April 28 - Up Close & Personal

Last week was the quite the week. On Tuesday we met at a local park for a picnic with the girl scouts, which was a ton of fun. The weather was also perfect, sunny and around 70. The girls had a blast! Wednesday, the Houston Dynamo (men's MLS team) and the Houston Dash (National Women's Soccer League) were at our practice field. We had no idea they would be there so it was a fabulous surprise. The kids had their balls signed, were able to meet the players, mascot and play a bunch of games. 

The first grade field trip was Friday at Bayou Wildlife Park. We were worried about rain but the weather held all day. The kids did the petting zoo, saw a gorgeous peacock, waiting in a long line for pony rides (unfortunately the ponies needed a break and our class didn't get to ride them) and went on a super fun tram ride throughout the park. 

The animals got up close and personal. One animal was literally resting his head on Julia at one point trying to get food! We also got to feed a zebra (which was amazing) and saw a 'beefalo' which is part buffalo part domestic cow. All in all, it was a great day!

It rained here all weekend so soccer was cancelled. Julia's friend Angie come over for a tea party and can you guess who had the most fun? Karma Brown Bear! She loved her first tea party..well, she loved trying to get cupcakes from the kids. Hehe. She was NOT successful! 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Picnic time!

Dynamo Mascot

May I have a cup of tea?

April 21 - Progress!

I have fantastic news everyone. I brought Karma to the vet for a weight check last week and she is down to 88.5lbs (from 95lbs). That is amazing progress, I am so proud of her! She is also starting to cuddle with me, which is a pretty big deal because while Karma loves to be near people, she usually doesn't love to be hugged or kissed. Now, she regularly kisses me and snuggles up against me. Progress!

Amelia also had a checkup and she is down to 70lbs, currently her lowest adult weight ever (we will be increasing her food per the vet's recommendation). Amelia also has immature cataracts (which causes depth perception issues), her knees are thickening and her back legs are starting to lose some of their flexibility. She's elderly, but her back legs still have great muscle tone and she's doing great for her age. 

The kids had a great weekend. We went to Disney on Ice with the girl scouts on Friday and the kids and I went to Kemah Boardwalk on Sunday. The weather has been gorgeous the last few days and we've been playing outside a lot. 

In other news-you know those days when being a parent really melts your heart? I experienced one of those days recently when Julia came home from school with this, for Luke:

So proud!

April 17 - Nailed It

Seriously, this kid is so cute I can't take it. How adorable is this soccer photo?!

April 13 - Happy Kids

Happy Monday everyone!! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. 

Last Thursday was JD's birthday and we celebrated with a few presents and delicious chocolate cake. JD and I went out to a new restaurant in the Galleria that was AMAZING. Amelia celebrated her 10th (I can't believe that she's TEN) birthday with a lot of hugs and snuggles from mommy, Julia and Luke. 

Saturday is soccer day for us and the kids had fun. I was actually doing swim team registration at the pool and missed their games, but JD was able to watch Julia play for the first time this season and he enjoyed seeing her new skills. 

Have a great week everyone!

April 5 - Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends. 

On Tuesday, the Girl Scouts came over for our monthly meeting. The girls (and Luke) dyed 3 eggs each and then went on a 'bunny hunt' in the backyard. I hid 10 chocolate bunnies and amazingly, the kids could only find 4 by themselves. I had to do a lot of of  "It's near me...I can see it from where I am standing...You are in the right area....Hottter....Colder..." Hehe. It was really fun and the kids had fun running around searching. I also did something new in that I made the hard boiled eggs via the oven. It was so easy, I will never boil eggs again. Pre-heat oven to 325, put eggs in muffin tins and cook for 30min and then put in cold water for 10min. So simple!

Thursday was a crazy, crazy day us. In preparation for Julia's class party at our house, I collected plastic eggs from everyone in her class. For the first time ever, everyone contributed and a few people sent in more than requested so we had over 400 eggs. About an hour before the party, I had to hang balloons on a few trees to designate the path to our house. I was gone for less than 15min and when I got back....Amelia had gotten into the box of eggs and destroyed/ate FIFTY of them. OMG, I was not happy with her to say the least. It was also clear she routed through the whole box because most of the eggs were slimy. Thank goodness we had extra eggs otherwise that would have been a disaster! 

Two mom's came over to help 'hide' eggs around the yard and then we walked to school to get the kids. We headed back to the house and explained the rules. 18 eggs per kid. Every kid had an egg labeled with their name they had to find and there were 4 eggs for the teacher. I should have taken a video because watching 20 kids sprint across our backyard with baskets was quite a site to behold. After finding all of the eggs, the kids opened them and had a snack. Then I divided them into two teams (they named themselves the Jaguars and the Seahawks). The Seahawks won the spoon/egg race while the Jags won the hop like a bunny relay race. We had time for 2 games of freeze dance as well, it was super fun! After school, Julia had dance and then a soccer game...and then after kids were in bed I had to work more. Arg. 

I took the day off on Friday. Tammy and I took the kids on quite an adventure. Our initial plan was to go to the zoo but there was no parking and we ended up in a parking garage a few blocks away. We were able to check out the McGovern Centennial Gardens (a new garden area in Houston) which was just awesome. The kids loved all of the flowers, the waterfall and the cool fountain. After the gardens, we had lunch, went on a train ride, did paddle boats, played in a stick house and then went to the zoo. It was a fantastic day and the girls walked over 5miles, they were tired at the end of the day. 

On Saturday, we went to an Easter party at our friend's house. They kids had fun dying over a dozen eggs (I'll be eating egg salad all week) and going on an egg hunt. Last night the kids had a sleepover in Julia's room and were up bright and early this morning at 6:30 ready to see what the bunny brought!

Happy Easter everyone!

He could have watched the fountains all day

Beautiful

Tammy & the girls

My co-pilot

Egg fun

Happy Easter!

April 2 - When Are You Leaving Again?

"Mom, when are you going out of town again? I love when you go out of town." - Julia


And...that was what our little diva said to me when I flew back from Vegas last Friday. The kids love when I go out of town-they get to go out to eat almost every night and daddy treats them to ice cream. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled little dimpled munchkins!!

So, as noted above I was in Vegas last week for work. There was a huge national conference for orthopedic surgeons and our company had a booth at the event. It was a good meeting and I was able to catch up with one of my old friends from Emory who was also at the event. The kids had a fab time with dad and he was able to stay on top of school and all their activities. I think the dogs missed me most of all because they didn't get any walks. :) 

We are in a brief twilight period here in Houston with perfect weather. It's the calm before the heat storm and we are taking advantage of it by being outside as much as possible. It's simply gorgeous every day! 

Mmm...ice cream with daddy

Mom was able to go dancing one night with her work friends!