PARK PARTY

Cali woke up CRANKY! She was cranky all day! It was hilarious!! We are huge fans of her cranky face and got to see it a lot that day. :)
Our church had a bbq at the park and the kids had a great time playing!! Cali was pretty moody the whole time which made it pretty entertaining for me. She was having so much fun but would have little spurts of crankiness. It made for some fun pictures...

It's blurry but... love that cranky face!

Silly face:

I love this face she made while the boy was flirting with her:

 cranky on a bench:

I chased her around and made her laugh:

Silly face:

Aedan with some ketchup on his face:

They had so much fun chasing each other:

They loved twirling on this:

(they got super dizzy)

The slide was a favorite:

CALI'S "PURSE-ON"

The last few days Cali has been taking her Tinker Bell purse everywhere she goes. She calls it her "purse-on" (said like person). She'll say "I've got my person!" or "where's my person?" It's pretty adorable!

Cali posing with her purse:

I pulled out my phone to get her in action:

(it was too cute to resist)

PRESENTS

While we were in LA we got some stuff for our families. I got some pictures of everyone with their cool stuff.

I got the kids those little turtles that have bobbing heads...

I got them each a little alligator that says "New Orleans" on it's tummy (I didn't get a picture of Cali with hers)...

And of course we all got masks (I don't have a picture of me with mine though. Sad!)...

 The kids were running around with their masks and I looked over and saw they had both put theirs on top of their heads (like a headband). I thought it looked silly.

I got Geoff a cookbook from Oak Alley Plantation that looks like it has some great recipes in it. I'm sure he'll have fun cooking us up some yummy southern cooking. And I got him a roux spoon so that when he makes roux he can use that instead of regular cooking spoons like he usually does. :)

Tammy and I both got masks for Mom and Maegan...

Now if we ever go to a Masquerade Ball, we'll be all set! :)

DESTINY

Tammy and I have discovered what we were meant to do in life! We had some extra time on Monday so we went to a mall and did some shopping. It was so nice to walk around WITHOUT strollers or kids running wild. Tammy found a hat that she LOVED so we went over so she could try it on. We started putting on other ones.
I should mention that while we were having lunch at Oak Alley Plantation there was a group of ladies dressed up like they were going to a tea party. Dresses, purses and HATS!! They were the cutest ladies and we wanted to join their little party so bad!
So, we saw how adorable we looked in these hats and decided we were meant to get some hats so we could dress up and go to little parties! Now... if only the store would cooperate by selling their hats for LESS than $150 so we could follow our destiny! Oh well. At least we got some pictures! :)

 Also while were shopping I got some shoes. I LOVE these shoes!!

BBQ

Geoff said we HAD TO eat real southern cooking while we were there. Tammy is much more brave than I am so she ordered some Gumbo one of the days we were there and I had a bite. It was ok but not as exciting as I thought. :) I got out my camera right as the waitress came and grabbed Tammy's plate and I wasn't paying attention.
We went to a place and had some southern bbq and Tammy got a picture of that...

THE GARDEN DISTRICT

We did a self-guided tour of The Garden District also. I looked online and found a tour and we followed that. It was pretty cool! I can't say enough about how beautiful these homes were! None of my pictures do them justice at. You walk down these streets and feel like you've gone back in time. They were truly amazing! If it weren't for the crazy humidity (and that I'm sure these homes cost a fortune!) I'd be forcing Geoff to pack us up and move us into one of them! :)
There just wasn't enough room on these streets to get that great of pictures. This is the best I could do (if only I were a photographer and could really capture the awesomeness!!)

Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel:

(owned by Nicolas Cage)

 This sign goes with the house below it:

Women's Opera Guild House:

I don't remember what this one was:

These next two signs are for the house below them. 

(It was originally the Bradish Johnson House and 

now it is the Louise S. McGehee school for girls)

 Archie Manning House:

 The Pritchard-Pigott House

We saw this one along the way:

The Morris-Israel House

One of the houses along the way had this sign:

(we thought it was pretty funny)

Robinson House

This place was HUGE and beautiful!

(front)

(side)

Brevard-Mahat-Rice House

(this was the home of novelist Anne Rice)

Sandra Bullock's New Orleans home:

 This home was being renovated. 

I loved the details around the door & windows:

Perty:

I loved this yellow house with the blue shutters!!

Cool staircase up to the door:

 The Commander's Palace is an old and popular restaurant:

(We wanted to eat there but the dress code was "Upscale casual. No shorts"

and I was wearing shorts. Dang!)