Longhorn Geena

John's brother, Buddy, came into town tonight. Jim (John's other brother) and Geena (Jim's daughter) picked him up from the airport and brought him here. It was really cute to see the kids go nuts over seeing all their relatives.

Geena has such a vivacious personality, the kids totally feed off of her energy. They were begging us to go out to dinner, so Geena could 'babysit' them. Yeah, that would have been a great idea if it wasn't already 8:45 p.m.! Geena showed them all of her artifacts that she brought back from her recent mission trip to Egypt. She let them play a drum, tambourine and little finger cymbals where everyone got to make their own special music. Here's a picture of the performance:

I'll let you guess how loud it was!

I Love Chik*Fil*A !!!

This is the chant that I have taught my kids to sing instead of that other place that has a play area with food that grosses me out. I LOVE CHICK*FIL*A!!! The kids love it, I love it; John doesn't love it. He thinks it is overpriced...well, when you are actually eating chicken breast versus questionable chicken parts, you have to pay for it.

Here's my complicated order every time I go to Chick*Fil*A: 3 kids meals, 4 count each, 2 chocolate milks, 1 regular milk, 2 with fruit and 1 with fries, 1 char-grilled sandwich with no tomato and a small sweet tea. Usually I only have to repeat myself 3 times before they get it right. Then we all sit down with 4 ketchups, 5 honey roasted BBQ sauce, 3 forks and 23 napkins. After a good 10 minutes of prep work to get everything sitting out in front of everyone then we eat. Today Luke said the prayer, which was really cute. He mumbles a few words, throws in a 'Jesus', 'thank you', 'food' and a really loud AMEN! After everyone eats, I let them dive into the fruit, sharing the 2 containers 3 ways. You would think that is their dessert (actually, it is). They devour all of it then beg to play. My response? Great, go play! Wear yourselves out and take good naps! (And they did; I had to wake them up at 4:35 to go to the gym! )

Girl Time at NRH2O

I took Natalie (and her friend, Abby) for the first time to NRH2O today. She has been begging all summer to go. My rule is that the kids do not get to go until they are 4. Well, Natalie will probably not be going again until next year. All she wanted to do was the wave pool and 150 laps in the lazy river. Not the splash factory. Not the kiddie spray area. Not the leaping lilly pads. Not any of the really fun slides. Nope, just the lazy river and the wave pool. I do not think that is truly twenty dollars of fun. I think she just wanted to play with Abby (which is fine) and NRH2O was just a place to play (not so fine). Maybe next time we'll just schedule a playdate and save a trip out to North Richland Hills for another activity.

Me and my baby girl!

Swimming with Grandad

We invited ourselves over to my mom's house tonight to break up the monotony of staying here at our house. John brought all the stuff to make dinner, so all Gram and Grandad had to do was play with the kids until dinner was ready. Mother stayed with Luke at the house and played Legos. Grandad and I took the kids across the street to swim in their community pool. Wow, did the kids have fun swimming with him! They climbed on him, jumped on him, leaped off his shoulders and catapulted across the water. Grandad was even lucky enough to get a new hairstyle from Cooper. Meanwhile, I am taking pictures and trying not to get wet. However, I am trying to keep parts of me in the water enough not to sweat. This was very perplexing to Natalie because, "why would you wear a bathing suit and not get wet, Mommy???"

A PotLuck Lunch

There is just something warm and fuzzy about saying, "I'm going to a potluck lunch." You already know what is guaranteed: salads you never have time to fix on your own, hot dishes that you don't know the name of, but you know you love them and more desserts than you can shake a stick at!!!

Other things that you might see at a potluck? Friends you don't see very often, a baby that everyone wants to hold and a fantastic group of people that are known as the Little Community Group. We started this community group in late 2003 with 4-5 families. Now I think there are probably over 100 people that are a part of this group. :>)

High Flying Birthday Party

We went to a birthday party today at a gymnastics place. This place not only does gymnastics, but also horseback riding and swimming! WOW! Talk about a place to wear your child out at...this was it! The kids had so much fun with riding the horses, eating cake and jumping all over the gym. Luke was in his finest form: running rampant all over the place. He was so rambucious that the coach referred to him affectionately as 'Ben-adryl'.

After 2 hours of fun, the party concluded, but not our kiddos. They stayed wound up for another couple of hours, lucky us. It's hard to pinpoint exactly our function in life---parenting or refereeing? Tonight it was refereeing...

Little Legend Storytime

I took Cooper and Natalie to the Little Legends Storytime at the Ballpark today. It was so cute to see them sitting there, paying attention, answering Ms. Anna's questions and acting quite nicely. We didn't really get to do the craft (for the lack of glue sticks), so I enjoyed storytime even more!

We went outside and ate our lunch on the 'Home Run Porch' and tried not to sweat too much. Ms. Anna tried to get a game of catch going for the kids, but when they only stand 3 feet apart there just isn't much success. We opted to continue the fun by going upstairs to the Little Legends Museum. There are such cool things to do up there for kids! Cooper and Natalie played like they had never been up there and after an hour I called it good. It's always good to leave before a meltdown occurs.

(Luke stayed at home to play with Erin, from across the street.)

Cooper Wisdom

Cooper likes to impart his wisdom of 5.8 years every now and then. Here is a snippet of some funny and profound things he comes up with:

• "Yes, Luke. The first time I saw that it was new to me too!"
  
  
• "If we don't walk all the way to the pool, we won't get to swim."



• "Your shoes will get wet if you step in the pool with them on."



• "Oh no! Is that the sun again?!?"



• "Mommy, can you open the door? I am full of hands."

• "Natalie, you can't read my mind. You don't even know how to read yet."




• Speaking to Kirsten: "No, there are not invisible people. I cannot see the invisible people, so they are not here."

Silly Swim Thursdays

It is Thursday so we headed over to Mary's house after nap for Swim Thursday. The adults were out-numbered today. (As we are most days!) I think I counted 14 kids in the pool and only 4 of us adults in the pool. Lots of leaping off the diving board, noodle toodling and shoulder jumping. We even took a group picture, which is a challenge, trying to squeeze everyone in together without accidentally drowning a small child or two. (Everyone survived. )

I need to point out that there were 7 kids and 2 adults that swam and were already leaving by the time we arrived! This Swim Thursday thing is getting around!!

Oh and here is a picture of the prep work it takes to get into the pool. Lots of conditioner to protect our hair from the chlorine. Team work gets the job done!

Here are some pictures of all the fun we had:








The food line, anxiously awaiting to be fed:

And here's a picture of someone not having fun:

(he pushed Natalie off the diving board)

"I sorry, mi Ma-ee!!!"

More Morgan Fun

We decided to go to Howard Moore again since Luke cannot quit referencing the 'pool with the yellow slide'. To put a twist on things, we ate first, then we swam. (I know that is about as exciting as I get some days!) I knew to save my sandwich because I am always famished after swimming. We took Morgan with us and the kids could not leave her alone today. I think they were a little excited to have her as their personal jungle gym. Cooper had to go in time-out because he would not stop tackling her. Morgan lasted almost an hour of letting them climb all over her, pulling her under and eventually fleeing from them. I can't blame her, after just 10 minutes of that treatment I want them to go play under a water torrent or two. :>)