Finley's Second Birthday Party

Finley had so much fun.  Muffie the Clown and her rabbit, Sugar Boo, were a huge hit with all the kids.  Hot dogs, pop corn and circus animal crackers were enjoyed by all.  Finley absolutely loved her cake, her favorite part were the sugar stars, I think she ate every single one she could get her little hands on.  She even let Muffie paint her a kitty cat face.  She was so cute!  It was so much fun to hang out with all of Finley's friends to celebrate her special day.

Pre-Party at the Big Top aka our House

The Houston weather did not want to cooperate with our party plans. "Rain, Rain, Go Away" is one of Finley's favorite songs, but no matter how much she sang it, the rain did not stay away. So faced with a muddy, messy park, we opted to move the party indoors. It ended up working out very well. Here are some pictures from before the party started. We hid the dining room table in a closet and moved most of the chairs up to the fourth floor. I think Finley would prefer the Finley sized chair and table set up to our regular dining table. She is still asking where her chairs and table went...

Special thanks to Max's mom for the adorable dress, Grammy and Grandad for creating the clown bean bag toss and of course the amazing Shannon for making the cake.

I think she liked her party...

Center Court Pizza

I have hundreds of birthday party pictures to sort through, so for now, I will post our visit to Center Court Pizza today.  Center Court Pizza is a favorite of my Pearland friends and I love to join them there for a Blue Moon and pizza.  The crust is amazing.  I have taken Finley once before and I think she ate half of the pizza, she loved it.  We were in Pearland today looking at houses with Grammy and Grandad, so of course we stopped at Center Court for lunch.  It's no Ledo Pizza, but it is still pretty good.

More Presents

Grammy and Grandad arrived from Atlanta today with more birthday fun for Miss Finley.  We had lunch at Pappas Seafood, I had a dozen raw oysters and Finley wasn't interested in them (boo!)  She did love the fried catfish, yay for her liking seafood!  Finley got a circus tea set and a doll house to play with.  It is a week long birthday celebration, lucky girl.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

It is Clifton's birthday today, just two days after Finley's birthday.  Finley helped me make a card for her daddy (yay for my new scoring tool!)  After we got the card sealed, she immediately tried to rip it open.  Daddy let her open his present, since there didn't seem to be any other choice.  Clifton got tickets to the Houston Rockets vs. Miami Heat basketball game.  After Finley sang happy birthday to daddy, Clifton blew out all 35 candles.  Finley ate the cream cheese off a slice of carrot cake...silly girl.



Happy birthday, Daddy!

2nd Birthday Recap

We had a fantastic day for Finley's 2nd birthday. Finley started the day coming downstairs to discover her new circus tent. She was so excited to put all her toys, especially her castle building set, into the tent.


After the playtime tent fun, I let Finley have whatever she wanted for breakfast. She chose sausage and a cupcake. Then she had another cupcake after lunch, which was her favorite, mac n cheese.


At the grocery store, I finally conceded (only because it was her birthday) and let her get the grocery CAR. She had a blast in it. I am going to be in big trouble next time we go to the store, I have a feeling she will only want the car from here on out.


Clifton came home early to open presents. We had put all the gifts inside her tent and she brought each one out to unwrap it. She had such a fun time bringing all the presents out of the tent.






After presents, it was onto Pappasitos for birthday dinner. Finley ate her fajitas like a big girl, with beans and rice inside the tortilla along with the chicken. Yummy! The servers all came over to present her with her birthday tres leches and to sing Happy Birthday to her. She blew out her candle, but was more interested in the strawberries than she was in the cake.

Happy to You

Happy Birthday, Finley!

I cannot believe that you are finally two years old.  We have been practicing with Finley to say how old she is for the past month, so she thinks she has been two for awhile now.  We are celebrating today with the circus tent from Aunt Sharon full of your birthday presents.  Then it is off to dinner at Pappasitos so you can enjoy your favorite chips, fajitas and beans with a good Happy Birthday song for you.  We will finish at home with chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting, with more singing "Happy To You!"  You are such an amazing little girl and we are so very lucky to have you.  We love you Finley Anne!

Just Born


One Year Old


Two Years Old

Finley's First Board Game

I am a huge fan of board games, always have been.  Finley has been very into counting lately, so I decided to try and "play" Hi-Ho-Cherry-O, which is a perfect first game.  She loved setting up the cherries, she was so intently focused on it.  After getting the game all set up, which took awhile since Finley was a touch slow, we were ready to spin.  I spun first to show her how to do it.  I got the "dog" symbol, so I didn't have to do anything.  It was Finley's turn to spin and she got a "2".  I showed her how to take 2 cherries off her tree and put them in her bucket.  She took that as a sign to take ALL the cherries off the trees and try to fit them into her bucket (after two tree's worth of cherries, her bucket was overflowing)  Once we got all the trees cleared, she wanted to set up again.  I thought we could try the spinning and actually game playing again.  No dice, it was the same, as soon as I took off cherries, she was clearing all the trees.  We played her version of Hi-Ho-Cherry-O several times and she requests to play "game" now, so I know she enjoys it.  The funniest part was her imitating me.  We were sitting on the floor and I decided to lay on my stomach.  She must have thought that was part of the game, because she did it too.

Daddy's Car Race

The first weekend of every month, Clifton goes down to Gulf Greyhound Park to race Autocross.  He was in the first heat today, so he invited us down to watch him speed around the cones.  Finley had so much fun watching for Daddy's car.  There was a blue Dodge Stealth that looked very similar to Clifton's car, so she was a bit confused by that. 

She did lots of walking around and she tired herself out.  She was asleep within minutes on the drive home.  Finley never sleeps before lunch, so she must have really worn herself out. 

Gig Em, Aggies!

Beat the Hell Outta OU!

It's been a rough college football year for my Cougars...first they lose Case for the season, then they lose to Rice and last night they lost to UCF.  So frustrating.  It was such a promising season.