Let's Celebrate!!

Happy 
4th Of July 
Y'all!!



On to the updates:

We arrived back in NC,

just in time to celebrate a bunch of ocassions.

My mom's birthday,

Mother's Day

and 

Rico's Birthday...

were all within a 4 day period.

So we squeezed a whole lot of celebrating

in a short amount of time.

We started the weekend,

May 10th,

by making the hour+ long hoof to
Cary to have lunch with my mom.

We grabbed some of the 

only fast food I happily eat
(Chick Fil A)...
and then we had to get some sort of
sweet treat to share.

We stopped at Gigi's Cupcakes
(which I have NEVER been to)

And had a hard time narrowing it down...
so we wound up with 6!
There were a total of 7 people eating them.
(yes, 4 of them were small children - so what?!?)

I can't remember all of the flavors:

top left - wedding cake

top middle - sopapilla

top right - Miss Princess

bottom left - salted caramel mocha

bottom middle - don't remember

bottom right - margarita 

These things are HUGE!!!

You go into sugar shock on the icing alone!

We met Nana and my bestie 

at a little park down the road from her office.

We noshed on Chick Fil A

and 

washed that down with a smorgasbord of 

Gigi's Cupcakes,

I cut them each into at least 4 

pieces and we all go to get a little 

taste of each.

We ran back by Nana's office,

and unfortunately,

they don't allow kid in the office.

(too much of a distraction)

So since she has a corner office,

we peeked in to see her office

and all the pictures of the kids up on her wall.

We made the haul back to the house

and 

when we got there,

I pulled out the cupcakes.

This is what happens when you leave cupcakes

sitting on the dash in 

May

in North Carolina!

We still ate them!

That evening,

my mother-in-law came down 

for her first visit 

since we 

had moved back.

I snapped this pic while we were outside waiting on 

her arrival.

Mr. T is pushing his big sister around on a skateboard.

The following day,

Saturday,

almost everyone came down to see us,

to celebrate 

Mother's Day.

I say almost,

cause the baby sis didn't make it.  

She had to do that 4 letter thing

called

WORK!

Ms. Priss had to accessorize her outfit

for the occasion:

Then she decided NeeNee 

needed to try on her hat

(when she asked for her necklace back)

We had:

mimosas

fried chicken

and

a waffle bar!

Sounds like the perfect

Southern

Mother's Day Menu!

(I'm so glad to be home)

 Quick picture of the mothers!
(It was my sister's first Mother's Day -
I am so glad I was able to celebrate with her!)

(left to right:  mother-in-law, me, sister, mom)

Here are all the men and kids,
post-meal TV vegging!

And Papa showing the littlest 

person in our family,

our fish tank.

She, however,

is not impressed with this

puny tank.

She has a bigger, cooler one!

Which we can only aspire to emulate

one day down the road!

We just relaxed the following day,

Sunday,

the REAL Mother's Day.

And I made a birthday cake...

for Rico...

my oldest...

as I always do.

This year, 

he wanted a Skittles Cake.

He wanted it simple.

Just make a round cake,

and make an S on the top.

"Simple cake"

is no longer a part of my vocabulary.

So I couldn't just make a 

plain round cake

with

an S on it.

Since Nana's birthday was Friday

and we celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday...

we ventured back up to Raleigh,

to have a joint birthday party 

for 

my oldest boy child

and

my mother.

I volunteered to bring dessert,

since I had to bring the birthday boy's cake.

(next post will be more about the cake,)

Before we headed up to Raleigh,

again,

we hit up Chuck E Cheese

since my mother-in-law

was still here

and 

when we are with her,

a trip to Chuck E Cheese wind up making 

its way onto the agenda.

Its kinda funny.

She comes prepared with coupons

and as soon as the kids know she is coming,

they start talking about Chuck E Cheese!

I have shown enough pictures of Chuck E Cheese on here,

but the best part of this trip...

it was EMPTY!

We were literally the 

ONLY ones there.

We went on Monday morning,

school was still in,

so no one else was there.

The kids got the royal treatment

with 

crowns,

a personal visit from Chuck E Cheese, himself,

a trip to the ticket booth,

and then daddy showed up!

It was one of the best times I have had there.

Then we headed up to Raleigh to take care of 

some business...

and PARTY!!

Again the baby sis couldn't make it,

stinking work!

But thankfully there is this thing called Skype,

that totally helped me make it through those 

LONG

18 months in Texas

(hahah!).

Aunt Mimi wishing the birthday boy a happy birthday!

Opening presents:

Super excited over a pair of "Heelies"

Skimboard from Nana & Papa for his

birthday trip to the beach.

(he has already learned how to use it

and has gotten pretty decent at it!)

A "Holy Cow" card from mom,

since I do seem to say that a bit...

glad he caught the humor in it.

Loving the money falling out of Aunt Mimi's card!

Then he decided to make it "rain up in here"...

Here is Lucy's aquarium...

see, its a little bigger than ours.

And has a whole lot more "stuff".

Nana got to open a couple of presents too...

Mr. T was excited.

Then on to the birthday cakes...

I totally spaced out when making Rico's cake the day before

and wound up making a normal cake...

so I repurposed it...

Cut out little rounds:

And made little individual strawberry shortcakes

(using the strawberries we had picked a couple of days before)

just in case people would prefer that over

 A Skittles Cake.

I think they turned out really cute!

Then on to the birthday boy's cake.

If you've been around a while, 

you know that my kids aren't allowed to see the cake,

before it is presented to them.

I think I got Rico's seal of approval on the look:

(makes it all worth while!)

Birthday kid always gets to make the first cut:

(not my most ellaborate looking cake...

on the outside)

I love the facial expressions on these next two:

The cake had a layer in every color of the rainbow...

yes, 6 layers...

one in every Skittle flavor too!

Stay tuned for more on the 

cake!!

Happy 9th Birthday Big Boy!!