Monday, August 22, 2011

Birthday weekend

My birthday celebration continued on into the weekend!  Actually...anyone in the Austin family with an August birthday was celebrated at the ranch.  Juliet, Tripp and I all have August birthdays and yes, that meant three separate birthday cakes!  :)  Mine was chocolate on chocolate of course, is there any other kind of cake?  As always, we had a great time together!

In a nutshell, this is what we did...

 First thing Saturday morning, Parker took off with his dump truck!


 Then Blake and Parker rode in the John Deer together.

 Ruben's parents came all the way from Miami for the birthday girl!

 We had a first...a breakfast picnic at the lake complete with flinson and bacon!


The kids had fun playing on the dock!

 Sloan and Liesl fished.

 James giving the boys a four wheeler ride!

 Of course Parker played baseball.

 Steve helped P perfect his swing.

 More John Deer riding.

 Faith drove James and P in the razor (the newest motorized 
toy out there).
 The birthday girl, Juliet!

 We had her party at the pool house!

 We even had a pinata!
Liesl was spinning Ruben here.

 
You can only imagine how funny this was!


 Luke took a swing or two.

 So did Faith!

 Faith and P

 We just hung out in the cool grass for a while and chatted it up!



 We ended the weekend with a game of frisbee golf on Sunday morning.

 Parker definitely got in on the action!

 Parker with Tripp and Luke.
He followed us around and hit every flag with his frisbee, he was a very serious player!  :)

 The whole gang!

Somehow I didn't get a pic of my beautiful chocolate birthday cake made by Ann, but I can assure you it was delicious!  It's my all time favorite and you can get the recipe here.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Thirty one

Yes, it happened.  On August 17th, which was Wednesday, I turned 31.  I have mixed feelings about this age.  I mean, turning thirty was fun and exciting but now, I feel like anything over thirty is "getting up there"!  Ha!  I know I know, I'm still young, but being over thirty is just different somehow.

BUT...despite me not liking the number I was turning, my sweet friends made me feel so special!  We had a fun little swim party complete with sweets and all!  Thank you girls for such a fun afternoon!  I'm blessed to have you as friends!

 Amanda, me, Julie and Jennifer

 The kids had more fun in the hot tub than anything!  No, it was not hot!
Um, wet wipe please!

 Chloe taking her first bite!

 The fun balloons were a surprise...my mother-in-law, Ann, had these set up when we got there!

 Sweet sisters Olivia and Charlotte


 Amanda outdid herself with the wonderful fruit and homemade cheesecake which I didn't take a picture of.

 Cheese!

 Olivia jumping in!

Cooper was all about his little surf board!

A just for fun pic...
Can you tell Parker was tired riding home from the park?  He played basketball so hard and ran with his dump truck, he barely had enough energy to eat lunch!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

A new sport

Since James was out of town all weekend, Parker and I hooked up with several friends and played to keep us busy!  I was terrible about taking pictures, but I did pull my camera out Saturday afternoon when we were out at the Palo Duro Club with some friends.  Parker and True found a new sport they love...

 Tennis with swim gear!

 Now, if this isn't a look, I don't know what is!?

 These two had more fun going from the swimming pool to the tennis courts and then to the playground! True never took his goggles off!  :)

 I think we will be adding a junior tennis racket to our array of sporting equipment!

 Striker, the dog, chased the balls on the other side of the fence.  T and P thought is was fun to tease him by throwing it at the fence and watching Striker try and catch it...such a boy thing to do!

 Action shot

 And now a moment to brag on my husband.  Despite this heat, he has managed to keep the front of our house looking awesome!  James has such a green thumb and a love for landscaping!


Lantana, potato vine, Indian feather grass

 Purple feather grass

 The side patio
I planted a grape tomato plant and they are finally turning red!!