Especially for Allen to see his wife- what a party you missed!!!

here are more pictures from the party, have been asked to put more on, so enjoy!!

My birthday party

I need to learn restraint once I have been drinking!!!

More corrupted children!!!
The casino area was used by Ben and Jamie, it did seem to be the children who were fascinated by the cards and chips out in this area!!! I hope I am not corrupting the next generation.

Solitaire came to my party

I do like Allan in a DJ

Plenty O'Toole came as well

Jaws, his girlfriend Dolly and a helper for Q

Q is so lucky to be surrounded by such beauties as these bond girls

And more Bond girls

Now that is commitment, she actually made the gun- fantastic

More Bonds the better I say, this one has caught an exotic beauty.

'Shaken not stirred', and gold finger also came.

What fun we had, thank you to everyone who helped make it so special last night. The theme was James Bond and we had a fantastic range of costumes , everyone was so great at joining in the fun and made it a GREAT night.
It is funny today, as even Tex is shattered, that puppy is obviously not old enough to party. She has gone out side once to do her business then has been sleeping ever since on the sofa, now and again wagging her tail to passers by, so funny. Last night, Ben was tired, so lay down on the sofa and used Tex as a pillow, and they lay like that for about an hour, it was sweet, a photo opportunity I missed.

Monday, alisons last shopping day

So the end of Alison's holiday is near, and we need to get some shopping completed before the day is out. Alison and I went of first thing and I introduced her to Khols, a shop I love, and then we went to Target and finished off with a food shop at HEB. This all took much longer than we expected- heaven knows why. You would think years of shopping together would teach us we take out time.
When we got home I stayed and sorted dinner, collecting the children from school and homework, and Alison and Cara took on the Mall, Barton Creek Mall. You need energy and stamina to go there and they achieved that. When they got home we had a lovely evening meal and wine to say goodbye to Alison.

Alison helped with bed and bath time, she seems to have a lot more patience with my children at night then I do!!!

Alison and Sunday

We went to the Iguana with friends on Sunday and Alison and I had margarita's (again) it has become Alison's new favourite drink.

The Lake -Lake Travis, is very low as we are in the middle of a drought, but the views from the restaurant are still spectacular .
All my brood enjoying the sun, meal and company
This is the lot of us, so we had Alan and Jo Hunter, who bought along a friend from UK who had only flown in the previous night for a two week holiday, Diane and the Nokes, John, Diana, Beth and Sammy , Alison and all of us. It was great fun although the temperature was hot and the children enjoyed the well( especially trying to get the pennies out!!!!). Alison had the pleasure of enjoying some more margarita's, a drink I have come to love and she is well on her way to as well.

Alison's visit continued

We went out on Saturday night to a 'goodbye and hello' party, a friend of mine from jazzercise, Sandi McMinn was in the final stages of selling her ranch out at Buda, and we went along to join in with friends and family of the new owners-to-be and Sandi's, the boys had an amazing time, as there was a zip wire, tree house, food and fireworks, with plenty of children to play and run around with. Alison, Allan and I enjoyed lovely company, wine and some amazing cheeses. Cara had to miss the party as she was out babysitting, earning pennies for all the things she wants

More on Alison's visit

Alison on the Zilker Zelpher with the younger two. She had to spend time with them, they were complaining they had not seen aunty Alison, so we rectified that before the shopping in the afternoon.


On Saturday we had a busy day, which involved, going down to Zilker park, shopping and going out in the evening.
The Zilker park experience was great,a s it is a wonderful expanse of natural land in the middle of Austin, that Allan and I love to run around, it has a path that the kids can ride their bikes on, we can run and Jack can walk Tex, so a lot can be achieved from a trip to Zilker.
In the afternoon,we went to South Park meadows, a huge area of shops and restaurants far too close to our house!! Alison treid her first margarita here, in the Texas Roadhouse, a great place to get a steak or ribs, Cara has steak, Alison had a half a slab of ribs, and I was the boring who had the chicken ceasar salad. and of course maragrita's, it is great that Cara can not drink out here, a drive is always present if you should indulge. Alison and I did!!

I have got to go now, Alison is ready, so will update the blog later....

Alison has arrived

we are on the river walk in Sa Antonio, this is the statue of San Antonio, who the city was named after.
Alison and Cara out the front of the Alamo's church. it is now a shrine to those that fought and died. it has David Crocketts riffle in it!!
This is Alison in Frederricksburg, we were heading back to the car and I decided to take a picture of her next to a huge Cactus, for some unknow erason Alison thought it looked pruned, so touched it. This is her woth a sore finger!!!
This si her trying to get the needle out!!
And this is us in the Wine bar in lincoln St, just before we learnt we were 50 years old!!!!!!!!

The update

Alison has arrived and thankfully her journey was less traumatic than my mum's. The flight was on time AND Alison got an upgrade to club class- because she is such a classy lady!!!!

We have had a full on few days as Alison is only here for 5 days, not including her traveling ones, so we are fitting in as much as we can with out exhausting her and making sure her memories of Austin and Texas are great ones.

On Thursday- Day 1 we went to Fredericksburg. My mum had said Alison would love it, and she was right. Fun was had by us both, shopping was high on our agenda, a great lunch at the wine bar, ignoring the part when Danny the waiter said we looked like sisters( the good part) who were 50years old( the bad part!!).

On Friday -day 2, we went to the Alamo, which was beautiful and I think Alison was engrossed by the history of Texas and the reality that David Crockett was standing in the same place as we were.

Saturday day 3- today!! we have been out shopping at one of our huge shopping retail parks, lunch at a Texas steak house, Alison enjoyed a margarita for the first time( a strawberry one) and then we went to a Hello and Goodbye party at a friends ranch, who has just sold it. The new owners were there, and it was fun occasion for the boys, who loved the tree house, zip wire and general amount of children to play with.