Crystal Beach

I'm not a big fan of the beach.  I don't really know that I ever have been...at least for the adult portion of my life.  It's just always felt really dirty to me.  I'm sure it would be totally different if I went to Hawaii and I didn't really feel this way in Mexico either, actually, but especially when we go to Texas beaches, I just get the heebie jeebies anytime I have to sit in the sand or take a deep breath and step into that murky water.  I can't stand the feeling of seaweed rushing up against me and shells under my feet that very possibly have nasty little sea critters in them.  You just never know what you're walking in, and the clean side of me can't handle that.  But we go because I feel like it's an essential part of growing up for the kids.  Hopefully next summer we can go somewhere with whiter sands, less seaweed and clearer water.

Not to be negative...we totally had fun despite the grossness of it all!  Starting with lunch at Taco Bueno on the way down...

Once we got to Galveston, we got to take the ferry over to Crystal Beach.  We got out of the car because you could see dolphins jumping right by the boat...

Finally we made it and the house was so great!  It's less than a year old and had an awesome outside play area downstairs where we grilled, played games, and listened to music and a beautiful inside (that I got no pictures of)...

When we got there, my sisters, mom, niece and I went to the grocery store while Rich and James ventured to the beach with the other kids...

When we got home, they were digging right outside of our house...

My sisters waiting for James and Rich to grill up some dinner...

After it got dark that night, we all went back out to the beach.  I think the pictures speak for themselves...

They were so excited!

The next morning we headed back out for our first "real" day at the beach...

We brought some kites to fly...

Hunter spent most of his time hanging out in the water or searching for shells.  Charlotte just loved hanging with Vanesa and Aunt Katie (I was so thankful for them because I was pretty nauseated most of the trip).  Vanesa and Char spent some time burying Zack in the sand...

There was SO MUCH SEAWEED there...

James would go waaaay out by himself into the ocean, so I zoomed in and got a picture of him all by his lonesome...

He looks like a little surfer!

I have a picture of Hunter and I when he was about a year younger than Charlotte is here doing this exact same thing, so I was glad that James snapped one of Char and I...

We were so thankful to have a weekend away with the family.  I love vacations!

Baby Love

As seen on Facebook...

Coming Valentine's Day 2013, we will be a party of 5!

The kids are super excited about it.  They both screamed when we told them, and now they are always talking about whether they want a brother or sister (this week it's a brother).  I've been sick as usual, and sweet Hunter came up to me one day and in a really concerned voice said, "You can't throw up mommy!  You will throw up the baby out of your tummy!"  This is the exact reason I use anatomically correct language in all other instances with them.  We had a quick anatomy lesson on the uterus as a follow up to that question.

The out-takes...

I'm still a couple days shy of 8 weeks and ALREADY SHOWING.  I hear that's what happens to your body after already bearing 2 children.  Looking forward to 7 months of maternity clothes...and then some when my stomach is still really flabby after the baby comes.  Yay.

Big Little Swimmer

Hunter has had swim lessons for the past two weeks at 4:30 Monday-Thursday, and y'all, I couldn't be happier that they are over.  He did awesome this year, but it is exhausting sitting in the scorching heat for 30 minutes and then getting home to start making dinner at 5:30.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Oh, yes I do, I'm a working mom.  Not that I'm a full time working mom.  I can't imagine working an 8 hour day and then sitting in the heat at 6:00 pm everyday.  In my nice work clothes...well, if you call scrubs nice work clothes.

Anyway.

Swim lessons are over now, and Hunter did great.  And I made a vow to Ms. Patti that I'd get Hunter in the pool without a life jacket as much as possible this summer.  She makes all the parents who don't put their kids in the pool a single day after swim lessons from one year to the next make that promise.  Not really, but I'm sure she curses all of us under her breath for making her job so stinking difficult.

Hunter did awesome after the first couple of days, regardless of my lack of non-life jacket water time enforcement over the past year.

Here he is on the dreaded kickboard...

He has a really hard time with kickboard drills.  It's difficult for him to kick both legs.  That left one kind of lags down under the water.

Swimming to Ms. Patti on day 3 (DAY THREE!!!)...

She was so proud of him. She hugged him when he got to her in the middle of the pool and mouthed, "I'm so proud of him!" to me.

Taking a breather on the wall...

Sometimes he gasps for air after a swim drill and you can see how relieved he is to have a break.  Watching him in swim lessons makes me so appreciative of his obedience and gentle spirit.  He is such a sweet boy.

