The FIRST Week Of Summer

First Week of Summer!!!!

(May 26th-June 2nd)

We spent the first few days of summer break at my sweet cousin, Macy's wedding.  It was a gorgeous wedding at an old hotel in downtown Austin.  On the night of the Rehearsal Dinner (held in a movie house), Sissy was asked to act in a skit, as my 10-year-old cousin.  She did fantastic, even had all her mannerisms and excitement correct.  It was really fun to see her act!
I had fun - it was really cool to be up on stage in front of all those people.  I was nervous but it was fun!
She looked ridiclous!

Sunday was the wedding - my gorgeous little man in a tux!

All three of them clean up pretty nicely!
The suit was too tight - I couldn't wait to take it off.

Monday: Memorial Day - We surprised the kids with a trip to the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines resort and hung out at the pool all day long!
It was AWESOME!!!!!
We made a sandcastle train!

Sis attempted to go down the slide 100 times - I think she did! 

When I went down it, I sat criss-cross and went spinning like crazy.

This water slide trip ended with, "Again Daddy, Again!"

When we got back to the room, we were greeted with this.....did I mention I was writing about our trip???  You can read all about it here.
They were delicious!

One of my favorite things about the resort was the make your own s'mores bar - peppermint patties, peanut butter cups, and regular & white chocolate - so hard to choose!!!
I made the BEST s'more Ever! It was peanut butter - you always want to lightly toast your marshmallow.
I made mine with a peanut butter cup and it tasted good.

Mom only has one half of me in this picture.
Mom doesn't have me at all in it.

Afterwards, we were treated to a movie on the lawn.  It was a gorgeous night with a cool breeze -what a memorable Memorial Day!

 

Hard to believe, but Bubba lasted the whole day, only passing out at the end of the movie.  Try carrying a sleeping 30 lb toddler back to the room! 

He loved it!(I also cannot believe he made it through the whole movie!)

The next day we tried out more of the resort's activities.  Like this eliptogo bike - so fun!
I tried but it was too tall and scared me.
It was the easiest thing ever! I can't believe she was so weak!

On Thursday, my girlfriend had a genius idea!  We were one of the first school districts to get out for summer, so we headed down to Schlitterbahn for the day and it was almost empty!!
BEST WATERPARK EVER!!!!!!!!

Bubba had a blast going playing on all the toddler water toys - loved the slides.  The water rides I made him go on with us?  Not so much - but he was a trooper and hung on tight!
He even went on the Cliffhanger and was fine!
But I almost feel out of the tube on the Dragon's Revenge!

We finished the week with our first trip to the lake with friends! Love relaxing on Lake LBJ on the boat and we hope to do it more this summer.
I thought my friend fell out of the tube but he held on and skidded across the water.  My dad was going WAY fast!

Whew! And that's only the first week!

Sissy provided commentary in pink.
Brody provided commentary in blue.
Thanks kids!

The BEST SUMMER Ever!!

Remember when you were a kid and summers seemed to last F-O-R-E-V-E-R??  And then you became an adult and they flew by in what felt like a week??

Case in point: We were out of school here in Texas BEFORE Memorial Day - May 25th.  So we are actually heading into our 4th week of summer today....4TH FREAKING WEEK Y'ALL!!!  Time is flying by!

But good thing the kids & I brainstormed a ton of fun things we wanted to do this summer, so we would NEVER get bored.....

Some trips we have already had planned, some ideas are 'pie-in-the-sky".  Some require absolutely NO MONEY, some require me pushing away the laptop and putting down the iPhone and giving my kids my full attention.  

Both Sis & Brody contributed things they wanted to try. Any guess who wanted to play Laser Tag with Dad??

Some ideas were borrowed stolen from Pinterest (has anyone tried this "cloud dough"?? Does it work?).  And a ton of ideas are things that we ok, me wanted to do here locally that we haven't ever tried before.

We will never get all of them done, but it is so fun planning our weeks and filling them with fun ideas from our list!  

Did I mention we are starting our 4th week?  

They have been a very busy 4 weeks!!

Here's what we have accomplished so far: 1 wedding, 4 waterpark visits, s'mores & outdoor movie, BIG outdoor concert (Foster the People y'all!!), seen a tiger jump into a pool of water less than 7 feet in front of me, climbed up 180 feet below the surface carrying a 30-lb 3 year old, tubing Lake LBJ, learned what blacksmithing is from an honest-to-Goodness Blacksmither, had my steering wheel licked by a zebra, Danced the Cotton Eye Joe at one of the oldest country bars in Austin, and eaten some of the BEST ribs I have ever had in my life....in 4 weeks! WHEW!! 

(don't hate the colors- I know I broke every "blogging" rule by doing that but I wanted to make sure you read my list.......)

Honestly, we have done more.  So, this summer, (because I KNOW you are all very interested), I am giving y'all our lives, week by week via that wonderful little picture app, Instagram!  I'm going to recruit my little ones to help me blog about it too.....we'll see how that goes.

So come on back tomorrow to hear how my sweet girl did acting in front of 200 people with little rehearsal!!!!!!

