Week #13- Pirates AARGH!

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Our last week of summer has come and gone but alas, I do not want to leave it undocumented. We had a great wrap up to the summer with a weekend trip to Burleson's Pirates Cove, which was awesome by the way! It was much cheaper than some of the other water parks and lots for my two kids ages to do there-slides, and pool time. We also watched a few Pirate shows and read a few pirate books. One day we got to try out a trampoline park with our cousins as that was a last request of summer by Isaac. Also, we got a new hermit crab after doing a little more research into the care of these critters. Isaac named him Bane, as in Batman's nemesis. We also cleaned house and got ready for back to school pirate party. So glad Brooke, Abby, Tanner, Haden & Ethan, Emily & Mandy joined us! Enjoy the pics mateys!

Happy 13 Anniversary!

My dearest Nick, I wanted to wish you a Happy Anniversary. We keep calling it our lucky 13 but it really feels like our lucky 13. I have enjoyed each of these years with you, going on amazing trips (Hawaii, Mexico, Chicago to name a few), trying new things-sushi and driving manual drive (You always push my limits!), seeing some beautiful sights (sunrises, ice mountains, and plenty of the roads of US), experiencing so many new things (Ministry, moving, two kids!), and I just can't wait to see what the next years bring! I am so lucky to have a partner who is funny, interesting, can still surprise me, pursues me as much as when we were dating, challenges me and my faith, and who cares about me so deeply. Love you! Cheers!

Week #12- Food

This was the last change for the summer. I wanted to squeeze in two more themes before back to school time and we are rather close. It worked out as I started introducing Vivian to this theme, that she quickly told me "this is the best week of the whole summer". Basically all I did is say she could help me cook and have little theme nights for our meals. Who knew chores could be so fun for the kids! The weekend proceeding this daddy went out of town with his best friend Zack so we also got to enjoy a fun dinner at Nana's while they were away and a fun dinner with him before they left at his favorite Babe's. Monday was cowboy breakfast night (brinner, as we affectionately call breakfast for dinner). Tuesday was Taco Tuesday which Nana helped us with. Wednesday was Italian night (spaghetti and meatballs with Lady and the Tramp). Thursday got flipped around a little it became French Thursday (instead of French Friday) hamburgers and french fries. Friday became Hawaiian night with pineapple chicken, green beans, and rice, and disco dessert as the kids got real excited about again. (Brownies with M&M's). Throughout the week we also inserted a few other fun things that ended up going with the theme. We headed to my friend's Christina's who happens to have 6 apple trees out front. She also happens to be going with me to Jamaica in October on a mission trip. Her hubby got the great idea for us to make some apple pies to raise some money, so we enlisted the kids help to pick the apples and they ran around while we baked 20 pies. It was fun but tiring too. Friday night we attended our first outdoor movie up at the middle school-Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, although we've seen it a bunch it is a whole different game being outdoors at night. It was another event I plan on not missing next summer. Free and awesome! Happy cooking!

Week #11- Archaeology

This week the main attraction I had in mind was the Indiana Jones exhibit at the museum. We did go see "Rio 2" which I tell the kids had some exploring but not so much digging for artifacts. However, we went with it. I thought about introducing them to Indiana Jones but then after doing a little research realized these movies are the reason the PG-13 rating came into existence. In other words, they are too young! We did however go through the exhibit because thanks to a good friend Thomas got a great deal on some tickets. The other big outing for the week was Granbury Beach. Christina and I packed up our kids and headed down there for a fun day. It was so delightful! We kept saying, "Why haven't we been doing this all along?" Next summer, I need to remember this when I want a "beach" vacation. It's free, close, and never crowded during the week. What fun. Here are my favorite pics.

Week #10-Sports

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We are in August friends! I can't believe how quickly this summer is going. Just as soon as I uttered those words, it seemed everything has stopped and come to a stand still. My kids have started fighting non-stop, electronics are taking over, and I'm so done with cooking. Can I get an Amen? I am trying my best to keep on keepin' on so we decided to do "sports" this past week. I had some fun ideas, and the weather was a delight cooling off again but it did make swimming a little challenging. We did however enjoy boxing with Aaron and playing with Ellen, a sweet treat with our cousins,bowling and lunch with the Harder, swimming with Brooke and Ryan, CATS baseball game on the PERFECT night for baseball, some awesome ball fights with a new target mom made, a day camp at Lonestar gymnastics, and a fun weekend with daddy while mommy got together with some childhood friends. That about sums it up. Here's the pics.

Week #9- Transportation

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This week was a little unique. We put our kids in one more VBS to occupy them but we also were planning on helping out a neighbor and taking her kids for the week. She is on bed rest with her fourth so we took her two boys to give her some much needed rest. The kids had a good time at VBS but maybe just as much fun running around our house. Our "theme" was supposed to be transportation and we did a couple of things with this but as this summer and life seems to be going many plans did not turn out the way I had planned them. That's okay. God is working me down little by little. A few things worth mentioning on that front- Planes Fire and Rescue did not work the day we wanted to take them to a movie, so we came back here and "watched" CARS 2. They didn't last too long on this one. I did however get to take just Vivi to a party at Hawaiian Falls as the daddy of this family kept my little guy one afternoon. That was a blast and perfect for her age. Friday we drove to Dallas to see a good friend and play with her kids, no problems except the long car ride home! Saturday we trucked as a family to Mountasia where I bought a groupon for some golf and go cart rides. It was a really hot day that day but the go karts were a blast and the bumper boats helped cool us off! Enjoy the pics.

