Happy Birthday Dada!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Dada, happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to the most loving and fun Dada that we know!   We hope 32 is the best year yet and that all of your birthday wishes come true. 

Happy Birthday Matt, we sure do love you!

And Happy Halloween, we are going to walk down to the Trail of Treats tonight at the big lake in our neighborhood and I can't wait to share the pictures with you on Monday and pictures from Benjamin's Halloween party at school today!  Trick or treat! =)

Froberg's Farm

We hope you had just as great of a weekend as we did!  Saturday we celebrated a huge LSU win over Ole Miss, Geaux Tigers!  And Sunday we spent the afternoon at Froberg's Farm picking out pumpkins, playing in the corn maze, and eating fried pies and picking out fresh fruits and vegetables to take home. 

Artoberfest

As I mentioned previously, Sunday we spent the afternoon in Galveston at Artoberfest, and Benjamin had a blast running around and looking at all of the dogs.

Decorating

We had a fairly busy weekend around here.  Friday I enjoyed a nice dinner with friends at Skinny Ritas Grille while Matt got to spend some quality time with Benjamin since he had been out of town for a few days.  Saturday we ran lots of errands and played outside most of the day and finally on Sunday we spent the day in Galveston at Artoberfest with MawMaw, GiGi, and Poppy.  And Benjamin decided that we needed to move our picture wall from the side of the refrigerator to the back door.  So we did a little redecorating as well.

Community Helpers

The month of October is Community Helpers month at Benjamin's school and last week they had a visit from a firefighter, a nurse practitioner, a police officer, a U.S. Coast Guard service member and on Friday they got to meet Oscar, a guide dog.  You would probably think that Friday would have hands down been the best day for Benjamin since he got to meet Oscar the dog, but actually the nurse and the police officer were his top 2 followed by oscar.  Every day they have someone different coming to talk to the kids all month and yesterday they had a visit from an EMS who came in his ambulance and when I picked Benjamin up they said that he LOVED the ambulance with its lights and sirens.  Just as he loved the fire truck with its lights and sirens.  His teacher and the director said that the EMS picked Benjamin to sit in the drivers seat of the ambulance and Benjamin just sat there holding on to the wheel and smiling as the EMS was talking to the other kids.  And just as it was with the police officer and the nurse, they said that Benjamin did NOT want the ambulance to leave. 

I love that Benjamin is getting all of these experiences at his school and I love hearing about them when I pick him up.

Geaux Tigers!

We had a pretty relaxing weekend around here since we were all recovering from a long weekend in Louisiana.  Saturday we got a lot of things done around the house, setting up new furniture, cleaning, and doing a little yard work.  I even set myself up an office in our closet.  Our closet is huge and since our 4th bedroom that is now a playroom is soon becoming our guest room, I had to find a place for the computer so I created an office on one side of our closet.  And it is working out just perfectly.  Poppy stopped by for a visit Saturday afternoon and was cracking Benjamin up with silly faces.  I just love to hear his deep belly laughs.  Saturday night we finally were able to cheer the Tigers on to a victory and I am convinced it is because Benjamin was sporting his game day attire all day. 

Benjamin insisted on pushing that popcorn popper toy all the way to the park. 

 



 

Tour du Teche Finish

Last week I never finished posting about our weekend in Louisiana and the Tour du Teche finish, and I know you all are just dying to know how Matt did.  Well, he got 2nd place in his class!  We couldn't be more proud of him! 

 






















Matt on the final day of the race.  Meanwhile, we were all hanging out at the finish line enjoying the live music, shopping, and food and waiting to cheer Dada on as he crossed the finish line.

It's definitely no secret that Benjamin loves his Bubba.  Even when we talk about Bubba at home Benjamin says his name with such enthusiasm and excitement.   And he was definitely excited to see him over the weekend.

This is post snocone.  Benjamin was just skipping, hopping, running, and yelling up and down this street.   The police officers joked that he had had "one too many."  And I didn't mind because he needed to run off all that sugar. 

Not long after Dada passed the finish line! 

And we were all so excited to see him and give him congratulatory hugs.  We love you Matt and are so proud of your 135 mile 2nd place finish! 

New Orleans Aquarium

Benjamin loved playing in the hotel room Friday night.  He thought it was so fun to throw himself on the bed and roll around in the covers.  Love my silly boy.  He also thought it was lots of fun to play in the curtains of the lobby.

Saturday morning in New Orleans was quite chilly!  We had a great breakfast at Red Gravy where I enjoyed about 3 cups of hot apple cider, perfect on such a crisp fall morning.  And again, Benjamin did fantastic despite the restaurant not having a high chair.  So many people commented on how well behaved he was which made me quite a proud momma!  We spent Saturday morning at the Aquarium of the America's which was just as enjoyable as the zoo.  We especially enjoyed the otters and the penguins. 

And headed back to Lafayette around noon which was perfect timing to stop in New Ibera to see Dada at one of his check points during his race.  This picture was right after Matt had been flipped by a large boat but that didn't deter his spirits.  Saturday was the hardest part of Matt's race, 59 miles, which he started at 9AM and made it to the end at around 12:45 AM Sunday.  Matt was in the racing division so he had to finish within a certain time frame each day and no surprise he still finished in time Saturday despite being capsized. 

Of course we had lots of hugs from Pops and Bubba as well as Elliott was Matt's bank runner and Pop's was out there running the show so we didn't get to see them very much all weekend. 

Louisiana

As I said on Friday, we headed to Louisiana for the long weekend (we had a Fall holiday Friday) since Matt was competing in his Dad's canoe race.  Nana, Benjamin, and I headed to New Orleans early Friday morning while Dada was paddling away on the beautiful Bayou Teche.  We spent most of Friday at the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans.  It is such a beautiful zoo and it was especially nice with the great weather we had.  The Audobon Zoo had lots of different animals that we don't have at the Houston Zoo like gorillas, bears, and alligators so I loved that Benjamin got to see all of those animals. 

While we were at the zoo they had a "code blue" and we were ordered to stay inside a building.  Turns out the escaped animal was just a toucan, but we didn't mind the air conditioning and getting to do a little shopping.  =)  Benjamin got the cutest hat and of course a book. 

 

 

Such a fun day at the zoo!  After the zoo we checked into our hotel and standing in line behind me was Jimmy Graham who plays for the Saints.  Truth be told, I had no idea who the guy was but I knew he was a big deal because people kept asking for pictures.  Friday evening we had dinner at The Bon Ton Cafe which was recommended to us by Matt who had dined their with some clients and it was just as delicious as Matt described to me.  If you ever find yourself in New Orleans, I definitely recommend you try it.  I was a little nervous about how Benjamin was going to behave but he did AWESOME!  In fact, he did so well at every restaurant we went to all weekend.  We spent the rest of the evening shopping around the French Quarter and then finally went back to the hotel and had dessert and called it a night.