September 25 - Color Factory

I took Jillian and Adelyn to the Color Factory in the museum district of Houston over the weekend and what a fun experience. It's a "immersive art experience" with several rooms and we all loved it.

While we were waiting for our group to be called, the girls had fun playing in the lobby. There were pumpkins they could climb on and a cool yarn exhibit.

The first exhibit was a hallway with changing lights and the walls displayed different artwork with every color change. 

Next up, balloons! The girls had so much fun, they could have stayed here all day. While we started with a group, we were allowed to spend as much time in each area as we wanted and we lost the group at this point. The girls stayed here a long time!

In the next exhibit, the girls used their hand prints and connection to control lights in the room. Very interesting!

Confetti Room! No explanation needed. Just pure fun.

Okay, this next area was my personal favorite as well as Jillian's. We all put on headphones with dance music and busted a move on the dance floor! 

Next up, the girls tried to create a butterfly in a light up room.

In this area, we were able to create artwork that appeared on the walls. It was supposed to be something that brings you joy (I wrote "reading"). Of course, they both drew poop LOL. 

I'm not exactly sure what the girls did here, but they had on headphones and seemed to be drawing pictures of each other, writing favorite colors, etc. 

GIANT ball pit!

Black hole ice cream was a hit!

And the last area was...scents!

  

September 24 - Homecoming Dinner

Maddie, Gabi, Mia, Ava, Amelie, Julia

Last Homecoming post for Julia, I promise! Yesterday was the homecoming dance and dinner. Julia was in a big group of 20 (9 couples plus her and Mia). They planned dinner at the same restaurant Julia had her 16th birthday party at, because it's right on the water and is great for taking pictures. A wedding reception was booked last minute so the kids had to make alternate arrangements for pictures, not a problem! They met at a park for a photo shoot with the parents and then headed out. Dinner took longer than expected so they bypassed the dance and went to one of the girl's houses for an after-party, where they swam and hung out until around 12.0am. Julia, Mia, Gabi and Maddie came back to our house afterwards for a sleepover. What a weekend!

The Swim Girls (Mia, Ava, Julia)

Julia & Mia (besties)

The girls

The whole crew!

September 22 - Let's Get Our Craft On

Swim Girls (Julia, Mia, Myah, Avery)

Homecoming in Texas means....mums! Freshman year, Arturo's mom made Julia's mum and I made his garter (smaller mum that goes on the boys arm) with a lot of help from Tammy. Okay, if I'm being honest, Tammy did 95% of his mum. Last year, Tammy did 95% of the mum again. This year, I did it myself! I am not a crafty person but with the help of some talented YouTubers, I was able to do it. The hardest thing is finding the right kind of ribbon (satin acetate, no wires) so I made a lot of trips to Michaels, JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby. I've since found 2 stores in north Houston that carry a lot of supplies and a good place to order ribbon from is a balloon supply company. 

The making of a homecoming mum, it's a process!

September 20 - Homecoming Parade

Imina & Julia

Homecoming 2024! Homecoming fell during a hot, humid, exam week this year but the kids made the most of it. High school themes included Western Day (Monday), Barbecue Dads vs Soccer Moms (Tuesday), Disney Day (Wednesday), Back to the 90s (Thursday) and Lake Spirit Day (Friday, mum day LOL). Julia wore her cowboy boots Monday, dressed up in her "BBQ dad best" on Tuesday and wore her mum Friday. Some of the kids had some great outfits! The parade and pep rally were Wednesday night, she had an intrasquad swim meet on Thursday, football game is tonight and dance is tomorrow night. Busy, busy, busy!

For the homecoming parade, Jillian and I parked at the high school and then walked about 3/4 of a mile to the elementary school to help set up for the parade. We had a boat for the seniors, a firetruck for the juniors and sophomores and trailer for the freshman. The kids had to make posters and decorate with balloons. 

After helping set-up, Jillian and I found a spot on the parade route and waited for it to start. We loved seeing all the floats, cheered on almost all the big GS (Kennedy/softball, Lexi/XC, Lauren/soccer, Surya/tennis, Hannah & Reese/Flairs) and she collected a ton of candy. Yum! After the parade, we headed to the football field to see the cheerleaders and Flairs perform and see the homecoming court. So fun! It was a lot of walking and it was HOT but she was a trooper. 

