Roly-Polys

My kids are fascinated with bugs! I'm not a huge bug fan so this has been a difficult thing for me. I'm always being handed roly-polys and other creepy crawlies! They REALLY seem to love roly-polys which happen to be all over the place!

Marek with a handful of roly-polys . . .

Madelyn with her collection . . .

Marek helping daddy mow . . .

Possible New House . . .

Well, we put a bid on a house! Finally! We found one that is PERFECT for us. It's in Colleyville (just down the road from where we are now) and it has 5 bedrooms AND an office. This was particularily hard to find in our square footage and price range.

Here's my favorite part - the HUGE patio!
The pool is HUGE - diving board, spa, etc.
We will say prayers that everything will happen as it should. . .

Bubbles

I sat outside with my kids one day working on the computer while they blew bubbles. I'm so glad they love being outside as much as they do.

POP!

I love summer. :)

Early Pre-K Graduation Celebration

Nana and Papa had a combination Birthday party for Stephanie and graduation party for all the kids.

Madelyn and Marek snuggling on the rocker-glider.

Marek going up to receive his "diploma".

Madelyn and Ashlynn showing off their "diplomas".
All the cousins on "the" couch.

Thank you, Nana and Papa, for making this time so special!

Ethan's Pirate Party

We had a Pirate Birthday Party for Ethan in Frisco which gave me an excuse to go to Ikea for some things that I needed. It was a busy day with several stops but the kids were troopers and enjoyed the party! They asked for us to stay after the party to grill out and we had such a good time.

Erin had goodie bags filled with all sorts of Pirate stuff - necklaces, rings, eye patches, tatoos, etc.

Then there was a treasure hunt with clues and at the end was a giant treasure chest filled with more goodies!

The kids actually didn't go CRAZY with all the candy, necklaces, and goodies. They slowly picked out what they wanted and were quite choosey. It was so cute.

There were games to win more prizes. One was "Pin the Patch on the Pirate". I may have spun Mads a few too many times . . .

Time for cake!

It was such a fun day and GREAT party.

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Gena's Bachelorette Party

Gena had her Bachelorette party in Leakey. Megan, Sarah and I flew into San Antonio on Friday night and drove into Leakey. There was no mistake that my role for the weekend was to be the pregnant, sober, grown-up. :)

On Saturday morning Megan and I had appointments at the Concan Country Club. Megan had a massage and I had the facial. While I was waiting for my facial, I called home to check on everyone. Madelyn had fallen out of her big girl bed in the middle of the night and cut her cheek open pretty badly on the corner of her nightstand. In the almost 3 years we had her other big girl bed, she never fell out once.

Saturday morning (for everyone else) started off with horseshoes and shot gunning beer!

After sitting down in the river and watching all these girls down pitcher after pitcher of beer ritas, we headed up river to "the cliffs" and some rope swings. Gena, Tammy, and Megan were considering jumping from the cliffs and Sarah, completely inebriated, tried talking them out of it. The river was a bit low but it wasn't too bad. I told them not to, also, because I was the only sober one of the bunch! One of Sarah's tactics to get them not to jump was taking off her swimsuit top. Her intentions were good. As you can imagine, this didn't seem to change their minds. :)
They jumped, of course. I told Megan not to since she never had before. Makes me too nervous.

That night we all got ready and went into downtown Leakey! We had dinner at the pizza place and then drove over to the "Hog Pen" - a biker bar!

We had some "bachelorette party cards" that we attempted using here. After the second one read "find 5 men and get their business cards" we figured these weren't cut out for Leakey!

Then the bartender told us he had a karaoke machine! We figured it would have 1960s country music but they actually had current songs! We must have sung Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" no less than 20 times. This place will never be the same!

More Parks!

Today we headed to another park near Nana and Papa's with the Whisenant cousins this time. . .

There was a family of geese that the kids followed all the way up the path to the park.

Dylan and Landon coming down the slide together!
Madelyn found some tree branches and and stuck them in the ground to make trees. :)

We have loved spending all this time with Aunt Bonnie and can't wait to see her again!

Aunt Bonnie

Nana bought Aunt Bonnie a plane ticket down here for her retirement gift. We just love having her here! We tried to spend every free night with her and Nana and Papa's.

Ashlynn, Chase, and Madelyn snuggling up together . . .

We all walked to a new park near Nana and Papa's after dinner and had so much fun until Marek fell off the slide. I nearly had a heart attack. I was standing close by taking a picture and the rubber on his tennis shoe caught and he flipped over the side. I was so very VERY thankful that he completely flipped over and landed flat on his back. It knocked the wind out of him and he cried very hard. I nearly threw up but he is a tough kid and after a few tears he got right up and got back on that horse!

Climbing the rock . . .

I'm incredibly strong and held the rocks up so Marek could pass through. He was impressed, anyway.

Nana and Neena swinging (that's right - together they're "Neena-Nana")

Sydney's Birthday Party

This is a different Sydney friend - "school Sydney", not "dance Sydney". :) She had her birthday party at "Let's Jump". Always a treat. :)

Mads with the birthday girl . . .

School friends . . .
I love how girly they are - they would go to the top of the slides and all hold hands to go down together. So cute.

I'm an Updating Fool!

I'm catching up . . . I've made it to September of last year! Need to go to sleep. :)