October 30 - Fall Costume Ball

We headed to the local pumpkin patch on Friday to pick out pumpkins. Jillian was content sitting in the wagon most of the time and was otherwise very scared of the dogs walking around (primarily dachshunds...it's hard to believe she's afraid of dogs after living with Amelia for 2 years and Rachel's hoard of dogs for 1.5, but she is). Next up, our school's annual costume party. Julia dressed up as Katniss Everdeen (from Hunger Games), Luke was in his Grim Reaper costume) and Jillian refused to put on her adorable strawberry costume. Instead, she wanted to be like mommy and dress up as a swimmer. Little stinker! She put the cap on herself and amazingly, kept it on for the entire 2h party. We had a great time!

Fall Costume Ball

Pumpkin Patch Fun

October 26 - Halloween Spooktacular

Dream Team: Reese, Jules, Danielle, Kennedy

Swim update! I know it sometimes gets confusing with the different swim teams we do so here is some clarification. The PineBrookwood Orcas is a summer league team (friends and family from home, like Charvale or Woodlin). The season runs from May through June with a championship meet series in July for those swimmers who qualify. All events are short course yards. Aquastar is a USA year round swim team (friends and family from home, like the Schenectady-Saratoga Swim Club). Short course (yards) season is August through February and long course (meters) season is March through July. Julia is currently in the midst of short course season and she is practicing 2-3 days a week. The thing I love about swimming is that it is very inexpensive compared to everything else and the schedule is so flexible. There are practices offered at 2 different pools Monday through Friday with a Saturday morning practice offered as well, so it's very easy to find something that works with your schedule. 

In an effort to avoid burnout, we forced Julia to take a break after the Orca championship meet series in July. She started back up with Aquastar in September. We skipped the first meet of the year and went to the 2nd meet last weekend. Julia swam three 50's (back, breast, free) and three 100's back, breast, free) and did fantastic. She had best times in every event, go Jules!! Her next meet is in November and she's really challenging herself, swimming the 200 free (new event for her) and 200 IM (grueling event). 

October 25 - Gaylord Palms

morning pancakes, Jillian always wants to sit with Julia

While JD gets to travel to exotic places like Australia and Spain, I get to go to exciting places such as Gainesville and Dallas (hehe). Last week I stayed at the Gaylord Palms in Dallas for a work meeting. While Dallas isn't that exciting of a place, it was a really cool hotel. They have an atrium with a river and waterfalls, as well as a really neat train setup. My nephew Andrew would have loved it (when he was into trains, not sure if he still is). 

While I was away, JD held down the fort. That usually includes a lot of eating out for dinner and dessert every night (the kids love when I go out of town!). JD goes out of town again next week to Boston (I'm so jealous, he'll probably see gorgeous fall leaves and experience nice cool weather) while it continues to rain here in Houston. 

Gaylord Palms

Look at this handsome guy

October 24 - Zoo Boo

Zoo Boo time! We finally (finally!) had a day of sunshine and headed to the Houston Zoo for Zoo Boo. This is the first time Jillian's been to the zoo as a walking toddler so it was pretty awesome seeing her excitement around the animals. The zoo does a great job for Halloween, hanging pumpkins from the trees, having treat stations set up throughout the zoo, pumpkins in all the exhibits, DJ, hoola hoop contests and more. Luke refused to dress up and Julia's costume hasn't come in yet so she went as a soccer player. I had to manhandle Jillian into her strawberry costume (she was so adorable) but overall, we had a wonderful day. 

Cutest little strawberry (and she was the only strawberry that we saw)

Jillian's first experience in the fish tank, she loved it! Julia had to pull her out

Merry-go-round fun (Jillian insisted on holding Julia's hand..heart melting)

Julia and Luke painting mini-pumpkins

Love him

My crew

October 14 - Happy Birthday Luke!

Eight years old, EIGHT! Happy birthday to my favorite little man in the entire world. Luke started off his day with breakfast in bed, Starbucks coffee cake and mocha frappachino (coffee free).

