Pool Party

Some friends of ours threw a 'Back to School Bash' pool party down at our neighborhood pool tonight. Just a small gathering of friends, right? Well, the host(s) said that if everyone showed up that had RSVP ed there would be over 100 people there. Wow! We, fortunately, go there early and left early. Our children were not exhibiting their best behavior, in fact, they were all 3 having some horrendous behavior. Sometimes, they have this inner sense when we may not be paying close attention and they complete exploit it. One will distract, while another swoops in and swipes a handful of Cheetos. Then one will claim to have to go to the bathroom, while another is plunging their hand into the Skittle bowl to really through them into a serious sugar rush. After a few of these shenanigans, we decided to remove them from public eye so as not to embarrass ourselves further. Maybe some day in the future we will be able to take these children out of the house without fear of public humiliation...

New Bikes!

When we bought Cooper his first bike, we bought it in anticipation of passing it down to Luke. Now Cooper has grown out of that bike and ready for a bigger one. John took him to Bicycles Inc. to look at bikes and they found one that Cooper just loved. Really, he loved that it had a bell. All he wanted on his bike was a bell. Ring, ring. We went to the park to test ride it and he rode like a champ! No training wheels, no major falls and best of all, no blood or tears! John and I were incredibly proud of him and how much he is growing up!

Natalie has also grown out of her 1st bike and was ready to move on to one that she could actually pedal. John took her, separately, to the bike store. She didn't really care what color the bike was as long as it had a basket on front. For her Hello Kitty. Isn't that what we all look for when purchasing a new bike?? She browbeat the sales guy into taking the basket off of the floor model and now she can carry her Hello Kitty (and Cooper's bunny) everywhere.

Luke was all too happy to take over Cooper's bike. He thought he had really scored by getting to get on it without getting reprimanded by Cooper. HE was more excited about wearing the helmet and sitting on the bike than actually pedaling it. In fact, his favorite part is pushing backwards for RED light, Mommy!!!

Hello Kitty Obsession

My daughter loves Hello Kitty. I don't know if I conveyed this properly. Here is how she would say it: I LOVE HELLO KITTY!!! She has shirts with Hello Kitty on them, a dress, a nail file, a pillow, a lunch box, a back pack, crayons, videos, a radio/CD player, 2 blankets, numerous stickers, multiple coloring books, a few purses and 3 stuffed Hello Kitty plush toys.

Here's the story on how she acquired the 'tan' Hello Kitty:

I promised her a 'tan' Hello kitty for earning 50 tokens through the reward chart system. After a week of diligent work, she earned them. I discovered that they had sold out of these particular items in June. Great, nice going Mom of the Year! I went to resource of all resources and found one on Ebay for exactly what it would have cost me at Build-A-Bear, plus a reasonable amount for shipping. After wise counsel from friends, I decided to tell Natalie the truth.

Me: No, the store does not have the tan Hello Kitty. I can order you one on Ebay, but it will cost you extra. 75 tokens. 50 tokens for the Hello Kitty + 25 for shipping Hello Kitty here. (I needed to buy some time to get Hello Kitty here from Hawaii)

Natalie: OK, OK, OK! Whatever Mommy, just get me the tan Hello Kitty!!!!!

Today she finally met her goal and I was so relieved to finally give it to her. Here is one of the numerous places, positions and arrangements she has made with her 3 Hello Kitty. She is currently sleeping with all three in the guest room. I'm glad it is a queen bed, otherwise they may not all fit.

Is that a genuine smile on Natalie or what??

Too bad Hello Kitty can't bust out a smile...

Seriously, why doesn't Hello Kitty have a mouth?

Luke's First Date

Luke and I got to have our first "date" today. Luke and I went to Chick-Fil-A (big surprise) for our lunch date. I would love to say that it was perfect and wonderful, but not really. He was a little rambunctious as we were ordering (quite usual), but I thought he would calm down as we were eating. Halfway through eating, he is jumping in the booth seat and I ask him if he has to go to the bathroom. No, mommy! This is the point where I should have listened to my motherly instincts and just took him. Seriously, I know the dance he does and I know that it means I have less than 3 minutes to get him to a potty. However, I wasn't listening to my instincts and all of a sudden he screams, "I GOT TO GO POTTY NOW!" Yep, you guessed it. Too late. I grabbed him and he made a nice trail of pee dots all the way to the women's bathroom. No worries, though, by the time we got there, he had nothing left for the potty. I was mortified walking back through the restaurant, but happy that I had been able to talk him into wearing blue jean shorts today. It wasn't too obvious that his shorts were saturated. I gathered up all the trash and we were out of there in 30 seconds flat. He was upset about not getting to eat his fruit, but I wasn't in the mood to be empathetic about it. I was too worried about how to put him in his carseat without getting pee stains all over it. The real kicker? No pictures from our date...

