Working Vacation

 

Blake had to make a quick trip down to Brownsville for work.  Rather than take the trip in the middle of the week, which would cause him to be out of the office all day, we decided to wake up early on Saturday morning, load up the car and make a family day trip to the beach out of it.  The weather was beautiful!

The Chick-fil-a in Brownsville just happened to be having a Daddy-Daughter Date night that weekend.  After a day at the beach, we headed over to the mall, where Blake and Addison enjoyed an evening at Chilk-fil-a and Dalton and I did our own Mommy-Son version at a nearby pizza place.  After dinner, we all met back up and let the kids ride on a two story carousel housed in the mall food court. 

It was a quick trip and A LOT of time spent in the car, but everyone was still smiling on the way home that evening!

Future Baker?

 

Addie and I love to bake while the boys are either at work/school or at karate.  We’ve finally mastered the homemade sugar cookies with the rolling pin and cookie cutters.  This time, we decided to try our hand at the flood icing technique.  I wouldn’t call them bakery quality just yet but we were happy with our results.  I don’t love the taste of the icing but the kids love it.  Perhaps it will keep me from eating the whole plate full of cookies?!?  Probably not!

Fun at the Park

 

Just another fun day at the park enjoying the gorgeous spring weather.

Spring Break 2012

This year for Spring Break, Blake was able to take a few days off.  So, we loaded up the car and headed to San Angelo to spend some time with the family.  The kids had a great time. 

We went skating…

Addie caught on right away.  Dalton didn’t give up and by the end was skating circles around everyone.

We played some Putt-Putt…

For whatever reason, my body thought the first hole of the putt-putt games was the perfect time to get a migraine.  I headed to the van to take some medicine and a quick nap.  Thank goodness for a huge backseat in the van.  I woke up feeling 100% better.

The kids also tried out a croquet game that Macca bought them…

No one was quite sure of the rules but it was fun to challenge one another anyway.

Spring Break just wouldn’t be complete without a nap or two.  Addie likes to claim Poc’s chair as her own when we are in town.

On Tuesday, Blake and I loaded up the dogs and headed back to San Antonio sans kids.  We enjoyed a nice quite few days just the two of us while the kids were being spoiled by the grandparents.  We missed them but look forward to shipping them off again soon!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

 

A little leprechaun must have found his way inside our house last night because someone turned the milk, pancake batter and eggs green.

Bike Rodeo 2013

Dalton has won a trophy every year he has participated in the bike rodeo so far.  With that, we all had high hopes this year he could make it three in a row.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen but he still had fun all the same.

The weather turned out to be pretty drizzly and yucky that day.  His rodeo time was the last time slot of the day so I decided to keep his bike in the car and bring it back to him when it was his turn to start.  Somewhere around lunch time, Addie started complaining of an upset stomach.  Seeing as how we had his bike, we had to return to the school that afternoon.  Loaded with her “bucket” and a cup of water, we headed for the school.  She patiently waited for his rodeo to start holding her bucket close by at all times.  Since we also had to take his bike home, we were committed to staying the entire time.  Luckily, he was in the first bunch of 2nd graders to go through and finished up in about 15 minutes.  We said quick goodbyes and headed to gather his bike from the parking area.  Almost there AND then it happened!  Let’s just say, I’m glad she insisted on carrying her bucket with her.

The Bike Rodeo was a little bit of a bust this year with the weather, sick sister and no trophy but I’m glad we could experience the memory together.

All ready for the bike inspection.  He is even wearing his bike jersey.

Keeping it between the white lines.  This was the part that did him in.  His shoes were wet from the rain and kept slipping off the pedals.  Each time that happened, he got a point deducted. 

Oh well!  Better luck next year right?  We also learned that if he wears his knee and elbow pads next year, he’ll get bonus points.  He wore them last year because he had just recently mastered the bike without training wheels.  Had we only known?

Snake Farm

We tried to take the kids to a local putt-putt place for a Saturday afternoon outing.  When that didn’t quite work out as planned, we found ourselves at the Snake Farm instead.  I’m not really a fan of snakes but today we were in for a treat.  We just happened to get there at the exact moment one of the rat snakes decided to shed.  We were able to see the entire process from start to finish.  I think I was more fascinated than the kids but we all had fun.

The head is near the front of the cage just beginning to shed.

Dalton and I watching intently.  Addie had already lost interest.

It was interesting to watch how calculated his moves were in, up, down and through different obstacles in his tank to help with the shedding process.

He’s using the grasses in his tank to help him shed his skin.

We stopped by to check on him one last time before we left for the day and he was all done!  The entire process took less than 2 hours!

In the meantime, we did check out a few of the other animals…

Feeding the goats but don’t let them fool you….they just really want the bag.

We were checking out the piglets in the pin only to turn around and find a goat’s bottom staring at us.  It’s amazing the balance such an odd looking animal can have!

Addie loved the peacocks!

These cats had a field day “hunting” the kids as they ran back and forth taunting them.

We found Pumba!

Addie was certain she was going to catch a duck, or a chicken, or a peacock….unfortunately, she never did.

We all enjoyed our unplanned afternoon at the Snake Farm!

Future Author?

Do we have a future author on our hands?  Maybe, maybe not but Dalton did receive an award for writing for the second year in a row.  In first grade, he wrote a scary ghost story with a surprisingly funny ending for the fall writing contest.  This year, the writing contest was a salute to Dr. Seuss and fell in the spring to celebrate his birthday.  Dalton wrote a convincing article explaining the similarities and differences between the book and the recent movie “The Lorax”.  He then had to convince his audience of his favorite type of media for that story.  He, of course, choose the movie.  I think it was his line of “I can share the experience of watching the movie with my little sister” that probably won his audience over.