Sophie's 12th Birthday

Last Wednesday, Sophie woke up on her birthday to a special surprise from our elf, Ellie:

Her birthday is the 17th so Ellie must have done this the night before - you know 16-17?! Close enough. She loved it at least!

Since we celebrated Sadie's party the weekend before, we celebrated Sophie's birthday this past weekend. This year, she turned 12 & her party was a little out of control..... she couldn't cut her guest list down so we told her to enjoy it this year because this would be the last. Ha! She wanted to invite her friends from church, her entire volleyball team, all of her older friends from elementary school & all of the newer friends she met at middle school this year:

We had all of the girls dropped off at our house & then Bryan arranged a bus to pick us all up. The bus ride might have been the best part of the party if you ask the girls?! He had a speaker & we let Sophie play DJ:

Thankfully I had Bryan to help me - I don't know we managed so many girls all afternoon. Ha!

We drove about an hour from our house to Fort Worth to Rooftop Cinema, with is an outdoor movie theater on top of the Worthington Hotel in downtown:

The weather looks beautiful, right? We lucked out because I booked this back in October & I had no idea if the weather would cooperate. I knew we would be ok if it was cold, I just didn't want it to rain. However, I didn't expect it to be this hot:

I saw on the news that night that it actually hit 82 degrees & it was December 20! Apparently, it was so hot, we broke a record. It was pretty sunny & bright when we first got there so the girls were hot & thirsty and then Sophie's BFF got stung by a wasp. Poor girl screamed right away & scared all of us because we didn't know what happened but thankfully she had a lot of friends to cheer her up:

Finally, we got everyone settled. They all started on the turf to stay out of the sun but as it shifted, they finally moved to the chairs. Bryan & I bought them all water & popcorn when we got there but Sophie had fun shopping before we went & she had picked out Christmas candy for all of them to enjoy:

Once the sun moved, it actually felt pretty nice out there:

Besides the movie, they had games, ping pong tables & all sorts of entertainment that kept them busy. But are you curious what movie we saw?

Home Alone - you know it! That's always a hit every Christmas & never gets old. After the movie, we loaded up the bus & took the party bus back home for the girls to be picked up. I'm not gonna lie, it was a lot managing that many girls, but Sophie was in heaven getting to celebrate with all of her friends:

Love celebrating both of my Christmas cuties!

Christmas Parties

Christmas is officially one week away & we couldn't be more excited! The girls get out of school tomorrow & I cannot wait to have some down time with just the 4 of us around the house. This is why I love not traveling or going on vacation over winter break - I just want to catch up on life! I cannot wait to stay up late watching movies, eating & sleeping in with the girls. Having said that, the past couple of weeks have been anything but that. For some reason I feel like we have had more Christmas parties than usual, but I'm here for it! I've had a couple of fun lunches with my girlfriends, but my favorite was Holiday Tea at the French Room at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas:

Isn't it gorgeous?! I hadn't been here since Bryan & I were dating. My company had their Christmas party here, so it had been a while, but it was just as pretty I as I remembered. We talked about doing this last year, but we waited too long to get reservations. This year, I got online at midnight back in October & was able to grab them:

I couldn't help but take pictures because it was so pretty! Ok, we'll move on to the dining room where the chandeliers were gorgeous:

It was a true tea with different teas brought out with our different courses. The picture above is my plate & I know it doesn't look like anything special BUT I was beyond excited because I had told them beforehand that I was df & gf so they had made me a plate which was very similar to what my friends were having. I didn't feel left out at all, and it all tasted delicious!

The first picture below is the traditional desert course, which is what my friends had:

and this was mine - I even got warm scones straight from the oven & they were delicious:

The decorations in there were a little more girlie & you know I loved it! Plus, they had live music with a harp:

Honestly, not only did I have the best time with these 3 ladies, but I was honestly surprised how much I got to eat & how great it tasted:

I am definitely going to put a note on my calendar to make reservations again next year!

I also drove to Dallas another day to have lunch at Paradiso, which is in Bishop Arts with Jamie & Julianne. This place blew me away also - it was so cute & girlie Christmas with pink everywhere:

I love doing life with these ladies!

I also went to 3 other Christmas parties at night & somehow got 0 pictures. Bad Shaye!

Bryan surprised me with a night out in Grapevine. I don't know why we have never really come here before since it is the Christmas Capital of Texas. Main Street was shut down & it was decorated with twinkle lights & photo ops everywhere:

We went to dinner at a steakhouse & then we had tickets to a Michael Buble tribute. And you know I love me some Michael Buble, especially at Christmas!

Because I have seen Michael so many times, I feel like I know his stage presence & mannerisms pretty well, so it was kind of funny seeing this knock off guy trying to duplicate him. He was a great singer, but sometimes it was a little too much:

But it was still a fun night & I love Bryan for planning something like this for us:

The girls have been partying also! Earlier this month they had their KLife Christmas party for all of middle school:

And they had their small group parties also. Sadie's was at a friend's house & they had a tshirt exchange:

We hosted Sophie's 6th grade party at our house & it was 2 days before her birthday, so we celebrated her as well:

I mean look at how excited she was! They all had fun singing to her:

and then we played Sophie's favorite, Christmas bingo with m&m's:

Then they made Christmas ornaments:

Finally, Sadie's soccer team had their party:

Lot of Christmas fun with more to come & one more birthday too!