Krewe of Victoria Mardi Gras Ball 2010

Dress: $200
Gas/Food: $100
Visit to new Paul Michael store in Lafayette: No comment
Going to the Ball: Priceless!

To make a long story short, Mom worked for Programs for Human Services, a nonprofit in Orange, for almost 25 years and her bosses back then (also the owners) were Don & Tish. They moved to Lafayette in the late 90s and Tish has become a member of the Krewe of Victoria since then. Their Mardi Gras Ball was January 8th and given that Daddy isn't too in to that kind of thing, I was Mom's date! We arrived in Lafayette at their home in time for a visit, a ride to pick up Tish's dress, and then getting Tish dressed (a lace-up in the back isn't a one-girl job!)...and Don was elected Prince Albert this year, so he was busy getting himself all dressed!
It was so cold that the fountain froze their plants!

We had just enough time to check in to the hotel and hurriedly get dressed, but we made it! More info is here, but here are my pics...This is the Prince's table...

It was a pirate-themed soiree...Mom and I are standing in front of the "ship"...

To my daughter's delight...lots of beads were to be had!

Laissez les bons temps rouler! Don greeting Tish after his processional...

Greeting their Queen & Prince...

Don makes quite a festive Prince Albert -

...and this year's Queen Victoria...

They began serving breakfast at 11 - maybe they're discussing how they will manage that in their full regalia? :) The royal dance...

Then, the real deal - ditch the wig, where's my wife?

Mom and I trying on the crown...

...and more scenery posing...

...and the saints come marching in...

By this time, everyone was feeling quite good...this is Don's grandson, Stephen, dancing with a (battery-operated) candle on his head...

The next morning, back at their home for breakfast, feeling like royalty again...

We made a detour through Broussard so that I could take pics of where my maternal great-grandparents grew up and attended school...their school...

My great grandfather's childhood home...

...and my great-grandmother's...they had a two-story previously, but there was a fire and this is where they moved afterwards...

There you go...fun memories!

Adventures on the frontier...

From left to right, Foxy, Romeo, Monkey, Trashy, and Lady. Skylar isn't pictured, but she's home, too.

You might be a redneck if...you use feed bags and lots of duct tape to make sure your pipes don't freeze...

...or your daughter finds it funny to take pictures of you while you're mucking stalls...the most glamorous time of day for me for sure!

...or you live on a prairie so treeless that all of your patio furniture topples and your gazebo takes flight...

Woo hoo!

They're home...

Thanks to a full week of work from Daddy and Jack and 3 days from Jack's good friend, Dan, we now have five horse stalls in and hopefully, by some time this Spring, they'll have recovered enough to put in our other five on the opposite side! They really busted tushy and it shows! Aren't they pretty?

And, this is what they did it in...this muddy, sloppy yuck. When I took these pictures yesterday, it was actually a pretty day...they mostly worked in cold, drizzly, sometimes pouring down rain weather...

Lexie's wondering where her stall is :)

They even have swing out feeder and hay racks and we mounted their water buckets on the same wall, so we can just slip the hose through the grates...everything's super convenient!

We worked hard this weekend to get all of the stalls cleaned and mucked with fresh shavings and fixed the fence where the City took it down doing some ditch maintenance. Then, this afternoon, we went and got Jack's gelding, Trashy, and my gelding, Romeo. They're home...finally! I'm so excited! Now, I can't wait for the other side to get built out, so we can have the majority of our "babies" with us.

Thanks again, Daddy!

Brookie is 4!

Our maiden voyage to Chuck E. Cheese was earlier in the month for Stephen's birthday, but Gracie's cousin, Brooke, had her birthday there, too, and Gracie could not have been more thrilled! She immediately got her cup of tokens from Aunt Karen and got to work spending them...

Brooke's sister, Kate, is almost 9 months here...looks less than thrilled to be with yours truly, doesn't she?

A cake fit for the birthday princess...

...and just in time, too...the princess is crowned...

Kate was a little fussy until Uncle Jack handed her this piece of celery from his plate of wings...this brought at least an hour of contentment! She just sat on my lap and drooled...it was great!

Listening to Chuck E...

Yum!

"Gonna get 'em all, Mama!"

She hasn't had a lesson in so long due to all the rain and swamp-like conditions here...she didn't like this nearly as well though...

Finally, a smile from the little one...

Have a great year 4, Brookie!

Christmas Continues...

12/26...Suzie is out the door at 6:40 AM headed to WalMart for their After-Christmas sale...I've decided that next year's tree will be bronze and gold and although this year's tree was red and gold and over the years, I've collected quite a bit of gold ornaments, I really had no bronze...but now I do :) !!! I came home to deliver the rocks for the bottom of Gracie's aquarium and unload the bronze paper, bronze tissue, bronze bows, bronze ornaments...:), picked up Mom (she slept in!) and headed to a gift shop where all of their Mark Roberts fairies were 40% off...score! We barely made it home for me to change, get Grace dressed, and help Mom and Dad get on the road home, but we made it actually early to Jack's Mom's for the Tarpley Christmas...

...one of my favorite parts...Kate really seemed to like her Pelican shape sorter we gave her...

...and Brookie liked her Dora game, too...we did good!

Gracie's turn...

Mesmerized by the magic of Christmas?

Three generations...

Afterwards, we picked up tamales and headed to our friends in Seabrook for a fish fry/party...it was nice to relax, enjoy all the goodies everyone brought and watch Grace play in the rain...

When all the kids retreated to the firepit down by the bayou and we were about to leave, Gracie seized her opportunity for a ride on The Green Machine...she was sliding like a pro! I'm sensing a birthday gift in the making... :) What a scream...she and her Daddy will be fighting over it!

Then, home to decorate her gingerbread with her decorating kit she got from her aunts...

What a wonderfully busy day...fun, fun, fun!!!

Santa AND the Tooth Fairy Visited...12-25-09

This year, she has really been filled with anticipation for Santa's arrival...each day, first thing, she would get up and move her elf to the next day of the "Santa's Countdown Calendar"...she said, and I quote, "It's here...IT'S here...IT'S HERE!!!"

"A kitchen, Mama...I have my own kitchen now..."

An aquarium with a Crown Tail Beta to go inside...

A puppy mask...and when you push the nose, it barks...as you'll see what Oreo does in the video at the end, well, he had the same response to this mask, so since she has opened it, it has been in one of my kitchen drawers...awww man...

...more things to build for our little architect...

...and the Tooth Fairy came, too...she lost her first tooth, her bottom right, on 12/21 while with Marmie in Orange, so Marmie kept it safe until they all came home on Christmas Eve...

Opening some of her clothes from Marmie...these are some new horsie pjs which she has worn and I have washed at least 5 times since Christmas Day...I think she likes them!

a Webkinz fish from Daddy...Popi set our account up for us, but I have yet to log on to see what "Phyllis" does...

ahhh...an XBox 360 game she can play with Daddy...her favorite "just before bed" pasttime...

I finally get the little stinker dressed and she just about gives me heart failure...if she looks like she wants to jump in...that's because she did!

Once the gifts were opened, it was time to prepare for lunch and I just got busy and, I can't believe it, but I didn't get a single picture of my aunts being over...I guess we were just having too much fun visiting! Next time...

Oreo and Gracie's ZhuZhu Pet...this dog makes me laugh so hard!

When my aunts departed in order to get home before dark, I continued to clean the kitchen and store things away, so my reward was to go to the movies with Mom. We went to see "It's Complicated"...oh my stars! That was hilarious! Go see it - you won't regret it!

Hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas, too!