Tuesday Hikes

Well, we took the kids hiking again today. It was the second Tuesday we have done that this summer so I am hereby declaring it a summer tradition! Let the Tuesday hikes commence! Today we decided to go to McKinney Falls State Park. It was beautiful. Of course the drought has made the water levels very low but we did find the "falls" or what is left of them and it turned out to be enough water for the family to actually swim in. And today we actually remembered that we have a furry offspring so we took Brady with us. I think it may have been the best day of his life. He was so happy.

I call this one "Turtles on a Log"

The beginning of the hike when everyone was still happy!

We found a cave where word has it an ancient Native American tribe may have lived. The kids even found words carved into the walls that they were sure were left by the Indians. I have my doubts-unless one of the Indians was named Mike Lowry or perhaps Rocky.

Sister is rockin' her track shorts.

The lower falls.

I mean really. Brady swam all morning. That is one happy golden retriever.

Because of the drought there was a small pool that was cut off from the main body of water where a small school of fish was trapped. A couple of them had already gone bottoms up. Of course, my Jake wanted to save them. So we came up with a plan to trap them in a plastic baggie and liberate them to the main body of water. We probably spent a good 30 minutes rescuing fish. Of course the fish were totally freaked and probably thought we were aliens or something so not all of them cooperated. We had to leave a few behind. Let's see how survival of the fittest works out for those little guys.

Fourth of July Festivities

This year we finally decided we could take the kids to the annual 4th of July parade downtown without worrying about them running out in front of a fire truck or something. It was a very small parade but Jake and Em loved it. They especially loved the part where people threw candy at them. Yay!

After the parade we headed to the downtown park where there were a plethora of bouncy houses to be bounced upon. Jake and Emma waited in line to go to the top of a pretty tall bouncy slide first. I knew it was going to end up with Emma at the top refusing to go down. But Mike assured me that she would be fine. Just as they were about to get their turn I had a panic attack about Emma and her underwear situation. So I asked her if she put any on and she said yes and then I noticed the mama in front of us trying not to bust out in laughter about that conversation. Something told me she's been there and done that too. As predicted when Emma finally climbed to the top of this particular Pike's Peak she wigged out and started crying. I had a dress on so there was no way I was going up there. So Mike had to save the day and climb the slide in two single bounds and then he whisked his daughter down the slide. When they reached the bottom she was all giggles and said "again! again!" And I said "no way sister." Then we found the HEB mascot and the kids had their picture taken with him. They were so excited for some reason. I mean, it's just a big paper sack with fake food inside. It's not Rick Springfield or anything.

Then we came home and ate hot dogs because you can't much more American than that. I also made an apple pie because, hello, American!

 

And for the first time in their lives we took the kids downtown that night to see the firework display. Usually, we just sit in our driveway and see whatever illegal fireworks the neighbors are setting off. Oh my word. They had so much fun. Except for the part where Emma chewed open one of her glow sticks and got the glow chemicals all in her mouth and it burned, it burned! Then she rubbed her face with her hands and that started burning. Then we had to ask the strangers beside us if they had any water we could use to stop the chemical burning taking place in and on our daughter's face. Good times. But finally the fireworks started and Jake could not contain his excitement. He said in his very loud voice "mama! they are exploding! they are exploding mama! this is the best day of my life!!!" And even Emma agreed with that because by that time the burning had subsided and she was able to focus on fun. Hope you had a happy 4th too!

Summertime Adventures 2013

Last week almost killed us. It was our annual go to Vacation Bible School all morning, come home for lunch and then go to swim lessons all afternoon week. I know tons of families do these kinds of things day in and day out and that's great but we aren't typically that busy. If the kiddos had one meltdown last week they had one hundred meltdowns last week. But I will say they had tons of fun at VBS and Emma Mae has been singing all sorts of songs about Jesus this week which makes me smile. She keeps ending one song with "he gives us ever lasting might" and I keep telling her I think it's supposed to be "ever lasting life" and she tells me "not in my song mama!" So, whatever. He does also give us might I suppose.

