The Mexican Train and a Birthday Bash

Over Thanksgiving weekend we hosted a three generation feast with our good friends, the D's and the R's. We had a ball, and it was an awesome time for our parents to get to know each other and spend some time in fellowship.

Max, Joel, and Melanie led us in some singing.

There was LOTS of great food to eat. I made a turkey and everyone brought their favorite side to share.

At the end of the evening we talked Joel's parents into a game of Mexican Train. Joel's folks live in Florida now, and they have been playing dominoes with groups of friends for several years. We challenged them with our take on "Texas rules", and a competitive, riotous, lively game ensued. We raised a ruckus with those Floridians. :) We kept score with scratch paper and used pennies as our "trains". We are low class board gamers. Certain out-of-towners may or may not have poked some fun at us for that. It was such an awesome night of laughter and memories; certainly the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

Well....when we collected the mail this weekend we found a little surprise. One that came all the way from sunny Florida.

We now have sparkly little trains and very official Mexican Train score pads! We're officially high class! We wasted no time whatsoever in breaking them in. The R's and D's joined us for dinner last night to celebrate Emma's birthday and we couldn't resist breaking out the dominoes to show off our new goods. Thanks, Omar and Gladys. Y'all are welcome back to Texas for round two at any time!!

The R's and D's gave Emma the stroller from American Girl that she was so in love with at the American Girl store. My entire downstairs is now a race track. In fact, I'm not sure if it is a stroller or a baby jogger!

My birthday girl and her cake.

The crown that her grandparents brought her last weekend is now part of our DAILY attire. The cat keeps getting hold of it, so it is missing tufts of fur, but we loooove the crown. We always wear it upside down. Always. Just because. That's why.

Every party girl needs a handsome date, and our buddy Christopher fit the bill. Doesn't he score double in the cute department? These two are just getting to the age when they mildly pay attention to other kids around them. So, there were some cute moments when Emma would hug him or hand him a toy. Lucky for Christopher, he never once tried to touch the stroller. He's got some smarts along with all his cutes! :)

And I think this officially concludes the week long birthday bonanza. Turning two is apparently cause for (repeated) celebration. As are new game board pieces. :)

Toot, toot!