Homecoming Parade

September 18 - Flair-Mingoed

We came home a few weeks ago and discovered we were "Flair-Mingoed" by the Clear Lake HS Fabulous Flairs (Reese specifically). There were adorable flamingos in the yard, all decorated individually by the dancers. Jillian thought it was the coolest thing ever and cemented her belief that she's "a real Flair!" 

Last weekend, Jillian participated in her third Flairs clinic with Adelyn and Ella (Girl Scout friends) and had an absolute blast. Reese and Hannah (Julia's GS Flair friends) both worked with the 2nd graders and it was so fun to see them all dancing their hearts out.  In a few weeks, Jillian will dance on the field at a HS football game with the Flairs. She is so excited!

Ella, Jillian & Adelyn

Jillian and Reese

Jillian and Hannah

Flair-Mingoed!

September 14 - First Sleepover Party

Last night was Jillian's birthday party. Her first ever SLEEPOVER party!! Thirteen girls were invited. All of them came but eight total spent the night including Jillian (first slumber party for all of them) and the rest were picked up at 9pm. The party started at 6pm and we had pizza and cake, opened presents, had a dance party (the girls all wrote down their favorite song and that was our playlist) and they spent a lot of time running around the house, chasing each other, screaming. After the first first group of girls left at 9pm, the rest changed into their pj's and we set up air mattresses downstairs. After the requisite "jumping on the air mattresses like a bunch of little monkeys", the girls watched Rio 2, ate an evening snack, brushed their teeth and then went to bed. When I say "went to bed" I mean they stayed up and talked and giggled until everyone fell asleep around 1.30am. In case you were wondering, no, they did not sleep in and were in fact up at 5.30am! I made them cinnamon buns for breakfast and we had another dance party starting around 6.30am. What an adventure!! Happy birthday Jillian!!  

Party time!

Love these girls!

This is my favorite picture. Jacqui, the little girl on the left, was deathly afraid of dogs just a week ago. She is in our GS troop and came over for a meeting, she was shaking like a leaf and crying. Bella and Apollo worked their retriever magic and she is now good with dogs. In fact, Bella slept with Jacqui and Guinevere all night!!

The dogs were in heaven with all the attention

Happy Birthday Jillian, we love you!!

September 13 - Family Zoo Day

This past weekend, Houston experienced a beautiful "autumn type" morning with temperatures in the low to mid 80s. Blissful! We did a family day at the zoo and it was so fun. In all the years that we have been there, we've never seen the tiger active and this time, he was walking up and down his area non-stop. So cool. The gorillas, which are also usually hard to spot, were playing a game of tag together. Simply incredible to watch. 

September 11 - The Great Eight!

Age: 8

Grade: 2

Favorite Class: GT

Current Style: she LOVES bellbottom jeans!

Current Activities: Girl Scouts, Spirit Squad (at NPE), Maker Space Club (at NPE), Fencing

Current Interests: Roblox, Lilo & Stitch, Garfield, rollerblading, snuggling with Bella & Louie 

Favorite Food: pizza, cheese nachos

Best Friends: Adelyn, Leeya, Scarlett

Dream Job: An Amazing Artist

Place you really want to travel: Colorado

Fun Facts: Jillian, you are such a little firecracker. First grade was fabulous and so far, you are loving 2nd grade. You did your first overnight camp last year and loved it. You have a zest for life and like to push boundaries, you definitely keep us on our toes (on our way to GS camp, you tried to convince me that you needed a belly button piercing!). You love your sister, and while you and Luke push each others buttons at every opportunity, I know you love each other. You love all of our animals and are such a great human big sister to all of them. You love to go into my closet to try on my clothes and especially my high heeled shoes (you love to remind me that I have "munchkin feet."). You are super tall!! You are also spoiled rotten and currently get a massage every night and want to fall asleep with me, a bad habit (bad habit from my point of view, it's great from yours!) that we need to break. You don't like to get up for school in the morning but once you are up, you are a little chatterbox. 

We love you Jillian!!