Goodbye, Summer

We had a busy summer!  Here are just a few random photos of some of our fun.  Enjoy!

We swam...

Ate frozen yogurt (our favorite!)...

Played board games...

(And video games...)

Went to some local festival-y things...

(where they won crazy prizes)...

The kids went to a church camp through their dad's church and I got to see their final "show" (Chloe took art, Chase took soccer)...

Chloe made me lots of fun jewelry with paper and tape...

And by the end, we were pooped!

Time to go back to school!

Austin Mini Vacation

I took classes all summer, so we did not have much time for vacation.  I had one week with the kids to squeeze in some serious summer fun, so we took a "mini vacation" around the Austin area and downtown.

We went to the Hill Country Science Mill for some hands-on fun:

Then we went downtown, where we spent a bit of time at the hotel pool (of course!)...

And we saw the first half of "Hairspray" at Zilker Park (shame on Mom for getting there too late because we couldn't see a thing).  The kids were beat and frustrated so we had to leave at intermission...

I had to get a workout in, so I dragged the kids to the hotel gym with me, fully armed with electronics to occupy themselves... but they surprised me by exercising with me!  How fun!

It's a good thing we got all that exercise in, because then we went to the Ice Cream Festival:

And then we took a downtown boat tour.  It was HOT, but interesting, and the views of the city were beautiful!

In the end, we just love to get away.  Even though we didn't get all fancy and board a plane to an exotic destination, we had fun.  It's all about the time you spend together, anyway.

Round Rock Express Game

I took the kids to a Round Rock Express game and we had a lot of fun.  We got seats in the grass this time, with easy access to the kids area.  It was perfect.  It wasn't crowded at all so the kids had lots of room to lay around, run around, etc.

I was doing my best to explain the rules of the game, and toward the end Chloe was getting more into it.  She decided she would pray for our team to win:

Man, she is precious (if I do say so myself)!

Conversations with a 5-Year-Old: Mandarin Orange Battle

Today I had a battle with Chloe over mandarin oranges at lunch.  She kept trying to stall by engaging me in conversation, so I told her I wasn't going to talk to her again until her oranges were gone.  Shortly after that...

CHLOE: Mom? Mom? Mom. Mom. Mom. Mooooo-om. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mommy. Mom. Mom. Mom? Mom! 

MOM: Chloe, I'm not talking to you until your oranges are gone. 

CHLOE: But you just talked to me when you told me that. 

DONE.

For the record....  It took two hours but I WON.  HA!!

(OK, who is the child here??)

 

Conversations With a 5-Year-Old: Good Point

Chloe and I were listening to the Frozen soundtrack, which starts with the song "Frozen Heart" where they are singing about ice. This is a snippet of the conversation I had with my 5-year-old while it played:

CHLOE: Why do they say "cold and clear?" 

MOM: Well, maybe because ice is cold... and clear?"

CHLOE: You make a pretty good point.

Case closed.

Happy Independence Day!

This 4th of July the kids and I went to the Pfireworks Pfestival at Lake Pflugerville again!  

We had a blast, and were even on TV!  While the kids were swimming a small news team set up on the beach in front of me.

I told people to watch for the kids swimming on TV, but I ended up being "highlighted" instead!

Isn't that depressing?  All alone on the "packed" beach.  Sigh....

Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

Happy 5th Birthday, Chloe!

My baby girl is FIVE! How did this happen?? It's very exciting!

We started the birthday celebration with a pool party!  She wanted a "Paw Patrol" theme, and I had a lot of fun with that:

And as is tradition, I made her cake:

She had tons of fun swimming with her friends at the party...

...and doing cannonballs:

And then came time for cake and presents!

She was so cute blowing out her candles.  She blew them out one at a time.  Ha ha!

After the party it was my turn to give my gift to her.  I redecorated her room!  This was her room before (taken when we moved in):

It was definitely in need of a makeover, and she requested pink, so....

I was really nervous about the color, but it turned out soft enough that it works... especially since I repainted all the brown trim and doors white as well:

To keep with the tradition of giving my kids birthday "experiences," that night Chase went to his dad's and we had a "girls night."  We played with her new toys on her bedroom floor, ordered pizza and popped in one of her new DVD's:

I totally fell asleep on the couch during the first episode.  When it was time for her to go to bed she asked what time I would be going to bed, and I said, "I'm right behind you."  Mom was pooped.

On her actual birthday we went to Gattiland, per her request.  We played games...

...and she was finally tall enough for the bumper cars!  It took a little encouragement, but she did it and loved it.

She wanted to keep going back, but finally we convinced her we had to go because we had more fun planned!  We headed back to my house so she could show off her new room to her dad and Grandpa W, and then we had cupcakes and opened more presents.  After that, we headed to her dad's for some fireworks:

Her birthday definitely went out with a bang.  Happy Birthday, baby girl!  Love you!!