We are watching my neighbor's eight year old boy three days a week this summer. So the kids have a friend to help keep them entertained which is good. And I have one more child in the house to keep entertained or else I hear the dreaded words "I'm bored!" So off to the swimming pool we go. Every. Single. Day. If Jake gets any more tan or his hair gets any more golden highlights in it we will have no choice but to sign him up for some sort of little boy swim suit model contest. Or surfer boy poster contest. I don't know but seriously I could die from all the cute over here. Even our fair skinned little Emma has a pretty good tan going on. And yes, I sunscreen them. With zinc oxide even. The good stuff.

Yesterday we met some friends at a local movie theater that shows free kid movies every day in the summer. God bless them. I didn't even mind paying $6 for popcorn because we got to sit in an air conditioned dark room for two hours with no complaining! Blissful.

Today, Mike and I took all three kiddos for a two hour hike at the greenbelt. My poor neighbor boy actually said to me "what's a hike?" when I told him what we were doing for the day. City kids. He actually ended up loving it and said to Jake "I actually feel HAPPY right now!" as they were walking down the trail. Which goes to show that a little outside time for boys is not a bad thing if you ask me. To make things fun I told the kids the first one to spot a butterfly got five points. Then a hundred points for a lizard. You get the picture. By the time we hiked over an hour to find the only little pool of water in the dried up creek bed we were close to each kid had racked up about ten million points. We saw butterflies, lizards, birds, bugs, squirrels, weird tail less rodents, tons of baby frogs and to top it off three snakes. Yes, I said three snakes. They were all in the little water hole we eventually found. First we saw one and that was cool. Then we saw a second and that was neat. Then we saw the third and I said to Mike "do you think we're in a snake den? hey kiddos! go ahead and back slowly out of here and let's get back on the trail. what do you say?!" Then Jake and his friend spent the next 45 minutes completely forgetting about how HAPPY they were on the hike out and instead talked of dying in the woods from being too tired or their feet falling off from walking too much or of dying of starvation or thirst before we made it back to the car. Clearly, we need to toughen up these boys.

Now, on a completely unrelated note:

My Firecrackers

Beach Babies

We took the kids on our first family beach vacation last week. They had so much fun! So did Mike and I but I also learned a valuable lesson. Going to the beach with your young children is way different than going to the beach with your friends. I felt like I was on "lifeguard duty" the entire time. I really could not relax with them in the water. Still, I'm glad we went and we are already planning our next trip next summer!

Before I show you pictures though I need to tell you about the pre-vacation stress my precious children gave to me. As we were leaving I stopped to feed my hamster. I noticed that everything in his cage was moved to one side. It was very peculiar. So I called out to Mike and he came and looked and began digging around in the cage. Which turned out to be very, very empty. No hamster anywhere. The children were already buckled up in the car. We were that close to being out the door. So I looked at Mike and said "bring them in here for questioning." Our son told us that what had happened was the cage had somehow, mysteriously fallen off of the table we keep it on. He repeatedly stated that he didn't know how it happened. But the lid fell off and so he picked it back up and put it on the table. Evidently, he did not see dear Striper crawl out of the cage when it paranormally took a nose dive. Emma claimed no knowledge of the event whatsoever. She said she was asleep. She is a known liar so I'm not sure I believe her. Anyway, we spent the next 15 minutes looking for Striper but did not find him. So we left. I was very worried about him because the front door had been open for some time while Mike packed up so I knew if Striper had made his way outside that he was toast. I mean we have hawks, snakes, mean old mockingbirds and all sorts of dangerous stuff out front. And Striper is not an outdoorsman. He has no survival skills that I'm aware of. Also, I was afraid that if he was hiding inside our house he would accidentally get caught on the sticky mouse traps we have everywhere just like our cat did a few weeks ago. Not pretty.

So we spent the next two days on the beach living it up but always in the back of my mind I was worried about my hamster. When we got back in town the first thing I did was look for him. Still no Striper. The next morning after I fed the cat I happened to walk by her food bowl only to see a cute little ball of fur sitting in there eating cat food like there was no tomorrow. I have never been so happy to see a little rodent.

Now, on with the photo documentation!

The kids loved the Texas State Aquarium. And Mike got to participate in the dolphin show. He won a free Whataburger for his help!

