Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Bando's Weekend of Fun

Jordan wanted to get away this weekend. He had Monday off, and he really wanted to get away. For a number of reasons, though, we realized that it was not the best weekend to leave town. So we decided to stay here. I knew Jordan was bummed about that, so I brought the fun to him with his very own Weekend of Fun!

When he pulled into the garage after work on Friday, he saw this:
He later told me that, before he read what it said, he thought I was asking him to park somewhere else because I was going to have people over and they needed to park here. He wasn't too thrilled with that idea!

But then he noticed this sign on the door.

By the time he came inside, he was smiling and laughing! Then Claire and I welcomed him with more "surprises!!!" He read the explanation on the left, and he discovered the slips of paper on the right throughout the house. (There were more slips of paper for more "surprises;" I just grabbed some for the picture).


As I was hanging up the signs, I told Claire that they were a surprise for Dad. Since then, she has said "su-pra" every time she has seen any of these orange signs around the house!

After reading the explanation of the Weekend of Fun, Jordan saw lists of options. I originally had two lists: entertainment options and dining options. At some point, Jordan suggested breakfast in bed, so I created a menu for that, too.
And if you look closely, you'll see that Jordan crossed out the "Weekend" part and wrote "Life." I think he enjoyed himself this weekend! :-)

So what did Jordan choose to do during his very own Weekend of Fun?

We went to Oscar's for pizza on Friday night. Then we went to a frozen yogurt place for dessert.

Saturday he watched college football, took a nap, had Cane's for lunch, and took another nap. Saturday night he and I went on a date. (Thank you, Heather, for watching Claire!!!) He chose to go to P.F. Chang's for dinner. (And he even said to our waitress, "I LOVE P.F. Chang's! She loved it, but we were the ones who understood the inside joke!) And then we saw the movie Moneyball, which was excellent!

Sunday after church, we had leftover pizza for lunch, Jordan took a nap, (so did I!!!), and we had tacos and queso for dinner.

Monday began with breakfast in bed. Look how sleepy he is!

After a while, Claire joined him.

He can always make her laugh!

Then we drove to Lafayette to see where he'll work in January and to look at a motel that might be a good deal. After that, we drove south to Avery Island and toured the Tabasco Plant there! We also drove around the Jungle Gardens. (Pictures to come later for those outings!) And we came home the back way - through Pierre Part and other small, CAJUN towns of Southern Louisiana!! We stopped at Weinerschnitzel to pick up some dinner just before we made it back home. (And at Weinerschnitzel, we saw a man trying to tow a car that had burned. We found out that the car caught on fire in the drive-through -- right when it was at the pick-up window, which is basically in the middle of the building. If you've been to a Weinerschnitzel like this, you know what I mean. The lady told us her brother, the owner, had to go out and help the guy push his burning car out from under the building. They pushed until it ran into a fence. Because of how the parking lot and building are set up, the tow truck and the car were perpendicular to each other. So the tow truck operator hooked a big chain to something on the bottom of the car and then drove his truck a little to try to pull the car around so he could load it onto his truck. But the car parts that he hooked onto just broke off the car when he tried to pull the car around! I have no idea what that guy did next. Thankfully, we just went home and ate our dinner!)

So I'm happy to report that Jordan did have a great Weekend of Fun, even though we weren't able to get away. I love you, Bando!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Aprons

I made some cookies yesterday, and Claire liked my apron, so I put one on her, too! I think it will be fun when she can stand on a chair and help me bake! But until then, Claire thinks it's great fun to pull at my apron strings to untie the bow in the back!


I also love how Claire says cookie. It's something like "kee-cook." :-)

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Smiles & Curls

With Claire's curls in full view, I couldn't resist taking these pictures. And then she smiled so well and was acting so cute! I just love these!







Sunday, October 2, 2011

Crystal's Shower

In August, I went to Houston to attend Crystal's bridal tea. My mom, Aunt Carol, and Grandmom gave her this shower.

Here's an action shot with these four laughing. I like seeing everyone having fun.

Aunt Debbie with her future and current daughters-in-law, Crystal and Angie

The table - and the food was delicious!

Grandmom, Mom, Aunt Carol, Crystal, a bridesmaid, and Crystal's sister (I think her name is Melissa, but it's obviously been too long, since I don't remember everyone's name).

Next, it was present time! The guests were gearing up to watch!


(And chat, too!)

Here she goes!



Crystal's awesome bridesmaid made her a countdown to the wedding. She indicated certain days as Gift Days, too, so Crystal gets to open a present each day that's a Gift Day.

This day happened to be a Gift Day, so Crystal opened another present from her awesome bridesmaid.

It's a guest book that she tampered with to make it fit the theme and decor of the wedding. Crystal loved it!

Soon, her last name will be Eller!

The sisters/in-laws/cousins/in-laws: Emily, Julia, Crystal, Ashley, and Angie

The cousins: Emily, Julia, and Ashley

Crystal and her sister

It was great to see everyone who could make it!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

More Cousin Fun

{Note: I'm almost finished catching up my posts with the pictures that I have! So soon, I can stop talking about what happened in August!}

Back in August, Claire, Ryan, and McKinley got to play together for about a day. McKinley was so sweet playing while she was wearing her hat.

Then she took her hat off.

So Claire tried to help her put it back on.

So did Ryan.

But when he couldn't get it on McKinley, he took it for himself.

And somehow he got it on!!!

Claire played in the car - but only if SHE wanted to play in the car! If we tried to put her in the car, she did NOT like it!

We tried to get a good picture of the four grandkids, since they were all together. We had four kids in the tub, two crazy moms with cameras taking pictures, and more help trying to get the kids to look at the cameras and smile. Let me just say that it was a difficult task to get a good picture! Here's one example.

Here's a good one from my camera. (I love how Kyle is looking at the water coming out of the faucet!)

But Mel has the best two posts about this event. Here they are: #1 and #2.