Brooke's Debut Performance

This seriously cracks me up! Adilyn and Kacy love "Frozen", but I think Brooke is my biggest "Frozen" fan for sure. She has some drama in this performance...

Tiny Fairies?

I love the way Kacy thinks. The other morning she came downstairs, and she said, "Why am I always in a different spot in bed in the morning?" We talked about how people move around in their sleep, and how she is a bit of a crazy sleeper. She said, "Well, I always imagine tiny fairies coming in my room in the middle of the night and moving me around." Such a sweet little soul :)

Adilyn's 7th Birthday Party

Adilyn really wanted a "friend" party this year, so we looked and looked for a good (and reasonably-priced) place to have her party. I didn't really want to have people over to our house because they are still pretty young. Bowling was super expensive, they are too little for roller skating, Adilyn is convinced that the bounce house place is "germy", so we were running out of options. One day at the YMCA we noticed that they did birthdays, so Adilyn decided to do the "Sports Party". It took me a while to find out who to contact, and the whole thing seemed pretty disorganized. I told them that we wanted to play some volleyball-type games, and they seemed okay with it, but I still had a sneaking suspicion that something was going to go wrong. Well, I was right! I got there today, and nobody was there. There was a lifeguarding class in the room that I thought we were going to be in, and there was no host and nothing set up at all. I started getting a little nervous because it was only 15 minutes before the party was supposed to start. Luckily, the lifeguarding class was over, so I could start setting up in there. The kids played with some of their party favors, and I threw out a couple of balls. They entertained themselves for a while, but I was worried about how long it would last. A lady had called the guy in charge, and she said that he was on his way. He got there about 45 minutes after the party started, and he felt so bad! He should have felt bad, but I really didn't care. The kids had fun, and that is all that really mattered. He organized a couple games for them to play. One was really fun, the other, not so much. It was quickly time for cake and presents, so we went into the room and had our cute ice cream cake. It didn't taste as good as it looked, but cake and ice cream is still cake and ice cream :) Everyone played a little bit after cake, and then we headed out. All the kids had a great time, and they left tired and sweaty - always the sign of a great party. Hannah and Brooke got right in there and played with the big kids, and even the adults got to play. Adilyn said it was the "best party, ever", so I guess it was a success! We went and had dinner with our two favorites, the Griffins and the Hrobars, and then came home to watch a movie and play with all the new toys. It was great to see Adilyn playing with some of her special friends from school and some of our best family friends!

Phone Pics

I should probably do this every few months, but these are some pictures from my phone. Many daily things we do aren't really worth a whole blog post, but they are part of our day-to-day activities. Here are some random shots from our days...

 

When Adilyn had cheer practice, we would always go for a walk around the YMCA grounds. They just built an amazing garden, and we always go check on the fruits and veggies. This corn grew so fast! One week it was shorter than Kacy, and the next week, this! Kacy was amazed :)

 

I told the girls to go up and get Brooke. 10 minutes later I hear giggling, and see this on the monitor. They were all up there "reading" with Brooke. Love it!

 

 Mother's Day sandcastle building!

 

Brooke chipped her tooth when she fell on a chair. She didn't seem too upset about it, but her smile sure changed :)

 

They celebrated all the summer birthdays during the school year, so Kacy had her "birthday" some random day in May. She asked for a cookie cake with extra icing. After her party she said, "Let's just go ahead and say I'm 5 now." My favorite thing about her party was that everyone went around and said what they liked about Kacy. One boy said that she smelled like flowers. Another said she is a kind friends. Another one said she had the most beautiful eyes.

 

They were obviously watching a movie, but I have no idea why Brooke had a wipey on her head.

 

This is how she played in the sand all day long when we went to the beach one day. 

 

My little running buddy. Her favorite thing is to run to the park and take a quick swing break. I don't mind the break, for sure :)

 

We were going through a car wash. She was terrified. Kacy kept saying in her sweet little comforting voice, "It's okay Brooke. It's only outside. It's only bubbles."

 

Our first attempt at sidewalk chalk. It turned out to be super messy fun!

 

We were at the store, and she would NOT take this hat off. I was suckered in and bought it for her. She kept saying, "Ooooh, hatty, cute!"

 

Camping bed head!

 

We went for a random lunch at Peter Piper Pizza one day when work was annoying me and the kids were antsy. Kacy loved it!

 

Brooke looking in on Addy's phone time. They are usually nice and let her sneak a peek!

