Showing posts with label pics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pics. Show all posts

Saturday, September 6, 2014

3 DOWN, 1 TO GO...The boys are ALL in School!

Yesterday was the end of Week 2 into the 2014-2015 school year and so far, everyone is doing really well!

Connor is loving kindergarten. Amazingly enough, no tears were shed by either of us on his first day (yay!) and every day he excitedly bounds out of the school doors to tell me all about lunch. Lunch is his favorite part of the day. What can I say, he loves to eat! And apparently, he really loves to eat the ''vegetarian'' options. He's had salad, salad with pasta noodles, a special tray that had cracker chips, yogurt, cheeses, celery and carrots. He usually tells me all about lunch, then all about PE or Recess and then something completely random and off the wall.
We did have a little hiccup when on Wednesday when I received a call from the school nurse. Connor had puked while skipping in PE but felt ''much better'' and had wanted to continue to play. Unfortunately for him, I had to pick him up. A quick doctor visit confirmed that all that running, got him to coughing and that the cough combined with a slight 'crackle' sound in his lungs earned him a preventative inhaler for the next two weeks. As bummed as I was, I have to say to go an entire year without an inhaler was a huge milestone for my little peanut. 

And the other boys? They are loving third grade and second grade.
Logan was actually assigned the same 2nd grade teacher that Ryan had and while he likes Mrs. G, he usually tells me all about how she called him ''Ryan" x amount of times today. His patience is a little thin but I explained how when she sees our last name, she naturally wants to say Ryan when calling attendance. And how they do look a little alike, so to give her some time. His best friend from first grade is in his class, so the two always choose to sit by each other (oh and he loves the ''open seating'' option that his teacher has). So far he hasn't had any homework but he is concerned because he remembers how much Ryan had last year. (Not a lot at all but Logan has never had a teacher who assigned much!).
Ryan was a little anxious about starting 3rd grade. When the class lists were posted, he realized that he didn't have any friends in his class (he did recognize a few names).  But now at the end of week two he is much more at ease. Apparently he is mostly in his class with his teacher, but for language arts they swap with another class so he has a different teacher. Then for block/specials (PE, Art, Music, Computers) they are the ''rainbow'' group so the entire class splits up and goes with other classes on different days so he is getting the opportunity to meet a lot of kids from other classes. I'm hoping that Ry might come out of his shell a little bit this year.  I know at home he is much more verbal and opinionated! The attitude of an 8 year old can be shocking some days.

And little Sis? She's loving all that time to herself. The first few days were a little rough; she missed her brothers. She would ask if it was time to pick them up. She would talk non-stop. But by this week, she was loving that alone time. Last Friday Ron had off so we took just Maggie and headed down to Galveston. She loved it. She got to walk on the beach and pick up shells, she got hold our hands and do the 1,2,3 swing. We went out  for seafood at lunch and she got her own steam-pot of crab, shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes. And she behaved so well and helped clean the table at lunch, so the waitress gave her a plastic shark toy...her day was totally made. She was telling people ''I'm just one kid today!". Totally adorable and such a different dynamic.
Overall, it's been a really smooth transition. They all wake and get ready pretty easily. Connor has had a few mornings where he really wanted to just stay home with me (not because he dislikes school but because he ''just loves me so much''). Those mornings are rough because of course I want to say, "okay you can stay home and snuggle" but I don't, I walk him to school and he does great. His teacher actually approached me after school yesterday and wanted to let me know that she is so impressed at how well he is doing, both academically and socially.In fact, they earn tickets each day but can lose the tickets for bad behavior/not listening...Connor had the most tickets out of anyone in the class; he has never lost a ticket. He got to "shop" the prize wall on Friday and gets to bring a stuffed animal to school on Monday. He was elated to hear that!




Friday, November 8, 2013

Maggie's 3rd Birthday party and a trip home!

We returned to Texas in August and was immediately busy getting settled. While it was wonderful to be back stateside, I was bummed that we didn't have the time to make it to Kansas and see family. So after working with the boys' school schedule, Ron's work schedule, my parent's work schedule and my brother's work schedule, we finally narrowed down a weekend that we could all meet in Kansas. This weekend was almost two weeks after Maggie's birthday but since she shares a birthday with my nephew (whom at this point I had yet to meet!) we opted to have a joint birthday party and weekend get-together. It was perfect!

The drive from Houston to Wichita went off without a hitch. Google said it was a 10 hour and 8 minute trip from our driveway to my Aunt's house and we made it in 11 hours and 12 minutes. Two adults, four kids, two dogs and we stopped three times.
They are awesome little travelers.

We actually got to Kansas a day before we had originally planned which worked out well because we had time to get situated in the hotel and an extra evening to visit family. Friday my parents came down with my grandma. It was so nice getting to see them and the kids didn't hesitate one bit (which I thought Maggie might).

