Happy Birthday, Ella Bella!!!

This Sunday our little sweetheart turned the BIG 6!!!! Needless to say that we started the celebration on Friday after school and partied the weekend away!! :) We did a lot of good stuff.

On Friday we went to Sea Life for another tour of the beautiful acquarium. If you have one close-by or ever happen to visit a place that does, it is so worth it! Or if you happen to be close-by Sea World, go for it! (we were going to go there this year but plans changed.) Anyway, it was a delight to watch all the beautiful sea creatures swim, crawl, or float. They even have a shark walk, an interactive rock pool, and awesome ocean themed background music.

We then grabbed some to-go from Hard Eight BBQ, our favorite barbeque place.

On Saturday morning we did the FAAN  (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) Walk which is a great fund raiser event to support food allergies awareness and research. I can't tell you how nice it felt to be around folks like us who struggle with food allergies day in and day out. It was comforting and reassuring. I felt a spirit of hope in the air, a hope for so much needed research breakthroughs in this field. And I know that everyone present there felt the same. It is just something so special and unifying about being part of a cause and food allergies is OUR CAUSE. And when I told Ella that in a couple of weeks we have an appointment with a doctor that is using a different approach to try to desensitize the body of allergens, her face literally lit up. Great hopes and prayers going up for her and all those like her.

The walk was in a wonderful neighborhood equipped with a pretty cool park which of course was the number one attraction for all the kids after the walk!



After the walk, we came home, grabbed some lunch, and headed out again to Ray Roberts Lake, a beautiful state park about an hour away built around a very large lake. We had a great time there, trying our hand at fishing and just hanging out together.



"Fishie, fishie, fishie!!"

And a little photoshoot...:

And finally, the actual birthday on Sunday!! Sweetie pie dressed-up in her princess dress (which is a party dress she managed to get sweet Maitreyee, her dearest cousin, to give to her!) and waited for the surprise birthday gift:

And no birthday is complete without CAKE (we made marble cake and Ella decorated it with very little help):

It was definitely a weekend and day to remember!!!

Back on track

Happy Columbus Day! I love this day already, why? Well, first because school is out and I know Ella is so excited to be at Primrose today and enjoy pajama and movie day with her friends and then be picked up early for the State Fair. Because after I got to drop her off, I went to get the mail and the fresh cool air and deep green grass, trees, and bushes just swept me off my feet. Love this cool rainy weather! It's funny because I didn't use to like this kind of weather before. When I'm happy on the inside, the weather can't mess too much with my mood.

I like to see this when I look out my window:

I know it's going to be a great day also because I'm going to do my strength and cardio today and it's going to feel great. I have to get those legs going and ready for the 5k at the FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) Walk/Run this Saturday. To erradicate the last 10-15 lbs of fat (and replace them with muscle), I'm back to tracking my food religiously at livestrong.com. And of course, watching my intake like a "hawk." And I think hawk is better than monster how I've been lovlingly (I HOPE!!!!) nicknamed by my husband and trainer. (I have to dig into that a little deeper and find out how all this came down.)

I know it's going to be a great day because rain or sun, we'll get to hangout together this afternoon: Ella, Hrishi, and I. We love hanging out together, you know. In fact, we're always together and that feels super!

(This is from Sea Life Aquarium, really neat place!)

(A moment of daughter-father love. In fact, Ella is "hissing" at Hrishi, lovingly of course!)

(This is from Forth Worth Zoo, me gazing somewhere but where? I was definitely not looking at the camera! Lol! :))

 (On the glass floor portion of the aquarium at Sea Life.)

I know it's going to be a great day because church was great yesterday and the lessons in Sunday School and Relief Society have seemed to have filled my inner spiritual well to the brim. [I'm sure church is great every Sunday, it's just that I seem to get most out of it when I'm prepared and willing to listen.]

And because I have these two wonderful people by my side:

And because I know He loves and understands me as He does all of us. 

Fondue mainly

Yup, that's what Ella wanted to make this afternoon. Since she had the day off from school, mommy worked from home and we got to spend some more quality time together. So she guided me through the process of melting the chocolate, washing and carefully arranging the fruit on her little princess platter, and then doing the fun part: DIPPING! She used bamboo skewers to dip the fruit into the chocolate. I just love my fancy Ella!!

(I had a couple of strawberries and grapes too, hopefully that doesn't tip the weighing scale tomorrow. Because looking at the weighing scale over the past two days and seeing this----->

has sure made me happy.

And another thing that makes me happy right now is fitting in size 4 jeans/pants. I have never ever been a size 4 before, so you get the idea. :)

Totally random, but in line with things that make onevery  happy is that this past week we've been going to the pool almost every day. Daddy's been out of town and that was a fun way to end the school and work day.

Swim lessons:

and leisure:

Weekend happenings

We had a pretty relaxed, laid back weekend. My kind! Needed a break, for sure. As much as we love having friends over, I have to admit that preparations sometimes tend to take a toll on our otherwise free time. So this weekend, we stayed home, just us and got to do some of the things we love: swim, splash, rock climb, work out, eat, sleep in, go to church, and just hang out together.

Washed the cars.

Rocked climbed.

Did some back-to-school shopping:

(Our little kindergartner is all ready now... I think!)

Practised swimming. Happy to report that after watching a couple of folks swim effortlessly in the outdoor pool at the gym, I conclude: it can be done!! Ha-ha! Seriously, both Hrishi and I were almost staring at those folks from underneath our sunglasses in hopes somehow their breathing/swimming skills would rub off! :) After watching them swim a few laps, I jumped into the lane next to them and tried. And it was not all that bad (I only swallowed a couple of mouth fulls of water while turning my head (mouth open) back in the water! DUH!) It just takes lots of practice and staring (just kidding)!!

Helped mommy prepare the lesson visuals for nursery:

(Thank you so much, sweetie! You did an excellent job!)

And while she was picking the colors, she said something that almost made my jaw drop:  "Mommy, we don't know how Moses or Noah were dressed, these colors are fantasy but the stories are not!" Can't really tell how happy this made me! To hear my baby's testimony that the scripture stories were true and not fantasy! It humbled me at the same time. 

Cuddled with daddy. (I just love these two so much!)

Did some more drawing (Angelina Ballerina.)

Summer is quickly slipping away. So glad it's been so full and fun. I love the hot and sunny days and with living in Texas, we can sure hope to enjoy another good two or three more months of great weather.