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.

Pretty Ballerina

Finley's ballet class is still going strong.  She has a new dance teacher now and she is having a tough time adjusting to her.  I tried to bribe her to stay in her class by letting her wear her pink tutu.  It sort of worked.  Hopefully, by next week, she will be back into ballet class 100%.  The teachers have totally different styles and even the little girl who has always been the best listener/dancer has been having issues.

Cookie Decorating and Bouncing

Finley's playgroup had a cookie decorating party for Halloween.  For the kids, it was more like a cookie eating party.  And chocolate chip eating.  And sprinkles eating (by the spoonful!)  The other Finley in our group got her hands all covered with melted chocolate chip goodness and then decided to give her mom a big hug.  She had two chocolate handprints on her pants~ it was too funny.

After all the decorating fun, the kids got some good bouncing in on the trampoline.  It was Finley's first time on a trampoline and she absolutely loved it.  She had such a blast.  She didn't want to get out of it.  Methinks the next birthday party with a bounce house at it will be a huge hit.

Farm Share vs. Halloween Candy

Hmmmm...it was an easy choice for Finley!  Hopefully she will try some of the veggies sometime soon.

Aunt Rose and Daddy

I was hoping Clifton would grab a picture of Aunt Rose and Finley on Halloween, but he didn't get one.  Finley wasn't the first clown in the family...

Trick or Treat

Finley had a nasty stomach bug on Friday afternoon and passed it to me by Saturday night.  She was feeling great by Trick or Treating time, but I wasn't able to make it.  Clifton took her over to Aunt Rose and Uncle Ferrel's house for a Halloween party.  Then it was off to trick or treat with Grandma.  Finley wanted to eat the candy at first, but once Clifton explained she would get more if she went to the next house, she kept saying "next house" as soon as she got candy.  She came home with a whole pumpkin full of candy!

Zoo Boo Part Three

We decided to hit up Zoo Boo one more time with Finley's friend Wyatt.  We saw Ryan and Lily there as well.  Finley had a blast showing Wyatt around.  First, she showed him her zoo favorite, the meerkats.  After that, they ran over to see the baby elephant and pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  They both got to see the cougar and tiger walking around, which was very exciting.  Of course, they got some super fun ramp running time in.  Then we hit the children's zoo to play at the playground.  There was some candy and trunk or treating mixed into the morning.  It was a great time at the Houston Zoo.