Back on Track!

I think I have officially concluded my headaches the past two days have been caused by this tremendous heat! Yes, I did it- I'm complaining about the heat. Wasn't that #3 on my things that annoy me list?

Today is picture day! I've uploaded the pics from my camera recently so here you go!

A Sleeping Beauty on her Birthday Morning!

She is SUCH a morning person!

Birthday Breakfast- Looks appetizing huh? Healthy too- at least I can claim those are sweet potato pancakes- if you haven't had them you are missing out!

A pile of presents for one happy 5 year old!

A Smile!! Finally!

Loving the out of focus camera, but still like this picture.

Opening presents in the afternoon of the big birthday....

A Pottery Wheel! (Turns out to be not that amazing....)

You can't have too many 5th birthday cakes! Courtesy of Memaw!!

Patiently waiting to blow out her candles once again.

The next day- Soleil arrives!!

More presents...

 

Moving onto the weekend after and Eli's big sleepover!

She is really into this headband/bow look right now.

I had to share a few more pictures of my little sunshine in the morning. Oh so happy to be awake!

"Hey Georgia! Smile!!!"

Bathing Beauty @ La Toretta

Learing how to play golf with Grandaddy

 

These are out of order, but we are back to Eli's weekend visit. Out at the pool!

 At the Beach- Mermaid Tail!

La Toretta at Sunset

Playing a game of chess after dinner!

La Torretta

Due to some recent work issues we had to cancel our trip to Destin. I was bummed. We were suppose to leave this Wednesday evening and come back next Tuesday.

In lieu of of Destin trip we ended up with a quick weekend get away to La Toretta Resort on Lake Conroe. I seriously cannot say enough good things about this place. Due to the fact my waterproof camera is refusing to hold a charge and I'm trying to be more "in the moment" than "documenting the moment" the pictures are few and far between. So I will re-create using images found online!

Welcome to the hotel!

The picture above and below are of the guest rooms- every room has the living room area above then bedroom with a large bathroom. I was impressed- especially for the price!

 Lazy River made walking from pool to pool without shoes not so tough- just jump in to get across the pool area and you won't burn your feet!

View of the Splash Pad area

 View of all three pools and lazy river. Not pictured is the toddler swim area.

 My little daredevil LOVED these slides- well, not the tube, but the open one. This was her favorite place to hang out.

So there you have a bit of a picture re-cap. I can't say enough about the hotel- decorations, cleanliness, helpfulness of the staff. The only issue we had is the food. They have a few different food options. Food service by the pool (which we did not partake in, but it looked yummy!) A little coffee shop/ cafe for snacks and they serve breakfast- this place was fine to pick up a snack but as for breakfast the offerings were paltry to say the least. Breakfast Sandwich/ Burrito/ Kolache all looked like Jimmy Dean breakfasts (seriously they were still in the packages) and they nuked them for you. No thanks. The did have bagels and an assortment of pastries but nothing looked too entirely appetizing. 

Secondly- there used to be a restaurant on the property- you can actually see the building it was located in in the photo of the pools above. They have now shut down. If you look on the website they do have another dinner dining restaurant called "Prime" but we think they stole the pics from the original restaurant and used them for publicity for the new place. I have to give them credit for trying- it seems when the old restaurant went out they had to do something so they turned one of the ball rooms into a restaurant. We were pretty disappointed expecting a nice steak house dinner when we walked into "Prime"- It was a buffet. Pretty much everything was inedible. Okay- the chicken wasn't that bad, and the mac and cheese was okay along with the dessert, but the salad had a funky taste to it. Again, I do have to give them credit for throwing together the make shift restaurant until someone comes around to re-open the other place.

They do have other dinner alternatives that include a sushi restaurant/ bar which looked pretty good and I think we will definitely try that next time or just drive into town.

The lounge next to the Sushi Bar had a great piano player and outside at night they blew up a movie screen and played Gnomeo and Juliet. They have a human sized chess/ checkers board game we partook in and putt putt golf which we are saving for next time!

Golf course, driving range, spa, club/bar at night for those sans children, even an Adventure place for kids with their own private playground & arts and crafts if you wanted to hit up the spa for awhile (obviously monitored and staffed). It really seems to have something to offer everyone! I think it's our new "home away from home" In fact we are booking to go back for 4th of July!

Weekly Wrap Up

Okay so I know I don't have a section entitled "Weekly Wrap Up" ever buuuut it's Friday and here I am and I like the title.

So this week has been sooooo long. Filled with sickness, dr. appointments, meetings, work, etc. I cannot tell you how excited I am for a surprise getaway with Georgia this weekend at La Toretta for the night! I've heard great things from friends about this resort and we can't wait to check it out.

Today Georgia FINALLY went back to school. It took her all week long to recover from that nasty ear infection and today she was excited to be back and ready to go.