Here are some cute ones from when they were playing at the park with Abby:

Playdate

Natalie got to have a playdate with her friend Gracie today. (Cooper was incredibly jealous, because he would much rather attend a playdate than go to kindergarten.) I guess I kind of understand.

I think it is good for Natalie to have special times to play with girls and do girl things. She is surrounded by these boys who are so dominating when it comes to play. She is a pleaser (for the most part), so she usually will play whatever game they are suggesting. Even when they play dressup, she is just as likely to be a superhero as a princess. She is girly-girl, but I think she could have a little tomboy tendency eventually. I was quite the tomboy type until junior high. I think it serves well to build not only athletic skills, but also self-confidence and self-esteem. Only time will tell for Natalie. For now, to encourage her sports interest, we have enrolled her in another season of soccer. Hopefully, she will enjoy it as much as she did her last season with Coach Tony. We love Coach Tony!!

Lunch with Gram

Cooper is really starting to enjoy this kindergarten thing... I think. He tries to act all cool (why do you need to be cool when you are 5?) and say he does not like going to kindergarten. I can tell from how he talks about the activities that he is having a great time despite what he is verbalizing to me.

I volunteered at lunch today and so did Mother. Cooper thought that that was just NEAT-O having Gram and mommy at his beck and call! After all the opening of milk cartons and Ziploc baggies, Gram sat beside Cooper at the lunch table. He would not let her go. He was hugging on her and holding her neck like he never gets any affection. She looked at me and said, "Can you imagine him doing this 10 years from now?" Nope, not so much!

Enjoy it now!

Not My Favorite Thing

I have to set my alarm clock every morning now. No more waiting until the first child awake breathes morning breath on me, screams for chocolate milk or crawls in bed with me to 'cuddle'. Nope, I am up with the roosters. (As if we had any.) For the first time in almost 6 years, I am setting my alarm clock to get up every morning. Yes, it may sound like I had been living a ridiculously easy existence, but not really. Sometimes I do not go to bed until way late, then wake up 2-3 times to tend to various urgent needs: take a child potty, changing the sheets for a child that didn't make it to the potty, give a dose of Tylenol, calm a nightmare, turn on a nightlight, cover up a cold child, etc. Granted these are not every night occurrences, but enough to make me really appreciate a full night's sleep.

In my defense, I have been akin to waking up early, years ago. I woke up at 4:55 in boot camp to run at 5 AM every morning. (OK, I was forced to do that for 8 weeks; it wasn't really optional.) However, when I was fresh out of grad school and personal training at the "Q", I usually had a 5am client that wanted to train. That meant I had to get up at 3:30am, do my workout, come back to my apartment, get ready and be at the club to train clients from 5am-12 noon, go teach 2 classes at UT Arlington , then back to the club to train clients from 4-10pm. I had no social life, but it was great fun for the 4 years that I did it!

Now I am having a hard time with this plain old 6am business...EEK!

First Day of Kindergarten

I feel like I have finally reached a milestone. Cooper started kindergarten today. As if I did not feel like an adult before, I sure do now.

Cooper was a little nervous this morning. Scratch that, he was a LOT nervous. We arrived ridiculously early, so we had to sit and wait and wait and wait. Cooper went from sitting quietly (a rarity), to playing with a bug, to repeating, "Take me home. I want to go home. Take me home." Thank goodness they came to get the kindergartners soon after that and we got to walk him to his class. Once he was in there, he was perfectly fine. No tears from him, no tears from me (and no tears from John, just in case you were wondering). I stayed at the school until lunch and helped out with all the little ones opening their packages of chips, lunchables, juiceboxes, milks, ketchup, etc. They are so little, yet so grown-up at the same time. . .

Overall, I think Cooper is going to excel in his kindergarten career!

He Caught it, Cleaned it AND Cooked it

I am referencing my husband (and his superior culinary abilities) and the salmon that we had for dinner tonight. He invited Mother and Calvin over for dinner and served up the salmon that he caught in Alaska last month. There is just nothing more tasty than that salmon that he caught himself, cleaned it that day, and brought home instead of his luggage. He filled our freezer with over 100 pounds of various fish that are indigent to Alaska. (Is it too obvious that I don't know all the names of the types of fish he brought back?) Not only is he a high caliber fisherman, he knows how to prepare the fish! He seasons it, rubs on a raspberry chipotle, mango or something else equally marvelous, then grills it to perfection. It that makes you want to question how you could ever order it from a restaurant again...

