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On Wednesday we headed for the zoo since the temperature was only supposed to be about 90 with the threat of thunderstorms. It was also half price day at the zoo, but even with that it wasn’t overly crowded. We had a good time and Nadia got to see all her favorite animals. We had a total national geographic moment while looking at the giraffes. All of a sudden this bird swooped past us into the water and popped back out with a fish in his mouth. Then he hopped back onto the grass and had himself a nice lunch. It all happened really fast, but I was able to get a good photo.

My friend the cheetah was finally out in the open and I got some great shots of him!

We headed to Pappasito’s for dinner to give Michelle yet another Mexican food fix. After dinner we returned home to have some bubble fun.

After the bubbles Nadia went to bed and Michelle and I made “Kitty Cat Cupcakes”. I did the baking and Michelle did the decorating. They are orange flavored. YUM!

Click the photo above to see all the photos from the last 2 days. The first photo is Nadia’s ‘rebel without a cause’ pose.

Michelle flew in from London (by way of San Francisco) at midnight on Sunday. She went right to sleep once we got home and Monday morning we were just relaxing and she got in some Nadia time. After Nadia’s nap we headed to Rosa’s for Mexican food as she was having a major craving being out of the states for 2.5 months!! Then we stopped by Kohl’s to get Nadia some jammies ($3 a pair on clearance!) and to Target for cupcake supplies. (I have a cupcake and muffin cookbook and I try to bake a new flavor when we have company. Michelle picked out 2 for us to try this week) By then Michelle thought she was going to melt since it was about 105 out. So we headed home for the rest of the evening. Here is a shot of the Chocolate Banana Split Cupcakes. They are so rich and delicious. The other photo was the pecan pie from lunch (with nice sizzle action). YUM!

Tuesday we got up and met Laura for lunch at La Hacienda so that Michelle could have Mexican food again. She took Nadia all around the place to look at all the stuffed animals and Nadia liked the moose the best. Then they sat on the saddle bar stools and our waiter gave Nadia 2 quarters to ride the horse and train outside. He was very taken with Nadia and told Michelle that she was so advanced for her age. After Nadia had a nap we headed over to get pedicures and she was so cute. She sat on Michelle’s lap the entire time watching everything that was going on. We headed home after that and I made the famous Mac and Cheese at Michelle’s request. After dinner Nadia put on a dance show for us 🙂

Last week was the 5th annual Girls Inc “Strong, Smart and Bold” Luncheon. I took my Grammie since we still had houseguests. The luncheon has gotten better every year and the speaker was Liz Murray. She had a Lifetime movie made about her called “From Homeless to Harvard” and I thought she was the perfect speaker for a fundraiser for at risk teenage girls. Her story was heartbreaking, but amazing. The thing that stuck with me the most was that she said, “I wish my story was unique and that there weren’t other kids going through this and worse.” The MC ended the luncheon by saying that the state of Texas now bases their future jail cell needs on the reading abilities and failure rate of 3rd graders. And from KIDS HOPE I know that other states have been doing this for years. Below is a photo of the speaker and the centerpieces from the tables featuring the photos Mike took of the girls back in April.

When Nadia handed me this tonight, all I could think was “My sweet girl.” The frilly Little People girl riding in the back of the HULK dump truck. AWESOME!

And here is the book holder with some padding in the base so that Nadia can make her selections 🙂

Eddie, Kim and the kids headed for home today after a last dose of Mexican food. They did a lot this week and we joined in as much as Nadia’s sleep schedule would allow. We ate Mexican food, went to the Stockyards, the zoo, the Kimball Art museum, ate some more Mexican food and did a whole lot of catching up and laughing. They also hit NRH2O, a Ranger Game, visited with family members and more. In the midst of that we had a new patio poured and stamped and it looks awesome!! I will put the before and after photos up in a different post. It was finished at 1 pm on Thursday and we were able to use it for the party that night.

Here we are this morning enjoying the fresh air before it got blazing hot this afternoon.

Nadia tried salsa for the first time today. Here she is before…

and after….not her favorite as you can tell.

Nadia and her buddy Julie at lunch.

And we picked this COOL thing up tonight at Toys R Us for the living room. It’s an effort to tame the toy fest and I think it’s really cute and just the right height for Nadia. It has 3 pockets for books and 6 bins for toys. I am thinking of putting some packing paper in the bottom of the book holders so that all her little books will stick up too, but I am going to see what Nadia thinks of it when she wakes up in the morning.