Oh, so proud...

On the way home today we were talking about how everyone's day went. It seemed a little more eventful than normal.

Middle school has definitely been a transition at our house and not necessarily the easiest. Grace was going on and on about her day and then proceeded to tell me about how during PE the coach got in several girls' faces and was screaming at them and then the principal came in and had to talk to their entire class because apparently, while in the locker room the girls were "pantsing" each other. Because of the screaming and noise, the principal showed up. At this point, of course I laughed.

"Everyone was doing it and getting pantsed." she said.

"Everyone?" I asked. "Did you?"

"Oh no," she answered right back.

"What exactly were you doing to miss out on that?"

"Well, I was playing the limbo in the back."

And that right there folks, is why 6th graders should be banned from humanity until they regain their sanity.

Then Hayden chimes in, "We were playing a new game today. They were already playing so I just tagged along."

He and his little buddies decided to take a bite out of nature. Literally. They had a taste test to see which of the following items was the most tasty. On the menu: grass, acorns, and flowers. None of them were kid approved. Their teacher informed them that a dog could have tee-tee-ed all over all of it. I don't think they really cared.

On another note, Landry has stayed on green and had excellent behavior for 10 full school days in a row. That completely coincides with the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf, Elfie. Before Elfie showed up, her behavior folder read like a novel. Here's to hoping that this new leaf will stay turned over!

Time to Reflect

This holiday season feels like it has sneaked up on me. I feel like I have barely gotten over Halloween and now Thanksgiving is gone! This last week, and a very welcome break, was the perfect time to be able to reflect and begin to get my heart in the right place for this upcoming holiday season.

These little faces are the reason that I place my life in the order that I do. I thank God that he blessed us with four opportunities to raise loving children that will someday be mommas and daddys with kids of their own. I think that there is no greater blessing and responsibility than that.

As we rush headlong into the inevitable hustle and bustle of the next few weeks, these little guys are what's important. The relationships that are being formed and nurtured, the examples that are being set, the lessons that will be taught, are all more important than any of the other "things" that will be happening and soon forgotten.

Happy Holiday Season.

Thanksgiving Hunt

We were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving this year with not only Shane's grandmother in Brownwood (which is where we usually go for Thanksgiving), but also to see my family in Cisco and stay with my sister and her husband Noah. Uncle Noah is a fan favorite at our house. If he said to jump off of a cliff, I'm quite sure that all of my children would do it.

Uncle Noah planned a hunting trip to the lease and took Gibson, who couldn't have been more excited. 

They saw a bunch of deer, mainly does, and were about to take off when this big buck walked right into their sights. Gibson was so excited that he could hardly stand it. He was almost more excited about the blood and deer scent that he had all over himself as he was about getting the buck!

Thanks Uncle Noah for such a special experience!

This little heights thing...

Hayden was telling us about when he grows up he thinks that he may want to be a pilot.

"I think that it would be pretty great to be a pilot. Lots of fun... I'm just going to have to get over this little fear of heights thing."

October Spooks

 My kids were so excited about Halloween, pumpkins and fall this year. I was fiercely criticized for not having enough fall decor, so we went to a pumpkin patch and picked up some pumpkins for carving and some little gourds and pumpkins for decoration.

The kids were all really excited to "dig" in. Until they started digging out the guts. I had to step in and clean out a few pumpkins myself.

 This year we drew our own faces and then cut around them.

Excitement was running high over costumes this year. Landry was rocking a Rapunzel dress with princess Minnie Mouse ears. I'm not sure exactly what she was, but she was very proud. We also had Bobba Fet, Batman and a pirate.

We trick or treated at the city fall festival and then rocked our neighborhood trick or treat. The older two kids got a little spooked over a guy in a clown mask that jumped out of the bushes. Grace ran screaming for the other side of the street. Shane nearly busted a gut. It was a "spooktacular" evening. :)

Mom of the Year

Landry's number one phrase to anyone and everything this week has been, "That's enough! I have had it!"

Nothing like hearing your words come back from a five year old to make you realize that maybe YOU better cool it...

Tell us a college story!

"Tell us a college story!"

We hear this a lot at the dinner table. The boys love to hear Dad's scads and scads of crazy stories of all the nutty things that he did while he was in college. Some of the stories are actually high school stories and then others are from the good ole HSU days. While he sits and tells all about his adventures, I pray that my boys will have enough sense to not repeat all of their Dad's glory. I think that they probably won't if the pictures below are any indication.

