Quick Week Recap

I've been a little MIA over the past week. Even though it was a light week work wise, it was an emotionally heavy week for me.

 My grandma went into the hospital and so I went home to Louisiana for a few days.

I also found my daughter's father. He seems to have a nice job, and a very nice life. I also found a speech that he gave not too long after I told him I was pregnant on the importance of family and I did not take it well. (This from a man who told me he would commit suicide if I didn't have an abortion.)

Needless to say, there were some moments of fun that occurred over the weekend. Dino Day at the Energy Museum, Family Day at the Art Museum, and getting to enjoy watching the LSU/Ole Miss game on tv with my boyfriend.

I learned that events "for kids of all ages" don't REALLY mean for those that are in their 30s. Since kiddo was spending the weekend with my folks, we were the odd adults out at these events, but still managed to have a good time exploring downtown Beaumont.

I've always thought this building was a gorgeous church. Turns out that it used to be a church, but they've now made it into a research library. Kinda nifty, right? Also, I'm a sucker for a spiral staircase!

 

While walking along downtown, we found this gem. I learned that the Jefferson Theatre has classic movie nights. I'm excited about seeing a movie here in the future! Translation - I REALLY like hanging out in old buildings and think this would be cool. 

The highlight of the weekend wasn't that LSU beat Ole Miss in amazing upset fashion. (Although that was awesome!) The highlight of the weekend was learning what lows I would stoop to in order to look cool to small children I don't know. What did I do? 

I ate a bug. 

Yes, I ate a bug to prove to children that I will never see again that I'm a cool adult. Best part? I peer pressured the boyfriend into eating a bug too. Only one of us wore the sticker bragging about it the rest of the day. I'll let you guess which one that was. 

Safari Trip

Saturday, Bestie and I went on a safari...a chocolate safari through Rice Village in Houston. She was a great sport and we really enjoyed finding this Living Social deal and eating our hearts out! Since we don't live in Houston, all of these places were new to us. We found a guaranteed new favorite in our lineup.

We started the day at Ruggles Cafe and Bakery. Bestie and I were overwhelmed by the actual menu, but we enjoyed the samples that we received there. On the left is a white chocolate bread pudding. On the right, is their domino cake. The depressing part was when they told us that these items aren't on the regular menu.

Our tour guide tells us not to get distracted at our second stop and Bestie and I knew when we saw this place that we would get distracted because it seemed like a really cool shop. (We ended up going back for some shopping later.) They served us my favorite - Cadbury milk chocolate! They love me.

Stop 3 brought us to Chocolat du Monde which is a cute little boutique chocolate shop. We were given the choice of a tasting chocolate and then one treat from the case. I went with one of the darker tasting squares while Bestie went with the milk chocolate. I chose the Hawaiian sea salt caramel and Bestie chose the milk chocolate coconut cluster from the case. 

The next stop was a little wine bar where we did a wine and chocolate pairing. I'm not a wine drinker, but I did try it to get the full experience. Bestie is not a fan of dark chocolate, and since that is all they were using to pair with it, she passed most of hers on to me. I left no chocolate behind in this tasting, but I did leave some wine. 

Our last stop on the tour became a place that Bestie and I went back to after our lunch break. The Chocolate Bar is a place that I've tried to get multiple people to go to, but it just never worked into the plans. OMG! It will never be off the list of places again! Their Day and Night cake was amazing!

After all of this chocolate, Bestie and I were ready for some real food so we stopped at a cute little French place for lunch. Splurging on the salmon quiche was one of my best decisions of the day. 

After lunch, we went back to The Chocolate Bar because we didn't get enough chocolate in our day. Since it was fruit, it was healthy though, right?

Music Monday - Symphony Thoughts

Yesterday, the Symphony of Southeast Texas offered a free concert, so the Boyfriend and I were anxious to take it in. We love symphony. We love free. We're a little poor right now, so it fit in our budget.

There were some technical difficulties at their concert in September. Due to these difficulties, they did not get to finish their concert. Thanks to some amazing sponsors, they were able to offer folks the second half of their show for free! (Thank you sponsors!)

Getting dressed to go to the Symphony was a challenge. My first trip to anything of culture was during my semester in London, where I learned that the people of London don't really dress up as we do in America. I had a few cocktail dresses ready to go, but saw that the Boyfriend (who is usually the better dressed of us two) was wearing jeans, so I opted for a dressy top, my dark blue skinny jeans and a pair of heels.

When we arrived, most people were in church clothes, and the Boyfriend started to get outfit panic. (It was cute.) He was saying that we needed to go home and change. I reminded him that we didn't have time for that, and told him to walk in like he owned the place and it would be alright. (My life motto.)

Once he saw other people in jeans, he felt better. He said we should feel better, but I told him that I was never concerned with my outfit to begin with. If there is anything I learned from my semester abroad, it is that confidence is key at events of culture. (As well as in life.)

Walking into the Julie Rogers Theatre, you can't help but notice the interesting color scheme. The baby blue with subtle pink was an interesting choice, but it felt very welcoming. I found this picture online that captures what none of the pictures I tried to take with my phone could.

What we were able to see last night was Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. While the piece itself was brilliantly beautiful, the conductor truly made the show for me. Before they began, he gave a little introduction and spoilers as to what we should be listening for during the piece and what the story of the piece was.

