June brought the end of school, the last t-ball games and a trip to San Antonio with our friends, the Childs. Their son, Drew is Hannah's age and Janae is two years younger. They did great traveling and kept each other entertained. We stopped at the Natural Bridge Caverns and the kids really enjoyed it. We headed to San Antonio and checked out the river walk the first night. We were pretty impressed that none of the kids ended up in the river, which we found out would have brought a $500 fine. We took a cruise on a river boat and our tour guide was great. He had everyone laughing and even the kids paid attention to the tour. We had great mexican food that night on the river walk and nearly choked at a conversation the kids were having. Our table was right by the river, and there were people constantly passing by. One of the kids said, "That's a girl!" Another disagreed, "No, that's a boy!" By this time we were looking around for the he/she person walking by to see if they heard what the kids were talking about. Then the explanation came with one of the kids explaining, "The ones with the green heads are the boys!" It seems that a group of ducks were swimming by and there was a disagreement about the gender of the green headed one. Whew! The next day, we headed to Sea World and had a blast! The heat was overwhelming, but thankfully the water park was open. The kid's were ready to take on some big slides and I'm not sure if Drew or Hannah squealed more on the way down. The kids area was pretty fun too and everyone headed for the big bucket as it dumped gallons of cool water on everyone in its path. We checked out Shamu's show and I'm not sure who was more impressed - the kids or the grown ups. The next day we went back to Sea World to check out the stuff we missed on day one. We went to the Beluga Whale show, saw Shamu's show again and rode some great roller coasters! The heat got the best of us, so we headed back to the hotel and hung out in the pool. On our last morning we headed to the Alamo. The kids enjoyed it more than we expected. They soaked in every word of the story teller there and checked out all the rooms, artifacts, and of course, the cannons. They asked lots of questions and were very interested in what happened there. We got our obligatory photo taken in front of the Alamo and headed back for East Texas. It was a great time with friends and a welcome escape from the every day routine. Thanks Scott, Misty, Drew and Janae for a fun trip!
This summer has been really busy, so I'm way behind on my posts. I decided to just update a month at a time.
May was filled with T-ball, birthday parties and field trips. The Diamonds had a fun t-ball season. They had a good time and learned a lot. The girls liked batting more than "gloving" as they called fielding. Their absolute favorite part was the free snow cone after every game. Hannah spent most of the season covering first or third base. Her idea of covering a base was dancing on and around it, digging in the dirt with her cleats and chatting with the other team's third base coach. She did make some good plays when she was paying attention and was a really good hitter. Another plus was the cute team colors. We bought nail polish to match and painted her nails alternating the blue and hot pink. If you're gonna play ball, you may as well look cute while you're at it!
We went to Carrollton for Olivia and Aidan's birthday party (Aidan turned 4 and Olivia turned 6) and the next weekend, went to the American Girl store with Olivia and Amber to celebrate the girls' birthdays. We had dinner in the bistro and the girls topped off their meal with milk and cookies. Olvia came back home with us and spent the night. The girls had fun and having Olivia here helped the time go by before the birthday party at 2 the next day. Her party was at the Fun Factory with a Hannah Montana theme. She did pretty well with skating and was so excited to have her friends there. I can't believe my baby is already 7 years old!
Hannah had a fun Easter in spite of the storms. She got to hunt eggs and Mimi and Papa's house last week and Sunday morning, the Easter bunny hid eggs inside because of the rain. She opened her blinds Saturday night to see if she could see him, but she fell asleep. He was smart enought to put the eggs where Piper couldn't get them, but Hannah had no trouble finding them. She had some fun stuff in her basket including a flower headband, but she said she looked like a 7-eared bunny in it! She looked precious in her Easter dress and went to church with Daddy. (Mama had the crud and had to stay home.) The easter bunny hid eggs at Nanny and Papa's house too and some of them had dollar bills in them! She is saving up for a new Build-A-Bear (as if she needs any more stuffed animals.) She got to go down to the lake and see the new baby ducks! They are so cute! There are five of them and they stay right close to their Mama! Hannah fed them some bread and watched them swim off all in a row. With all the bunnies, eggs, candy and "easter" stuff, it's hard to keep the focus on what Easter is really about but a TV commercial helped us do just that. We saw a commercial for an Easter service in California that spoke of Easter being about peace and unity. Since when? We had a chance to remind Hannah that Jesus took the wrath of God upon Himself that Good Friday in our place. On Easter Sunday, he conquered death and rose again. The fact the we believe in that truth does not unify us with the rest of the world. It should unify us with other believers because we have been called to live a life set apart from the world.
Yesterday, Ky and Hannah went to see our friends in Carrollton. I had to work and so did Amber so it was just Ky, Jeff and the three kids. They had a great time playing together! The guys took them to their favorite, a computer store and then to a pizza buffet. The kids finally got to exchange Christmas gifts and had fun playing with those. Hannah got some cool pictures she can stitch the picture on, and a Disney Princess gown that she couldn't wait to put on last night! She twirled, spun and leaped around the house making her gown flow behind her. She was so cute! Thanks Jeff, Amber, Olivia and Aidan and thanks Ky and Jeff for being such great daddies!