We were sitting at the dinner table the other night and they started in wanting to hear a college story. 

So, Dad told all about The Mohican.

The Mohican was actually developed on a high school youth group trip, but then reappeared during his freshman year of college. The original Mohican story was that a big group of guys on a church trip, dressed with towels belted over the appropriate areas and masks on their faces, hid waiting for the youth pastor and his sidekick in the dark. Legend has it that when this band of scary looking dudes busted out of the dark, one pastor ran screaming like a little girl, while the other curled into a fetal position on the ground. The original Mohican went so well, that Dad decided to revive it his first week of college. As male freshman students were coming back to their dorm rooms from their first classes of the week, my husband was waiting for them dressed as below and would chase them down the hall, knock some of them down, and then introduce himself. I cannot even tell you how many of his very good friends that he met this way.

I do not understand boys...

Anyway, after this story, my boys couldn't wait to try it themselves.

So here they are in all of their Mohican glory.

Gibson and the Space Shuttle

 Not to long ago, we had a historic event pass right through Houston. We were fortunate to be able to see it in real life and not just on the news. The last space shuttle, Endeavor, was flown through Houston, on it's way to Florida, and spent the night at an airfield in Pasadena. The shuttle actually flew right over the kids' school on it's way to the airport.

 Once it was there, the airfield opened up for one night only and the citizens of the area descended upon it. And I do mean that. Thousands of people flooded in and out to catch one last glimpse of NASA history.

 Gibson pleaded and begged and said things like, "I will never again have the opportunity to see this." "This is the last space shuttle of our life time." "Please, please, please!" I do have to say that he was very convincing.
Because of his persuasive skills, Shane loaded him in the car and they headed into the thing that my husband hates most in life - lines and huge crowds. That is what love will do to you.

Gibson was so happy and excited that he could hardly stand it. I love looking at these pictures because he is absolutely glowing in every one of them.

                                               

He made memories that he will never forget!

A Little Help

One of the greatest things about being a teacher with kids is having my kids on campus with me. My kids might disagree. I find out about everything, the good and the bad.

Landry has been adjusting to kindergarten. She has had a couple of color changes since the start of school. We have been stressing listening to her teacher and being nice to her friends. She's been working to fill a sticker chart and get in the treasure box.

Today, she passed me in the hall with her class. She got halfway down the hall, away from me, and then turned and hollered at the top of her voice, "Mom, I've been good all day!" I gave her a thumbs up and she went about her business.

Later, as I was unloading backpacks and homework, I came across her folder. Inside was a note saying that she couldn't keep her hands to herself.

"Landry? Did you have to change your color today?" I asked.

She sweetly answered, "No, my teacher took care of that for me."

A Little Yak or Yack

After dinner out with friends, we were waiting for ice cream and Hayden tells me,

"I think that I might like to try a yak tongue."

"Oh?" I said.

"Yeah, I would have to find a yak. Then I would cut out his tongue. Then I might actually yack. Hahaha!"

Minty Moxie Fab

I made this card for the Minty Moxie Fab challenge going on over at the Moxie Fab Blog. Of course it ends today, so I waited until the last possible minute. Story of my life...:) During a past project, I cut out a bunch of the designs above and made them into flowers. After I cut them out, I noticed that it actually made a pretty panel, so I set it aside to use on something else. Today was the day! I glued the panel on top of Hawaiian Shores cardstock to use as the focal point for this card.

All of my supplies are PTI, except for the ribbon which came from my local craft store.

Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores and Vintage Cream Cardstock

Lovely Layers Die Cut (I cut a panel of one of the designs and then used the negative.)

Framed Out #2 die and stamp for the little tag.

Sentiment from Communique Curves Sentiment (this is one of my favorite sets.)

Cream Ribbon

Thanks for looking!

A New Year

Our school year has started off with a bang. I spent the night before cleaning house, doing lots of laundry, making lunches and laying out first day outfits. All of the extra prep work paid off. We were able to get up and out very smoothly for our first day.

We took our first day pictures inside because we leave the house at 6:30 a.m. and it is still dark outside.
The kids were excited and ready to go.
Landry has been practicing writing her name on my board after school. I have been worried about this moment since the time that she was born. Not the writing her name thing, but just kindergarten in general. Her birthday is August 31st and the cutoff birthday date for enrollment is September 1st. She is the youngest little body on our campus. Combine that with the fact that she generally doesn't like to do anything that is not her idea (that stems from the moment she was born and she chose to come a day after her due date even though all of my other children came at least 2 weeks before), and I have been a little concerned. Long story, but maybe she will pass on to 1st grade.

