May 30 - True to Your Heart

Julia's dance rehearsal and recital were today for hip hop. We were at the local college from 10am-4pm (with a 45min for lunch...we did a quick Subway run!) and Luke was a trooper (he was great, minimal complaints about having to watch the same routines twice). JD had to work the swim meet all day but was able to make Julia's performance. We had a lot of girls join the class late in the year so many of them didn't have the routine down (also one girl was unable to come due to a death in her family) but they had fun!

Here is the dress rehearsal this morning-Julia is the first blond you see. It was super cute!

May 26 - Fab Weekend

We had an amazing weekend...let's dive in! Friday night was a lock-in at the elementary school with the principal and vice principal.  Julia's friend Kendall bid on the event during our school fair and asked Julia to go with her. They had a great time. There were about 15 kids there and they had the run of the school. They made pizza, baked cookies, watched movies, played basketball and rode scooters throughout the school. While Julia was playing at school, Luke and I had a date night at the 'fancy restaurant' (also known as McAllisters Deli). He loved having his momma (I've been trying to force him to say 'mommy' for 4 years....it isn't sticking) all to himself. 

Saturday was an insane day. Julia and I were up at 5:45am to get ready for her swim meet.  She didn't go to bed until after 9pm because of the lock-in but luckily she was in a great mood and not tired. Luke had a soccer game so Tammy picked her up and took the girls to the meet. Luke and I went to his last game where he scored a goal (go Luke!) and then his team celebrated the season with cupcakes and trophies. Luke was very excited to receive his very first trophy! What Luke was not excited about was...leaving the soccer game and heading to the swim meet (really momma? We have to go to the pool again?!). 

Julia swam the breast stroke in the medley relay, free, back, breast and free relay. We got there in time to watch her do the free relay and they did great! Julia and Hannah swam in almost all the same events so they hung out and played the entire meet. After the meet, I dropped Julia off at her friend Shayne's house (at 12:30pm) who we haven't seen in awhile. Julia and Shayne were in Montessori together, as well as kindergarten and half of first grade until Shayne's family moved and she switched schools. Shayne's new house was next to the pool we were at and it was her older sister's birthday. They had 2 huge waterslides for the kids. 

After dropping off Julia, Luke and I headed to the airport to pick up JD (who was flying in from Germany). We parked in the garage and waited in the airport until he went through customs. Luke had a great time going in the elevator and the escalators. We also had fun people watching, he was really interested in the pilots and drivers waiting to pick up people with their signs.  Daddy finally arrived bearing gifts...a funny wizard hat for Luke and German chocolate. We headed back home and I dropped the boys off at the house, then went to pick up Julia. By this point it was 4:30pm.

Now...keep in mind we started the day at 5:45am. Julia was in constant motion all day between the swim meet and waterslide party.

Our neighbors are out of town and we are helping out with their dog, Rachel (an adorable, elderly cocker spaniel). After I picked up Julia, the kids, dogs and I went over to feed Rachel dinner and let her out. I turn around and see naked buns-Julia was about to jump in their pool. I told her to put her clothes on...she did and then jumped in anyway. Next thing I know, Luke is throwing in their temperature gauge, that looks like a duck, in the water and the dogs jump in to get it. So...the dogs and Julia ended up taking a quick swim together. What a day!!

Sunday was a more relaxing day, we did some shopping around town and played around the house. Yesterday we went to the zoo and had a blast. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Julia also learned to dive this weekend

Julia and Hannah in the freestyle relay

Beautiful flowers

The dogs are thinking... we like this pool

May 20 - Hibachi!

Happy Thursday everyone! When Mommy is out of town, Daddy spoils the kids with dessert every night and trips to the toy store. When Daddy is out of town....well, it's not quite as much fun. This week I grounded the kids from all electronics (tv and video games) due to fighting on the way to and from a birthday party last weekend. However, I do let them help out with the dinner menu for the week. They each get 2 meals and I choose 1. Julia chose spaghetti and meatballs and tri-color pasta, while Luke chose mac and cheese and ravioli. I chose, hibachi! We went last night and the kids loved the show. Even better, they ate the food (I wasn't worried about Luke, he'll try anything, but Julia is super picky). Julia kept saying how great the rice was and they both finished almost all of their chicken. It was delicious and fun!

