Chloe's Pre-K Graduation

Chloe graduated from Pre-K, and it was a really big deal.  She got a cap and gown and everything!  I'll admit I was a little like, "Really?  For Pre-K?"  But when I saw her I got all mushy inside:

(I mean, come on....  How can you resist that??)

She was slightly excited:

The flowers are from her dad, so I can't take credit there.  He couldn't make it so he sent flowers to the school and she got lots of attention for it.  Very sweet.

Of course her brother was very supportive of her on her big day:

When all the kids received their diplomas they were asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  Chloe's answer: "A horse rider."  Awww....  She does love her horses!

Afterwards they had a big potluck reception where we took our obligatory crazy family selfie:

I can't believe my baby is going to be a Kindergartener!  Such big kids I have now!  Craziness!

20-Year High School Reunion & Highland Festival

My 20-Year High School Reunion was over Highland Festival (Memorial Day) weekend, so I got to fly home to Michigan to see friends and family!  It was a fantastic weekend.  The kids were not happy with me for not taking them to see Grandma and Grandpa, but it was a quick trip that went by way too fast!

I planned the reunion, so I had to spend a little time getting things together for the party:

But I didn't get too "swept away" in that (hardy har-har), so I was able to spend time catching up with friends at the parade...

...and reminiscing when we parked in front of the house I grew up in:

I got to spend some time with my step-brother Kory on a mini-hike...

...where I let my rebellious side out:

My parents took me to one of our staple ice cream places growing up...

...and I ate at our favorite Pizza Sam's a couple times over the course of the weekend (though we were too busy stuffing our faces to take pictures of that)!

And, of course, we had our reunion.  It was so amazing getting to spend time with my good friends again.  It had been way too long since we had all gotten together!

I spent a lot of time with Katie, who of course lives down here in Texas... so it was funny we both flew up to Michigan to hang out!

Lastly, we all went to the Highland Dance competition at the festival.  My childhood BFF Holly and I used to compete in it every year, and this year we got to cheer Holly's daughter on!  Here's a photo of Holly photographing her daughter.  It was very cool to sit on the other side of where we were about 25 years ago.  (Man, are we really that old??)

We must have been good luck charms because she walked away with 4 medals and a trophy!  Woot woot!

It was a really fun weekend full of memories and laughter.  I really should not wait another 10 years to do it again....

Chloe's Kung Fu Gold Belt Ceremony

I took the day off today to take care of a bunch of appointments I had been putting off because of a show I was working on, and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend my daughter's Kung Fu belt ceremony as well!

My baby girl kicks butt!

Don't mess with this one!

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day with my babies this year.  They adorned me with jewelry!  Chloe made the necklace and Chase made the bracelets:

They also decorated little flower boxes for me, and gave me some flower seeds to plant in them.  I hope I don't kill them!

Chase brought this home from school, which was super cute:

Now let me take a moment to respond to each of these:

1. I'm glad he thinks I'm good at dancing!  Or I should say I'm glad he sees me dancing at all.  Dancing is joyful!  Rock on!
2. The boy knows me well!  I do love to sleep.
3. NUMBER THREE IS A LIE!!!!  I do NOT like to shop at WalMart.  I'm sure he said that because I've been putting on a show and I have had to drag him there a lot to buy props, etc. (sorry, Chase)!  But I never said I liked it!
4. 37 years old.  Yep....  Right on the money!  Smart kid.  I'm proud that he knows it, because it means I don't feel the need to hide that number.  It's just a number, after all!
5. *sigh*  Video games.  Always with the video games.  Mom of the Year award... right here.
6. "If I could buy my mom anything, it would be a bird."  This one made me laugh.  My kid has an excellent sense of humor.  He knows I do not like birds, and that one pooped on my head once.  I fully appreciated the devilish grin he had on his face when I read that one out loud!
7. While Chase is at school I am always practicing plays.  Right on the money again!  Get used to it, kid....  You have a theatre mom!  :)

As a matter of fact, after the kids went to their dad's that afternoon I spent the rest of the day shopping at Goodwill (FOUR Goodwills, to be exact!) for props and costume pieces for my show.  Go figure!

Happy Mother's Day to me (and the amazing woman that spawned all of this awesomeness)!  ;)

Hoppy Easter!

The kids and I had a lot of fun with Easter this year.  First of all, when we found out the church hadn't planned an egg hunt for the kids, we volunteered to go to the church last week to stuff some eggs for the kids ourselves.  On our way out, we had to take a picture in the bluebonnets that have just popped up around Austin!

That inspired us to stop at another great spot on the way home for more photos!