Hayden is doing very well in 1st grade. He is also loving having Landry around to play with after school. They play lots of imaginary games with elaborate plots. It makes my heart smile.
We were headed out to the car one afternoon this week and I couldn't resist capturing this cuteness.

My older two are navigating their school year as though we've been there for months instead of just a week. Gibson is doing really well as a 2nd grader. He is very mature and sensitive and is making me proud. Grace is a 6th grader this year and is handling middle school like a pro. She is dealing with lockers, mean PE coaches that make them dress out for class and more freedom at lunch.
By Friday, we all felt like this. Poor baby, it was her birthday and she had to rest up for her party.

Goodbye, Summer

This is it. Summer is finished. I have been back at work for a week. The kids have had one last hurrah lounging around and relaxing.

This morning at breakfast, as we sat around the table, everyone took turns sharing our personal high points of the summer. It has been a good one. We have gone on road trips, visited family and friends, had a vacation, been incredibly lazy, and just had a good time being together.

In no particular order, here are our favorites:

Sewing camp, which led to lots of other little projects at home...

My juicer...

Lots of arts and crafts...

My sister's wedding...

Keeping cool in the backyard...

Lots of swimming. :)

Baseball games (Go Rangers!)...

The neighborhood splash pad...

Crabbing and the beach...

Our 4th of July celebration...

Vacation to New Orleans and the aquarium...

Lots of friends! :)

We are heading back into the school year feeling refreshed and ready to jump back into the daily grind.

Summer of Adventure: #14 New Orleans

Warning: This post is heavy on the photos!

My husband is a sweet, sweet man (contrary to popular belief) and planned a surprise vacation for our family. Our long time college friends, the Milfords, live in Auburn, Alabama where Mike is a professor at Auburn University. After college, we have always lived within four hours of each other until this last move for them. Now they are many, many hours away from us and it had been almost two years since we had last seen each other. The husbands got together and planned a family meeting. They chose New Orleans because it was exactly halfway for both families. At first, I was ecstatic to see the whole family and then a little skeptical about meeting in New Orleans because I've heard so much about how it can be a sketchy place to visit. I will say that I'm positive that it can get sketchy, but we were able to completely enjoy the town and not run into anything inappropriate for the kids. In fact, we had a wonderful time and would love to go back and visit again.

To prep for our trip, I found an idea and completely stole it. The kids get so restless in the car and I did not want to rely on electronics for a good trip. I went out and bought a package of paper sacks, some snacks and a couple of small toys for each kid (one for the trip up and one for the trip back.) I divided the trip into thirds, wrote the name of the town where they should open the treat and the name of the kid on each bag. The first bag had a small toy and a little piece of candy. The second bag had a bag of goldfish. The third bag had a fruit roll up. I think that the kids were more excited about the treat bags than the trip for a little bit. They oohed and ahhed over the snacks and were so excited over the experience. I will definitely do that again.

It was a fun way to kick off our trip.
It has been since high school since I had been through Louisiana and I enjoyed the scenery. We had our eyes open for alligators the whole way there. We drove through lots of swamp.
The kids didn't know that we were meeting up with anyone, so seeing the Milfords was a terrific surprise!
They all picked right up as though it hadn't been so long since they had last been together.

We rented out an apartment in the Garden District and were within walking or very short driving distance to everything. The apartment was really great because we were able to use a kitchen and have all the amenities of home (washer/dryer, etc.)
We took off for downtown to see the sights and the French Quarter. We were a large group running around. We had 7 kids and 4 adults between the two families.

Here is where I will say that we were very conscious of where we were and what time of day that we were sight seeing. We stayed away from Bourbon Street (there's tons to see without going there), we were careful to only sight see in broad daylight and not go at night, and we didn't take the kids into the touristy gift shops. We saw nothing inappropriate and everything was extremely family friendly.
The architecture is beautiful there and very colorful.
We went to Jackson Square and saw the St. Louis Cathedral. Landry was convinced that this was Disneyland and that the princesses were going to pop out any second. She asked to see them for the rest of the time that we were there.
This church was beautiful and filled with history. Once again, Landry was looking for the princesses.
We took a little break in the shade. Thankfully, we were all pretty used to the humidity, so it wasn't so bad.
We found Pirate's Alley. Mike had been to New Orleans before, so he was giving us the tour of the cool places that he had been. Evidently, real life pirate business took place here, hence the name.
Aargh!
We started counting cannons in the downtown area. This was one of 6 that we counted in one block.
Here was another one.