In other happenings, if you've seen the news lately you know we've been hit with some bad rain storms. Last Wednesday, it was threatening to rain all day. That evening I was walking with the dogs when the sky opened up and it started pouring. POURING. We were 2.5 miles from our house and being the prepared person I am, I was sans umbrella and raincoat. We had to walk through water past my ankles most of the way home and we were 100% soaked when we got home. Definitely an adventure! There was a lot of flooding around town (it was terrible, one man drowned, several cars and homes were flooded) but we were okay. On Saturday, we went to a birthday party at the children's museum and it started pouring on the way from the parking garage to the building. Wet once again! Lesson for mommy: start carrying a small umbrella at all times!

Fun at the Children's Museum

Karma Brown Bear 

Birthday party for Julia's teacher

May 14 - Best Day of My Life

Luke dancing with his class last month - adorable!

Julia and Hannah in practice the other day - go Orcas!

May 12 - Is it May Already?

Wow-I cannot believe it is May already. Where has the time gone? I was out of town last week so I'm behind on the blog. Sorry peeps! We've had a lot going on so let's dive in.

Field day was May 1st and the kids had fun. It wasn't field day like I remember (which was a lot of competitions and races), but the kids did a variety of games and a few relay races. We also had over 200 water balloons for our class alone so the kids had a big water balloon fight (I think that was their favorite part of the day). It's a tradition at school to spray paint the kids hair and as the room parent, that job was mine. The kids were super excited about it and we did all sorts of cool colors and designs (one kid, who has very blond hair, requested pink and blue polka dots, it looked fab). Julia requested orange and blue. I'm not sure if she wanted to represent the Gators but she looked like a little Gator fan!

Our neighborhood pool is now open on the weekends and we've already been there several times. It's a little chilly but that doesn't stop the Yamo kids! We went this past weekend with a few of our neighbors and their kids and it was a blast. 

In other news, Luke has become quite the little tree climber in the last few weeks. He has been going up very high in the tree in our backyard (mom, I'm like a ninja!) and does not want to come down. I don't remember ever being nervous when Julia climbed (climbs) trees, but I don't remember her going quite so high at age 4. He's very strong and limber though. 

Luke and his buddy Nolan at the Mother's Day celebration

For Mother's Day, I went to a celebration at Luke's school which was adorable. They sang a few songs, danced for us, we played games and then we had muffins and juice. Mother's Day weekend, the kids and JD camped out in the backyard (they loved it) and the kids surprised me Sunday morning with breakfast in bed and a mimosa. Mmmm! 

Swim team also started up last week (last week was a crazy, insane, busy week where we had double activities every day between swimming, soccer, gymnastics and dance). Julia, Hannah and Julia's friend Evey are all swimming together, as well as 2 girls from our girl scout troop. Go Orcas! Of course....I love going to all of the kids activities but swimming is my favorite. I just love the smell of chlorine and seeing kids run around in bathing suits. It brings back so many great memories of Charvale and Woodline (pool clubs my family went growing up). 

Julia and Hannah

Julia and Evey

8 and unders

Helping dad set up the tent

Julia and Wade - Field Day

April 28 - Up Close & Personal

Last week was the quite the week. On Tuesday we met at a local park for a picnic with the girl scouts, which was a ton of fun. The weather was also perfect, sunny and around 70. The girls had a blast! Wednesday, the Houston Dynamo (men's MLS team) and the Houston Dash (National Women's Soccer League) were at our practice field. We had no idea they would be there so it was a fabulous surprise. The kids had their balls signed, were able to meet the players, mascot and play a bunch of games. 

The first grade field trip was Friday at Bayou Wildlife Park. We were worried about rain but the weather held all day. The kids did the petting zoo, saw a gorgeous peacock, waiting in a long line for pony rides (unfortunately the ponies needed a break and our class didn't get to ride them) and went on a super fun tram ride throughout the park. 

The animals got up close and personal. One animal was literally resting his head on Julia at one point trying to get food! We also got to feed a zebra (which was amazing) and saw a 'beefalo' which is part buffalo part domestic cow. All in all, it was a great day!

It rained here all weekend so soccer was cancelled. Julia's friend Angie come over for a tea party and can you guess who had the most fun? Karma Brown Bear! She loved her first tea party..well, she loved trying to get cupcakes from the kids. Hehe. She was NOT successful! 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Picnic time!

Dynamo Mascot

May I have a cup of tea?

April 21 - Progress!