Week #8-Science

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What I lacked the week before we made up during science week! Wow did my kids love this week and wow did I love the weather to make it much easier! What was also fun is we didn't run around as much this week but did science experiments at home- ice crystals, volcanoes, flubber, made some fun blue cupcakes, and read some cool volcano books. We did have some flops, because I don't want you thinking everything always runs smoothly. We visited the Monnig meteorite museum and couldn't get in. We tried this glow chalk that didn't work and this glow potion that didn't work. Oh well, it didn't slow us down too much. We also made it to our first dollar movie- yes we need to do that again! It was perfect "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" very science driven and creative! We also had visitors this week. Gigi came through on her way to move to Chicago :( but we did get to take her to the Museum of Science which was a blast! We even saw a movie there in the planetarium we hadn't seen before! What a fun week. Enjoy the pics.

Week #7-Art Week

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Week 7 we studied art week. I feel like I missed some opportunity with my kids this week but that's okay. Some week's turn out better than other's. We did make it to the Amon Carter Museum for their storytime, and a fun lunch with daddy after at Chuy's (fun art there), and we did get to read quite a few fun books. We didn't make a ton of art, but I've really discovered my kids are not "crafters" even though they are being raised by a mommy who loves crafts! One of the big things we did solve, was what to do with all of our artwork. This is a problem/question I get a lot at my work and my best solution is either make a hard copy book or take pictures and make a book so I'm doing both. I have included some of my fav shots of the kids artwork from the past years as well. The other shots cover the way we do art now, not so organized...here's some chalk paint have at it! Here's some blank paper, stickers, and markers, have fun! Let's paint nails. This is now how art looks for us these days. We did also talk about other forms of art-dancing, music, writing. I even tried to read to them about Dr. Seuss and watch some of his movies, read some of his books, and maybe aspire them to become their own unique artists.

Happy 4th of July!-History Week

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Happy belated 4th of July friends! I am falling behind but trying to keep up with all the "things" going on this summer, themes, work, and some on-line courses I'm taking. It's a lot but if I survive and the kids do too, we will have accomplished much. So a couple of weeks back we all celebrated the independence of our nation and we decided to couple that with history study. It was interesting and humbling to me, how little my kids new about our government and our history. We got quite a few books at the library but the biggest hit of the week was going to Log Cabin Village. (I was even a little skeptical after seeing the whining that ensued when I pulled out a book on our national anthem.) However, I was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of knowledge the employees had and how much there was to see and "experience" there. I would highly recommend! We got to spend the 4th with my sister and her family and really the rest of the week was somewhat lowkey as we were trying to recover from the long weekend before. I think Nick caught a little bug so we didn't do our normal firework extravaganza but decided to keep it closer. Some friends invited us at the last minute to come and let our kids shoot off some fireworks with them and eat bbq so we took them up. Thank you Harder's! Hope everyone had a relaxing 4th with some good apple pie.

Week #5 Games!

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Our last week of June was dedicated to VBS at a local church and the theme was GAMES! This has always been a favorite of my kids and a fun filled busy week. We usually take my niece to at least part of the events and this week we got to take her for a couple of days and a fun afternoon activity. Monday they all got suited up and ready to go. In the afternoon, the clouds parted so we headed to the Putt-putt for some games. Isaac hit the jackpot on one machine winning 1000 tickets. The kids think they won the lottery and on their terms they did. We split the tickets between the three and they each got quite a loot. The rest of the week was lots of games at home. This VBS sent home some games and some LIFE cookies which we enjoyed Wednesday afternoon. Friday we darted out a little early to make a road trip to San Antonio, probably the last one for awhile. We went to see my in-laws one last time before their big cross-country move to Chicago. We invited my sister's family along and made it a whirlwind weekend of road trip, Sea World and moving some furniture back home with us. A BIG thank you to my in-laws Gail and Bob for hosting us and my sister and her hubby for all their help for the weekend. We made lots of memories for the kids but kind of wiped out the parents. Enjoy the slideshow.

