You're Never Too Old for the Zoo

My 10 year old, Matthew, decided that he wanted to go to the zoo. Our zoo just recently added a new animal - a Red Panda named Toby. He's been itching to go see it since he did a research project on Red Pandas earlier this school year. So, Amy and Zoe joined us at the zoo. Matt took several pictures of Toby, but since he lives in a pretty dark enclosed exhibit, the pictures are also pretty dark - but he was thrilled none the less because he got to see him awake, which we heard was pretty rare. Matt and Zoe had a great time pretending to be ground hogs, sit in an eagle's nest and petting the goats.

Amy's Baby is about to Bloom

My best friend, Amy, is due to have her second baby in 5 1/2 weeks. This morning we (Brenda, Laurie and Rosa) hosted a Bloomin' Baby Brunch for her. It was so special. The colors were blue, white and green and we chose a little garden theme - "A Baby is Blooming". Since it was brunch, we served yummy breakfast caseroles, sausage balls, cinnamon rolls, waffles, mini bagels and fresh fruit. There was plenty of juice and coffee as well. Laurie planned some really funny games where we had to pass a pacifier with drinking straws, play hot potato with a "dirty" diaper and who can drink from a baby bottle the fastest. We also put a small clothespin on each guest as they came in. If they were caught saying the word "baby", someone could take their clip. Whoever had the most clips at the end of the shower, won. Our friend, Rennee, was quite the observant one and gathered most of everyone's clips. I lost mine within the first 5 seconds - for some reason, "baby" came right out. The prizes were pretty potted plants - Texas Bluebonnets, white Petunias and yellow Marigolds.

The pictures above are the cakes we served and the favors we gave out. The cupcakes are chocolate with dark chocolate almond buttercream. I sprinkled them with cupcake crumbs to resemble the dirt. The flowers were handmade (by me) with gumpaste - they took forever...but Amy is worth it. The cupcakes fit perfectly in these little pots. I borrowed my friend, Kristin's, cupcake stand. Aren't these little pots perfect in that "plant" stand. The favors we gave away were little seed packets. If you pull up on the ribbon, the seed packet slides out. We encouraged the guests to take home their empty flower pot and plant these seeds. As they grow, so will Amy's baby and we'll think of him everytime we see those pretty flowers.

Now...if only Brett and Amy could come up with a name??? They just can't quite decide! Okay..that's it for now. I had a great nap this afternoon and now we're headed to some friends for a crawfish boil. Yum!!

So Glad it's Friday!

So...today is Friday and I am grateful it's the weekend. One of my students today asked me why can't the weekends be 5 days long and school be 2 days. I agreed with him and asked him if he would be willing to go to school from 7am to 7pm if it was only 2 days - he definitely agreed with that. So...he might be writing to his congressman on that one.

I am getting ready for my best friends baby shower. It's tomorrow morning and we're hosting a baby brunch. Should be lots of fun. I'll post pictures after the event. I haven't told her anything about it - so she doesn't know the theme or the menu or anything. And... she especially doesn't know what the cakes look like. It's a surprise. I'm sure Amy will be so excited. My husband and 2 boys are going to Jack's school for a big fundraiser for breast cancer sponsored by the student council. That should be lots of fun, too.

I played around with the blog a little as well. I added some of my favorite blogs that I check all the time. And...I discovered all those gadgets out there. I added pacman to the bottom of my blog - so if you get bored - just click "play". You know you want too.

Have a good evening. I'm heading to bed.