Meanwhile . . .

 . . . the girls had a busy weekend with Nonnie and Pops.  Friday, they went to the zoo.

Water Break- Abby made sure to let me know that she marked the route on her map this time.

Chillin' Out with the Penguins

On the train

Friday night, Abby opened an early birthday present.  It was a Big Wheels.  As you can see, Caroline got one too.  They had fun riding them all weekend.  We'll have to get some video clips soon.

Then, Caroline decided to get comfy after such a big day.

Saturday was a big day!  Abby had her last soccer game, followed by a team pizza party.

 The Kicks soccer team had a great season.  Here they are posing with their trophies.

After the soccer party, Abby was off to a birthday party complete with a bounce house and a critter man.

Pops said she slid down this 100 times and learned a lesson after going down head first.

 Pops said Abby was behind him the whole time.

 Sunday, they went to the park and another bounce house birthday party.  Whew!

I had quite a homecoming.

I brought them some play jewelry and light up dice.

Reunited

We all had a fantastic weekend!  I think Nonnie and Pops didn't know what to do without their two little houseguests when they got back home.

Vegas Vacation

Brent had a convention in Vegas this week, so we decided to head out there Friday and make a little vacation out of it.  For two people who don't gamble, we had an awesome time just taking in this fantasy land.  Neither of us had been, so we did a lot of walking to check out all the hotels.

We hit the streets within the first hour of our arrival.  We were with four other couples most of the weekend, but Friday evening we did our own thing.

The Fountain Show at The Bellagio

 This volcano was hot!  I was amazed at how much heat it produced.  The nights were very chilly, so it felt great.

 Inside the Venetian

 The Bellagio-We started out early Saturday morning and were going to have the buffet here, but decided we couldn't eat 60 dollars worth of breakfast.

 New York, New York

Brent liked the steaks and jellybeans.

 That hotel went on forever!

 "Come on, girls!"- We spent a lot of time with Jeff and his wife, Haley.  The guys had to keep stopping so we could take pics.  Haley had never been to Vegas either, so we made a good pair.

 The Mandalay-We watched the Aggies beat Alabama with all the other Aggie couples.  I've never had more fun watching a game.

 Saturday night we got all dressed up and celebrated my birthday early with a nice dinner. Then we saw O at Bellagio.  I wasn't my usual photographer self and forgot to get a pic of us that night.  Oops.

 I was a little sad on Sunday to leave this view (from our balcony), but I was more excited to get home and see Abby and Caroline.  It was the perfect weekend get away.  Just to be on a plane gave me a thrill.  It had been 4 and a 1/2 years, so it was time!

Baby in the House and Birthday Business

Things didn't calm down around here after Halloween.  We had a visit from GiGi, Aunt Haley and Carter for three nights.  Aunt Haley was in a wedding here, so they stayed with us. I didn't get many pics.  We were too busy with soccer, a birthday party and playing with our cousin.

 We've also been getting down to some birthday business.  Abby helped sponge paint huge pirate sails for her upcoming Birthday party.

Costume Drama

We had quite a bit of costume drama this year for Halloween.  The girls declared way back in early September they wanted to be witches.  I thought, wow, this will be so easy! Wrong! Not long after Nonnie made their capes and we had Halloween pics made, Caroline started saying she wanted to be a bat. I kept urging her to be a witch or a princess, but she insisted on being a bat.  I ran around frantically the day of a neighborhood parade getting cat ears and shiny fabric to make bat wings and bat ears sewed to a headband she would wear.  This costume was not successful.  She took off the wings and ears and looked like a girl in black.  The day before Halloween, she really didn't want to dress up at all, but said she would wear her glow in the dark skeleton pjs if Pops would dress up as a skeleton too.  So, what do you think happened?

If you guessed that Pops dressed up as a skeleton, you are correct!  Nonnie ran around town to every store ON Halloween day to find an adult skeleton costume and we ended up with one happy little skeleton and a witch, who was shockingly cooperative about her costume.

They had a great time trick or treating in our new neighborhood.  Abby was especially grown up, walking up to every door on her own.  She was very serious, making sure her hat was on straight and sticking to her script.  Caroline was right in her shadow with her big skeleton never far behind.

I had a little camera drama of my own, which resulted in fuzzy pics and dark video clips.  I ended up exchanging my new camera for a different one a few days later.

Candy Inspection