June 30 - Saturday Snuggles

Saturday snuggles with the furry love of my life

My first time wearing skinny jeans (without high boots). The jeans are comfortable and my leg looks normal! (I'm still giddy about it..giant leg tumor: I don't miss you at all!)

Happy Monday everyone!

June 26 - Rain

I took Amelia on a quick walk Tuesday morning and the weather was just gorgeous-clear, sunny and no humidity. Flash forward a few hours: the temperature dropped 20 degrees, everyone's hair fizzed with the humidity and it started pouring. It's been dark and raining on and off ever since. The kids are having fun playing in the rain and I'm enjoying the cooler weather, even though the humidity is pretty thick (I'll take 75 over 95 any day of the week).  We do miss going to the pool though, that is our favorite thing to do after school in the summers. It is supposed to clear up next Monday and then we'll be back in the water. 

Fun in the rain

The homestead 

Helping daddy with the yard last weekend

June 23 - Hello Summer

After a great Father's Day weekend, I flew to Florida early Monday morning for a week in the office. Julia went to her first ever girl scout camp, Luke was a Montessori, JD was Mr. Mom and Amelia was...well, feeling neglected without mommy! Julia had a great time at camp, which was held outside in a local park called Bay Area Park. Yes, you read that correctly-camp was outside all day. One hundred campers were at the camp and they were organized into groups by grade. Julia's group had 6 girls and were lead by 'Jersey Girl' and assisted by two goddesses 'Flutter' and 'Chi Chi' (all the counselors and goddesses (teens) go by fun names). Julia LOVED Chi Chi and talked about her constantly. Throughout the week, the girls made crafts, sang songs, did skits, went canoeing and did archery. There was a water station for the girls to keep them cool and they wore wet bandannas as well. Hannah attended the camp as well (she was in a different group) and also had a blast. JD, Nic and Tammy all carpooled the girls from swim team in the early morning and then to camp. Luke had a great time at Montessori as well. He has splash day every Wednesday in the summer (they have a whale splash pad) and they had a magician come to school on Friday. He was very excited about all the magic tricks! 

Julia's last swim meet was this past Saturday and I can't believe the season is over already. It's amazing how good her stroke is getting and how much faster she is than the beginning of the season (backstroke: first meet was 1:16, last meet was 44 sec, free: first meet was 43 sec, last meet 35 sec). Most importantly, she had fun! I think Luke is going to miss the donuts at the swim meet (6:45am Saturday he requested a donut because 'I'm a donut monster momma.') 

In other news, JD and Julia went to a father/daughter dance at NASA the Friday before Father's day weekend. They busted a move and JD treated her to a milkshake afterward. Luke and I had a fun time at home building tent forts and playing hide-and-go-seek. Of course, Amelia follows me everywhere so it's always easy to find mommy, hehe. We've also been spending time at our neighbor's pool, the kids love playing with Evey and Lauri. Happy Summer everyone!

Silly relays at the meet last weekend - go team pink!

Trail next to the pool, slightly blurry but Luke loved taking walks through here

Swim meet tents. Does this bring back memories parents?!

Rest in between events? No thanks mom, I want to climb

Julia and Hannah

PineBrookwood Orcas team photo. Julia is in the bottom row, third from the right (we're missing a lot of kids)

June 12 - It was Amelia

"I found several Hershey kiss wrappers in between the fridge and cabinets. Who was eating them?" - Dad

"Hmm, not sure. Wasn't me." - Luke

"It wasn't me, it was Luke. Luke is the one who was eating them, I saw him!" - Julia

"Actually, I think it was Amelia." - Luke

"I didn't even know we had Hershey kisses." - Mom (who likes to throw out candy or sometimes hides it and forgets about it)

Several hours later........

I come downstairs and find the kids on the counter eating kisses. I literally watch Luke unwrap the chocolate and toss it between the fridge and cabinet. 

"Where did those come from?" - Mommy

"You hid them here a few months ago. Don't worry, we can still reach them." - Julia and Luke

Rascals!!

June 9 - Starbucks? Okay, I'm Up

Saturday, 5:30am
"Time to get up." - Mommy to Luke
He rolls over, slowly opens his eyes and glares at me and then snuggles back under the covers.
"We can stop by Starbucks for breakfast if you get up." - Mommy
"Starbucks? Okay, I'm up. Can I have chocolate milk and pumpkin bread?" - my suddenly wide awake little man

We had an early morning Saturday for our meet against the Pearland Pirates. It was an away meet (pool was a solid 30min away) and check-in was at 6:30am, but after our quick Starbucks trip the kids were wide awake and excited for the day. We had about 125 swimmers and the Pirates had over 300, but amazingly it didn't feel crowded. The meet was at the Pearland Natatorium, one of the nicest pools I've ever been too. They even had touch pads! Both teams set up tents outside and the kids had fun playing games in between events (Luke tried to take a nap when we got there). One really cool thing is that they had a misting tent for the swimmers next to the bull pen so they stayed cool.

JD worked the first half of the meet and had fun, while Julia did a great job and improved all her times (she broke the 40 sec mark for freestyle, great job!). After the meet, we went to a local German restaurants for lunch, relaxed at home for a little while and then went to a friend's house for fajitas and more swimming. And then yesterday...more swimming. We love the pool!




Climbing Trees

Pool Fun

Love this little guy

Haircut! 3" cut off

June 5 - Goodbye Kinder!

It's official, our little bean has graduated kindergarten. Woo hoo! At the graduation ceremony last week, the kids all sang some adorable songs, received 'diplomas' and then we had juice and cookies with the parents. It was very cute. Today was the last day of school, the kids watched Frozen and then we had a pizza party and celebrated the summer birthdays (Julia and 3 other classmates) with a yummy cookie cake. Summer camps start up soon...and wow, can't believe she's be in first grade in just a few months. 

Julia & Ms Bach

Mid-ceremony...Luke was requesting (quite loudly) 'I want to drink out of the water fountain!' 

My little man

The joy of pumpkin bread

Daddy's gardening helper

June 2 - Under the Sea

We took a break from swimming this weekend for Julia's dance recital. She had a dress rehearsal and performance on Saturday and then an encore performance on Sunday. I was concerned about the dress rehearsal based on last year. Last year the kids rehearsed in their recital order (her group was towards the end) and it took several hours. This year, the little kids went first so we were in and out in about 20min. Yay! Our whole class went out for a long lunch afterward and then we headed back for the show. The girls were adorable and had a blast. On Sunday, I had the honor to sit with the girls backstage during the show and we had fun playing board games and watching...you guessed it, Frozen. So proud of the little mermaids!

Carolina (the twin's mom) doing last minute touch ups

Backstage shenanigans 

Getting ready outside the auditorium

They are next!

Under the Sea (Julia is on the far right)