Happy Birthday Mom!

This weekend was quite full of adventures - the biggest one was the start of my Mom's 60th birthday celebration!  Technically, her birthday was yesterday but that doesn't mean the party has to wait, right?!
I accompanied my mom to the mall on Saturday and there, my sister and I made impromptu plans to take my mom to Gospel Brunch Service at Lips on Easter Sunday.  If you love a good drag show (and we all know I do!) Lips is the best place to go for dinner and a show!  I'm planning on taking Lauren there for her Bachelorette Party because she also loves a good drag show!
My mom had a blast!  They brought her (and everyone else who was celebrating a birthday) on stage and the whole restaurant was shocked to hear that my mom was turning 60 :)  Everyone was so nice and the performers were great!  I can't wait to see what it's like on a regular night!

  

Above are photos of the flower arrangement I had made for my mom because I thought they were absolutely gorgeous!  I went to the florist and didn't know what to say when the florist asked me what kind of flowers my mom liked.  I totally blanked!  All I could think of was roses (safe, right?) and hydrangeas (for some reason) and then I let her take creative liberties on the rest because I'm hopeless when it comes to flowers - EXCEPT for my favorite flowers: Gerbera Daisies - which I had no idea would make an appearance in her birthday bouquet.  Bonus!
They did a fabulous job at the flower shop and I can't wait until Mother's Day so I have an excuse to have 2 bouquets made!

How's your week so far?
Happy Wednesday!

Thanksgiving!

 

   
My cousins, Eddie and Charles, and I having a sip of Puerto Rican rum / My new "bar": The Booze Cruise! / My flat tire / Salted Caramel Blondie at Argosy / My Seattle friend Davey!  Doesn't he look dashing in my glasses?!  *SWOON* / Davey and I having a moment at Church *__*

Wowzers meowzers!  What a holiday week last week!  I was definitely NOT ready to get back to work, that's for sure...
The guest list included my grandma and aunt from Puerto Rico and my other aunt and cousins from New York.  My uncle (also from New York) couldn't make it but we still had a blast.  He was missed!

I was lucky enough to host my cousins for a few nights (PARTY HARD PARTY HARD PARTY HARD) and it gave me the perfect excuse to turn my old man's fish tank into a bar!  I have dubbed it the Booze Cruise for a couple of reasons: 1) "Drunk Tank" and all other "tanked" jokes were a little too obvious (but I will admit - Drunk Tank is pretty damn good!) and 2) I needed a place for my pirate busts and I figured fish tank + water "theme" = PIRATES!  Now all I need are some actual novelty gems, some gold coins and maybe a treasure chest to make the setup complete!

Because I hadn't really partied with my cousins in FOREVER, I was trying to figure out where to take them.  I learned quickly that they both have totally different personalities but one might adapt a little better than the other.  Maybe it's a mandatory gene when you're the first born...I don't know but I felt it (since I, too, am a first born).  Luckily, Oni suggested we hit up Joystick on Friday - which took the pressure off lil ol' me since I don't really get out much anymore.  And since the selection of ladies was totally lacking (according to my single cousin), we went to Church, where the ladies were plentiful.

I had never been to Church but I always wanted to go since I drive by it pretty frequently when I'm downtown.  It was great!  The crowd was diverse and friendly for the most part.  I will admit - it was kinda weird watching my cousin talk to the ladies but it was cute at the same time.  I have to keep reminding myself that they're not the babies they once were!  LOL

On our way home, I had a flat tire but it didn't register as flat until I pulled into my driveway.  Thank goodness we were safe and sound!  That made for an eventful morning since I only slept barely a handful of hours, I had to get all 4 tires replaced!  Then, I had a lunch date with my friend from out of town (who I hadn't seen in years, btw) and it was great!  I took him to Argosy and we devoured everything down to my favorite treats: a Mondorita and the very decadently delicious Salted Caramel Blondie.  All the while, making plans for that evening - after our family dinner, of course!

My cousins and I ventured out to Church and shut it down once again.  The crowd was great and we even scored a table across the bar - which is good and bad.  It was good because we were right by the bar and we didn't have to keep going up and down the stairs like the night before.  It was bad because when it got crowded, people were spilling drinks on us because of the close proximity but no worries - good times were had by all!

How was your Thanksgiving?

Smash*Booking with the kids!

Phew!!  What a crazy couple of days!!  Or I should say: What a crazy couple of weeks!
Sadly, my nieces left yesterday.  Yes, I was able to hold back the tears until I got home.  I blamed it on the most recent episode of True Blood  while we were catching up but seriously, I was missing them so much!
We had a BLAST while they were here and I picked up a couple of Smash*Books for them to make of their time here because I read a GREAT review on them here.  In my hunt for the original blog post that sold me on the books, I found two other great examples of Smash*Books here: the Wreck This Girl Blog and this Memory Works post.
Keeping the Smash*Books in mind, we tried to keep EVERYTHING we could think of to put in their books.  Originally, I had wanted them to start on them the day they arrived and add to the books nightly but we ended up not getting to them until it was closer to the day they left - which actually turned out a bit better since we could reminisce about the earlier things we had all done together.  There were some pockets of downtime since Georgia has been having crazy rain all Summer!  :(  Kind of a downer but it made Smash*Book time more fun.

Here's Amaya's book that she made herself - including a few memorable stories.





The cover with the super-awesome pen+glue / The very first page with a hilarious story about macaroni and cheese. The girls LOVE accents and this one was about them hearing a very Southern accent / The day we went to the movies / The day the grandmas took them to Sky Zone (I wish I had gone!!) / Cotton candy at the fresh.iam pop-up shop with my sister / Adventures at North Point Mall / Adventures at Mall of Georgia / A great story about Amaya's intro to Disney Vinylmations.  Tess at the Disney Store at Mall of Georgia is WONDERFUL and she is the one Amaya is talking about in her story / Photobooth fun and bungee jumping / Medieval Times!!  That was so much fun! / The girls at their fort / Pancakes at IHOP plus some cute images from our Captain Underpants-themed birthday party / It wouldn't be Amaya's book without some Skylanders stuff included (she LOVES them) / Oni got Amaya the coolest 3D puzzle of a swan / We took the kids to Bone Garden, the Cartoon Network store (which will be in another post) and we TRIED to get a ride on the newest addition to ATL: the Sky View ferris wheel but the weather rained us out / Pool time (there was A LOT of it) and our fun night at Ru San's for sushi!

So much fun!!  I highly recommend these books if you're looking to document special events - especially with kids.  I mean, the kits are a little pricey but since they come with tabs, mini journals, a pen / glue stick, tape and a bunch of other things, it's DEFINITELY worth the money because they'll have something they'll remember forever and it's all self-contained!  You don't need to buy anything extra - unless you really want to.  I'm thinking about starting my own to document my time with the girls this Summer so I can not only share with the fun but to experiment for the next time we get to make these!