First Annual Weimer Girls weekend

My niece, Emily graduated from high school this year, and for her present she wanted to have a weekend in New Orleans with her 2 favorite aunts! (and her mom too, of course) We decided this would have to be an annual trip from now on. (... with no husbands and no children under 18 - woo - hoo!) Since my sister and her family live in Plano Texas now, she doesn't get to come to the "big Easy" very often. It was a great weekend.

We started off Friday afternoon on Magazine street - shopping and eating:

Here are my two sisters, Kim and Jane and my niece outside our restaurant:

We ate at "The Rum House" on Magazine - yummy carribean food - and great drinks. Here are Jane and Emily (kinda blurry pic, sorry)

Here is my plate of yummy fish and steak tacos (not together) with fried plantains and creamy polenta - delicious!

Then we did a lot of shopping including some of the antique shops. Too bad Emily doesn't have any more proms to attend, this early 1980's inspired dress and ugly hat would have been lovely!

And some great accessories too:

That night we ate at a cute little uptown French restaurant called Cafe' Degas. It was delicious. Here is Kim, Emily and Jane:

Here are the Weimer girls: Me, Kim and Jane:

So I found out on this trip that Emily is a very brave eater. She was willing to try something new, and they had antelope on the menu. Here she is with her antelope and the review is that it is definitely not gamey, but just 'different' from beef. We all tried it and liked it:

The next morning we headed out for the French Quarter (where we were staying on Royal Street) to shop. I had spotted this shop on Canal when we drove in and knew I had to shop there. I called it 'the pink store' b/c it was so pink from the outside. I don't even remember the name of it, but you can't miss it. Later we also saw another one closer to Jackson square.

It was an accessory girl's dream! (which I am not really, but I found some cute things for Katie and Emma) . Nannie Kim and Emily outside the store:

This was one of the few pictures I got of all four of us. It came out pretty good, but kind of far away for me. Here we are in Jackson Square:

We grabbed a quick lunch at Maspero's (with freakishly enough, no wait!):

We actually went to the D-Day museum that afternoon, but I didn't take any pictures b/c it was raining, pouring actually, when we got there. It was wonderful.

That evening we had reservations at Mr. B's right down from our hotel. I had never been to this Brennan's restaurant, and it was fabulous. I have got to take Mark there. We had amazing food and service.

Here's the four of us:

Jane got the BBQ shrimp - notice the sexy bib! I title this picture, " ahhh! this is hot!" (If I were a cussing woman I would have put an explitive in there, but since I don't do that, well... you should know better)

Okay, so this was probably the best part of our evening, our assistant server, Kenneth. He sang to us and made snarky comments and just made us laugh out loud the entire time. Here he is giving Jane a hot towel after her messy shrimp:

When he found out we were celebrating Emily's graduation he have her a signed dessert menu (kind of tongue-in-cheek). It was hilarious.

Also, they write messages on balloons if you are celebrating special occasions, so Emily got her special graduation balloon. It was awesome:

Lastly, that next morning, we walked down the street from our hotel to get some beignets and we spotted our friend the cat that we had seen the day before in one of the art galleries we had visited. She evidently stays there even when the gallery is closed.

All in all it was a great weekend (except for some minor technical difficulties at the hotel which I will not mention - but lets just say that evidently at the Holiday Inn, 4 adults should only need 2 towels to bathe for 2 nights!!) We can't wait to do another weekend - maybe the beach - maybe New York... maybe Paris!!!! (guess I'll be driving my 12 year old van a few more years!)

A Potpourri of summer activities!

So, during the preparation for the cruise, and now in the depressing aftermath of the cruise, many things have happened around the Carroll house. Instead of posting everything separately, I just decided to make a collage of sorts for our summer activities. I have been dilligently working on our vacation scrapbook, so the blog has been somewhat neglected. Here is a brief summary of events from the end of May until this week:

Mark's baseball team made the state tourney this year (woo-hoo). They played an amazing game, but unfortunately lost to Lafayette High in the first round. Here we are before the game:

The team:

The handsome coach:

Lining up for the national anthem:

The team on the big score board:

The girls attended a camp at LSU this year, and we did some sight seeing on the last day:

Mike the tiger - during nap time:

At Mike's cage:

Hanging out in the "quad":

Emma also played T-ball for the month of June and loved it! We were so excited b/c she wasn't too crazy about soccer. Here she is running bases:

coming back in the dug out:

Playing 2nd base:

Waiting to take pictures:

Before the pics:

Katie also had her dance recital in June. Oddly, I did not take one single picture in her costumes b/c our babysitter was backstage with her. (I bought some... but didn't take any that night). Here she is with Emma before we left:

With me before we left:

Katie also celebrated her friend, Jessie's 10th birthday at the bowling alley. They has a great time. We may do this for their birthday this year:

Here Katie is helping Emma bowl:

Katie and her BFF, Jessie:

There has also been a lot of "Pool time" this summer thanks to Nannie Kim who donated her and Mr. Richard's old pool to us. The girls get in about 2 times a day (so do Mark and I!). I had to snap this picture b/c it was too funny. The water was perfectly still as they both read in the pool. They take after their Mama!

Lastly, my birthday was this week (not as exciting as last year) so we went out to eat, had ice cream cake when we got home, and then played with my new present, a Nook! - That's an eReader for those of you who don't read! I'd been hesitant to get one, but now I love it

Happy birthday mom!

See you later!