We took a ten minute ferry ride. It was the first time for our children to be on a boat. We even saw bottlenose dolphins! Yeah! Behold, the brown waters of the Texas Gulf Coast. Thank you Mississippi River.

The view from our condo. It was beautiful but my camera lens kept fogging up.

We didn't even have to teach Emma Mae how to hold her boogie board. She just did it naturally. It's in her DNA. Mike was so proud. Both kids did great on the boogie boards and spent an entire day playing in the surf. Love!

Kinder graduate

This little guy graduated from Kindergarten on Wednesday. Where has the time gone? We are so proud of him! He can read and write now! He can play well with others. In fact, the one area that he received an "excellent" in was cooperating with others. I think that's almost as important as writing in your night journal!

 

 

 

Jake and Abigail

Most of his Kindergarten class.

Our sweet Mrs. Ware. I've already begged her to take Emma Mae when she gets to Kinder!

Jake and Kason. BFF's.

Our dear little Sydney. I'm not sure yet if Jake will marry her or her little sister someday. I'm ok with either one.

Little Miss gets to go to all of the Kinder parties with us. She's like an honorary Kinder mascot. Love them! Congratulations to my big man!

Girl Time

This morning Mike went to spend the day at Jake's school as part of their Watch Dog program. They were both very excited. Since the boys were both going to be gone all day I decided to plan a girly day for me and Em. So off we went to the mall. I needed to find a swimsuit top to match the hot pink boy shorts I found on sale a few weeks ago.

Swim suit shopping is torture on a good day for me. The lighting in the dressing rooms is awful. You see things you didn't realize were actually on your body under those lights. Like the giant blue vein that has taken up residence on the back of my knee.

I promised Emma Mae that if she acted nicely in the store and didn't run around like a crazy person we would stop at the cookie place on our way out for an m&m cookie. She couldn't have been happier. She was actually pretty good in the store once I told her that I needed her help finding the perfect swimsuit. She started picking out things for me that left me questioning her taste. Like the floral number she brought me that was about ten sizes too big. Mama doesn't do floral. So then she went to the other extreme and brought me a hot pink bikini with fringe on top. Let me tell you, nobody needs to see me in that.

I finally found three tops I wanted to try on. We headed for the dressing rooms. I disrobed and pulled out my hot pink boy shorts to try on with the tops. That's when Em decided to laugh hysterically and say at the top of her lungs "I see your booty mommy!" So I said, "yes emma." And she said "I see your tee tee spot mommy! and it has hair on it!" Look I know it's horrible to read this. Imagine living it in a dressing room with at least one other lady right next to you. So I said "emma! be quiet!" So she said "mama! you look kind of flat." And somewhat hopefully I said "really? does my tummy look flat?!" And she said "no mama, I said fat not flat. Fat! You look kind of fat with no clothes on!" Great. As if I wasn't already having self esteem issues what with the swimsuit trying on, massive blue vein and poor lighting and all. So then I put my clothes back on in shame and hurried out to purchase two swimsuit tops I'm not even sure I liked.

I still took little miss to get her cookie afterward because I don't think she was being intentionally malevolent. And she made it all up to me on the ride home by singing "Old McDonald had to fart" at the top of her lungs. I was just sad that the lady in the adjacent dressing room in Dillard's wasn't there to hear it.

Four. More. Days.

I had every intention of writing a humorous blog post today about the end of the school year and how as far as I'm concerned it cannot get here too soon. But then Amy shared this great post by Jen Hatmaker that explains it so much better than I could. And I am so glad I am not alone here. There are so many things she wrote about that I agree with.

I would feel really bad if I was the only mama alive who gave up on homework about two months ago. Technically, I gave up on homework about the third week that Jake brought home the dreaded night writing journal. I mean sixty minutes of sitting at the kitchen table with my child while he struggles to write "I love my crabe" is sixty minutes of life that will never be returned to me. It wasn't helping that I kept envisioning myself ripping the pencil out of his little hand so I could scribble the words on his paper and be done with it already. Instead, I came up with my own coping mechanism called the nightly half glass of wine. Not good.

