August 31 - May the Force Be With You

Who knew a trip to the local grocery store could be so much fun? Life sized storm troopers are awesome! They also had Spiderman and an assortment of cool balloons. 

In other news, school started last week. We went to Schlitterbahn with Hannah and Tammy the day before and had a blast.

Happy Monday! I'll post school pics later this week. 

August 27 - I Spy

I spy, with my little eye.....a little Amelia Peabody

August 25 - Entrepreneurs

On Friday, Julia, Jack and Luke decided to start their own business. Jack was trying to sell 'gems' for $37 (he said they were high quality and he couldn't go down on the price) while Julia and Luke decided to do a dog business. Their services included walking, brushing and washing dogs. They demonstrated their abilities by walking Karma and Amelia up and down the road several times. The trio went door to door and they were hired by our neighbor to brush their dog. Without any other takers, Julia and Luke decided to wash Amelia before our new baby sitter was coming (I had a girl scout mom's night out). Luckily I checked Amelia before she came in the house because they appeared to douse her in conditioner and not rinse it...yikes!

On Saturday, the kids and I went to Petsmart to buy Karma a new leash. I usually try to avoid the pet store on the weekends because it's adoption day. Of course, we looked at every animal and the kids fell head over heels in love with Jade. I told them we could get her if they earned the money for adoption ($50). As soon as we got home they set up a lemonade/fruit punch stand. Selling drinks at 25 centers a cup, I figured that $50 was WAY out of their reach. Imagine my surprise (and horror) when they earned FORTY THREE DOLLARS!! They went door to door to drum up business, told people what they were raising money for and my (overly generous neighbors) were paying $5 a cup in some cases. Um...what have I done?! I cannot handle a puppy right now! I told the kids we need to budge for the adoption fee, bowls, leash, collar and vet visits. Stay tuned..

Mom, Amelia and Karma are yours. We want a dog too.

Entrepreneurs

August 21 - Bay Oaks Reunion

Hannah, Jenna, Julia & Evelynn

 For the last two weeks of summer camp, Julia has been at Bay Oaks (country club across from our neighborhood) for swim, golf and tennis camp. Imagine our surprise when we walked in the first day and we saw Jenna. Jenna is our old neighbor who moved to a cattle ranch north of Houston a few years ago. What a small world! Her grandparents live in Clear Lake (the name of the area of Houston that we are in) and she was at camp last week. Julia was also joined by her friend Hannah from girl scouts and Evey, our neighbor. The girls had a great time last week and all especially loved golf. Julia and Hannah both requested to take golf lessons, so the golf pro there definitely did an outstanding job with the kids!

This week, Julia was thrilled when we walked into camp and and saw coach Alex. He is her favorite swim coach from the Orcas and he is a counselor this week. He is excellent with kids and she has been having an amazing time. 

In other Yamo new, soccer started last week for Julia. Let me tell you folks, it's hot here. The first practice as 102 (probably 112 with humidity). The kids had a break every 15min and we poured cold water on their heads to stay cool. They cancelled practice last Tuesday due to extreme heat. I wonder what the threshold is...103?! She is doing a new program this year called Junior Academy. It's with the same organization she has competed with the last few years, this is just more structured, focuses more on ball skills and has real coaches (instead of parents). They also keep score during the games, which I like. She is doing it with a few of her good friends from school and they are all having fun. Luke is super excited to start soccer as well, his practices will begin in a few weeks. 

Happy Friday!

August 17 - A Case of the Mondays

Last Monday morning I came downstairs and found Luke sitting on the counter holding the thermometer. 

"Momma, I need to stay home. I think I have a fever." - Luke

I take his temperature, no fever.

"No fever buddy, you are good to go." - Mommy

"Momma, my stomach hurts. I need to stay home." - Luke

"Really? When did it start hurting? Do you feel like you are going to be sick?" - Mommy

"I think I might throw up. I'm also very hungry, can you get breakfast started? Oatmeal and cheerios please. May I please have some blueberries as well?" - Luke

"Hmm, sounds like you are feeling okay." - Mommy

"Umm...hmmm...my knee hurts. I need to stay home." - Luke

"You climbed up the cabinet all by yourself, so I think you are fine." - Mommy

"Momma! I really just want to stay home all day and play video games. Please?! I love video games." - Luke
"You are just like your daddy." - Mommy shaking her head

August 15 - Slumber Party

Julia's 7th birthday party was last night and we all survived! She wanted a gymnastics theme and amazingly, there isn't much (translation: zero) party stuff available. After driving around Houston trying to find a gymnastics cake topper, we ended up baking a chocolate cake with purple frosting. We used molds to make blue stars and Julia decorated her own cake, it came out great! The girls (five) came over around 6pm. They had pizza, played games (musical chairs, freeze dance, statues, games with walkie talkies) and then we had cake and opened presents.  JD set up air mattresses for the girls and they settled in and watched 'McKenna Shoots for the Stars' (American Girl doll movie about a gymnast). 

