Birthday Recap

I need to catch you up on the last two weekends, or what I would like to the think of as my birthday week.  The Saturday before last was my 31st Birthday! I would like to say at this point that it really hasn't been so bad being on this side of 30.  ;) 

 

We spent my actual birthday weekend celebrating with friends and family.  The Friday night was spent at a surprise birthday party for a great friend.  We have quite a few mutual friends, so it really was kind of like my birthday party too.  I'm sure he didn't mind sharing with me!  This is what I wore to the party:

 

The next morning, we went to brunch for bottomless mimosas with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and two of our closest friends.   After brunch, we continued the day with my SIL and BIL.  It was a rainy day, so we did some shopping and continued to drink mimosas.  I also received the following free dessert to share with the table.  Mmmmm!  Let's just say the day continued from there with more drinks and more food and more drinks....

 

 

I have to also mention how absolutely spoiled I am too!  I didn't even have a birthday wish list this year, but I received some of the best gifts EVER!  Seriously, you guys all outdid yourselves!  Here's a snap of a few of my presents!

 

 

 

{TB boots, Kendra Scott Necklace, Wine Canteen, Lululemon Pants}

 

 

But the birthday fun didn't stop there.  Fast-forwarding to this past weekend, I went down to stay at my sister's for a night before we met up with our cousins and a fun group of girls for my cousin's bachelorette party.  Before leaving for the party, my adorable nieces had made a sign for me, sang me happy birthday, gave me the sweetest cards and made me birthday jello.  Jello for breakfast, why not?!  I didn't snap a picture of their spread for me (darn it), but it was the sweetest.

 

The rest of the day was spent lounging by this pool, taking in the view and partying it up Saturday night with my cousins. 

 

I've missed seeing these beautiful faces!

 

(from left to right: my sister, Ashley; my cousin, Jessica; Me; my cousin, Morgan; & my cousin, the bride-to-be, Angela)

 

I know so many of you are saying how ready you are for Fall and for the cooler weather to be here, but this gal is not so sure.  I mean I love that time of year, but I'm still enjoying the sunny weather and soaking up the sun!

 

XO,

Tara

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was the perfect long weekend. 

It started off with shopping with a friend Friday afternoon.  I got this new bookcase for our office!  The room is coming along slowly but surely.  I like the direction it's going.  Of course I still have to style the shelf, but I just had to share.

While shopping, we sure did work up a thirst...so that led us to have a drink.  We chatted for hours and then just went ahead and had our guys come meet us for dinner as we weren't leaving anytime soon.

 

Then on Saturday, we went out in the boat for a day of fishing.  Here's me and my hubby.  We had another couple with us, and it was a great day!  We didn't come off the water until right before dark, just in time to eat some delicious seafood at TopWater Grill.

Here's my big catch of the day!  I'm pretty sure it's the biggest trout I've caught.  It's going to make some good fish tacos for sure.

Then on Sunday, it was a pool day in our backyard.  We had friends over, drank margaritas, floated in the pool, grilled out, and topped the night off in the hot tub.

Yesterday, I may have repeated a day of lounging in the pool, and then the hubby and I got in bed early to watch this:

It was definitely just what we expected it to be - silly, crude and over the top.  It gave us some good laughs though as some of it is just life and what happens without all the glamour.

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.  We are so blessed to live in this country!  Thank you to my Dad and the many other women and men who have served our country.

XO,

Tara

Summer Fun

We've been busy every weekend squeezing in as much Summer fun as we can!  This past week we took a small trip with both my husband and I's immediate families to rent a house in Concan, TX to float the river.  We had a wonderful time floating and swimming in the Frio River and playing volleyball and washers and lots of card and board games.  We are very fortunate that our families enjoy each other's company so much as then we can spend time with both of our families all at once!  I actually hardly took any pictures...I guess I was in complete relaxation mode, which meant a break from the camera too.  I did get a couple of snapshots of some funny or sweet moments, and I did get one group pic with my family before we left for the weekend, but that was it! and I haven't even uploaded them to my computer yet.  Of course now I wish we would've been taking more pictures. 