Now, for the first time ever, Luke had a birthday party away from home. He decided on Pump It Up, a bounce house place that we first went to about 6 years ago in Raleigh. They finally opened one up here and it was awesome! He invited everyone in his class at school as well as some swim and neighborhood friends. I didn't realize we had a mini-fall break the weekend of his party so a lot of kids were out of town, but he still had a good turnout. After bouncing in room 1, the kids were moved into room 2 that was black-lit with glow necklaces and bubbles. So fun! Next up we had pizza, cake and opened presents. I think the highlight of the party was the party host took pictures the entire time in the bounce rooms, and had the pictures up on a screen while the kids were eating. They loved it!

Happy birthday Luke! Thank you to family and friends who helped make his day special. 

To future Luke, these are some highlights at age 8:

For fun: video games, video games, video games. You would live on your iPad/computer/PS4 if we allowed it. You especially love MineCraft and Roadblocks. You also like riding your bike and the hoverboard. You'll sometimes play with Legos (you always start building right before bed). You also love dominos and playing board games with the family. 

Food: you love fish (dad made salmon the other night and you couldn't stop raving about it) and ice cream (vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate syrup). Your favorite restaurant is Ritter's because they have 'the best cheeseburger in the world.' You also love sushi and yogurt. If I make you lunch for school, your preferred sandwich is turkey and cheese (with mayo!). You love to help me bake (anything) and especially love pumpkin bread. You eat pancakes with syrup almost every morning for breakfast. 

Drinks: I serve water or milk 99.9% of the time but you love to make smoothies and your special treat is Sprite. You will do almost anything if you can get a Sprite afterwards.

Sports: You started wrestling about a month ago and so far so good. You are strong, fast and roll well on the mat (that's what the dad's tell me anyway). You are an extremely fast runner and I signed you up for the new running club at school that starts next month. You sound excited for it! 

School: You love going to school and do well academically. You are extremely quiet and always follow the rules. You love the Dragon Master book series and get super excited when new books are released. 

Friends: Our neighbor Serene is your best friend. You guys play with her younger sister Summer and love to play board games, Twister and ride on the swing down the street. You are also close with Nash and Jasim. 

Misc: you love to ask questions about everything. Why this? Why that? You love to argue about everything too. Everything. We joke you will be a debate champion one day and an attorney. When you grow up, you want to be an astronaut. 

You are still my snuggle bug. When dad is out of town, you want to sleep with me and snuggle. You are a challenging child sometimes (a lot of the time) but your heart is so big. I love you Luke!

October 9 - Catchup

I'm sorry for the lack of posts everyone, life is wonderful yet insanely busy around here. Quick updates on everyone..

JD
JD has been very busy at work in recent months, working long hours. He's also traveling quite a bit. He was in Spain last week, has a trip to Atlanta the following week and then he's heading to Boston 2 weeks later. He is also mentoring our elementary school's robotics team so he is there twice a week helping the kids program. 

Me
I have been very overwhelmed lately, primarily with work. Work has been extremely busy and I've been working late at night to try to keep up with everything. I was in Gainesville 2 weeks ago and will be in Dallas next week. A new boss just started in my department and a lot of processes are changing, putting a lot of stress on me and Cara (my co-worker). I'm room mom for Julia and Luke, mentoring a 5th grade book club at school and girl scout troop leader. Busy bee mommy! I also haven't been sleeping..

Jillian
Why is mom not sleeping? We recently switched Jillian to a toddler bed and our wonderful sleeper has disappeared. She was good for the first few nights and then Luke told her she could open the door..it's been downhill since. Last week when JD was out of town she was up 3 nights for the majority of the night. She was okay the last 2 nights though so hopefully the transition period is over. She does toddler gymnastics once a week and every class she gets better and better. She loves shoes, yogurt, pasta and Julia. She hates wearing anything on her head. 

Luke
Luke is doing great in school and he's super excited for his birthday party on Sunday. For the first time ever, we aren't having a home party. It's been raining here for about 6 weeks straight (400% higher rainfall than normal) so he decided to have it at a bounce house place.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize we have a mini-fall break this weekend so a lot of kids are out of town, but there are 10 coming. Should be fun! He is also wrestling and doing fantastic. 

Julia
Fifth grade has been fantastic. Julia loves her teachers and has straight A's across the board. She's a team leader in robotics club, part of my book club and she's on the school's character crew (similar to safety patrol). She's currently swimming a few days a week and she's a great help with Jillian. 

Life is busy but I love my tribe!

Some of JD's pics from Spain