A couple of her classmate's are going tonight to see the new Disney movie, Brave. I have to admit- it looks good. I actually really want to see it! At the same time the previews look a little scary- am I the only one? Georgia saw the previews when we went to see Madagascar 3 and I had a feeling she was going to be a no-go on this movie. I really wasn't sure I even wanted to take her until I got some feedback from others who have seen it. (Or I went by myself to see it...) Moving right along when I got the invite to join her friends tonight for opening night I jumped on it. I told Georgia this morning and I kid you not her exact words, "If you take me, I will FREAK out." Point blank. I will freak out on you mom. No kidding, I will throw a fit and it will be a disaster. Okie-Dokey Georgia- I think I get the point loud and clear! Since her friends are going I tried a different approach to make sure she was certain and said, "Well, if we don't go we can stay home and clean, do laundry and pack for our trip tomorrow- is that okay?" Georgia, "Yes!!! I'm so excited and we can decorate for 4th of July!" .....Really?? I guess props to me for making cleaning and laundry a more tantalizing choice then a movie date and popcorn!

Once our evening plans were set Georgia said, "We are going to have a 2 girls night and everyone will come over and say "What have you two girls been up to? I can't believe you did all the laundry, cleaned and decorated for 4th of July, your house looks so beautiful!" So I guess I need to line up some visitors to come by and read that from a script...any takers?

Cousins, Friends and Sleepovers!

Last week was the first week of summer! Georgia started off the week at Aunt Laura's house with her cousins for some fun. Aunt Laura picked up Georgia from my office and took the kids to the zoo on Monday. Georgia had a blast!

 Georgia's Favorite- The Zebra!

Then she spent the night with them that night. On Tuesday, Aunt Laura took the kids to the library for a snake show- gross. I'm glad she did this and not me! Georgia touched the snake, can you believe it? They also saw hissing cockroaches- Even more disgusting!!!! and a porcupine!

The morning at Aunt Laura's started with a lesson on reptiles before heading to the library....

What? Oh yes, Aunt Laura has 2 turtles as pets! Perfect!

 At the Library....

I probably would have been able to handle the snake...but I would have lost my mind when they brought these roaches out!

 That night I drove out to have dinner with everyone and we ate at Gringo's- I seriously have not had Gringo's in probably 10 years- but it was still good! Then Georgia decided she wanted to come home. She was going to miss out on the other activities for the week (a trip to see a balloon maker somewhere, swimming at my mom's house and going to see "The Little Mermaid" at Miller Outdoor Theater) but she was ready to come back which was more than fine with me! =)

Since it was the first week of summer vacation I let her stay out of school for the rest of the week and hang out with Memaw. Friday Laura dropped Eli off at Memaw's house and I picked up both kids after work. We went up to City Center and met Tamara, Jack and Kenny for dinner. It was drizzling a little bit so we cut our evening short and headed back to my house so the kids could play. April and Miles were running a little late but they met us back at the house and we had a big play date with the kids. I love that all of my friends are FINALLY having children- it's so much fun to be able to get them all together!

Eli eating his grilled cheese at Ruggles

 Georgia thought it was funny....

Eli spent the night with us- the next morning I took the kids swimming. Georgia is doing so well swimming- at first I didn't think she knew how to and was questioning her swim lessons but after I worked with her a bit she got the hang of it and is really great! After swimming we cleaned up and picked up Memaw and Noah to go see Madagascar 3. Georgia wasn't so sure if she was going to like it or not, but she ended up LOVING it. That night we went to dinner and then watched Cars 2 while we were laying down before bedtime. Georgia fell asleep when I took her to see Cars 2 in the theater so neither one of us had ever seen the ending of it. It was pretty cute.

This was at dinner....

This cracks me up- Can you tell it was the end of a long weekend? haha!

 

Sunday Georgia and I woke up and took Eli back to Memaw's to go home. Then she and I picked up some swim items she needed for school and met April & Miles at the farmer's market in Highland Village we ran to PF Chang's (another restaurant I haven't been to in years....) for lunch. Then Grandaddy called and said they were headed out to the beach. Funny- Georgia had been asking to go to the beach since the day before....it was a little late in the afternoon to head to the beach but we packed up and ran down to Galveston. I'm SO glad we did! Georgia LOVES the ocean and could spend all day long running in and out, building sandcastles, etc. We stayed until about 6:00pm. When we got back home Scott had made it back from his fishing trip with his dad and was cooking us up some delicious fish for dinner.

Telling Georgia we were going to the beach to see Grandaddy.

That is pretty much the run down of the past week or so....Monday night we all went shopping for Soleil's birthday present and last night we cooked more fish and had fish taco's for dinner!

Lunch Monday afternoon together- again we find ourselves at Ruggles. Thank you Eli for the fun way to eat grilled cheese. Georgia insists on doing this now and having her picture taken. =)

Here is a picture of Georgia yesterday before school- I guess I can never say this enough- she is growing up too fast!!!!

And last night at her "fancy" dinner with Scott and I at Brio- She picked out her outfit- so cute!