Happy Birthday Addison

Our little Addison turned four a few weeks ago. She was so excited for her birthday. She has been counting down since Parker's birthday in May. She knew that Daddy had to have a birthday and then I had to have a birthday and then it would be her turn. She was so funny. The day after my birthday she asked if it was her birthday. She was so excited about it!! She got to have a bunch of her friends over and she LOVED that!! 

The theme for her party was Candy Land. She is not a fan of cake and so this was perfect!!!

They went through the peppermint forest and held a peppermint on a spoon. A couple of them ate them before the race even began. 

They stopped off in the Gingerbread House and colored themselves a Gingerbread Man. 

Addison had few requests about the party, one of which was a pinata and the other was a jumper. That was easy, I am glad that I could deliver. She jumped FOREVER!! She loved that thing. We borrowed it from a friend and they forgot to come and get it until Monday and so we had it from Friday until then and my kids enjoyed EVERY minute of it.   

After all that fun they ended in the Candy Castle and filled up on sugar. Addison LOVED her cake. She is not a fan of cake and so when I saw this I knew that it would be perfect for her. After she blew out the candles we passed the cake around and there was something there for everyone. (Do you love her crown, she picked that out and insisted on wearing it all day long) They also had ice-cream. I had so much fun planning her party!! 

Happy Birthday Addison!! 

School has begun

So we have survived our first few weeks of school. I have been worried about all the new things Parker was going to be required to do this year.(vocabulary, Latin, and writing, on top of everything else he was already doing) But so far, so good. Only a few arguments here and there. I am loving my time with my girls while Parker is at school. I still cannot believe that he is in third grade. Here is our first day of school photo.

Now to get Addison going on some kind of school. Because she has a whole other year of preschool after this year before she starts Kindergarten I have opted not to put her into a preschool. We have been trying to get a co-op going with some friends. Just need one more to get started. Then it will be perfect.  She asks about it everyday, hopefully it will be starting soon. In the meantime, we are going to be doing a mommy preschool while Parker is in school. She is very excited!!

Summer has come and gone

We had an amazing summer!! I was kind of sad to see it go. We traveled alot and so I am glad to see that part of it gone and back on a schedule but we really did alot of fun stuff. And I will miss the lazy mornings. But we were ready for school to start!!

Just a few things we did this summer.

Kids finally got to feed the dolphins in Sea World. (we missed it the first few times) 

We went to Legoland Discovery in Dallas.  We surprised the kids with this. (Thanks Allan and Diane for taking care of Kate, so much easier without her!)

 

Seriously the coolest part of the place, a whole city built out of legos...that must have taken FOREVER!!  Parker says that is what he wants to do when he grows up.

 

By far the kids favorite part of the whole place!! What kid doesn't want to drive their own car??

We went to Glenn Beck's Restoring Love event in Dallas.....I cannot explain how cool this was. Jeff kind of dragged me there, but I am glad that we went!! So much fun!!

Part of the volunteer day. (34,00 people volunteered that day, pretty amazing!)

The main event was held at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. If you have not seen this place...wow...huge!!!

Parker went to his very first Major League Baseball game. We didn't win, but still fun.  (Thanks again to Allan and Diane for watching the girls, so fun to spend time with Parker)

  Spent some time with Mark and Lacey. They just moved to San Antonio and we have enjoyed visiting them and meeting Baby Jax. We went to the Children's Museum downtown last time...kiddos loved that!!

 Addison was in love with their HEB, it was a full on grocery store with check out and everything, she played in there forever. 

Parker loved the big chess game, he kicked my butt, I was the one who taught him to play, I kind of asked for it. 

I traveled to the big city of Atlanta (by myself) and went to a National Conference for Thirty-One Gifts. Such an amazing experience. I met some amazing people and just fell in love with Thirty-One even more. Oh and got a few new cute bags...a girl can never have too many bags. (Thanks Jeff for taking the week off and staying home with the kids so I could go!! Already planning on going next year!!)

My new favorite bag....aren't those owls so cute?? And it is thermal lined...what is not to love??

Let's not forget about our weekly bowling trip, swimming a few days a week and our movie outings as well!! We had a fantastic summer! Sad to see it go!

Will it break??

Parker is loving Scouts. He got to attend the Cub Scout Day Camp and he loved every minute of it. They had lots of fun things for him to do and he also passed off alot of things in his book. On his way to getting his wolf. Everyday he would come home and tell us all about it. His favorite things to do was the archery and the bb guns. On the last day they had an egg drop. He was so excited and that night he got to work. We did some research and found that peanut butter was a good idea. I was really skeptical but he was all about it. Even his dad was not sure about it, him being an engineer, he was really skeptical. Parker put the whole thing together while I was with the girls in the other room and so I really had no idea what he did. He was really anxious about the whole thing and wanted his egg to survive.

