Come Fly With Me!

Chase's birthday "experience" with me this year was indoor skydiving!

It was so fun!  The instructor did some cool tricks with Chase, too:

In the end we earned our flight certificates!

Chase was on a serious high afterwards.  He could not stop jumping up and down and telling me how cool it was!  He thought he was da bomb diggidy (did I spell that right?):

I love these birthday experiences with my kiddos.  They are truly priceless!  I hope they never tire of them, because I live for that one-on-one fun time with them!

My Little Ham!

Chase was in his first musical tonight and this theatre mama couldn't have been more proud!  I even got to make his costume.  He was Curly the Pig in E-I-E-I-Oops! and he fully embraced his character:

He was one of the chosen few to have a speaking part and he did so well!  Here's a little video clips of one of his speaking parts:

And then they busted out some serious dance moves and he totally cracked me up!  He is on the left, behind the mic (light pink belly):

He had so much fun with it.  He's definitely my child!

Oink Oink!

Happy 8th Birthday, Chase!

Wow. Chase is EIGHT. How did this happen??

Chase is slightly obsessed with the video game Minecraft.  He doesn't play it as much as he reads about it, but he wanted a Minecraft themed birthday party this year.  I made the invitations...

...and the goodie bags...

...and then, of course, I had to make THE CAKE (as has become tradition)!  I have to say I am incredibly proud of this one, because I pretty much came up with the idea on my own, not seeing anything on Pinterest I liked (that was within my ability level)!  I only had to steal the idea of how to make the digital effect using a printable stencil and spray food coloring.  The rest was all my design.  The inside of this cake has 6 layers, each one a different shade of green (so when you cut it it still had that "blocky" look).  Ready?  Here you go!

Chase loved it, and that made the 13 hours it took me all worth it:

Blowing out the candles:

He had his party at Gattiland this year and they did a great job setting everything up in the colors we wanted.  Chase was slightly excited when we got there:

And I have to say he definitely gets his animation from me.  Here are a few shots of him opening presents:

He did pose for a couple normal ones for me:

In keeping with my new tradition of giving the kids an "experience" for their birthdays (vs. "stuff"), I wrapped a running outfit in a box for Chase because we will be doing the Color Fun Fest 5K in Austin January 11th!  We will be busy "training" when we can until then.  Wish us luck!

Happy Birthday, little man!

 

Family Vacation

For our annual summer family vacation, we decided to explore east Texas and into Louisiana.  Since my friend Katie and her daughter Ashlyn live in Houston, we picked them up on the way and did a joint trip!  It was packed with adventure.  The kids were so excited when we left for Houston...

...and Mom was excited we made it there without killing each other:

After staying the night at Katie & Ashlyn's we squeezed all the booster seats into Katie's car and hit the road!

First stop: Beaumont.  Day 1 was pretty chill....  Picnic lunch, sprinkler pad, hotel check-in, and POOL TIME!

I should mention we also had dinner at a fantastic seafood place that was recommended to Katie, and the kids thought we had completely lost our minds:

I thought all I would be able to get the kids to do was take pictures with the crabs...

...but all three kids actually tried it!  We couldn't believe it.  Here are the results of the taste test:

Chase's "half-way" thumb rotated to a "thumb's up" only after Ashlyn gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up.  Chloe's vote was a hard thumbs down.  She did not give in to peer pressure!

The next morning we headed to Port Arthur and walked the boardwalk:

And then after lunch we headed to Orange to check out the Shangri La Botanical Gardens.  It was hot:

We interrupt this post for an obligatory crazy family selfie:

We all felt much cooler when we got on the boat for the swamp tour (as long as the boat was moving)!

We were looking really hard for gators but we didn't see any.

We did, however, see some amazing trees and other wildlife.

After the gardens we headed into Louisiana to check out a horse race.  Chloe loves horses, so she definitely inspired this part of the trip (and she was so excited)!

There were storms in the area so the races were delayed.  The kids waited pretty patiently:

Ice cream helped:

And suckers (which they got from a nice man on one of the horses they got to pet):

While we waited we also checked out the area (stalls? stables?) where the horses and riders waited for the storm to pass:

Chloe picked out her favorite horse (of course she picked the purple one!)...

I totally should have bet on it, too, because it WON the first race!  She thought that was so cool. 

We got up close and personal to watch the last race (well, it wasn't the last race of the night, but it was the last one for us because it was getting late):

The next day we headed back to Houston to check out the Barnum & Bailey circus!

We saw tigers...

...and high wire acts...

...and a woman shot out of a cannon...

...and of course the elephants!

It was a slightly crazy weekend but the kids had a blast and the moms had fun, too (though we are definitely ready for a little R&R)!

The kids took a ton of pictures with their camera and tablet, too.  I created a Shutterfly site for all kid pics from here on out, but you have to have permission to view it.  Contact me if you want to see them and I'll add you to the site!