By George, I'll Have a Mango Margarita

Memorial Day 2014 -- a perfect day for M&Ms. Museums and margaritas, that is. 

Four out of the five Smiths made the trek to the BigD. The youngest Smith opted out, as she had a "more interesting someone" to spend the afternoon with. "W" just couldn't compete with "B"... :-P

No, we didn't run into the former president while on our tour.

 This young lady looked pretty comfy sitting behind that desk. 

I'd vote for her.

After our library/museum visit, we tried a new (to us) restaurant; Urban Taco. 

Oh, yum! 

The mango margarita is LEGEN(wait for it)DARY! 

And that's no urban legend.

We will be back.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Toronto Blue Jays -- 2

Texas Rangers -- 0

The final score was pretty disappointing, especially if you're a Texas fan.

The highlight of the game was getting to see Yu Darvish pitch; #11 struck out eleven batters. 

KKKKKKKKKKK :-)

We may have been sitting all the way up in the upper deck, but the lens on my camera enabled us to see home plate clearly.

And we could spy on the players in the dugout.

Now that I've had some time to reconsider things, I am going to edit that earlier comment and say that the true highlight of the evening was getting to spend time with these five smiling faces! 

Red, White, and Blue -- so patriotic!

Millie and Braxton -- so adorable.

Mom's Day 2014

I am blessed beyond measure by getting to be mom to the three Smithlings. 

(Will they ever get too old for me to call them that? I hope not!)

GLADuation

We attended Tarrant County College's graduation ceremony, along with about 11,000 other people. 

When we saw that there were 1,700 chairs set up for the graduates, we knew it was going to take a while to call every name. And it did.

The ceremony lasted for THREE hours, but it was worth the long wait to see our girlie walk across the platform. We consider this event a warm-up for the next three graduation ceremonies (Bachelor's degree, Master's and PhD) that are yet to come. OR this could be considered a make-up for our girlie's high school graduation ceremony of one.

We entertained ourselves by taking selfies.

It surely was a l-o-n-g time to sit in one place and be on good behavior.

 Finally! Our graduate walked up to get her diploma.

 Here she is with all the other Smiths. I'm sure they're all related to us...

After the tassel was turned, she sent us a Snapchat.

It's official.

 Glad!

 Grad!

 These two practiced a "typical" Snapchat pose... Silly!

 We Smith girls put our best foot forward. 

The graduate wore her classic black Christian Louboutin pumps for the ceremony, but changed into a more practical pair of mustard colored Tory Burch loafers to walk from the FW Convention Center back to the parking garage. (Our daughter just couldn't think about scuffing up those red soles on the pavement.) We do love shoes at our house.

Aaaaand, we love good food, too.

 

We had worked up quite an appetite after all that pomp and circumstance, so we ate a late lunch at the Spiral Diner in Ft. Worth. This restaurant is an organic and vegan establishment, and the food is awesome! Yes, vegan food in Cowtown! We will be back.

So, what university is our #2 Smithling going to transfer to? There were several options and scholarships to consider, but the decision has been made. Deposits have been sent. This California girl will be heading off to Malibu in August. 

Liesey Lou is now a Wave!

We are so proud of her accomplishments so far, and are excited to see what the future holds.

What an Honor!

We Smiths have been hitting the banquet circuit this week. Our middle child was chosen to receive an award, or two, or three, at her school. Hooray for not having to cook dinner two nights this week!

Liesey posed with her mentor, Dr. Nichols. She serves as a "student instructor" for two of his classes. Dr. Nichols is largely responsible for inspiring our girlie to be a history professor, too.

These two look so polished with the "bag thing" going on. Yes, they were being silly on purpose.

 And then there's Sam.

These two friends are going to miss each other next year. Sam will be studying at Univ. of Texas at Arlington, and our daughter will be -- who knows where! She still has not decided where she will be attending school this fall. Decisions, decisions...

As we left the campus, our youngest found an "inflatable" chair to sit on. Although it looks like plastic, this sculpture is made of metal. It's a good thing the weather was cool, as I cannot imagine sitting here on a 90º day. That would bring new meaning to being in the hot seat, for sure. :-P

Easter 2014

I so very much enjoyed seeing friends and family post Easter morning family photos on Facebook and/or Instagram. Happy faces, colorful spring attire, egg hunts, and candy-laden Easter baskets certainly make for memorable photo ops. Our family didn't have any of that going on. Well, we did have the happy face thing going on. I think!

Our family's Sunday morning looked like this:

This was the first time in twenty-six years of married life that we did not attend Easter church services. That felt really weird.

After spending 47 fun-filled hours in Indiana for my dad's birthday, we loaded up in the car to drive back home to Texas at early-thirty on Easter morning. We had "church" (Sunrise service?) on the road. Have worship, will travel?

Nonagenarian Celebration

My daddy is ninety! 

Birthday celebrants should be honored -- especially when they become a nonagenarian. Yes, I had to Google that term. I knew that someone in their eighties was called an octogenarian, but had no clue what terminology was used for a ninety-year-olds. Now you know, too.

My sister planned an amazing party for our dad. There were over 100 people in attendance, so the First Baptist Church's fellowship hall proved to be the perfect venue for the celebration.

There were two other April b-day celebrants present. Bob is a decade behind my dad, and Ruth is 39 and holding.

Old friends are near and dear. Well, they aren't OLD, they just have known each other for a long time.

This is one of the handful of "people" pictures that I snapped. I got sidetracked from taking pictures of the party attendees, as I was enjoying talking toooooo much. I saw people from my hometown whom I had not seen in thirty years, so there was a lot of catching up to do. The Thompson family members had a photo shoot prior to the party, so I didn't bother to take many pictures of the immediate family. Oh, well!

These two manned the guestbook table, quite handsomely.

A table filled with memorabilia and pictures from Dad's nine decades provided a sweet stroll down memory lane. Our middle child (the history major) especially loved seeing all of the treasures from WWII.

The uniform may not quite fit anymore, but Dad is still a handsome soldier.

 See... even his granddaughter is swooning!

Does this qualify as a photobomb of my daughters' selfie? I think so.

 These two obviously got the denim jacket/dress memo.

 Despite a helium shortage, there just HAD to be balloons.

 At the end of the day, we had one happy birthday boy.