After we opened it we found out that the egg did not survive. But he packed it completely wrong. He did put it in peanut butter (Jeff was mad that he wasted a whole jar of peanut butter) and put it in a small shoe box and put a towel in there to help cushion it. (and I am now short a kitchen towel, was not happy about that). The problem was when he put the towel in there he did not wrap up the peanut butter jar at all. He rolled it and put it next to it. I think if he would have packed it differently it probably would have survived.

Our Summer

What we have been up to this summer.....

Lots and lots of bowling. Thank you AMF for free bowling.

Playing with kitties.  They are getting big...kids are getting sad because we are getting rid of them soon.

Swimming, swimming and more swimming!!At first Kate hated it...she would cry EVERY time I put her in the water. Oh but I kept at it and now she LOVES it and thinks she is all that, until she falls and I have to save her. Then she is a little confused.  Parker loves the slide at the local pool. He goes down that slide over and over.

 

Parker loves hanging out at the skate park, trying to break in his new blades. 

 

We also like the splash pad. Except Addison does not love that big bucket and runs away from it everytime. Best part about this...it's FREE.

This is my favorite spot ever....the ice!! When it is 108 degrees outside who wouldn't want to spend time watching Parker skate. It always feels so nice in there.

Movies, we got summer movie passes!! I spend most of my time in the hallway with Kate. Good thing it is cheap entertainment. She only makes it 45 minutes or so. Or until she is sick of popcorn and licorice.

Summer is almost half over, we are staying busy and we are having the time of our lives!!!

Parker is baptized!!

 First off I have to apologize this has taken me so long to blog about. My computer died that has all my photos on it.(amongst other things)  I had a back up, but getting them from that online back up has been a PAIN. It is taking FOREVER!!! I have lots more to blog about too. My thought was slowly but surely I will get all my stuff from my dead computer.And then my favorite geek squad, AKA Jeff) came along and made the day. He figured it all out for me and I finally have all my stuff back and I am LOVING my new computer.

Parker was baptized at the end of May. He was so excited for the day and was so ready. I am so proud of him and his choice to be baptized. The primary came over and chatted with us and made sure everything was in line for the big day and they gave him a book about baptism. He read that thing from cover to cover. There was a section for the parents and I had to practically steal it from him so that I could read it!!

I was feeling sick that day, really that whole weekend. Jeff's mom and his brother and wife came to be with Parker on his special day and I was so sick. I laid in bed for a few days.Jeff even took a day off of work. Thanks so much!!  I felt bad about not really interacting with the family. Thanks goes out to them for helping with the kids and having to deal with me and my sick self. Saturday night I thought I was feeling a little better and then I slept that night and I swear it all came back. I felt horrible that next day. I only got a few photos. I really wanted to get more. The one that I really wanted I didn't get, probably because I was not thinking clearly. Oh well. It still happened and everything went well.

Are you up for the Lego challenge?

Parker told me months and months ago that he wanted to have a Lego Birthday Party. With a lot of planning the party was a success. (Thank you Pinterest!!)

Parker was so excited for his friends to come over. (And so was I, I was happy to be having the party here and stop having Lego party stuff around the house. Plus I was really excited about how everything did turn out) . For the invite we gave everyone these really cute necklaces.

 

Decorating for the event was the funnest part. Check out the little lego men below for the banner, aren't they so cute??

 

Each boy was given a little pack of legos, star wars, Parker's choice. They all loved putting these together. They took me forever to find. 

 

Love the big Lego door.

 

For the games we did a few. The first one was they had to use a straw and pick up the Lego's by sicking and holding them on the bottom of the straw. They all thought that was fun.

 

And then we played Lego Bingo. Thanks again to Pinterest. I just printed this up and laminated it and it was that simple. They all loved this one. We played 3 times.

 

They also loved the Pinata. It was hard to get into, but they thought it was cool that it was the shape of a Lego.

 

Parker wanted a Lego head for his "cake." He loved the way ti turned out. He got to eat the big head and everyone else got to eat Legos. I loved making these, so simple and they turned out so cute!! I cannot find my picture of the Lego Cookies..oh man I know that I took one. I probably did it with my cell phone. And it got deleted or something. Oh well!!

 

 

Here is a picture of all the kids....I survived 8 8 year olds and they all had so much fun!! Thanks to everyone for coming. Parker was given a ton of Legos and he loved them all.  I still can't believe that my baby is 8. Happy Birthday Parker.