Thankfully, the Kindergarten teachers had sense enough to stop sending home homework of any kind about three weeks ago. I think they know that not only are the kids done with school, but the mamas are also done with school at this point. We had reached the point in the night journal writing where  I may have told Jake not to bother drawing the three pictures he was supposed to use to illustrate his writing. I may or may not have seen his teachers note on one particular entry that said "don't forget about your pictures!" with a smiley face beside it.  Listen. I know this note was for me. Because I don't think Jake can read "don't forget about your pictures" yet. Although he is very good with reading things like "the baby is strong." Riveting. Besides, how many authors do you know who illustrate their own books? One. Eric Carle. That is it. And Jake is no Eric Carle.

I am so glad I am not the only mama who went from sending fully balanced nutritionally packed homemade lunches for my child to eat every day at the beginning of the year to just telling him to go through the cafeteria line again. Then last night I finally looked at his cafeteria account and realized the reason his money doesn't seem to be lasting long enough is because he is buying lots of .50 cent cookies and .75 cent CapriSun's and 1.00 cookies and ice cream that I didn't know about. Who knew the kid liked sherbet so much?

Last week when my parents were here I planned a trip for us to all go to a local farm to pick strawberries. I was totally going to take Jake out of school for the day even though my dad gave me a funny look about that. Who cares that he has already missed eleven days of school this year due to illness? One more day won't hurt him. At least he would be learning how to pick fruit instead of watching another movie or eating another popsicle or taking another extra recess. He would have an actual trade to fall back on someday if he learned how to pick strawberries. Sadly, my dad got sick and we cancelled the trip so I shipped Jake off to another day of school.

Today was the third Pajama day of this school year. The kids got to take books and flashlights to school so the teachers could turn out the lights while they read by themselves. Genius! Who doesn't think at least one teacher had to take a nap during this time? And trust me, I don't mind! I don't care. Do what you gotta do to make it through the last days. It is unreal, unfair and un-American that kids and teachers alike have to go to school at all after Memorial Day.

As for the class gift. I am sorry fellow parents that I have been bombarding you with emails to try to get you to donate some amount of money to buy our beloved teacher an end of the year gift. Your unresponsiveness was overwhelming. I have a child who comes home and tells me the things that your child has done in class that day. Trust me. You need to dig deep and show our teacher some love. The fact that I tried to arrange everything for you so you wouldn't have to do a darn thing but give me some money is unforgiveable. Go ahead and get your own gift.  And then write me three sentences about what you got her including an illustration.

Short of the glory of God

As a parent I believe one of my most important jobs is to teach our kids about God. It's not enough to tote them back and forth to church but we need to have actual conversations about Him and they need to see that their mama and daddy love God. So tonight I brought out the Bible at dinner time. What better way to teach and instill Godly principles than by reading the good book? The writer of one of the blogs I love suggested doing this and I thought it was a great idea. But like all of my ideas it took me forever to remember to do it. Better late than never.

So as the children were eating their spaghetti I told them we were going to start doing something different at dinner each night. They were so excited! So I brought out my Bible and quizzed them to see if they even knew what book it was. They passed. Then I turned to Philippians and told them I was going to read a little of that chapter to them because it is one of my favorites. And Jake said, "what about Jonas and the whale? can you read that one? I know that one is for real." And I said, "well it was actually Jonah, not Jonas and everything in the Bible is real." But tonight we are going to read Philippians. And they were like "okay."

So I began to read. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice!" And Jake interrupts me with "mama! I know one! listen mama!" And I'm like "what Jake?" And he says, "For all have sinned and fall off of the glory of God!" And I said "great job! You missed a couple words though. It's for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And he's like "yeah, for all have sinned and fall off of the glory of God." Then he goes "that means everybody mama! everyone in the whole world sins! even the Spanish speaking ones!" And I was like "yes baby, even Latin Americans are not perfect. Because isn't that what that verse is all about?" And he was all "I don't know."

So then I started reading again. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice! Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God." And I said "see guys, we don't need to worry about anything but instead we need to ask God for everything." And Emma Mae said "mama! I need to pray. I need to pray now." And I was all "okay sweet baby Emma. You have been so moved by this Bible reading that you need to speak with Jesus right now. That is wonderful. Go ahead baby."

