Turning 50 2.0

I dislike surprise parties being pulled on me. Like really dislike it. 95% of the fun of birthday parties is planning & looking forward to them, IMO. So this year for my milestone 5-0 birthday my family had strict instructions not to pull off surprises and I planned my own parties. It's been fab-u-lous! I've been getting just what I want every time!! LOL 😄

With encouragement from my friend Renita, I planned a trip to Waco Texas with my Hillcrest friends. Way back in March, I asked them for commitment to go and booked a big VRBO house to hold us all. We agreed to spend a little extra on a house from the Fixer Upper show. To my great delight, only 1 backed out when the time came. 11 of us traveled down to Waco last week. We had the BEST 50th party EVER! (Maybe it's good I'm the youngest in our group so no one feels pressured to try top it!) We took 400+ photos so I'll try to narrow that down for you here.  

The adventure began early in the morning as our group checked in to various airports... 

DFW, here I come! 

Our late fall came to a sudden end; it was chilly enough that they de-iced our plane before we took off. 

Good morning Dallas! 

2 batches of us landed within minutes of each other at DFW- pictured below waiting for our ride to pick us up- then we picked up the 3rd batch from Love Field airport...    

We went to Chipotle for lunch (below) while we waited on the final member of our party to arrive, back at DFW. Can you believe she was in Hawaii with her grandbaby and just happened to be laying over at DFW within hours of us arriving?! She was able to change her flight home and join my party after all. 

We had some 'time to kill' before we could check in at the house so we browsed around Spice Village in Waco awhile. 

This tea towel in one of the shops sums up my Hillcrest group. I'm pretty sure we are THE most fun former Hillcrest group, in the history of Hillcrest Home!! What I really want to know though is where have the last 30 years gone?!

We finally got to our rental, the Mid Century Modern, on Thursday late afternoon. Of season 2, episode 9 on the Fixer Upper show. It did not disappoint!  

Master Bedroom

and bath...

After the show, the garage was converted into additional beds & a bath.

Union Hall was the prefect place to find food for a large group because everyone could get what they were hungry for. I wasn't very hungry so when I saw The 5-0 Shake from Unshakeable I knew I just HAD to have it! Thank you, Renita, for gifting it to me. 

It was even better than it looks. Pictures don't do justice! Coffee ice cream in a canning jar, which was dipped in marshmallow creme and rolled in gold sprinkles, and a Ho-ho on a stick stuck in it. And the 'cherry on top' is that the company is a nonprofit I feel good about supporting.  

The rest of the group wanted ice cream to top off their meal so we hunted up Heritage Creamery. The cute atmosphere was better than the ice cream. 

On Friday we decided to start with Magnolia Table. They don't take reservations so we waited all morning for a table -for our large group, but it was totally worth it! 

Way too much food for me, but it was top notch. 

In the afternoon we explored Magnolia. It has grown since I was last there, but there was even less stuff I was interested in buying. I came away empty handed. 

There wasn't as many colorful flowers growing in the gardens as I expected for this time of year...

Where we had parked last time is now a ball diamond...

My favorite part of the Magnolia grounds now is the church!

😍😍😍

The Texas sunshine felt heavenly, relaxing on the green...

When everyone had their fill of walking around at Magnolia, we went back to the house and...

just when we were trying to figure out how to take a group photo in front of the house, the sweet neighbor lady came over and offered to take pictures for us. Her husband was outside and heard us so he sent her over. First rate neighbors!

L-R: Hannah, Rose, Racine, Rosita, Dorcas, Rosi, Bev, Renita, me, Ruth, Linda 

She even came back over later to take more group photos when we were dressed for my Red Hat party!  I mean seriously, don't we look super fun?!

We took Ashley's recommendation and went to Rosati's for pizza. Highly recommend it.

Fortunately for everyone else, they seated us back in the banquet room.  

It was nice to have Norma come join us for the evening, too. (She lives within 1/2 hr of the Silos.)

The one carload swung by Nightlight Donuts to pick up some croissant donuts on the way back. Another Ashley recommendation. I wasn't hungry but they were worth writing home about, let me tell ya.  

We couldn't NOT use the fire pit if one came with the house, so we gathered around it.   

They surprised me with birthday gifts. I'm saving the money toward 2 items on my 50s bucket list- zip lining & whitewater rafting. But the purple purse full of gag gifts is waiting for its next victim. LOL 😁

When it got too chilly outside, we went in and watched the episode of Fixer Upper about the house we were staying in. So cool! 

Going to Magnolia Press won the vote for Saturday morning. 

If you ever get to Waco, even if you're not into the whole Magnolia thing, I would still recommend stopping by Magnolia Press. That apple pie cinnamon roll was 'to-die-for'!  

Don't miss the spelling of my name on the cup... that is what you get when you mix Texas with a strong PA accent. Thanks, Rosita, for the breakfast! 💜

We stood in a long line to get in Silos Baking Company next.

Cupcakes for the win!

We were trying to get organized for a group photo when this older gentleman -claiming to be Tom Brady- 😂 came along and jumped in out shot. See, we're so fun everyone wants to be in our group!! 

We all were wearing pins that said "birthday squad" and later that day another older gentleman told us "You're kinda hard to miss." Should we blush or laugh? 

Now for the "real" group photo...

Next we walked to the Downtown Farmer's Market. That was one of the highlights for me. (They were celebrating their 10th anniversary Saturday.) If I would've had more room in my luggage I would've been tempted to buy more stuff there. 

I did buy a cactus from a plant vendor -with fingers crossed that it would get through security at the airport unscathed (it did!)

Walking back from the Farmers Market, a window display caught my attention. It was a shop called Paper Crown on Franklin Ave. They had some scrapbooking stuff!! Of course, I went in and browsed around while the rest went on. The papers that I bought was the crowning purchase of my trip!

Some of us went to Little Shop on Bosque, Joanna Gaines' original little store. I loved it! I bought a wooden stand, which intentions of using it as a mini charcuterie board, and a Magnolia Table tee on clearance.   

We wanted Texas BBQ while we were in Texas, so we ordered from Rudy's Real Texas BBQ.

That's beef brisket, pulled pork & chicken on the left, with cole slaw, baked beans & buttered potatoes on the right. And good ol' southern sweet tea. Delicious!

After that we got lazy and didn't do any of the things we had talked about doing, like going out to the lake for sunset or to see the silos lit up at night. We did laugh until our sides ached though. That should count for something. 

The next morning we went to Cafe Cappuccino. Another restaurant we can now recommend. They also seated us in the back corner, which is always a good thing with our group. 😄 

(Everywhere we went we took Verna with us on a stick so she could be with us vicariously.)

Their food was the bomb!! Just look at the size of those pancakes... 

Hannah lives in Texas now so we went to see her cute house...

Sadly it was time to part ways already. So one carload headed to the airport, while the rest of us went to Fort Worth Water Gardens until it was closer to our flight time.  

We were blessed with perfect weather in Texas. Beautiful afternoon to enjoy the outdoors. 

This was the Active Pool.

The Aerated Water Pool

The Quiet Pool 

We were intrigued with the cypress tree roots 

Last stop, before the airport, was In-n-Out Burger. My first time eating there.

I have been blessed with wonderful friends to grow older with. I am so grateful for these ladies who have encouraged/prayed/laughed/cried me through the ups & downs, ins & outs of the past 32 years.😄 Thank you for making my 50th birthday trip a dream come true!