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!