They were beginning to wilt... We checked into the tourism office and they directed us to a lunch spot. Their recommendation was not wrong! My sister lived in New Orleans for a while and would always go on and on about the food. No wonder! I am hooked. We had shrimp po'boys for lunch along with soft shell crab and of course ice cream. I was really excited to try the soft shell crab. It was really wonderful.

After getting a second wind, we headed down to Cafe du Monde for beignets. They were pretty great as well. I don't think that you can beat deep fried batter smothered in powdered sugar. There was a jazz group playing music right outside the restaurant. We were getting the full experience!

Full of sugar and beignets, we continued our adventures. The kids found this fountain and danced round and round. Hayden danced around and around until he fell in the fountain and had soaking wet tennis shoes. Dad had to go get him a pair of flip flops to finish out the afternoon.

The girls were really getting into it...

Landry and June were taking a little break.

Shane's one request while we were there was to hit up City Park. City Park is New Orleans' answer to New York's Central Park and it was very impressive. They had play areas and beautiful green space with huge trees and lots of hanging moss, a football stadium, golf course, lakes, a sculpture garden, amusement park, etc. We were all very impressed.
This place was called Storybook Park and it has been part of the park since the 1950s. It was the most charming play area I have ever seen. It was filled with trees, a little stream with rocks and bridges, and themed play areas tucked throughout the park that were all famous children's stories. Old Mother Hubbard, Cinderella, and Peter Pan were just some of the areas. We played here for a couple of hours.

This huge dragon slide was one of the favorites.

We finished off our afternoon with a zooming trip through the sculpture garden. It started as a stroll, but after having to explain a couple of nude sculptures, we found the one we were looking for and left.

Here it is!

These two hit if off really well. I see an arranged marriage in our future.

After an afternoon of sightseeing we headed back to the apartment for dinner, swimming and watching the Olympics.

The next day we hit up a New Orleans institution for lunch, Mothers. I have never had such wonderful food in all my life. Shane let me taste the gumbo, and then got mad because I took too big of a bite. I had to go get him more. It was that good. They had the best beans and rice, shrimp, gumbo and bread pudding that I have ever had. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

After lunch, we all said our goodbyes.

We decided to go and see one last thing before we left town. We had heard about the aquarium downtown and it did not disappoint.

As we started our tour, this covered hallway was the first experience. The sting rays and ocean life swimming all around us was quite magical.

Hayden, my science and animal lover, was in hog heaven and his enthusiasm was contagious.

Our only bit of forced family fun came from feeding the sting rays. Shane ran over when we first got there and purchased the limited tickets and we made sure to be first in line when it was time. Hayden was ready. Grace was ready. Gibson was starting to get really nervous. Landry refused to look in the tank.

They heard the instructions and it was time. Hayden jumped right in and fed all of his fish. Grace was fine and was having a blast. Landry started screaming and ran the other way. Gibson was so nervous he couldn't stick his hand into the writhing mass of slimy fish things in the water. Shane was getting frustrated as there was a whole line of other little kids waiting their turn behind us. I started laughing inappropriately.

After all of that, we headed on to the rest of the tour. These guys were in the shark tank and were trying to clean the windows. This where I realized that I am in the correct line of work. You couldn't pay me enough money to crawl in that tank with all of those huge fish, turtles, and sharks! One guy was cleaning the window and the other two were using sticks to shoo the big fish away. Every now and then a shark would sneak up behind one of them before they would turn around with their stick. I was about to have a heart attack panicking for them!

We got in the car and hit up one more spot on our way out. We had seen a little blip about the grilled oysters at a place called Drago's. By this time, the little guys were about to pass out, so we didn't go in. Shane ran in and ordered a dozen grilled oysters and brought them out to the parking lot. None of us had ever had oysters, so we weren't sure if we were going to like them. The kids gathered around the hood of the car and we polished off those oysters in a jiffy. They were delicious! Definitely one of my favorite food experiences.

We will definitely be going back. This was a trip packed full of memories.