Lindsey & Kyle's Wedding Weekend

Bear with me...there are tons of pictures.

We had a wonderful time at Lindsey & Kyle's wedding in New Orleans this weekend. We both took off on Friday so that we could head down early. Neil was honored to be in the wedding as one of the "Best Men." Kyle called all of his guys the best men. It was sweet.

We were making pretty good time so we stopped in Alexandria at Oriental Wok. I have heard that it is the best Chinese restaurant and they were right! I have always wanted to eat there. It's my friend Yitins family restaurant. It did not disappoint!

The wedding was held at the Hermann-Grima house in New Orleans. It was in the courtyard of the house.

Here we are after they rehearsed. I like this picture of us.

After the rehearsal, we headed to the rehearsal dinner at the Ernst Cafe. I liked going to all of the places the local people go to. Speaking of local people...guess who was at the bar below where the dinner was located!????? Jeremy Shockey. He is a member of the New Orleans Saints! To say that everyone was a little excited is a total understatement. We were all in shock. Someone asked him to take pictures with the wedding party and he agreed.

Can you tell that Neil was so excited???

Here are the bridesmaids with Shockey.

After the dinner we headed to the Intercontinental (where we stayed). I was glad that everyone wanted to go there so that I could sneak off and go to bed! Yitin and I both have 1 year olds and we kept sitting off to the side showing each other pictures of our boys.

Here are the bride and groom. They are such a cute couple!

On Saturday morning, we went to Luke. They have some great food and the restaurant is right across the street from the hotel. My brother and his friend Sheila met us for breakfast.

Amy and Amanda arrived after I had my Mother's Day massage and we went to lunch at Houstons. We met up with Courtney Guste.

Amy, Amanda, and I went shopping down by the river and on Canal. It was a nice day hanging out with the girls. Neil was doing wedding stuff so I was glad to have some people to hang out with. After all of the shopping, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the big wedding!

I thought Neil looked handsome in the wedding.

Here are Lindsey and Kyle Allen.

Here we are after the wedding. The reception was in the courtyard of Broussards.

Amy and me. Out stylist, Amanda did our hair.

Here is their first dance.

Here are some of the Sigma Kappas at the wedding. I think it needs to be submitted to the Virtual Violet (our alum newsletter!) Amy, Amanda, Lindsey, Yitin, and me.

Neil and Richard

Here is the money dance.

Here are Neil and Lindsey dancing during the money dance.

Amy, Brown, and me.

Towards the end of the night, everyone gathered around and we all danced. Here is Lindsey.

They passed out these cloth napkins at the very end of the night and we all danced around and twirled these above our heads.

Lindsey and Kyle each had an umbrella and we followed them around sort of like a parade. It was so much fun!

Farewell! Have a wonderful time in Antigua! Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Kyle Allen!

This was Neil's groomsmen gift. Kyle gave each guy a different tie by NOLA Couture. This is a neat New Orleans company that donates a lot of their profits to hurricane relief and such. I thought it was a neat gift for a New Orleans wedding.

White Room Challenge

Have you ever seen the HGTV Design Star? It is a show sort of like American Idol, but it has interior designers competing for their own show on HGTV. It is one of my favorite HGTV shows. I teach a Housing and Interior Design class at CSHS and it is by far my favorite class to teach. I am learning a lot about it as I go. I was talking to our librarian at the beginning of the semester and she brought up the idea of the white room challenge (WRC). The WRC is one of the episodes where contestants are given a blank slate of a white room and are to design it any way they see fit. After lots of preparation, approvals, and decisions to make...my class is creating the white room challenge (a model version)!

Leslie (my resident interior designer friend), has helped us so much with this project. She even used her hi-tech foam core cutter and cut all of our boards to form our "white rooms." Without Leslie I don't know where I'd be with this project! Thanks Leslie and Somdal!

I wanted to show a few of the "before" things they have created so far. My students have really come up with some creative ideas. Their challenge was to an empty room at school that we toured and turn it in to something they think they school needs. We have 5 groups. One is an ice cream parlor, one is a theater and the other 3 are teen lounges. I will be sure to post pictures of the finished products!