So she prayed. "Dear Jesus, I don't want to go to heaven. Please come down here and live with me in my house and play with my toys. Because me and my toys do not want to go up to heaven. Amen." And then she just looked at me beaming because now she just knew she wouldn't have to go to heaven since she asked God and all. And Jake looked at me and said, "um, mama? that is NOT going to happen."

And I realized that our first family dinner Bible reading may have been a complete failure. But I'm gonna go ahead and rejoice. Always.

Pool Days

 

Our neighborhood swimming pool opened up early this year. Like, beginning of April early. At first I thought that would be a good thing but then I realized that it is not. The kids want to go swimming every day and the water is freezing cold. I won't even get in right now. So they have to stay in the shallow water where I won't have to get in to perform any rescues. They still love it. They love it until their lips turn blue.

 

Little girl has some swim style. Not many people can pull off the whole swimsuit with my cowgirl boots on thing.

This is a cool dude. I think his skin is glistening from sunscreen. I promise we didn't oil him up for this picture or anything weird like that. Now I need to endure the humiliation of swimsuit shopping so I can actually get in the water with them as soon as it warms up a little bit!

I'm so proud of my nephew Tom. He recently fulfilled all of the requirements to become an Eagle Scout. Not many people can say they belong to that club. His parents had a ceremony for him a couple weeks ago. Mike was supposed to be there to participate because he is also an Eagle Scout and they needed another one in attendance. Unfortunately, Mike got sick (very sick) the night before and couldn't make it. But my sister found a replacement at the last minute. I'm sure that wasn't stressful at all!

I didn't get any great pictures. But here is one of my sister helping him with some sort of Eagle attire. At the end of the ceremony, Tom stood up before a room full of people and spoke so eloquently about what everyone meant to him and how every one in that room had helped him in some way during his life. I just wanted to cry. When did he get so grown up? I know he's graduating from high school this year and all but still! How can that cute little boy I remember be giving speeches and earning high honors like it's nothing? Crazy. I just can't wait to see what his future has in store for him. Or rather what he has in store for us in the future!

Spring Jamboree

We took the kids to Jake's school Spring Jamboree a couple of weeks ago. They had so much fun. They both loved the train ride. But Jake's favorite part of the night was the dunking booth. He couldn't wait to dunk Mrs. Ware. He succeeded. Twice. He was not a very good sport about it either. I recall some dancing around while screaming "I got her! I got her!" That's ok. She got him back with her water gun later...

 

 

I honestly don't remember where this picture of my children on a giant twister game came from. I have no recollection of that at all!

My Shameless Plug

Last night I started my new job. And it was so much fun! If you know me at all you know I am always thinking about new ways to make a little money. Without actually going out to get a full time job. So recently, after talking to one of the ladies at my part time job, I decided to join Stella & Dot as a "personal stylist." I think that's a hilarious term for someone who is doing good to put on mascara and brush my hair before it goes up into a ponytail every day!

Anyway, Stella & Dot offers a very cute line of jewelry, hand bags and scarves. And now I get to show them to people and sell them. Last night I had my official "launch party." I invited everyone I could think of to invite and ten of my friends and neighbors showed up. That is actually a pretty good number. Mike helped me clean the house all day and then I baked up a storm. My theme was "desserts and drinks" because I like alliteration and I figured if people had some chocolate and wine while looking at my inventory they might actually be happy to buy stuff.

I was really nervous because I knew I had to "give a group hello" which seemed scary. I don't remember what I said (although I know I managed to work something about Rick Springfield in there) but everyone was nice and I think everyone had a good time. Much of the evening remains a blur because I think I was having minor panic attacks the whole time. Or premature menopause. I felt like I was getting hot flashes the whole time and had to keep turning down the AC. Thanks to my sweet friend Barbara from work who got me started doing this I made it through my first official trunk show. I'm excited to see where I can go from here.

Time for the shameless plug. Are you ready? If you live out of town or couldn't make it to the launch party you can still support me as I get started with this business. Just go to http://www.stelladot.com/ts/cqcp5  and shop online. You have until May 24th for the orders to credit my show. That wasn't so bad, was it?