His excitement for what he does showed and I can only imagine that any children who leave the Symphony's educational programs are fired up to learn how to play an instrument,

Heck, I was fired up to learn how to play an instrument! Particularly the oboe. Not because of the cool name, but because of the cool sound it have during the second movement.

For anyone who has ever thought, "I would love to go to (insert event here), but I'm not the type of person who should go to that," my question to you is why not? Why not go and see for yourself if it's something you could enjoy? We all need moments where we are forced out of our comfort zone a little. So go ahead! Put on that dress you keep saving for a special occasion and go! Pull that suit out that you only wear to weddings and get some more use out of it! Or just go as you are and don't give a thought to what other people are thinking. Hint, pretty much all of them aren't really thinking about you anyway.

It took me a while to pick up on the tone of that last paragraph. I grew up in the middle of nowhere Louisiana and never felt that I really fit in at places like the Symphony. I've decided that I don't care if other people don't think I fit in, I enjoy myself when I go, and that's all that really matters. Now to find a day where there is a concert that I don't have to work ...

I took Thursday off to spend the day with kiddo. One of her FAVORITE things is back in town, and I wanted to be there with her when she went for the first time this year. 

The Scarecrow Festival at Shangri La Botanical Gardens in Orange, Texas.

Kiddo loves the scarecrows, and this is usually our official beginning of fall family activity. We spent a few hours looking at the scarecrows, and were shocked that there were so many more this year. (Over 60!) All of the people who put these together are way more creative than I can ever aspire to be. 

We didn't spend too much time looking around the gardens themselves (which are gorgeous!) because kiddo had to hang out with her favorite scarecrows. She danced for them. She sang for them. She didn't want to leave them to go to lunch at her favorite Mexican restaurant where we are more family than customers with the owners. 

Voting is taken VERY seriously. 

If you go to Two Amigos, and you should, get the Skinny Special. There is nothing skinny about it (just named for the chef), and you will love every bite of it. Unless you hate spicy things. Then you won't like it so much. It's grilled chicken, jalapenos, and cheese wrapped in bacon. YUM! 

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After lunch, I wanted to surprise kiddo with a trip to a pumpkin patch. We had some time to kill before it opened, so we made a pass into Port Neches, TX to visit Mike's Old Fashioned Soda Fountain. My folks and taken kiddo before and enjoyed it. I've been dying to go, but haven't had the chance. I was not disappointed. 

This small little shop is extremely charming. From the outside, I wasn't expecting what I got when I opened the doors. I couldn't keep the grin off my face the entire time we were there. In fact, I don't think you can go to Mike's and not be instantly put in a better mood. 

Kiddo LOVES the jukebox and keeps talking about how much she wants to go back and visit it. 

In fact, I had to eat all but one bite of our ice cream cone because she was busy dancing and playing with the jukebox. 

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After our dessert, it was time to hit up the pumpkin patch at one of the churches in Nederland, TX! I wasn't prepared to spend $13 on pumpkins, but kiddo was having such a good time that I let her go a little crazy. She keeps wanting to go back, and I told her that she can only have one small pumpkin on each trip back to the pumpkin patch. I'm convinced she's trying to create her own mini-pumpkin army. 

It was a pretty full day of hanging out around the Golden Triangle area for us today. It was a lot of fun, and I'm sure we'll be headed back to all of these places very soon. Until the next trip, happy exploring! 

SCARECROWS!

Today's Friday Five at Five is a preview to the post I'm going to do later on my day off with kiddo. Today's post is all about...

Shangrila, the botanical garden in Orange, TX, has a scarecrow festival every October. Kiddo LOVES the scarecrows!

This festival is serious business because you get to vote for your favorite scarecrow. There are over 60 of them, so picking one is a little difficult. (Unless you're kiddo) As with any election, we took our voting very seriously.

The Judges - Papa TC, Momma TC, Kiddo 

TC to be in some selfies later on...

Without further ado, and without much explanation on each, here are our votes for the top 5 scarecrows of the festival: 

5) 

This one only gets number 5 because it isn't technically a scarecrow at the festival that you can vote on. It's one of the ones done by the foundation that runs the gardens, but I thought it was too cute not to be included. I would have voted for this guy if I could have. 

4) 

I thought the third grade class that made this Flat Stanley scarecrow was so creative! You can't really see him, but he's awesome. Also, this class took a field trip the same time we were there and were pushing hard for votes for him. It was cute, he was cute, and he deserves some props. 

3)  

This scare-y crow scarecrow was Papa TC's favorite, so it only made sense that he make the cut in the top 5. 

2) 

This Olaf (or Frosty if you ask her) was kiddo's second favorite. We spend a good deal of time hanging out with him. 

1) 

This was kiddo's absolute favorite scarecrow of the bunch. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we had to spend almost 30 minutes with this scarecrow so she could dance and sing to her. She also liked to run up to her and imitate her like so...

 The crew and I have a big weekend ahead of us! Bestie and I are headed to a chocolate safari on Saturday morning. Then Bestie, Bestie's Wannabe, The Boyfriend and I are meeting up for an afternoon of fall baseball. There will be a weekly trip to the library on tap for the Boyfriend and me before we head to the symphony on Sunday. 

Enjoy your weekend, friends! I'll be back to report on mine on Monday!