The 11th Birthday Party

When Sis was younger, I threw big, elaborate birthday parties.  I would have a fantastic theme and then work for weeks on all the details.  I loved having BIG parties at home.  It was always a very stressful time, as the perfectionist in me wanted it to be spectacular.

I guess I got tired.  As she got older, birthdays became easier - we found locations to have a great event.    Or we just planned less and less.  This year, she had a great party. 

We invited a few friends for a sleepover and a movie the next morning.

It was a great group of girls and all they wanted to do was play.

And a certain little boy soaked in all their attention.....

Yes it was April, but we live in Texas, so the first swim of the season was certainly in order.

It was cold, but this group of 11-year olds didn't care a bit.

Bubba watches cautiously.....

She received a lot of nice gifts, but totally dug the candy.......

Instead of cake, she opted for this Pinterest-inspired recipe - chocolate waffle ice cream sandwiches.

The next morning, the girls had fun signing & decorating balls to keep.

And then came the real fun - PJs and Pancakes at the movies!!

We love our local movie house - you can order dinner!! Or in this case, breakfast at the first show on weekends!

It was a relaxed, fun birthday party for my girl - relatively little preparation and loads of fun!

The 11th Birthday

April 5 - well over 2 months ago, my baby girl turned 11.  We like to celebrate BIG here in Texas.

We always surprise the birthday one right when they wake up:

But this year, my girl walked downstairs to an even bigger surprise:

She had a growth spurt this past year and desperately needed a bike that her knees didn't come up to her ears as she rode it.

She was pretty excited:

And we start the day off opening at least ONE present before heading to school...even if it is 7 am.....

The Birthday Girl was thrilled to get the Hunger Game series and even started reading it during breakfast.

Dirty plate from the requested cinnamon rolls, but the birthday one always gets meals on their "Red Plate".

That afternoon, Bubba helped his Sissy unwrap presents - she is so sweet to let him rip into all the packages, even though they were all for her.

We tried this game a few months back at the SXSW Games convention - so fun for older kids - lots of thinking involved.

But this girl had one request for her birthday - all she wanted was a Liverpool Jersey like her Daddy.  Matt was all over this - ordered it with her favorite player's (Suarez) name and number on the back.

To say she was excited is an understatement - she was thrilled and wears it when ever there is a game that she and her Dad can watch together.

Bike?  What bike?

Yep - Dad rocks.

My Bubba is 3

My Bubba Bear turned 3 years old this past month.  It is hard for me to grasp that he has been with us for 3 year already!  These past 3 years have simply flown by.

This year, Bubba accomplished so much!

- He started "school" two days a week this past fall.  He went on Tuesdays and Thursday with Miss Rose & Miss Jenny at the wonderful preschool at the church we attend.  He cried the first few times I left him, but this being my 3rd, I knew he'd stop crying moments after I left him.  And he did.  He grew to LOVE school.  Asked every morning, "I go school today?".  He started school as my little baby but left it this May as my big, independent little man.  I cherished the moments when I picked him up.  He would slow me down as we took he long way to walk to the car, or sat on the bench in the courtyard watching all the children get picked up to go home.  It was sweet time with just him.

- He started taking so much more this year.  I love that I can have a conversation with him and completely (well, almost) understand him.  From, "Mom, Mom, I eat!" to "No take nap.  Nap is yuchy!!", this little man gets his feelings out and tells us exactly what he wants.  He still gets frustrated and fusses but all I need to do is remind him that he needs to use his words or show me what he wants and that usually calms him down enough to get his message across.

- He loves to get tucked into bed (he is in his convertible crib with no side - makes into a toddler bed) with a special song each night.  "Snuggle Puppy" by Sandra Boyton is a book that I used to read to his sister & brother when they were younger.  I made it into a song and it has stuck.  Now he MUST have it sung to him by myself or Matt each night. If both of us are in the room, he directs who sings what part by putting his tiny hand over our mouth when he wants us to "hush". He typically does this to me, as his Daddy is his favorite.

- Speaking of his Dad, this boy LOVES his Daddy.  Runs to him when he gets home after work, insists on Dad doing things for him, and is his little magnet on the weekends.  Matt loves it and so do it.  Brody was just the same way when he was Bubba's age.

- Potty Training. Sigh.  It's not happening.

- He is so BRAVE!!  We took him to Schlitterbahn last week and he wanted to ride all the rides the big kids went on - he had his own tube and went down all the relatively calm rapid rides.  He tried most everything until we went on a new ride and his tube dumped over - there was a lifeguard right there to scoop him up. He much preferred the Toddler Areas after that but we did get him on one more ride at the end of the day - he didn't care.

- He sleeps with a "lovey" which Matt calls "Froggy" (it's manly I guess) and his blanket - they are with him all morning long - my little Linus.

- He has given up his nap.  Sigh again.  On days we are home, he is down in his bed but I can hear him playing during "nap time".  Some days, when we are lucky, he falls asleep.

- He loes to be read to and in the car, he will grab a book and read to himself, making up the story as he goes along.  I love it.

The thing that I love the most about this little man is how easy going he is.  He goes with the flow of the big kids and has all of his life.  He fits right in with everyone, wanting to do everything they are doing (I guess that is where his bravery comes into play).  He is lovable, laughs a lot, and makes us immeasurably happy.

I love this little man.