Week #4- Camping, Nature, Bugs Week

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What a week! This one was a doozy but definitely kept us on our toes. This week was our camping/nature/bugs week. When I'm creating these themes I have the best intentions but of course life certainly doesn't go accordingly to "my plan"- thank God! However, I'm learning the art of flexibility. Perfect example, girl scout camp this year. I must tell a bit of the story to understand what I'm referring to here. This takes us back to a crazy time last December, in the midst of deadlines, parties, and Christmas around the corner I was asked to be cookie mom again and in a weak moment said "Yes." I realized now be careful in those moments to not be too busy to make logical decisions. That being said, I decided to take on this role one more year so the girls could enjoy camp and to give the other full time working mommies a break. It was a bit of a crazy cookie season in January and February. If you are reading this blog you probably heard about it. So we get through the season, our troop exceeds my expectations for cookie sales. Wonderful! Fast forward to April. I wake up one morning with a bad stomach bug and lovely timing this is the morning I have to register my sweet girl for summer camp. By the way, registration begins at 5 am and if you log in at 5:15 am you have missed camp! So in between my getting sick, being stuck on a screen, having no help desk available at that ungodly hour, my daughter does not make it into the camp with any of her troop but two girls. I'm sad but I'm in survival mode. My mind is a little too busy with a family wedding we are attending two days later across the country and how I'm going to survive that and hopefully not infect anyone else. (Happy to report that turned out beautifully!) So...here we are summer quickly approaching and after many prayers and calls, Vivian gets switched to camp with her troop as do all girls from her troop. Only problem, I work the day she now goes to camp and it's father's day. Sweet Patti to the rescue takes my shift so I can take my little girl to camp. Again, thank you God! I'm ready to sit down and fill out paperwork and I cannot get a shot record for my child as the medical site is down, again on a weekend so no help in site. She can't go without this. I put together my best estimate, knowing she's received all her shots and we go with that. Crisis averted. The week is here we have organized a caravan and fun dinner after drop off. We go to check in the girls leaving a couple of minutes late and there is an almost hour line wait at camp. Yay! We get there and lines everywhere, mind you last year we walked into a near empty building and were gone within 10 minutes. We get all girls checked in and off to cabin assignments. So, we have 9 girls attending camp, 4 to a cabin and for some reason they have us spread out between 5 cabins. What this means is many girls by themselves and for 8 year olds staying overnight this is kind of a big deal. We calmly visit with the staff there and you think we just asked them to move a mountain to switch some girls in a cabin. Another 30-45 minutes of waiting to put our stuff in a cabin. Finally, the girls are checked in and we head to Babe's for a lovely Father's day dinner. This was our big adventure for the week! Other than that, we had some play dates, park times, horse camp with Papa, bike times, and outside fun, bugs at the zoo, smores pinterest dish, a swim party, oh yes and VBS in the evenings at our church, and a mini-try at a campout in our playhouse which ended in kids up till 11 and coming inside sleepy and hot. Still, they said that was a really fun idea mommy! If they only knew!

Week #3- Pets

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Now that both kids are officially in summer, we started with our favorite theme of the summer according to my kids- Pets! As mentioned before, we also did an update in Vivian's room making it bright and a little more applicable to her. The new theme is...dogs! Check out the fun pics in her room. Better yet, come visit us and check it out in person. We also got one more pet introduced in our house, no not a dog yet. It's a hermit crab for Isaac, and his name is Bat. We now have Beaver, Beauty, and Bat. Are you catching our theme? Of course we visited our local pet store and some friends that have a pet collection that could rival our's. The week wouldn't be complete without a trip to see our favorite family dog- Kenzie. Enjoy the slideshow.

Week #2- Jungle

Week two was a little more tame after crazy week one. We did however get to visit the zoo and see many animals, Three Parrots for a yummy dinner, and a water park with some friends. Here are a couple of shots.

Summer Themes begin...or should I say Reconstructed!

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Welcome summer!! I don't know if I have ever looked so forward to summer, or at least I couldn't remember the last time school seemed to drag out so long. I am so excited to say that we are doing our themes this summer along with many other new things. If you are new to our site, every summer we create themes that we gear our week towards- so we may watch certain movies, read certain books, visit certain sites, or eat certain things or places. Just to see how flexible I can be, we changed our first week theme three times! We reconstructed it to construction week. I had set out a goal to clear out our kids overwhelming spaces that they both seemed to have outgrown. Isaac's room was first, we started with clearing out the room and then wanted to paint the room. This seems easy enough and I like to paint, but we were taking the room from chocolate to a light faint blue. What this looked like was two coats of primer, two coats of paint, and then trim, and then doors. What it really looks like is a week of Isaac getting to play video games, about 10 or so trips to Lowe's, and way too much ice cream and McD's to bribe my child. Overall, I think it turned out really boyish and much brighter and less cave-like. We also reconstructed his shelf space to give him a little writing desk. We were trying to prepare for a new trundle bed we will be getting from Nick's parents house at the end of the month, and another dresser. In addition, we were prepping for a garage sale that ended up happening on short notice but helped clear out some of the clutter. After tackling Isaac's space, we worked on Vivi's. More of that to come! Finally, we took the kids to Legoland to enjoy building more things...it was a blast! I'm glad we waited a little longer to visit until both kids were out of school and we must have hit the jackpot of days because it was rainy outside and not busy inside. What a treat!

We have a third grader!!

Oh my goodness, we have a third grader. At our house the second you graduate from one grade you move onto the next. It's pretty crazy if you ask me! Here are a couple of shots of Vivian's last day.