I have fantastic news everyone. I brought Karma to the vet for a weight check last week and she is down to 88.5lbs (from 95lbs). That is amazing progress, I am so proud of her! She is also starting to cuddle with me, which is a pretty big deal because while Karma loves to be near people, she usually doesn't love to be hugged or kissed. Now, she regularly kisses me and snuggles up against me. Progress!

Amelia also had a checkup and she is down to 70lbs, currently her lowest adult weight ever (we will be increasing her food per the vet's recommendation). Amelia also has immature cataracts (which causes depth perception issues), her knees are thickening and her back legs are starting to lose some of their flexibility. She's elderly, but her back legs still have great muscle tone and she's doing great for her age. 

The kids had a great weekend. We went to Disney on Ice with the girl scouts on Friday and the kids and I went to Kemah Boardwalk on Sunday. The weather has been gorgeous the last few days and we've been playing outside a lot. 

In other news-you know those days when being a parent really melts your heart? I experienced one of those days recently when Julia came home from school with this, for Luke:

So proud!

April 17 - Nailed It

Seriously, this kid is so cute I can't take it. How adorable is this soccer photo?!

April 13 - Happy Kids

Happy Monday everyone!! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. 

Last Thursday was JD's birthday and we celebrated with a few presents and delicious chocolate cake. JD and I went out to a new restaurant in the Galleria that was AMAZING. Amelia celebrated her 10th (I can't believe that she's TEN) birthday with a lot of hugs and snuggles from mommy, Julia and Luke. 

Saturday is soccer day for us and the kids had fun. I was actually doing swim team registration at the pool and missed their games, but JD was able to watch Julia play for the first time this season and he enjoyed seeing her new skills. 

Have a great week everyone!

April 5 - Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends. 

On Tuesday, the Girl Scouts came over for our monthly meeting. The girls (and Luke) dyed 3 eggs each and then went on a 'bunny hunt' in the backyard. I hid 10 chocolate bunnies and amazingly, the kids could only find 4 by themselves. I had to do a lot of of  "It's near me...I can see it from where I am standing...You are in the right area....Hottter....Colder..." Hehe. It was really fun and the kids had fun running around searching. I also did something new in that I made the hard boiled eggs via the oven. It was so easy, I will never boil eggs again. Pre-heat oven to 325, put eggs in muffin tins and cook for 30min and then put in cold water for 10min. So simple!

Thursday was a crazy, crazy day us. In preparation for Julia's class party at our house, I collected plastic eggs from everyone in her class. For the first time ever, everyone contributed and a few people sent in more than requested so we had over 400 eggs. About an hour before the party, I had to hang balloons on a few trees to designate the path to our house. I was gone for less than 15min and when I got back....Amelia had gotten into the box of eggs and destroyed/ate FIFTY of them. OMG, I was not happy with her to say the least. It was also clear she routed through the whole box because most of the eggs were slimy. Thank goodness we had extra eggs otherwise that would have been a disaster! 

Two mom's came over to help 'hide' eggs around the yard and then we walked to school to get the kids. We headed back to the house and explained the rules. 18 eggs per kid. Every kid had an egg labeled with their name they had to find and there were 4 eggs for the teacher. I should have taken a video because watching 20 kids sprint across our backyard with baskets was quite a site to behold. After finding all of the eggs, the kids opened them and had a snack. Then I divided them into two teams (they named themselves the Jaguars and the Seahawks). The Seahawks won the spoon/egg race while the Jags won the hop like a bunny relay race. We had time for 2 games of freeze dance as well, it was super fun! After school, Julia had dance and then a soccer game...and then after kids were in bed I had to work more. Arg. 

I took the day off on Friday. Tammy and I took the kids on quite an adventure. Our initial plan was to go to the zoo but there was no parking and we ended up in a parking garage a few blocks away. We were able to check out the McGovern Centennial Gardens (a new garden area in Houston) which was just awesome. The kids loved all of the flowers, the waterfall and the cool fountain. After the gardens, we had lunch, went on a train ride, did paddle boats, played in a stick house and then went to the zoo. It was a fantastic day and the girls walked over 5miles, they were tired at the end of the day. 

On Saturday, we went to an Easter party at our friend's house. They kids had fun dying over a dozen eggs (I'll be eating egg salad all week) and going on an egg hunt. Last night the kids had a sleepover in Julia's room and were up bright and early this morning at 6:30 ready to see what the bunny brought!

Happy Easter everyone!

He could have watched the fountains all day

Beautiful

Tammy & the girls

My co-pilot

Egg fun

Happy Easter!