As a side note, Gram and Grandad took Natalie home to spend the night so I could have an easier morning tomorrow (first day of school!!!) I am a little nervous for Cooper, but VERY excited for me!

Our Favorite Resturant

Our favorite restaurant is....Gloria's. And our favorite server at Gloria's is... Laura. She knows exactly how we like our drinks, that we like queso on the table, (before the meal) what John prefers for dinner and that I usually want something that is 'different' (with mushrooms. ) We have been there the last 3 Saturdays and would probably be there the next three Saturdays if we could secure a babysitter...

Mary and Jerry joined us for a drink!

A Tour with Allen Saxe

If you live around here, you know the name Allen Saxe. You may not have ever met him in person, but you have surely driven by many parks, stadiums, etc. that had the name Allen Saxe on them. Well, here he is. He was the official 'tour guide' of our Junior League tour of the city today. He is very knowledgeable and quite witty all at the same time. Not only is he a university professor and author, but he is a phenomenal philanthropist and volunteer.

Here are some facts about this little city we live in that I did not know before:

• Arlington was first known for gambling. Specifically, the scandalous Top of the Hill Club, in which underground tunnels, paid off politicians and a brothel were an integral part of the Club back in the day before Las Vegas was Las Vegas. Even more interesting, Arlington Baptist College now resides where the Top of the Hill Club once did.
• Lake Arlington was built to be a water source for the GM plant that here in town. When they dug out the lake, it filled in a miraculous 30 days. They aptly named it the "Miracle Lake" for a while.
• Many voters did not want a Lake Arlington to be built, because they did not want the growth that would naturally follow the building of the lake.
• UT Arlington had 8 different names before it settled on the current one.
• A mayor of Dallas was once quoted as saying that Arlington was, "A junior college surrounded by used car lots."
• UT Arlington is the only campus in Texas to have a cemetery on its premises.
• The Six Flags amusement park here in Arlington was the first Six Flags Park in the nation. And it was built to temporarily spur commercial and financial growth in the area.
• The hottest political voting items in Arlington's history were: whether to build a lake, the Ranger Stadium and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. (They all passed.)

* Me and Mary (the sustainer)*
* Me and Mary (the provisional) *

A Train Ride

Anxiously awaiting the train!

* * *

We rode the miniature train in Fort Worth today. Pretty cheap fun! For $2.50/child (plus $3 for me), we got to ride the train for 20 minutes, get off at the depot, walk to a FUN park, eat our picnic, play some more, then get back on the train for a ride back. WOW! The kids super enjoyed it, and I felt like I accomplished something because we did an activity that was brand-new to them and had a blast! Given, we all sweated our tails off and everyone drank every bit of liquid that we brought, but overall the kids LOVED it! We went with Laura, and her 3, who play with my 3 exceptionally well. The playground was HUGE and they could not get enough of it. We stayed out there for 2 hours, in the heat, just playing away. The kids were sufficiently wore out and had no trouble nodding off for their naps.

Last Days of Summer

OK, so I am feeling the pressure and guilt to really finish the summer strong with FUN things to do. Today, we had Morgan with us for the last time (kind of sad for all of us). After washing the car and stopping by Ms.Mary's office, we arrived at the Chick-a-Chick-a Boom-Boom Park. Little glitch: the water feature was turned off! The kids were understanding (almost) and played themselves into a sweat for nearly an hour until we called it good. I love it when they play so hard that it is a guaranteed 3 hour nap. That is success...

New Clothes for Natalie

Natalie loves clothes. OK, so she must take after me in this department. I love clothes, but not near to the extent as Natalie. She is bonkers over clothes, especially new ones!

One of my friends, Laura, called and said she cleaned out her twins' closet and wanted Natalie to have some stuff. It was not just some stuff. It was a box of boutique clothes that had been barely worn and hand-washed and air dried. She gave us over 25 beautiful church dresses, 8 pairs of (hardly worn) shoes and tons of cute little jeans, leggings and sweatshirts. Natalie loves the "Does it fit?" game that we play to see which clothes go up in the closet, into the drawer or in a box in the attic. The great thing is: all these clothes fit! YAY!

