December 27 - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We baked chocolate chip and mint chocolate chip cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and the kids (mostly Luke) was adamant we set out nine carrots for the reindeer. JD wasn't feeling well and made the kids go to bed at 8pm...which is extremely early for a non-school night but they sat up in bed chit-chatting and were pretty excited. 

Christmas morning came before we knew it. Luke woke up everyone by shouting "It's Christmas!" at 7am at the top of the stairs. We waited until around 7.30am to go downstairs and dig into the presents. Special thanks to everyone who made the kids day special. They were definitely spoiled beyond belief (no joke, look at that present spread). 

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning

Julia made a Christmas dinner menu..complete with children's menu

December 27 - Uncle Bryan & An Aquastar Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm a little behind on posts so let's catch up. Uncle Bryan and Karma arrived Saturday from New Mexico. It's been 2 years since we saw Karma and...she has curly hair now! Instead of calling her Karma Brown Bear, she's now Curly Karma LOL! 

On Sunday, the kids and I went to a swim team "Pajama Christmas" party at a friend's house. Luke did not want to go and I had to literally force him into the car...guess who had the most fun and didn't want to leave? That's right, Luke. It was a fun party with over 42 kids. The kids did a white elephant gift exchange as well as the parents. Santa also came! There was also a bounce house there. So fun!!

PJ Party fun

Uncle Bryan is here!

December 19 - Winter Champs & Christmas Tree

A few weeks ago Julia competed in the short course winter championship meet. I always choose her events but this time, I asked her coach for her recommendations. Coach Jeaneen suggested an extremely aggressive race schedule and while Julia was initially wary, she eventually said "let's do it." She was scheduled to compete Friday afternoon (200IM), Saturday morning (5 events) and Sunday morning (5 events). Due to a huge storm in Houston that Friday, everything around town was cancelled so she didn't do the 200IM.

We were there bright and early Saturday and Sunday and she qualified for the "A" freestyle relay and "B" medley relay. Not so good? She woke up Saturday morning not feeling well, coming down with the same horrible cold the rest of us have been battling. I am so proud of her for powering through and finishing her swim schedule. She didn't have all best times, but she did amazing in her 100 breast, 50 free and 50 back. She also finally broke the 40 sec mark for the backstroke, something she's been trying to do since the summer. That was super exciting!

And also exciting...Julia and Kennedy tackled the 100 fly for the first time ever. Randomly, they were in the same heat and right next to each other. Great job girls!

After the meet on Sunday, we went to the Christmas tree tent and picked out a tree. I put the lights on the tree (we were going to do white lights this year but could only find 2 strands) while Julia and Luke put all of the ornaments on by themselves. They did a fantastic job!

They survived the 100 fly!

December 13 - Minute Maid Field

2nd grade field trip time! Last week I had the pleasure of going to Minute Maid Field with Luke's class. We had a tour guide and learned about the history of the Houston Astros baseball team, how baseballs are made and the construction of the building (the ceiling weighs 19 million tons and can be retracted in 13min). The kids also got to sit in the dug out and walk on the sideline. It was a neat experience! Luke loved it. We were supposed to go to a local park for a picnic afterwards but it started raining, so we ate in the classroom. Overall, cool day! 

December 10 - Flapjack Run

Our elementary school started a running club this year and I signed up both kids. It's after school on Mondays for 1.5h and Luke has gone the last month. Julia can't make practices until robotics is over (time conflict) but we all know she's a runner at heart. The PE teacher in charge of the club sent out information about a local race called The Flapjack Run. No one else from school signed up to run but 3 of our Aquastar friends did!

Luke, Myah and Holly all ran the 1/2 mile kids fun run. It wasn't a timed race but they all worked hard and looked like they were having fun out there. Luke claimed he was so tired he wanted me to carry him afterwards. Sorry buddy...nope!

Julia and Braden ran the 5k and they both did fantastic. Braden won the boys 9 year old division with a time of 24:31. Julia came in 2nd in the girls 10-14 division (what an odd age range) with a time of 24:40.

Apparently breaking 25min is a big deal in a 5k no matter what age you are, so this was a huge accomplishment. Even more amazing? The only girl who beat Julia was 14 (and my size). Julia beat all of the other girls!!

While Julia and Luke were running their little hearts out, Jillian was at breakfast with Santa at her school. Was she afraid? Not at all! She walked right up to Santa and liked him!

November 29 - Amazing Race/Scavenger Hunt & Horseback Riding

My kids look forward to Thanksgiving break for several reasons. They get to see the Tampa side of the family and several members of my family. They love seeing all their cousins and at the farm, they love the horses. Another thing they love and look forward to? Uncle Brian's Farm...scavenger hunt..for lack of better turn. Last year the kids asked him to do an Amazing Race this year and he, along with Uncle Bryan, delivered. 

It was Team Julia/Andrew vs Team Victoria/Luke. This race included 2 miles of running so Team J/A had an inherent advantage. However, the race was still close! The race began with 1 person from each team (Andrew vs Victoria for leg 1) running from the top of the driveway to the gate. They had to plant a flag and then run back. Leg 2 (Julia vs Luke) had to run to the gate to get the flag and race back to receive the next clue.