Here is the white room made out of foam core board. It isn't glued yet so that's why it isn't straight.

Leslie gave me a TON of Interior Design supplies that they were throwing away. I have used all of the tile samples, fabric, and paint chips a lot. They need tiles in certain color so they painted them to match. This is going to be the floor of the "ice cream parlor."

Since we don't have a lot of money to buy supplies...we have to be very creative. Here is a close-up of a chair made from paper clips and matte board. After I created this one everyone started coming up tons of great ideas. One of their requirements is that they have to have seating for 8 people.

More chairs. I can't wait to see them painted and upholstered!

Here is the "Gator Theater" room. They got really creative and made 2 bay windows out of pop-sicle sticks and a zip-loc bag.

This is the back of the window.

I am so proud of my kids because they are really getting into this assignment. I can't wait to see the finished products!

Dinner with Dad

Last night we went out to dinner to Outback with my Dad. My dad is going to Alabama to see my uncle and grandfather on Friday, so he usually takes us out to dinner before leaving. Bennett was such a good boy at dinner. When we got there he just walked up to some random table and gave a random man a high 5! He is such a social little thing.

He had a good time coloring. He colored a little bit and tasted them, too. I wonder when he will stop tasting the crayons?

Thanks Dad!

Happy Birthday Uncle Frank Michael Jones!

Today my brother is 25! Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Michael, Happy Birthday to you!

Now I will attempt our family birthday song: Ahem.

Today is a birthday I wonder for who

I know it's for someone right in this room

So look all around you

For somebody who

Is smiling and laughing

my goodness it's you!

Happy Birthday Michael from all of us to you

Happy Birthday Michael from Bennett and Neil, too

We congratulate you and pray good luck follows you

Happy Birthday Michael may all of your dreams come true!

Lazy Weekend

We didn't really do much this weekend. The only thing we had on the agenda was Garrett's 1st birthday party in Houston, but we didn't make the trip. Bennett slept horribly on Thursday night so I was in bed at 9:15 on Friday night.

We got up on Saturday and each had a massage. My friend Emily recommended this lady who comes to your house and brings her table and everything. She is very reasonably priced for a 1-hour massage. We just love Barbie!

After Bennett got up from his nap and we got ready we headed to Reema's Alterations. Neil is in a wedding in New Orleans on Mother's Day weekend so we needed to get the suit hemmed. Neil did not know I took the next 2 pictures!

Next, we headed to the Boardwalk. I got some sweet deals at the Banana outlet for me and some play clothes at Carters for Bennett. We also got B a new pair of tennis shoes from Stride Rite. I always feel like he never has enough shoes!

We headed to Bass Pro to look at the fish and so Neil could look at some game cameras. I think these are probably for catching the good deer or to see how big the deer are out there. It has to be one of those.

Neil went to get the car so we sat in this big, nice, camo, recliner. It was comfy, but not something I would want in my living room.

After we got home and relaxed some more...we headed for a redneck trip around the block. We have a big school field behind our house so we went for a spin. I kept telling Neil that people were probably staring at us thinking what bad parents we were. Bennett loved it though.

We had the Burfords and the Montgomerys over for dinner on Sunday. Leslie came over later on. Max Burford turns 1 on May 4th (my brother's birthday). Since we will be in New Orleans during his birthday party; we had to give him his gifts early. We gave him animal flashcards (Bennett's favorite) and some crab pjs. Bennett was such a good helper.

Bennett was sweet to take Max for a spin on his 4-wheeler. I love these bald heads.

Neil grilled some amazing pork tenderloins...he even made homemade bbq sauce. He grilled corn and stuffed jalapeños, too. I was glad he was able to use the jalapeño stand I bought for him at Canton.

Bennett and Mason played along side each other very well. They pretty much just entertained themselves!

How sweet!

Neil had fun with Bennett's etch-a-sketch. Pretty talented.