Up, Up and Away! The Plano Balloon Festival

My favorite Balloon that we saw! It was the
perfect touch of  southern hospitality! 

We have so many family traditions growing up in the Dunham household, one of them is attending the annual Plano Balloon Festival! It's a mini-fair with food, fun,  games, vendors, live bands and lots of hot air balloons! It actually lasts all weekend with the "glowing" of the balloons, fire works, sunrise balloon take offs and contests.

We normally only attend the EARLY and I mean early 6:00 sunrise event. This is where the balloons take off one by one just as the sun is rising! It sounds dumb but seriously the combo of the sunrise and the balloons lighting up is so pretty!

The whole gang at 6:15ish... way too early for most of us. Not much was being said  and a lot of fake smiles captured the moment!

This was his first year to experience the festival. He was such a good sport considering he had to be at my house at 5:45!!! :)

Of course the dogs have to attend as well! Can't leave home without these babies...

As you can see Lucy's daddy (Dick) dressed her
for the day..Go Gators!

This is Lucy's Mom Maddie, she is my sisters dog

                      

The City of Plano Hot air balloon

The first few balloons to inflate.. The sky was gorgeous!

Tons of these crazy things! 

The side of this one was promoting Hot Springs!! It was be
absolutely amazing to fly in one of these around the Natural State!

Finally the sun was up!! I Like HIM!

The Pirate Balloon! He was hilarious

The creepy Clown 

I secretly would love to fly in one of these!! After walking around looking at vendors and LOTS and LOTS of people watching it was time for.....

If you haven't tried the pumpkin pancakes for a limited time only, It is a MUST!! It was such a fun Saturday morning!

 Have you ever wanted to fly in a hot air balloon?!

Have a spectacular weekend,

Abigail

A Much Needed Weekend With The Girls..

This past weekend two of my best friends from college came down to visit "perfect" Plano!!! A weekend in Plano usually consists of lots and lots of shopping, home cooking from pretty Chrissie, Dunham family game nights with Scattegories and Mexican Dominoes, and having sunday morning church at Prestonwood!

I just LovEEE them!

Breakfast:

"Pretty" Chrissie woke us up with a HUGE breakfast! She just LOVES to cook and has the best recipes for EVERYTHING! She's my Paula Dean..

Grape Salad Dish
Grapes, Cream Cheese, Pecans, and Cinnamon

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Breakfast Casserole

                    
Our favorite place to shop.. ANTHROPOLOGIE!

I think I could buy everything in that store. I love the rustic/vintage looks!

Fat Straws:

One stop that Erica has to make is a trip to this chinese bubble tea smoothie place called Fat Straws. For some reason she HAS to have one every time she is here!

Barbie Cake
To celebrate, of course I HAD to bake something!

I just love to bake fun cakes! Barbie was so easy and turned out cute. You actually cook the cake in a pyrex measuring cup to form the shape of her dress. It tasted AH-MAZING thanks to the "cake doctor." Everyone needs to have her cookbook. Her recipes are amazing as she takes a normal box of dry cake mix and adds a few ingredients that normally I already in my kitchen!

Family Game Nights consists of..

You never know what will happen during our game nights. You might even have to sing Christmas Carols before you can make a move in dominoes or have all of your answers in Scattergories voted NO! 

        

Dimples Cupcakes: The sweetest Must-Go place is DIMPLES CUPCAKES! They are to die for and the best!

They have the best flavors such as, wedding cake, cookies and cream, red velvet, lemon, orange dreamsicle, Chocolate mousse, carrot cake, banana milk chocolate, snicker,  strawberry, pineapple coconut, and banana pudding! The best is Wedding Cake!

Date Night with the Texas Rangers

Like I have said before, I love some major league baseball and college football. The Texas Rangers are my favorite MLB team, hands down. There is nothing like a watching a Rangers game on a summer night in the stadium with a hot dog and diet coke! I have cheered them on for years and try to go to at least two games every season. This past Wednesday, Dick surprised me with tickets only 25 rows up from home plate!

I found this on my bed one night when I got home! This is Gabby, she is a build-a-bear got Dick bought me our first Valentine's together. She is always dressed for the occasion!

I was so excited! I never get to sit this close!!

It was DOLLAR hot dog night at the ball park!

Josh Hamilton (Hambone) is me and Dick's all time favorite player! We love to watch him play! If you haven't read his book you  definitely need to.  He is an incredible guy and just happens to be best a bat and out in left field.

