Everything is so green this year

Maybe it's so vivid because we are comparing it to last summer, when the heat killed everything :(. But man....looking at these pictures, everything seems so ALIVE.

The kiddos and I were able to take a little trip to the Ft Worth Botanical Gardens with my sister, her kids and a friend and her cute little daughter. We hadn't been there in a while...or rather, when it was in bloom. We did visit the Gardens back in January with the whole fam damily. But there is just something magical about going in the spring.

 Our kiddos.

I love how sweet E is hamming it up and Carl is in protest of picture taking! We were taking up valuable turtle spotting time!
This is my favorite spot to take pictures....on the rock under the willow tree.

 "Hey moms"

 Aubree and her friend.

A sweet little moment.

 There are so many things to look at when your walking around the Gardens. Some things you see time after time when visiting.

I have a favorite tree I like to visit.
I wish I had a name for her....

Isn't she magnificent? I imagine she's been growing for a hundred years.

I've had a love for magnolia trees since I was a child....climbing the one at my Grandma Sargent's house. They are the best climbing trees....strong, sturdy branches settled just the right spacing apart. And when you lay underneat one, gazing up into the branches....the leaves create these fantastic patterns. Amazing.

Note to self: visit the Botanical Gardens when the weather is cool....don't procrastinate {the heat makes you cranky!}

An event in which we get nice and {soggy}...

James got free tickets to Concert in the Gardens at the Botanical Gardens on Friday night. We've wanted to go to one of these events for a long time now, but something was always going on, or he didn't ask for the tickets fast enough. But it finally all worked out and we got to go listen to Star Wars music and see the laser show!

Of course...that's the day it decided to rain and drizzle all day....so even tho the event wasn't cancelled, it was still quite soggy. By the time it actually started, the rain had passed...leaving the night nice and cooled off.

We also got there a bit late....so we sat in the waaaaaaaaaaaaay back. But it was music, so in the long run it didn't really matter.

The music was good...Star Wars is always awesome. :) We're big Skywalker fans in this house. The first half they played music from movies like Superman Returns, Jaws, Harry Potter...then the last half was all Star Wars music. The girls were cracking us up....they could listen to the music and then name what was happening in the movie at that time!

Jaxson slept thru the whole thing....that boy amazes me...he loves being outside!

We were able to have a picnic dinner. The girls had ghetto-ables (homemade lunchables Ü) and were happy to sit and listen...wondering when the movie was going to start...I guess we didn't explain it quite right, haha.

The laser show was pretty cool....but would have been mucho cooler if we had a better view....sans trees.

They had fireworks on the last Star Wars song....

....that the girls hated. Of course.

Wimps.

But it was a fun night, even tho it ended on a semi-complaining note....didn't have the heart to tell them that 4th of July is next weekend! They aren't fans of that holiday! Ü

Back to our regular scheduled blogging...

My mom flew in last week to help me out during my recovery for my wisdom teeth extraction. I am SO glad she was able to come out and spend time with us. My teeth ended up being a breeze, but having her here was a comfort nonetheless. She left today and the house just feels so empty!!

Thursday I made plans for us to do something fun before the dreaded teeth pulling! We drove over to Ft Worth and spent the day at the Botanical Gardens. I knew how much my mom loves the outdoors and flowers and all that jazz...so that was the perfect place to go. We FINALLY got there after being stuck for an hour in traffic (so ridiculous, and we never even knew what had happened!) and had a nice picnic lunch.

We walked around the grounds, the girls LOVE it there...especially the water parts and the turtles. It's such a beautiful place and the weather was absolutely perfect. And being able to walk and talk with my momma while the girls ran amuck, was just bliss.

It's that time of year again! And the leaves are quickly changing and falling...the girls had a blast playing in them.

It was a perfect way to start off our mini-vacation with Gramma. We topped the night off with steak at Texas Roadhouse! Yum.
We miss her SO much already and it's only been a few hours!

More to come...

Bella turns 5!!!!