The next night we went to a flashlight egg hunt!  We went last year, too, and it was so much fun we had to do it again!

The next night Chase has a sleepover at his friend's house, so Chloe and I took the opportunity to have our own girls nite full of things we like to do together, like bake!  We decided to make treats to bring to the church Sunday for all to enjoy...

Voila!  Birds nests!

The next morning we went to our neighborhood's egg hunt, where Chloe made out like a bandit!

After picking up Chase, we had to make our Easter eggs!

That night we headed to Hat Creek Burger's family night, where they had a petting zoo, an obligatory creepy Easter Bunny, and a clown that made the kids balloon pirate swords!

Chase's popped in the car out of nowhere while it was just sitting there on the passenger seat right next to me... which scared me to death and drove him to tears (not because he thought we were going to die - like I did... but because it wasn't fair his sword popped and Chloe's didn't).  *sigh*  Thankfully we all survived.

When we got home we left our eggs, carrots and nice notes for the Easter Bunny.

You know, I feel really sorry for the Easter Bunny. What a stressful job! First of all, since environmentally conscious moms are now making their kids leave out their old eggs for him to recycle (OK, OK... or just moms that are tired of the ever-growing pile of plastic eggs they find all over the house... all year long!), he has to stuff them in the living room while the kids sleep (and trying to be silent while clicking plastic eggs around crinkly wrappers is no small feat, I'm sure)! On top of that, he then has to clomp all over the house with the new baby rattles he has just made, as they slam against each other in the basket... praying the light sleepers (*cough* CHLOE *cough cough*) don't roll over and catch him in the act. And to top it all off he has to be bitter he gets carrots while Santa gets cookies. Seriously. I bet he snitches chocolate while he's stuffing the eggs. It's the only possible way he's still sane.

Anyway....

They were thrilled the next morning to find some baskets of goodies...

...and had-written responses to their notes.

First, Chase's:

And Chloe's:

Chase was really excited that the Easter Bunny wrote just like him!  I'm sure that takes some of the pain out of the giant rabbit's non-dominant hand cramps.

Fun fact: I went to bed a little after midnight, and Chase said around 4:00am he got up, went downstairs to check his note, found nothing from the Easter Bunny, and returned to bed.  Chloe then said when she woke up a little after 7:00am she heard thumping downstairs.  Whoah.  Just.... WHOAH.

After their hunt was done they checked out their treasure.  Here is Chloe's booty:

When I told them it was going to torture me, they generously shared.  Here's my booty:

Hey, would you look at that!?  My booty has never looked smaller!

(I know my mom is shaking her head at me right now....)

The kids went to their dad's after church and I am left laughing because the Easter Bunny apparently had a lot of fun hiding eggs this year, so there are still quite a few left to be discovered over here.  Hee hee hee!

Hoppy Easter!

 

Spring Break

We had a lot of fun on Spring Break this year!  The big thing we did was take a ride on the Austin Steam Train!  Chase had his classroom "pet," Hooie, with him all week.  He was instructed to take him on adventures and document his journey with pictures and journal entries.

We went on a little adventure through the entire train and this was a fun find!

Hooie almost got left behind at a restaurant where we stopped, but we remembered just in time and were able to rescue him before the train departed.  Phew!

Other than that, Chloe helped me in the kitchen this week...

...and both kids helped me paint!  It was time to paint all the trim and doors in the upstairs hall/living area this time.

We also took Hooie to see "Cinderella."  This picture was taken before the movie, while all the old versions played on screen:

Looks like Hooie had a good week... and so did we!

 

Exploring UT

Today UT was having a huge "Explore UT" open house with tons of free activities for the family, so we decided to check it out!

The kids picked a lot of activities to do, and they allowed me to choose one, too: A backstage tour of Bass Concert Hall.  It was very cool and the kids loved it, too.

I didn't realize how many cool sculptures were around campus.  This was one of my favorites:

 

Chloe found this one, of course (she's such a horse lover)!

That sculpture just happened to be in one of their computer science buildings, and the kids got sucked right into this fun interactive game room, which was not on the original itinerary but kept them entertained for a long time!

They loved the giant iPad...

...and this cool game where their hand was the controller:

Before we left I had to get this shot and send it to their dad, the die-hard Mizzou fan.  I'm so nice!

He responded that they were no longer welcome in his house (ha ha), and the kids were quick to say it was all my fault.  Apparently I "made" them do it.  Whatever.  They look pretty tortured, don't they?  Uh huh....  That's what I thought.

At any rate, it was fun to explore the campus a little and talk to them about college life.  It's never too early to get kids geared up for higher education!