It was the perfect night for Baseball! The "cold" front moved across north Texas that night with the temperature dropping down to the low 70's. It was another win for the Rangers and such a fun game with the dance cam, dot race, steal the base game, claw cam, dollar hot dog night, and the fireworks from Josh Hamilton's home run!

New Baby Cousin!

This is Alexia Drew Formby!

We got to drive to Oklahoma this past weekend and meet sweet baby Lexi and celebrate her momma's birthday, my cousin Laney! We had a hamburger cook out with all the fixins', every kind of chip known and for dessert angel food and chocolate cake. Lexi was beautiful and came with a tan!  It was fun to spend time with Memaw and the entire family!

She was the sweetest lil thing! Didn't make a peep the whole time we were there.

                       

Putting Pawhuska, Oklahoma on the map!

Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Home of the buffalo roaming Tall Grass Prairie, Osage Indians, childhood memories, the infamous Pioneer Woman, the best BBQ joint, dirty oil rigs, and most importantly "Memaw's" house. Growing up, a summer at Memaw and Pa's was the best time of the year. Most of my family still resides in the little town with the population barely reaching 4,000. 

Memaw's new house is quite the trip in itself. After my "Pa" passing away in 2005, Memaw decided to build her a new house a little closer to town and right next to her best friends of over 50 years, Milton and Sue Labadie.

To put it into simple words, Memaw's house is a vintage, shabby chic cottage that we all call candy land. From the pastel walls, to the pink granite counter tops, this is one stone cottage that I can't resist to share! 

Her new home is such a fun place to visit as I get to see family and friends and my parents hometown roots. 

Her dinning room has pink and green walls and ceilings, with pink desert rose dish set on display and a pearl strung chandelier that completes the room.

Her kitchen has white wooden cabinets with glittery pink granite counter tops with baby pink appliances. 

Friendship Dinner at Prestonwood

       Every fall the Women's ministry of our church have a huge kick off dinner to promote the new year of bible studies. 1,500 Women of all ages came to eat dinner and fellowship with friends, it officially ended summer. The best part of it all is the decorative tables!  Not only are they extravagant but represent a ministry that we support as a church body. 
      Our age group called the "expresso girls" led by my incredible mother supported a new ministry for the prostitutes in Dallas called "New Life, New Friends." Basically they take these women off of the streets and give them a new start to life by supplying clothes, food, and most importantly teaching them about Jesus. Me and my amazing decorating partner Angie Strange were able to decorate three incredible tables this year.

This table was the gift card table. Every woman that sat here was supposed to bring a gift card  to give to  this ministry. This picture does not do justice to the ribbon tree. As gift cards were brought they were tied to the tree to add to the decor of the table. It was a simple set up as we threw printed material around the base of the tree, topped the table with black chargers, and placed Barbie pink tool to each chair. For some reason the older women just seemed to flock to this table and comment! It was a hit!

This table represented the bibles that were donated to share Jesus. It was a mix of bright mish-match colors, printed ribbons, bright gold chargers and topped with gorgeous white hydrangea/mum flowers from Posh Floral. It's amazing what a little ribbon can do!

This table represented clothing that was being donated. Karlie clothes was kind enough to donate two huge boxes of clothes that made an excellent center piece table cloth. The black and silver themed clothes were pinned together, surrounded by fun gift sacks of all shapes, designs and sizes with bright silver chargers. This was the hardest table to create as me and Angie would pull out the most adorable clothes and unwillingly pin them on the table :).

Newest family member..

Meet Lucy!

 Lucy was born June 26th and is a full bred shihtzu. She is my little pride and joy! I am obsessed with her. The funny part is that her parents are also in our family. Her mom  (Maddie) is my sister and brother in law's dog and her dad (Bailey) is my parents dog. Then one day when Maddie and Bailey were having a play date in the backyard and... then we got 5 puppies!! We are so excited to have the little precious thing.

Lucy's apparel

It is an absolute must that the little girl has a closet full of clothes and accessories. This fall she will help cheer on the Arkansas Razorbacks, Oklahoma Sooners and who can go wrong with a simple monogram tee. They are sure to make a statement! I just happen to love arts and  crafts and found these little "dog skin" tees at hobby lobby. A little rhinestones, iron on graphics, ribbon and the little diva dog is off to a great start!

We just LOVE her!