly passed out in the car and slept the whole way home. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Boppa, Papa, Uncle Phil, and Paul (an ald family friend that comes to just about every holiday with my family).

Homemade sour cream waffles...yum!

Billa shares some waffles with Boppa

It's egg huntin' time!

Even Achilles got in on the action

My favorite egg picture

Mommy and Billa whiling away the hour by conferring with the flowers

All said and done, we had a great weekend and I am feeling so happy right now.  I was so delighted to spend so much time with family doing simple things like gardening and visiting.  I have to admit, I didn't even think about baking, blogging, or anything because I was so exhausted each day.  Exhausted, but happy.  It's definitely springtime!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Love,
the Guerra Family

Happy Easter!

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter today!

Love,

The Guerra's