Thanksgiving 2014 - PreK

So, I've been doing a preschool co-op for Rylee and her friends.  Its been fun, and I can't believe the year is almost over.  She has class twice a week and we all go on field-trips about twice a month. We've done a lot of fun things.  I think teaching around Thanksgiving was my favorite. The story, turkey/pilgrim/indian crafts and snacks and songs.  4 girls (Kelsey only attends at our house) and 1 boy and the only one that would wear the pilgrim bonnet was the boy.  I laughed and laughed that day. These kiddos are so cute.  Its great to have good friends.

For Thanksgiving we had some friends over and it was perfect. Food followed up with a little midnight shopping.

Halloween 2014

 I really am wanting to get back into blogging.  I've used the blog as a resource too many times to just give it up.  And I can't just skip a year. So, I'm going to try to quickly catch up and hit the major holiday's:
First on the agenda: Halloween!
The girls both wanted to be Rapunzel (I joked in case one fell off the tower, we'd have a back-up. . . . which is funny until the children start to repeat what you've said and its sounds quite morbid coming from toddlers), but it worked out great since we already had to Rapunzel dresses. They wanted to do a theme again and I couldn't resist:

I was Mother Gothel, and Michael was Flynn Rider.  It was so fun to wear a long dark wig! Lots of people didn't recognize me :)

Halloween is so fun. I get such a kick out of it, and I love putting together little details: I made little stuffed Pascal the Chameleon to put on the girls dresses, the braid was essential, but I kept having to re-do it because it wasn't working like I wanted it to.  Michael carried around a frying pan and I had a flower.  I was often heard singing "flower gleam and glow" and "Mother Knows Best"

 I couldn't help but put something together for the trunk: the tower and floating lanterns.

 Another pic of the whole Tangled crew:

I love Halloween!

Football Weekend {4} Bats!

I was so happy we actually got to see the bats this time. The bridge wasn't as packed as it was a few months ago.

 They estimate 1.5 Million Mexican Free-Tailed bats live under the Congress Street Bridge in Austin.  Half are adult females and the other half are their offspring.  They all migrate South for the winter and then most of the females come back in the spring, pregnant. (the males stay south in smaller colonies) and the cycle repeats.

Anyway, here they are starting to come out, by the trees for coverage from predators.  I was also really glad they started out before it was too late. We had a drive ahead of us.

 They slowly started to drop down and fly out from each of the sections.

 They kindof would congregate together. They hunt in mostly together.  The guide said the fire department has been called many times as people think the bats are smoke and a building or bridge is on fire. haha.

 There were a lot of different boats and whatnot on the river.  The girls especially like the swan paddle boat. haha

 After the bats we were heading up to Dallas so we could attend the baby blessing of our niece/cousin. The girls were all tucked in their car seats ready for the drive. I'm so glad they travel well.

Football Weekend {3}

After we separated from the rest of the group the girls and I went to check out a local splash pad. I'm sure I've mentioned it before but San Antonio's lack of splash parks is quite sad. There is one inside SeaWorld, and I think one was put in this year up by the temple (40ish minutes away).  And it would actually get used most of the year. That being said, I'm not certain this splash park is better than what is in SA. It was really muddy/sandy and gross. But it was pretty hot and the water felt nice, even if it was just on my feet. And the kids didn't seem to mind.

 We were basically killing time before our bat tour cruise.  Since we were going to be in the area again and had a free ticket we wanted to give the bat watching a second try.

 Lucky for us we got the seat right in front of the door so we actually had leg room.  Or maybe its not so good as the girls were up and walking around a lot.  They really packed us in there this time.

 More selfies and silly faces to pass the time waiting for the sun to set and the bats to feed.

Football Weekend {2}

The stadium full of a lot of orange.  Apparently this was the best BYU has done all season, but what do I know??

Torchy's: Texas does gas station and trailer park eateries well.

And the family at the capital- I missed that one earlier :)

Football Weekend

Remember last year when {most} of Michael's family got together in WI for a BYU game? And how they decided to make it a tradition?

Lucky for us BYU was playing UT (University of Texas) in Austin.  It was a quick filled weekend. 

They got in late Thursday night so the plans started Friday morning. We headed downtown to that iconic landmark- the Alamo. There were a surprising amount of other BYU fans for the game weekend.

We also went on a boat tour. Selfies are more entertaining to toddlers than the history of our city. Sometimes I agree :)

We then headed up to the temple as a family.  We were able to do the temple work for Michael's Grandmother that passed away last year.  It was really great experience.  We were feeling great, on this spiritual high and then we walked outside to a block party. It was so strange.  A business across the street was blasting music. It was so weird. We managed to snap a few pictures before busting a groove.

Saturday morning we slowly made our way up to Austin for the game. A quick stop by the Weinerschnitzel.  All those Allsops surrounded by a couple chili cheese dogs.  I was happy to stay in the car with the sleeping toddler.

She woke up down the road at the world's largest gas station "Buc-cee's" They make their own root beer and its delish.  It really is huge and they have lots of unique things.  I've read many a blog post dedicated to Buc-Cee's alone. Not sure I could do it justice. Rylee's posing here kills me.

We made it to Austin and again met up with the rest of the BYU fans at the State Capital.

 

It had been a few minutes since we'd eaten so it was time for Torchy's Tacos. We tried this place a few months back and really liked it. We also hit up Gourdough's Doughnuts. The wait is (thankfully) much shorter during the day. Gotta love a specialty doughnut :)

This is where we parted ways and the boys made their way to the stadium for the game. I'll have to see if I can grab pictures from Michael's phone of the game.  He had a great time - even better they won :)

Ballet

I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention Nana coming to stay with the girls while I was a girls camp.  I (obviously) don't have photo evidence of the trip but the girls loved having time with Nana.  They went to the pool a lot (I was later told I didn't bring the correct toys to the pool) and every plane in the sky (remember we live near an air force base) has Nana in it.

At the beginning of the summer a teenage girl in our ward wanted to make some extra money and offered to teach a little ballet class.  The price couldn't be beat. Rylee was very excited each week to attend class.

 that is until rehearsal time:

It started off bad, since I had to wake her up from a nap to go and she did NOT want her hair in the required bun. On top of that, I'm not sure I prepared her enough for what the rehearsal would mean- you think a few girls parents and couple friends but it adds up:  the room wasn't huge, but filled quickly.  She was very nervous.


 Their first  song was choreographed "Rock-a-Bye Baby" They had a doll in a 'crib'. She did ok.

 The next song was freestyle dancing to Frozen's "Let it Go" Rylee was indeed frozen. Almost to tears. It was a little hard to watch.

 Her teacher(s) tried to dance with her and she still wouldn't. I finally got up to see if she would loosen up dancing with me, and the song ended. She's so sweet and so very scared to be in front of people.  It was a good experience, and I hope she does it again next summer.  If we're lucky maybe she'll actually do a dance move.

Her teacher performed a piece:

 Here's the group that performed:

They gave us a cd with the music and it was so sweet seeing Rylee teach Kelsey (and one of her friends that wasn't in the class) the dance. That is what I should record - much more participation than the 'official' performance.

I can't blame her too much -  I'm not a big 'perform in front of any crowd gal' myself.