Now, I know what you are thinking..How did the girls do? We had some dynamic personalities so I knew it would be an adventure. Since the girls are friends from different parts of Julia's life (2 from elementary school, 2 neighbors-1 a year older another a year younger, and 1 from preschool) we started off the party by each girl introducing herself. I also laid out (and posted) the party rules...which were semi-effective. Luke was a challenge that I didn't quite foresee. He wanted to be part of everything. We attempted to let him sleep on the couch and he eventually made it onto an air mattress but we had to bring him upstairs because he was pretty disruptive. He sneaked downstairs again and then we finally got him settled and asleep (upstairs). I stayed downstairs with the girls, navigating the 'who was bothering who', 'I need a drink of water,' 'I need to go to the bathroom' fun-ness. They eventually fell asleep around 11pm and I headed to bed around midnight (I wanted to be sure they were asleep). 

Now, one thing that I was not expecting was Hannah telling everyone that if you write a letter to your elf on the shelf, he comes the next morning (apparently this happened at another party she was just at). So..they girls wrote Christopher the Elf a very nice letter and placed it next to the front door under a small purple Christmas tree (still hanging around from Christmas, the kids play with it all the time).  I have it on good authority that Christopher is on vacation in Hawaii with the other elves, but he was nice enough to write the girls a letter and bring them candy canes. I'm not positive, but it sounded like he made the trip around 4am. I'm sure he's a very tired elf today. :) 

The girls woke up at 6:30 and the first thing they did was..you guessed it. Go look to see if Christopher was there. They were excited to see the letter and candy canes. JD made the kids breakfast (pancakes with bananas, strawberries and/or chocolate chips, bacon and eggs as well as biscuits) and then we painted nails and played around the house some more. Everyone left around 10am. We are all tired but it was fun!

We are hosting a girl scout sleep over in a few weeks for 10 girls...I will need to mentally prepare myself, lol! Happy Saturday everyone!

Pizza time!

Movie time

Amelia left the party after about 10min and spent most of the time upstairs sleeping. She did come down today for some snuggles!

Karma was all about the party-she slept downstairs with the girls and loved all the attention!

Julia & Emma

Party Favors: in an effort to stop giving kids junk their parents will just have to throw away, each girl received a bag monogrammed with their first initial, a diary and note cards also monogrammed with first initial and some chocolates

August 12 - Mr. Dimples & his Lady Love

A few weeks ago Luke had back to back birthday parties on a Saturday. The first was a pool party and the second was a gymnastics party. He was thrilled that his friend Hadley was also a guest at both parties and they had a blast playing together all day. They were simply adorable together! They even had cake next to each other (twice). In other Luke news, he is working hard on his swimming. He can currently swim across the diving well by himself and gets better every day. He really wants to be an Orca next spring so fingers crossed that he'll be able to swim a full lap by next May. Go Luke go!

Girl Scout Camp..not too shabby

After two fabulous weeks at sailing camp, Julia spent a week at Casa Mare Girl Scout Camp. This was a new camp offering that no one had done before, so we weren't sure what to expect but she had a great time (also great-I carpooled with Tammy..I love carpools!). This camp is also located right on the bay and it was simply beautiful. The girls went swimming, did archery, learned songs and dances. At the end of the week, they had a talent show. Julia and her friend Evey did a performance to Olaf's 'In Summer' that was cute. Some other girls did jokes, juggling, a fashion show, dance, gymnastics and several girls (at least 6) sang to Katy Perry's Firework song. 

Luke and the ladies

A Smooch from Hadley

Icy with Laurel

Luke and Nolan (one of his buddies from school came to 'bring a friend to gymnastics' last week)

Future engineer

I Love these munchkins

August 10 - It's a Doggone World

A few weeks ago we watched our neighbor's puppy while they were out of town. Hank is a mastiff, just under a year old and HUGE. He's about 140lbs and not even close to being full grown yet. One morning I was washing dishes and he literally walked up next to me and started drinking water out of the faucet. The kids helped feed him every day and the he attempted to play with Amelia and Karma. Unfortunately for Hank, the old ladies weren't interested in playing but he still tried! (they were very interested in all his toys though) He is a very sweet puppy and very slobbery. The kids helped feed him every day and run around the backyard with him. 

In other news, our neighbors came over last weekend and their youngest daughter spent about 30min snuggling with Amelia and Karma in the yard. It was beyond adorable!

Hank and Karma (keep in mind Karma is 84lbs...she looks TINY!)

Laurel and Amelia

Laurel and Karma

We got the dogs as baby pool over the weekend. Amelia refused to go in (she was too hot outside, it was 102 without humidity) and the kids could only convince Karma to stick her feet in. The kids on the other hand...had hours of fun in this little thing!

JD is out of town, which means I get to snuggle with this gorgeous girl every  night 

August 3 - Escape

 A few weeks ago I went to Escape the Room with the girl scout moms. It was super fun! Escape the Room has 3 different scenarios: mission control, 90's apartment and 'your parents basement.' We did mission control with a group of 10 (4 of us plus 6 other people). If you are wondering what escape the room is...we were locked in a mock up of mission control and had 60min to try to 'escape.' To escape we had 5 tasks to complete. Anyone who knows me well, knows I'm terrible at puzzles so I wasn't expecting to be a valuable team member but I did figure out a few things, hehe. It was definitely a team effort.

We completed 4 out of the 5 tasks and if we had a few more minutes we would have made it out. I highly recommend doing one of these if they have them in your city. Super fun!

The kids and I also escaped the heat at the Putt Putt Fun House. It was too hot to play mini golf, but the kids had a blast on the bumper boats and bumper cars. They also played their first ever game of laser tag (they loved it) and watched some 3D movies (also loved it).

Happy Monday!

Laser tag - Luke and his teammate 

Bumper cars