Here's what it looks like floating the Frio River if you've never been:

{via Frio Fun}

Gus has also been enjoying Summer.  We got him a pool to help him stay cool in this TX heat.  He wasn't quite sure what to think about it.  Jeff told him to sit and he started to, but as soon as his booty hit that cold water, he jumped right back up! hah 

I also picked up a couple of new collars that are bright and colorful - perfect for Summer! I got them from Target from the Polka Dog Bakery collection along with some dog treats as well.  You can see him sportin' his new neon collar in the pics below!

Wishing you all a great Summer weekend!

XO,

Tara

School Days

It's been a little while now since I've been in school and had my first day of the school year, but today I'm thinking about my beautiful nieces and nephew as they started back to school today.  Well the little one still only goes to day care just a couple of times a week.  I know they were really excited and even a little nervous about the first day of school, and I'm wishing that the day went very well for them!! I know it was always such an exciting time to get ready in your new clothes and have your new school supplies, and then go to school to see what friends are in your class.  Oh so exciting! 

What I'm happy about today is that I am able to look back on this past summer and know that I was able to spend a few wonderful weekends with my sister and her family and enjoy precious time with my nieces and nephew.  On one of their visits, we went to the Houston Children's Museum, which I think they really loved!  It was a fun-filled day for sure.  Upon another visit back home, we went to the pool and beach.  I loved getting to see them swim, especially the little one that's only 2!  She picked up swimming so fast and turned into a little fish in the water.  Just precious!!  We also spent the 4th of July with them, which included fishing and fireworks.  I love them so much, and I'm so lucky that we created so many wonderful memories this summer! 

This was at the Children's Museum, in the Kidtropolis City, where they "had to get jobs", then they learned how to fill out deposit slips to deposit their paychecks, and then learned how to use a bank card to withdraw money.  Good lessons while playing!

His job was a security guard at the bank.

Her job was a forensic detective.

Climbing the Power Tower.

Then there was the little one, who was having a ball!  She was busy busy all day so enchanted by all of the activity that she wouldn't even hardly look up to take a picture. haha

She finally looked up for a second in this one, so I could get a shot of that sweet face!

POOL and BEACH TIME:

4th of JULY

Love them so much!!  Happy 1st Day of School!

Tara

Summer Love!

There are so many things I love about summer – pool days, lounging in the sun with a good book, drinking fruity drinks, BBQ’s with friends, but most of all I LOVE summer vacation!!   Okay, so yes, I’m not a student anymore, and yes, I work full time, so it’s not like I have a whole summer off, but I still get giddy whenever I can take a week off to go to the beach.  It’s the perfect way to kick off summer.  We just returned from a trip to Belize, and in one word it was amazing! Here are a few images of the beautiful scenery along with a little something new I fell in LOVE with while there.

Here is the view from our room.

And the magnificent pool where we lounged for hours - just fabulous!

But here is my new LOVE - PUPUSAS!  Have you heard of these?!  We had been told by a friend that when we ventured into town we just had to try a pupusa, so we did, and well that's when I fell hard in love.  They are so delish!  The dough is a corn masa that is stuffed with all different types of fillings - pork, chicken, lobster, beans, cheese, spinach, etc... this one below was a mix of chicken, cheese and beans!

Then to make it even better, you top it with their own special hot sauce!

Wait - there's more - it just keeps getting better.  Then you top it with a vinegar based coleslaw! 

There, now it's perfect! Mmmmm.  

We've already been looking into recipes to try so we can make pupusas at home.  We are going to of course go with the traditional fillings, but then also experiment with some of our own.  I'm thinking shrimp and goat cheese!  Before I get ahead of myself though, I need to figure out how to perfect the dough!  Have you ever eaten pupusas?  Anyone have any suggestions, please share!

Tara