Last Sunday, Hannah sang with the children's choir at church. The 1st - 3rd grade choir sang and they did so good! Hannah really enjoys choir and we're looking forward to their spring concert in a few weeks.
We went to the open house at Rockin C Ranch last weekend. Hannah had a great time and she's looking forward to going to day camp there one week this summer. She rode, horses, did the zip line, played ping pong, played in a tire swing and looked at all the animals. It is a beautiful place and she can't wait to jump on the blob in the lake this summer!
Well, I'm getting my posts a little out of order, but I finally got the pictures from our trip on my computer. Hannah's Tourette Syndrome Camp happened to fall on our anniversary weekend. We didn't want to drive all the way back home just to pick her up again in a day and a half, so we found somewhere nearby to go. She was in Burton, Tx so we went to Bastrop which is about an hour away. We stayed in a cute little B&B right by the Colorado River. Our room was very nice and we even had our own private sunroom. Our breakfast was served in our room, so we ate in the sunroom and enjoyed some peace and quiet. We were only a couple of blocks from downtown so we strolled down the trail by the river and walked across a footbridge that spans the river. We stopped at an interesting place for lunch downtown. It was called Cindy's and it is actually a second location of a biker bar down the road. That one is called Cindy's Gone Hog Wild. Their logo has a picture of a hog riding a "hog". Too funny! Anyway, when we walked in it felt like a scene from the movie "Wild Hogs" when everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their heads toward the door. At first, I felt really out of place and not just because I was only drinking Diet Coke. Turns out this "bar" had shuffleboard and there was no smoking allowed inside. Rough place! That afternoon we went on a 6 mile kayaking trip down the Colorado River. It was fun but a lot of work. We decided that we won't get a tandem kayak next time. At times it seemed a little more like jousting than paddling, although I think Ky did that just to aggrivate me. There are so many dams on that river that there is very little current and we were going into the wind the whole time. Ky's competitive nature came out when we caught up with the family that put in about 30 minutes before us. He just had to pass them and get to the pick up place first, and we did. (Mostly because their teenagers kept getting out of the kayaks and swimming.) We had dinner at a nice restaurant downtown and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the B&B. Hannah is really looking forward to going to camp again next year and we're looking forward to finding a new fun place to go for our anniversary while she's there.
Hannah started t-ball last week. She is on a team called the Diamonds. Their colors are royal blue and hot pink. They had their first practice last week and they were so cute! They started with asking the girls where each base was and had them point to it. They did well on the oral exam but several of them still ran to third. Hannah hit pretty well for the first time hitting off a tee. She did great fielding the ball and even caught a throw from another player while she was playing on first. She couldn't wait to put on her batting helmet and enjoyed drawing in the dirt with her new cleats while she was covering second base. I heard a conversation about hairstyles from the dugout and one little girl started crying which made me think of the movie "A League of Their Own". "There's no crying in baseball!" Guess they never saw 5 to 7 year olds play t-ball. I'm looking forward to a very entertaining season!
Hannah had a great time at Tourette Syndrome camp last weekend. We drove to Burton, Texas last Friday for her very first sleep away camp. She was so excited she couldn't stand it! After we got her checked in, we walked around the campground and checked everything out. It is so beautiful there and she was running everwhere because she wanted to see it all. We met a girl that was assigned to the same cabin and they worked on a craft together. I took a picture (ok, more like 4 or 5) of them and Hannah looked at Rachael and said out of the corner of her mouth, "My mom's taking pictures of us." Ky asked her if she was ready for us to leave and quit embarassing her to which we got a swift reply of "Yes!" We came back to camp Sunday morning and went to the closing ceremony. The kids talked about their camp wish and their wishes were tied to balloons that were released at the close of the ceremony. Hannah wished that she could be at camp everyday. On our way home she told us that in just 12 years she could be a counselor there, because you have to be 18. While she was there she went fishing, did archery, visited the animals including donkeys, a ferrett, rats (which she loved), rode horses, played in a tree house, played kickball, went canoeing on the lake, did the zip line on the ropes course twice, sang and "played" the guitar, (Miss Rachael taught her "Sweet Home, Alabama" so she sang it most of the way home) and all sorts of fun stuff. She said her counselors did their best to tire her out but it didn't work. Saturday night they had a dance. She said it was all fast music and one of the boys asked her to dance (third from the right in the picture of the boys cabin. He went by Bob but that wasn't his real name. Must have an alter ego). Her counselor told me that Hannah pulled her aside and said that she didn't want to dance with him because she didn't want to go falling in love and have to go home the next day. Then, all the other boys in his cabin came over and asked her if she would dance with their friend. She still didn't. No smelly boy's gonna break her heart yet. Speaking of smelly, she forgot to change clothes at camp. She did put on clean clothes Saturday but slept in them that night and wore then Sunday too because she already had them on, so why change? So glad I took the time to label and pack all that stuff. She couldn't remember if she took a shower that night or not but she claims that she did brush her teeth 4 or 5 times a day. Must have been some good brushing because Sunday at breakfast she lost a tooth! The camp nurse told her the tooth fairy had come and brought her $5! The tooth fairy is quick and very generous at camp! We're all looking forward to next year!