Soggy, Muddy Frio Trip

First of all, thank you, Dana for taking some pictures or else I would have no pictures to post with our wonderfully muddy Memorial Day weekend adventure! :)
We were so excited to finally be able to camp on our land at the Frio. The guys went out early to do some work, and Dana and I drove on Friday with all the kids. It was quite a trip! We were in the car for almost 7 hours, there were a lot of movies, one fist fight, a considerable amount of whining, and one fun (and a little torturous) car game. All in all, we made it in one piece, nothing a few deep breaths and a good night's sleep couldn't fix. The next day we woke up and it was raining. There was rain in the forecast, but we hadn't thought too much about it. Now rain is okay, but our entire property is dirt, which quickly turned to mud. The kids didn't mind and they were all off and playing. They were playing soccer, and the soccer ball turned into a mud ball within minutes. It was quite hilarious because as the kids ran around, the mud caked on the bottom of their shoes. Kacy came over and said she was wearing "mud high heels", and she wasn't lying! There was about 2 inches of mud piled on the bottoms of her shoes. Brooke came over next and it was like she was wearing a whole other pair of shoes under her shoes. It was all a mess! I was pretty grumpy, so I was glad when the weather finally cleared and we could go to the river. We got down to the river, and it was a little chilly because it was overcast, but the kids were fine. We stayed down there for about 5 hours or so. The kids swam, snorkeled, played on the rope swing, and kayaked. We had planned to have brisket that night, so we got back and dinner was already ready in the crockpot! Great planning on our parts :)
We had a fun night sitting outside and talking after the kids had gone to bed, and we went to sleep not knowing what Mother Nature had in store for us...There was rain throughout the night, and when we got up we realized that we were in a slippery situation. Shane got his truck stuck, Dana's dad got his truck really stuck. It was really a muddy mess! Luckily we had access to the backhoe, and we got Dana's dad's truck out. Shane used nature as his resource, and got himself out with branches as traction. Go, Nature Boy, go! The Hrobars had enough, and they hightailed it out of there by noon. We stayed because our camper was going to be much harder to get out. The girls and I went to visit with Jessica and her family while Ryan and Cory worked on some things. When we got back, we were going to try to get the camper out when all of a sudden it rained and rained and rained! We decided to pack up and head out and leave the camper there. It took a while and Cory and Ryan got soaked, but we made it out safely and made it home around 1:30am. It was a good idea to leave though because we might have been flooded in if we had stayed.
What a weekend! Hopefully we can make it back to the Frio soon for some real Frio fun!

Kacy's PreK Graduation

We absolutely loved Kacy's preschool this year. She learned a lot, had tons of fun, and made some great memories. Her teacher, Ms. Karen was amazing. She loved the kids like I have never seen a teacher love kids before. Kacy's favorite part about school was seeing what Ms. Karen's drama center was going to be each week. Every single week, she changed a little corner of the room into a new play area. It was a bus, a kitchen, Mexico, an ocean, and the list goes on and on. She loved going to school each week, and I loved that she loved it there so much. I told Kacy that she was going to have to wear a graduation hat, and she kept telling me that she wasn't going to wear it. I really didn't care, but I told her that she needed to do it to be like everyone else. You never know with Kacy, but she wore it. She had the biggest smile on her face when she walked across the stage to get her diploma. So proud!

Off to Kindergarten we go! I can't believe it, but I am so excited for her to start her this new chapter in her life :)

MOMs Club Camping Trip

We have had a lot of fun with the MOMs club the last year, but one of the funnest things that we have done is go on a family camping trip to Brazos Bend State Park. There were about 9 families that were there, and we all got sites right by each other. There were kids from 13 to 2 years old, and we all had such a great time together. We lucked out, and the weather was perfect! It could have been super hot, but it actually got a little chilly at night. The kids played on bikes, climbed huge trees, caught lightning bugs, played on a homemade slip 'n slide, made ice cream, roasted marshmallows, and searched for alligators. Brazos Bend was an amazing park, and we will definitely be back. I absolutely love camping with the family. It is wonderful seeing the kids play the old-fashioned way and enjoying it!

I stole this picture from Dana - so cute!

The whole crew going to find some gators!

Brooke, posing

Kacy and her "friends" - she loved hanging out with the big kids! Luckily, they were really sweet and played really well with her.

Climbing the coolest tree I have ever seen!

Three little cuties, sittin' in a tree.

Lots and lots of little cuties, sittin' in a tree.

Mason on the move!

Kacy helping Brooke on our homemade slip 'n slide.

Kacy and her sweet friend, Loreley.