Moonpie!

During our recent visit to Mobile, Mom, Dad and I took the little ones to their first Mardi Gras Parade. It was such a beautiful day we just couldn't resist!

Here are Pops, Tula and Walker waiting for the parade to begin.

Still more waiting...

"Hey, I think I see a float coming!"

There it is!

Look at all of the candy we caught!

NYC Part III

I love breakfast! Therefore, my most favorite meal in New York City was at Norma's located in Le Parker Meridien Hotel. Oh, if I could have this meal again, I would do it in a heartbeat!

Here are the girls gearing up for a fabulous breakfast...

I ordered the Waz-Za? Doesn't it look divine? Trust me, it tasted even better!

Here is a picture of Lauren's Normalita's Huevos Rancheros and Carrie's Crunchy French Toast. Val enjoyed her favorite-- Norma's Eggs Benedict-- and Jaime had the yummy chestnut pancakes!

And guess where we headed after breakfast? Back to Bryant Park, of course! Unfortunately, we had received some faulty information that DVF was at 10:00 a.m. But we hung around to see who we could see!

Fortunately, I had just pulled out my camera to take a picture of this precious pooch, when Jennifer Love Hewitt walked up!

Next, we were off to see Wicked. If you haven't seen this one, it's a must!! Check out their website, as they have upcoming tours in Birmingham and Memphis!
After the show, we hit John's Pizzeria for the most delicious pizza I've had in a long time!! The Times Square location is housed in what I'm told is a former church. Here's a picture of the beautiful domed ceiling.
And no trip to NYC would be complete without a piece of authentic New York cheesecake. So, we headed over to Junior's after dinner for some wonderful dessert!! Needless to say, I think we successfully ate our way through the Big Apple:)

So, here's my last NYC picture--me and Matilda. You can tell she's really interested in having her picture made!

Before I wrap up my New York City posts, I have to give one last shout out to the Red Flame. It doesn't have it's own website, but I've linked it's location here. We stopped in the Red Flame for a quick lunch of cheese sticks, french fries and cookies before the play, and they were all yummy! Their Black & White cookies were so delicious that I took several back home with me the next day!! This is a great stop for a cup of coffee and some wonderful baked goods!

Carrie, Lauren, Jaime, Lacey and Val, I had a blast, and hope this is just the beginning of many more "weekend with the girls!" Love you, Girls!!

NYC Part II

We started Saturday morning off with brunch at Pastis. Breakfast was delicious and its location in the meatpacking district put us close to some great shopping!!


So after breakfast, we headed to the Barney's Warehouse Sale. Granted Barney's sale items would still cost a small fortune, but it was so much fun to browse all of the designer shoes, clothes and handbags!

Since our wallets didn't allow us any purchases at Barney's, we headed to Loehmann's for some affordable retail therapy! Thanks to Valerie's keen shopping eye, I scored an adorable dress for Easter (and thanks to Mom and Dad too who had given me some birthday money to do a little NYC shopping!).

Boy, shopping sure works up an appetite. After heading to Rockefeller Center and finding out all of the tours of NBC studio were booked for the weekend, we grabbed a quick lunch at Dean & Deluca. We were refeuled and ready to go again!

We visited the New York Public Library, and I was thrilled to finally be inside this historic landmark. The architecture was amazing!


Next, we were off to Bryant Park to do a little "star gazing!" This was after all New York Fashion Week, so we were dying to see a celeb!! Can't do that without a little something sweet though, can you???

Fortunately, there was a Crumbs located right across the street. So cupcakes it was!! Here is my chocolate covered strawberry cupcake. YUM!!

I think Valerie and Carrie enjoyed theirs' too!



It started turning cold, but we were determined to make this visit to the tents count! Here we are trying desparately to stay warm!

And here's Carrie trying desparately to get us in that tent!!