Yesterday was the big 5 for Miss Bella. I tried to make the day fabulous for her from beginning to end......I actually MADE her pancakes for breakfast, lol.
We knew we wanted to go have a birthday lunch with daddy...but I had been looking for ideas for the rest of the day. James suggested the Fort Worth Botanical Garden. This is somewhere I've ALWAYS wanted to go...but I thought it cost money! Nope, totally free (unless you want to go into the conservatory or the Japanese gardens)...even parking! And it was so much fun...we just wandered around for awhile.

The Birthday Girl....she was so happy...that, more than anything, made my heart soar! Wearing her shirt I made for her (the night before, but I'll talk about that later...lol).

Stopping to smell the roses....and oooooooh did they smell good!

The girls loved this bird bath with the two birdies kissing...every time we passed it they would get so excited.

I told you! She was HAPPY...at this particular moment, she was SO HAPPY that she got to see purple flowers.

This was my favorite area....I think they call it the Rose Ramp. It's not as in bloom as I can imagine it will be in the spring, but it's still just breath-taking. I think this picture of Bella is hilarious...it's like she's getting sprayed...lol.

I made several attempts to get pictures of the two of them...not much luck there. I ask Bella to say 'cheese' and you can really tell she's trying to say it!! And Aube...well, she refused to look at the camera...thanks, babe. But they are still cute...makes it easy to forgive!

We came to this crack with running water...it was maybe 6-7 inches wide...small enough to where you could totally jump over it. But the girls were just AMAZED by it...like it was the Grand Canyon, or something. Bella would ask "Can we walk IN it, Mommy?" Ummm....no.

So, they jumped...

And jumped....

My VERY favorite picture of the day.

Looking at the GINORMOUS Koi...at least I think that's what they were. Or just really big goldfish.

This isn't zoomed in...they were just huge.

Looking down from the top of the Rose Ramp.

After awhile, we left the Gardens and met daddy for lunch at the Purple Cow. The same place we took Bella to last year for her birthday.

Bella was quite excited to have purple Sprite (or grape Fanta, but she wouldn't hear of that).

And some purple ice cream...

Aube is more fond of all things orange.

After lunch....we went ahead and headed back to the Gardens! lol. There was time, so we explored some more.

They have this Texas boardwalk....the girls had fun at all the little stations, especially this one that showed all the birds and their songs.

Bella wanted to see an armadillo SO BAD...she saw a picture of it and kept looking for it everywhere. But she did get to see a snake...eeek. It slithered past us all non-chalantly down the steps. I LOVED this butterfly chair...so cute!

Watching the turtles.

We finally left the gardens and went home for naps. After we all woke up and were ready, we sat and waited for daddy to get home. During this time Bella got a phone call from Cinderella to wish her a happy birthday, she was SO excited! (And I took video, which I'll post later).

For dinner, we went to The Magic Time Machine restaurant. I've been excited to take the girls back here since we went back in the beginning of 2008 with Papa when he came to town. It was a little more ghetto than I remembered....and I was HOPING to get a princess waitress, since they knew our occasion was a 5 year old birthday. But nope...we got Lara Croft Tomb Raider (we think...still not sure...could just be some chick with a really bad British accent, dressed in black) even tho we did get Snow White bringing our food.

They sat us in a Tiki hut (which smelled a big like pee....maybe?).

At the end of the meal, all the characters crowded around to sing to Bella. Woody from Toy Story, Cap'n Jack, Snow White, Shaggy, Lara...and sing they did....handing us a big ole EMPTY plate. It was HILARIOUS....just not to a 5 year old. She was kinda like, What is this?!

Seriously, you can't find a little scoop of ice cream to give a kid!? lol.
Where's my cake?!

So James made the best of it...and they all had a their own slice of "cake".

Even with dinner being a bit of a flop (the steak did taste good, have to give them that...) it was a really fantastic day! I love to make my girls happy and I try to make their birthdays as special as possible.
Now we are getting geared up for their party next weekend...then on to Aube's birthday on the 18th!