Last week Hannah and I got to pick Addy up from her new daycare a couple of days. They just moved to Lindale, but Carrie had to finish her last week of work in Burleson and was driving back and forth. Addy seems to really like it there and was happy to see Hannah when we got there. She is 9 months old now and so adorable and happy. She "talked" and cooed and jabbered all the way home while she looked out the window at the trees and cows and anything else she could see. She squealed and laughed every time she saw Piper. I think Piper was more jealous of the attention Addy was getting than Hannah was. Piper came over to me while Addy was in my lap and wanted to sniff her and lick her toes, but as soon as Addy got down and crawled after her, she ran.
It was fun to have a baby in the house again, especially since we got to play and have fun and then give her back to mama!
March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday. Hannah has always loved the rhythm and rhyme of his books so she was thrilled when her class celebrated his birthday. She got to wear her Nanny's Dr. Seuss hat and bring her new Dr. Seuss book. Her teacher, Mrs. Earls made green eggs and ham for the kids to eat. Hannah thought it was pretty good. To celebrate, I wore my "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" scrub top. That afternoon Hannah and I made Dr. Seuss hat snacks out of Ritz crackers, grape tomato slices and mozzarella cheese stick slices. Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!
Last week, Hannah lost her other front tooth. It's been loose for a really long time and she wiggled and wobbled it every day. Finally the other day at school her friend Riley told her to just yank it out. She told it wouldn't hurt because she has pulled one out nearly every week lately. Hannah grabbed it and yanked it right out just before school let out. She was so excited because she got to go to the nurse and get a treasure chest to put it in.
The other night I went to check on Hannah before I went to bed. I had to peek under the fort to see her and I almost laughed out loud when I saw her. She had on her footed pajamas that Santa brought but I was surprised to she that she had "blossomed" or so it appeared. It took me a minute to figure out what she did but I realized Dinky was missing. She had stuffed him and one of her other stuffed animals in the front of her jammies. I don't know if she was cold or if she was trying to keep Piper from licking them, which she tries to do frequently but it was too funny!
Hannah and I were playing in the front yard the other day and let Piper go out there with us. She liked the fower bed and sniffed the flowers. They posed for a few pictures for me and gave me an opportunity to play with my new camera.
Hannah and I took advantage of the day off today and went to the park. It was pretty cool outside but we bundled up and took off. We packed a picnic and sat in a sunny area to get warm. We ate sandwiches, chips and chocolate covered strawberries and took off to play and warm up. We pretty much had the place to ourselves (no one else wanted to get out in the cold.) A few people came along later and Hannah played with a little girl for a while. We went over to the baseball field and practiced a little and then she rode her scooter and I walked around the lake. She kept asking why I was going so slow so I had to remind her that she had wheels. She told me at one point that there must have been a wedding going on out there. I asked her why and she said that there was a man and a woman kissing on the other side of the lake. People must be married to kiss apparently and I'm ok with that line of thinking! It turned out to be a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time!
I took the day off today to spend with Hannah since she was out of school for President's Day. She came in to wake me up this morning and said her loose tooth was hurting. She pushed it as far forward as she could and it wouldn't come out, so I told her to push it back as far as she could and it fell right out. She was so excited and had to run and look at herself in the mirror. Her other front tooth is loose along with several others. She's hoping to have two teeth for the tooth fairy by the end of the day.
Hannah had a great time at her school Valentine party. She came home with LOTS of candy and Valentine cards. I was laughing in the pick-up line because they started releasing kids a few minutes earlier than normal. The parties were at the end of the day on Friday and I think they were ready for the kids to go and burn off all that sugar at home!
On Valentine's morning Hannah went to the latest Lowe's Build and Grow. We missed the last few ones so she was really excited to go back. She made a cute jewelry box with a heart on the front and a real mirror inside! She was a little overdressed for the occasion because she had a Valentine party to go to after that. Some of her friends from school were there and they had a great time! So many little girls and so much talking and giggling! Add cookies, cupcakes, candy, valentines, and BINGO with sweet tart markers and it was a loud, sugared up, fun time!
I got her an American Doll movie for Valentine's Day about Chrissa and we watched that Saturday afternoon. Ky got her a little box of Godiva chocolate and a gift card to Barnes and Noble so he took her there Sunday afternoon. She picked out the books "Despereaux" and "Froggy Gets Dressed." She had so much fun picking out her own books and spending time alone with Daddy.
