3rd Annual Oscar Party

Roll out the red carpet, we had a star studded event this year! The Oscar Host himself, James Franco, made an appearance as well as Best Actress, Natalie Portman.

Each year the celebrity turnout just gets more and more impressive. And I'm proud to report that none of my diamonds came up missing when Lindsay Lohan showed up and the house didn't get trashed by Mr. Sheen either. Oh what a night!!!

Bowling and Bingo

We're starting to sound like senior citizens ;) But believe it or not this really is what our weekend consisted of however, there is an interesting twist to the Bingo portion!

On Saturday night, we found our local bowling alley and met the Richards there for some fierce competition. Little did we know they had a ringer, Alli! Of course she did get the advantage of bowling with a ramp but still she had the highest score of all of us.

Then on Sunday, we'd heard about this local Austin bar called Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon that had Bingo. But not just any kind of Bingo, Chicken Shit Bingo! Yes, you heard me right. They have a pool table they cover with plywood and a cage. The plywood is marked off with squares and they put the chickens in, drop food all over the squares, and you just sit and wait until the chicken decides to poop on a square. And wallah you have a winner!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Valentine's Weekend was the perfect excuse to get out and explore more of Austin and boy did we cover a lot of ground! Shaun had obviously been paying attention to all of the places I've been naming off as must see or do because he took me to almost everyplace I'd being dying to go to. He surprised me with a night on the town Friday night and we hit both UnCorked and Bess. UnCorked is the most charming wine bar, it's a house that has been converted into a restaurant and they even have this huge outdoor area with a firepit, and Bess like I have to mention is owned by Sandra Bullock, need I say more ;) It was the perfect evening but the surprises didn't end there. First thing in the morning we were off again. This time we headed out toward Hill Country and ended up on a trail ride in the middle of nowhere. It was gorgeous, just wide open land, creeks, hills, miniature horses roaming free, everything we saw was breath taking! So after our adventure we continued on to our next stop, The Oasis. Now this is definitely a must do! The Oasis sits on Lake Travis and has about five levels of decks so everyone can have a waterfront view. The view is just spectacular and the homes around it aren't too shabby either, it's like being back in Malibu! We had the best weekend and met some of the friendliest people along the way too. In our conversations we developed a whole new must do list for Austin so I can't wait to see where our next adventure leads!

Superbowl Sunday

One of our great traditions to date has been hosting a Superbowl Party each year. Well we moved to Texas just a month before the big event and wondered what to do since we don't really know that many people here yet. After much debate we decided tradition is tradition and even if it's just us we'll make the most of it! Well low and behold the whopping five people we know in Texas all showed up, minus Eric Richard that is but he had a great excuse since he was actually in Dallas at the Superbowl!

All Aboard for Alli's Birthday!

We had a fun day of celebration for Alli's 3rd Birthday! The day started and ended with presents, so I'm pretty sure she was a happy girl ;) We headed out to lunch where Alli's parents surprised her with clues for the next activity. It was one surprise after another and we ended up downtown at Zilker Park to ride the Zilker Zepher. Alli enjoyed their playground, the train ride, the train whistle, and the train cake! And just when she thought the celebration was winding down, surprise, here comes Uncle Bud with a huge balloon bouquet! The perfect ending to the perfect day, Happy Birthday Alli!

Snow in Austin?!?!

We're quickly learning that the weather here in Texas is a lot less predictable than you think! We went from 70/80 degree days back to the 60s and then for the big shocker...SNOW! Yes, it snowed in Texas! But needless to say by the afternoon it was 70 degrees again, so odd!

Girls Weekend

The tradition stretches back to the good old days living on Kenmore St. in Arlington, VA when Amy, Ami, Erika, and I were all roomies. A St. Patrick's Day road trip to Savannah, GA turned into a future of girls getaways. As life was leading us down different paths with new adventures (New Orleans, California, marriage) we decided that each year we needed to have a girls weekend with fun new adventures together. So minus a year off here and there for weddings and babies I'm glad to say that each trip just gets better and better, and this year was no exception!

Thanks to the Murphy's for buying an amazing second home in the mountains, it gave us the perfect getaway for our annual girls weekend! Their cottage is secluded in the woods of Saluda, NC just outside of Asheville. It's so peaceful, quite, and gorgeous that is until the sun goes down and I get extremely paranoid of all those serial killers hiding in the woods ;) Minus being too scared to enjoy our blazing campfire outside it was the absolute perfect weekend! We stopped at all the little amazing shops around town, enjoyed live music over dinner, hiked to a picturesque waterfall, pampered ourselves at the spa, sipped champagne in the hot tub with the Blue Ridge mountains as our backdrop, and just chatted and laughed the whole weekend long! I wish we had a whole week there, it was just too good to be true!