Yesterday, we were playing over at Heather's house with her two little ones and she said she had some clothes for Natalie. Let me tell you, she is not kidding around when she says that! She almost emptied Zella's closet out and gave us everything that does not fit her and/or that she will not wear. Beautiful stuff! Some with tags, none of it looked wore out at all. Natalie and I had to come to an agreement on the way home that she would only try on 3 things and then go to bed. Otherwise, we would still be trying everything on, right now. Here are her 3 outfits:

Thank you to all my wonderful friends who have impeccable taste for girls' clothes; Natalie is going to be stylin' for a long time! Thank you GIRLFRIENDS!!!

Uncle Buddy

John's oldest brother, Buddy, had a layover at DFW, so we invited him to spend then night. We met at Gloria's (our favorite restaurant) and had a nice peaceful meal, then headed home to chaos. The kids were overly excited to see John and super ecstatic to see Uncle Buddy. They were all over him, could not get enough of his attention! You would think these kids never see other human beings! It's cute for a while, then it gets a little too crazy to tolerate. Cooper scored 11 cents from Buddy, so they will be best friends forever now. Natalie got to show Buddy all her new Hello Kitty things, so she is a big fan of him now that he says he likes Hello Kitty. And it seriously took Luke an hour and half (new record) to calm down enough to go to sleep.

All the kids woke up searching the house, yelling, "Where's Uncle Buddy? Where is Uncle Buddy?" (As if he is playing an advanced game of hide and go seek!)

Build-A-Bear

I wanted to take Cooper and Natalie to NRH2O today as a reward for doing so good with their reward charts. This was going to be their first 'purchase' with their tokens that they have been so diligently earning with the reward charts. Cooper earned a trip to NRH2O and wanted to invite Natalie along. I thought that was pretty sweet...until I heard him negotiating a trip to Build-a-Bear that he would get to be party to. Then it clicked. He is so sneaky I almost miss it sometimes.

Since it was pouring today, the water park was out. (What a relief!) I already had a babysitter lined up, so I decided to let Natalie redeem her tokens for a trip to Build-a-bear workshop. We ran through the rain and proceeded to spend 45 minutes in that fun store.

I felt like I spent a majority of the time saying:

"No. We are not getting that."

"No, if you want that, then put back the guitar."

"OK, if you want the PJs, you cannot have the rock star shirt."

I usually let them get one accessory and that is it. You could drop $100 easily if you were not paying attention to all the cutesy little things they put in reach of a 3 foot child. We bought 2 build-a-bears, some jeans for Natalie's bunny and a beating heart for Cooper's pony. With my coupon, I got out of there for less than $50. Ha! I felt like I beat the system...

Drum roll please!

Meet Natalie's Molly the Bunny

& Cooper's Tony the Pony.

(Luke is just holding a random dragon so he felt like he was participating in the fun. He stayed home with Meghan.)

Qyn - The Inside Dog

We have officially moved Qyn inside. He has been outside, in the kennel, with Tar, for the last 4 years. Around the time we got Bubba, we also brought Natalie home from the hospital, and Qyn went outside to accompany Tar. However, in July, Grandmother's dog, Hank, died. We thought she might like to have Bubba. Well, we gave Bubba to her when we went to Steamboat. I didn't think I would miss him so much, but I have. I decided that I wanted Qyn inside the house again, but John wanted to put the move off until this weekend. Once we got a dog bed at Costco and Qyn is an inside dog again.

It has been a little exciting for him and the kids because it is such a novelty for him to be in the house. Luke talks to him like he is another sibling: "Hi Qyn! Want to see my pockets on my new jacket? Like 'em? Huh?" (As if Qyn is going to speak right up to tell him how nice his pockets are!) Natalie was running around holding her nose because Qyn smelled like wet dog. (He actually was, John bathed and brushed him before he brought him in.) And Cooper was directing him to: sit down, lay down, shake, other paw, get on your bed, Qyn! Very quaint to see them so interested in having this big ole dog in the house. Now he is peacefully sleeping in our room....zzzz....

A Movie with Pa-Pa and Weezie

Cooper and Natalie got a special treat today. They went to the movies with Pa-Pa and Weezie. They saw Wall-E, ate popcorn and drank a movie drink. Cooper had a grand time, because he loves going to the movies. Natalie had a little No-fun Natalie crying spell, but I think she really had a good time overall. Just being with Pa-Pa and Weezie is a wonderful time for her.

We had a great time with Luke. He really soaks up the attention when he has both of us at his whim. We took him to play at the mall play place, had a snack at Chick*Fil*A, a trip to Costco and shopped for a pair of shoes (he loaded himself in the car without either of us noticing he did not have shoes on). We all arrived back home at the same time, then Luke proceeded to put on 3 different costumes for Pa-Pa and Weezie to admire. What a goofy boy!!