Team J/A had a sizable lead off the bat. The kids had various challenges including moving wood planks, building and hanging bird feeders, finding horseshoes, clovers, coloring books in the house and rope swinging. At the end of the race they had to run another mile each and then do the rope challenge again. Competition was fierce was Team J/A prevailed! Team V/L won last year so they are already calling Thanksgiving 2019 the "tiebreaker" (actually, I'm not sure if they said that or if I just made that up, it's been a long week LOL). 

On the last full day, the kids went horseback riding (in addition to me, Jill and 
Greg). We celebrated Uncle Brian's birthday with chocolate cake and a happy birthday sign Uncle Bryan spearheaded (because the pies weren't enough hehe). We had such a relaxing time. My favorite thing about the farm is that the kids play outside literally all day long. We have to ring an old fashioned giant bell to get them to come in and eat. The only thing that would have made the week better was seeing Aunt Katherine, Uncle Jay and Uncle Chris. 

After a fantastic week in Tampa and the farm, it was time to head back to reality. Now....Christmas is around the corner!

Jillian & Chan

Amazing Race - Andrew & Victoria running 

Rope Challenge

Birdfeeder Challenge

Andrew & Luke both have strong personalities and sometimes clash, but overall they had fun together

Julia will spend the next 3 months begging us to move to NC, she loves Victoria so much 

We can't wait to celebrate Christmas with Uncle Bryan and Karma

November 28 - Farm Life

After an amazing long weekend in Tampa it was time for.....the farm! We arrived around 4.30pm on Tuesday while Greg, Jill and the kids got there 30min afterwards. Bryan was also there, as well as Chan, Brian's new boyfriend. The kids immediately got out of the car and sprinted to the barn to see the horses and play in the hay. Jillian was hesitant meeting the horses at first but she quickly learned most of their names. Meanwhile, Julia, Luke, Victoria and Andrew remembered every horse and greeted them like long lost friends. 

Julia and Victoria put together a quest for Luke and Andrew, complete with clues and puzzles. The boys accepted the challenge (and were a little frustrated the girls hovered around them offering helpful hints) but overall they all had fun with it. The first night Bryan put together a fire pit in the backyard and the kids roasted hotdogs for dinner and made s'mores. Yummy! Needless to say, the s'mores were a huge hit!!

JD and Luke set up the tent the second night and Julia, Luke and Victoria all slept outside. They attempted a campout like this last year and Julia was the only one who made it through the night. I'm happy to report that all three of them survived!! It was chilly but they made it through!

Okay...Thanksgiving dinner. For the last several years, JD and Craig pretty much handled everything. This year we decided to try something new with everyone pitching in and making a dish. Here is how is all played out:

Turkey: Christine, Brian and Chan

Gravy: Brian and Chan

Stuffing: Brian

Carrots: Chan

Mashed Potatoes: Greg

Sweet Potato Casserole: Jill

Green Bean Casserole and Broccoli Salad: JD

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie & Apple Pie: Christine

Overall-it was a team effort and it was delicious!! Thank you to everyone for chipping in. This was definitely a low stress way to handle everything. We all stuffed ourselves full of food and had a wonderful evening. 

The putting together the quest for the boys

Cousin love

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 28 - Weedon Island Preserve

Grammie had a great idea one day-let's go to Weedon Island Preserve. Weedon Island Preserve is an approx 3.2k acre natural area with over 4 miles of trails, boardwalks and a 45' tall Observation Tower. There is also a Cultural Natural History Center but it was unfortunately closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. It's a well known birding area and you can rent canoes and kayaks to experience the trail. We just did part of a trail and the boardwalk and it was beautiful. JD had Julia and Luke counting the types of organisms they saw and they were getting into it. 

Next time you are in the Tampa Bay area, check this place out. It's beautiful and so peaceful!

November 27 - Tampa Adventures

well...we kind of have 3 out of 4 looking at the camera

JD drove to Tampa with Luke and Jillian and had a rather uneventful car ride. This was Luke's first time being responsible for helping with Jillian in the car and he absolutely rocked it! They stopped for the night in Pensacola beach and arrived in Tampa on Saturday afternoon. Luke and Leah were super excited to see each other and played for hours. They especially loved climbing the big oak tree in the front yard of Grammie's house! Luke also had a blast playing video games with his uncles, showing off his skills (JD told me Luke was talking a lot of smack!). 

Julia and I flew into town Sunday evening and no joke, within 5min of seeing each other they were already arguing with each other. Ah, the joyful life of siblings. On Monday, JD and I took the kids to the children's museum and the kids loved it! We started at the top level of the museum which had a few tents set up, a "fishing" area and reading zone. We then headed to the 2nd level which was the best part of the museum.

They had all sorts of cool sections, including a fire true, dance area, paper airplanes, physical play, animal sounds and so much more. The kids loved loved this area and didn't want to leave. After spending a few hours there, we had a quick lunch at Jimmy Johns and were back to the house. 

That evening, after a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, Julia played "Villians" a new boardgame with JD, Uncle Chad and Uncle Greg. They had fun! 

Museum fun

Poor attempt at family photo...we missed Luke completely LOL