We bundled up (it seriously started to snow in Wichita, in mid October when this gal only brought flip flops) and headed to lunch. We spent Friday relaxing with grandparents, hanging at my Aunt's house.

Saturday my brother made it over and we took family photos and had a party. I was VERY VERY excited to meet my nephew and see family that I hadn't gotten to see in two years. I cried several times, but they were tears of complete happiness and joy!
Some of the family photos we snagged:
 
Great Grandma Phyllis with all her great grandkids

 My parents with their kids and grandkids

Nanaw and Papa bought the kids' Halloween costumes for them this year...I sure have a lot of superheros protecting me! 

By 3:00pm everyone had made it to the house and we were ready to party.
 




 I think it's pretty neat that these two share a birth date and even though Abe is in Nebraska, and Mags is in Texas, they were able to celebrate together :)
So fortunate that we were all able to meet up and spend the weekend together. Now I can't wait for Christmas to do it all over again. This is what the holiday's are about, and this is what I missed the most while in Italy. 


Thursday, October 4, 2012

This past week in pictures...

Peanut learned to write his name, all by himself...

While simultaneously recovering from a horrible case of Hand, foot and mouth...
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I have found a homemade deep dish pizza recipe that we absolutely love! To the point that I make it at least once a week.

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We spent the weekend with friends; at birthday parties and having barbecues!
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After almost 2 years I have finally figured out a few more ways to style "girl" hair

And Sissy has proved that she is anything but girly.
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Bubba has been reading and loves first grade!
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Pooks is having a blast in Kindergarten!

And after 8.5 years of marriage, B and I finally had photos of just us taken.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

This is our new town...

Today, we ventured downtown. When it's as easy as hopping on a bus and pressing a buzzer to stop when you see something worth stopping for, it's hard to resist. I took a ton of pics and I'll post more soon but had to post this one. Just a little bridge over a small canal. This is Italy!!!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Here comes Santa Claus...

Well, statistically three out of four isn't bad...
Merry Christmas!!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

The 4th of July in South Texas...

is not like any previous 4th of July that I've celebrated. Because we're in a severe drought (I think it has rained less than 5 times since we moved here 7 months ago) they banned the sale of all fireworks, the firing of all fireworks and all public firework shows. SixFlags, Sea World, the Alamo....all cancelled. So, we did our best to have fun without them. It was different and I didn't like it very much but we prevailed and made up for our loss of pyrotechnics with food! Funnel cake, fried pickles, watermelon, s'mores, chocolate chip cookies, grilled hotdogs...mmm! We went to the Home Depot Kid's Workshop on Saturday, then on Sunday we went to the park and had a picnic. Monday we stayed home, played outside, made more food and just relaxed.

 
 
 
Next best thing to fireworks? Light up wands from the last years Fair
 
 
 The Wal-Mart was selling those poppers so we bought a few boxes...
 
 How was YOUR fourth of July??
 

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Weekend Adventures!

Okay so when we moved here, one of our goals was to use the weekends to really explore the area around us. Get out and do fun things as a family and see what this new city/state has to offer. And we have, just last weekend we went to Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. We've done the Riverwalk & Sea World. We visited the famous Gruene, TX. But more often than not our weekends consist of hanging around in our pj's, watching movies, heading to Costco...just totally vegging. And that's perfectly fine, sometimes. But I do think we need to get out more. We don't know if we'll end up living here for a year or 10 years but we should continue to have our mini-adventures. One of the things that I've wanted to do was find a good local Farmers Market.

Yesterday, we did just that. First we googled and came up at this website: http://www.pearlfarmersmarket.com/

It was the nicest farmers market that I have personally ever been too. Live music, pet friendly, hot foods for sale, honey, soaps, fresh cut flowers, tea, coffee, fresh breads PLUS produce, herbs, honey and sauces. Very cool! We bought {and immediately began eating, cibatta bread and the best fresh peaches)
 After the farmers market, we headed over to another free attraction: The Japanese Tea Gardens

While our timing could have been better (11am on a Saturday), the gardens are gorgeous. It was a bit crowded but none of us seemed to mind. The water was clear with tons of koi fish, the stonework was amazing, the bridges, steps, the flowers, birds...all of it was really pretty. The boys LOVED it.
 
 
Thank you random lady for snapping a good family pic :)
 
 The same lady who took our pic, also gave the boys some fish food to feed the koi fishes...those suckers were eager to eat!
 
 There is suppose to be this gorgeous waterfall but the severe drought around here dried it all up! Here is a self-portrait we took near the rocks where the water would cascade down
And after we walked up the stairs, wound around the ''waterfall'' and back down this gorgeous flower path, there was this small bench made of rocks...I had to get a pic of the kiddos...
all in all, a great morning exploring our new city :) Now I have to get searching for things to try next weekend!