Madeleine is 5!!!

Just look at that face!!! This is my absolute favorite 5-year-old in the entire world!!

Here is our birthday girl in her very best dress (or very favorite anyway) on her big day. It wasn't the most exciting day since we spent a good portion of the day driving from San Antonio to Houston, but we did manage to squeeze in some fun. For breakfast, our hotel had delicious waffles in the shape of Texas. She still talks about those Texas-shaped waffles. When we made it to our new apartment and got keys, etc. the first thing she wanted to do was go swimming. We went for a little while to the pool at our building before going to an early dinner at Olive Garden, Madeleine's choice. Well, actually she said she wanted spaghetti for dinner and since we weren't prepared to cook at home we thought Olive Garden would be a good place to go. The kids both surprised us by totally chowing down on the salad. They don't eat salad like that at home, that's for sure. Then we shared some delectable desserts after the servers sang to her.

If this had been her only b-day celebration I might have felt bad, but this was the last in a string of celebrations she had had already to celebrate. Since we knew we weren't going to be able to have a party with her friends on her actual b-day (or very near it since we were leaving) we had a combined party with our friend Jack about a month before we left. All their school friends came and we all had so much fun!! I really shirked my duty though because I didn't take any pictures. Then, just before we moved we had a family party at Chuck E. Cheese complete with cousins, aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa, a Tinkerbell cake and lots of presents. Again, no pictures. I am such a slacker.
Finally, at school they make it "your special day" when it's your birthday, so this was one more chance for us to celebrate this wonderful little girl. This is Madeleine's teacher, Barbie. We love her!! She is the best and we are so, so lucky Madeleine was in her class this year. She has taught her so much and really helped her prepare for kindergarten in the fall.

We love you so much Madeleine!! You bring us so much joy and happiness every day and we are so blessed to have you in our family! Happy birthday!!

Quick update

We got to Houston on May 2oth, (Madeleine's birthday which I will post about next) and I think I am sufficiently settled to give a brief update. I'm afraid if I don't do it now we will be headed back to Mesa before I do!

Anyway, we are thinking that Houston isn't so bad. Not that we thought it would be, just that it's not a dreamland, but it's not terrible either. We have come across some of the hugest cockroaches known to man (I'm guessing of course, but they were beastly), but other than that no major complaints. After living in Los Angeles I think we could handle most other big cities. We aren't turned off by traffic since we've seen worse. I'll tell you what about Texas. They know good food here!! If I'm not careful I'll be a couple sizes bigger by the time we get back to AZ from having to try out all the good restaurants.

Our apartment is nice and small, so it's easy to clean up quickly and since we didn't bring much with us there's not much to put away. We are living a simplified life, for sure.

Here are a few pictures from our adventures here thus far.

These two are at the Houston Arboretum. The kids love all the trees here! Everywhere we go they are pointing out "the woods" with great excitement.

The next two are from Space Center Houston last weekend with the Gannons, our friends from Mesa. They came through this way on their way to Alabama for the summer. We all loved hanging out with them for a couple days!

I know that our time here fly by, but we are planning to make the most of it while we are here.