summer days

Today is the official unofficial start of summer--Memorial Day. Although it's been summer--officially, if you ask me--in Texas since April, this weekend is always a reason to celebrate in the Wheat household since it's Alex's birthday. When he got home this morning from his travels to Knoxville, everyone was ready to party.

First stop: Torchy's Tacos to properly celebrate Alex's first Texas birthday since returning to his home state.

Next on our list: gobbling up the cupcakes that the kids and I made for the birthday guy. We used the recipe from Magnolia Bakery, and although their looks don't do them any justice, the cupcakes (almost) tasted like the real deal. Besides, making them was just as much fun as eating (see below):

After a belly full of taco and cupcake, Scout was ready for an afternoon snooze. Alex had a conference call, so Catcher and I entertained ourselves with a little Tillie photo shoot. Photos below courtesy of Catcher:

By 4:00 we were out of ideas on how to wear out the kids, so we fell back on the old standby: the pool. Bad idea. Memorial Day. Young professionals. Crowded pool. Loud music. Cigarette smoke. Sunburned faces. Debauchery. Adult party. Not for kids.

After building up a trip down to the pool and the cosmic letdown that turned out to be ("Pool! Pool!" Scout cried as we headed back to the apartment) Alex and I came up with a pretty ingenious idea. It went a little something like this:

After all that fun, a naked Catcher and Scout retreated to our bedroom to ransack the fortress constructed earlier in the day. I just hope Scout didn't pee in the bed...at least on my side (wink!).