Fortunately, our perserverance paid off! Here's a picture of Kimora Lee Simmons and her little girls leaving the park. And although, my camera was not ready at the time, Lauren F. chased down Heidi Klum and took a wonderful picture of her. We even saw Kellie Pickler!!! Now how is that for celebrity!!

Satisfied with our celebrity spottings and half frozen, we decided to walk back to the hotel to thaw out, touch base with our families, and get ourselves good and hungry for dinner!

We spent Valentine's at Rosa Mexicano! It was fabulous. Of course, any meal that starts out with guacamole being handmade table side is destined for great things!

And it wouldn't have been Valentine's if we hadn't ended the day with another dessert:) The perfect chocolate-y end to another perfect day!!

NYC Part I

This past weekend, five of my sorority sisters and I took a girls' trip to New York City. It was a wonderful time of fun, food, fellowship, and more food!!

Valerie and I stayed at The Algonquin Hotel located just a few blocks from Times Square. The hotel had its own cat, and I have to admit that's why we chose this hotel!! Here's Val giving Matilda a welcome hug!

After settling into the hotel and grabbing a quick bite for lunch (and two $5 diet cokes...just a bit of advice...refills in NYC are not FREE!! I guess it's a good thing I learned that at the beginning of the trip!), Val and I caught up with the other girls at Magnolia Bakery.

A cupcake (or two) was the perfect way to celebrate Carrie's (pictured center) birthday! I ate a vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing, and it was divine!!

After a quick trip back to the hotel to freshen up, we all met back at Carmine's for an absolutely fabulous Italian dinner. The meals are served family style, and it didn't take long for the six of us to polish off these yummy meatballs, cheese ravioli and chicken parmesean. We also enjoyed the cold antipasti to get the meal started!

Other than the fact that my luggage did not arrive in NYC with me, our first day in the big city was a wonderful beginning to a fabulous weekend!

Love Is in the Air

For this year's Valentine's cards, I raided the $1 aisle at Target and came up with these cute notecards.
Throw in some animal stickers, a personalized note, and some mini M&M's and voila! The perfect valentines!!We made Triple Berry muffins for the kiddos' Valentine's party.

And white and dark chocolate covered pretzel sticks were perfect teacher gifts! And very yummy to make! I think I consumed more than I gave away:)

Mommy even made some Valentine's for her friends!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Walker and Kathryn were in for a real surprise when they woke up from their nap today. This box from Pops and Tula arrived on the door step while they were sleeping. Pops had filled the box with some Mardi Gras loot--beads, moon pies, and candy--while Tula threw in some Valentine's treats--candy hearts, jelly bellies, and heart suckers.

Walker got the first look.

The Kathryn joined in.

Then, when the mailman came later this afternoon, they also received Valentine's gifts from Nana and Papa. Walker got fun Disney Pixar Valentine's cards complete with stickers that Walker preferred to use as bandaids. Here he is showing off his "boo boo."

And guess what was on Kathryn's cards???? That's right-- princesses!! Can you tell she's happy!?! She continues to tell me she needs more princess things!

Before bedtime, I let Walker and Kathryn experience their first moonpie. Funny thing, Walker who doesn't talk all that plainly, says moonpie as plain as day! I think you can tell from this series of pictures who enjoyed the moonpie more!

I love this boy! He loves sweets just like his momma!!

Three visits, Two Parks, One Weekend

The weather has been so nice that we hit two parks three different times in one weekend! Friday after school, we headed to the park to meet up with some of our friends and even ran into one of Walker and Kathryn's classmates.

Here's Kathryn with their classmate, Aiden. These two were inseparable the entire afternoon.

Here's Walker just hanging out!

Here we are back again Saturday morning!

We even packed a lunch this go round.

And after naptime, we were outside again! What a perfect way to chase away those winter blahs!

Walker and Kathryn are sporting their adorable hand stitched shirts that Aunt Mak and Uncle Brad gave them for Christmas from this sweet online store. Aren't they adorable!!