Getting a pep talk on the wall before he swims back to the other side...

And one more where he doesn't give up at the end:)...

Here Ms. Patti is doing a demonstration of something...

I can't remember what, but I thought that was a cute picture of the whole class.  They were such a sweet group of kids, and I really enjoyed getting to know the parents this year.

He did so well swimming this year, that he got to work on the backstroke for the last 2 days...

Since the picture isn't enough, of course I have a video of it...

Teaching him to use his arms...

And a video of it...

And finally today, on the last day, he put everything together...

He did a little better on the second try...

There were a couple of times over the past two weeks where Hunter would just stand there and stare at the water when it was his turn, because he was too scared to get started.  Ms. Patti was so patient and would wait for what seemed like an ETERNITY and eventually say, "What's making you nervous about this one?" or "You can do this.  This is the same thing you just did."  He'd just stand completely still and not really answer, and then finally force his little legs to push off of the step into the water.  I know the feeling.  It reminded me so much of when I cheered growing up and would stand there absolutely frozen when it was my turn to do a standing backhandspring (is that one word?).  If I was running, I was fine, but just having to go from a standing position completely freaked me out.  So it made me even more proud of him when he finally pushed off into the water.  I knew how much bravery that took for a little 5 year old!

Can't wait to swim together this summer!

Baby Ballet

Charlotte was giddy with excitement that ballet was starting today.  She's never taken any kind of dance class, so I thought we'd just go through the rec center to see if she really liked it before dropping major bucks at a studio.  (I'm still in shock over how expensive it is for a preschooler to take ballet, but whatev). 

We got her all ready and she ran to look in the mirror...

She said, "I look like a princess!" and did a little twirl right after I took that picture:)

I decided to run by my office to drop off notes before ballet.  As we drove by the rec center, my frontal lobe was telling me to turn and park because there was no way we'd make it back in time, but for some reason, I decided to ignore the responsible part of my brain and just kept driving down Arapaho toward the office.

Big mistake.  We didn't get back to the rec center until around 11:25 (class starts at 11:15).  And then we had to deal with major construction around the building and a lack of appropriate signage telling you where to enter the building after you park in this lot behind a field behind the rec center.  So I ran us all over the perimeter of the building, almost slipped and fell with Char in my arms twice (in my defense, I was wearing TOMS and it was wet and rainy), and sent my son into a stress induced tizzy, almost to the point of tears...those diggers, construction cones and tall construction walls can be a tad overwhelming.

But, we finally made it.  I was covered in sweat and panting like I'd just run a marathon (or half marathon...let's get real, I'd never run a full marathon) and poor Hunter was so stressed out.  Char did beautifully, though, and when I ran her into the room, said, "Sorry! We're so late!" to her teacher, and rushed back out the door without her, she didn't miss a beat, but just joined right in with her class...

I love her posure in this picture.  Such a ballerina already:)

Twirling...

The teacher was having them twirl (sorry, I cheered, so I'm not up on the dance lingo) and then blow a kiss, which Char just finished here...

Doing some dance with her hands on her hips...

 I thought they were so cute during that part:)

She made friends with that little blonde girl.  I did talk to her mom for a second but she probably thoguht I was completely insane because I was sweating so bad and ranting about how ridiculous it was that there was no signage to tell you where to walk and telling Hunter I was sorry I stressed him out.  So I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm a complete spaz and making friends with me is the last thing on her to do list, but maybe I can make up for it next week.  I'll at least try to catch her daughter's name since she and Char stuck together for most of the class...

She sees us!

I love this picture...

They made a little train...

 The moms were all laughing at how cute they were duing this part.

At the end they did some hula hoop tricks...

And they finally circled up and class was over...

Hunter was so patient during the class and Char did so well in there by herself.  Can't wait to watch again next week!

Mmm, Mmm Good

Yesterday was one of my days off work, so I told Hunter he could pick something from the fun list.  First he pointed to "lay in the hammock and look at the stars".  Obviously that wasn't going to happen at 9 AM.  Then he chose "invite friends over for a bbq".  Again, not happening...this girl is clueless when it comes to grilling.  The third time was a charm..."bake a cake"!  Luckily I had all of the ingredients to make one of my favorite cakes....peanut butter chocolate cake, which is a recipe of my BFF Laura's mom, Nancy.

The kids helped with every step.  They love to stir...

 Look how patient Hunter is.  He is so dang sweet.

Even better than stirring, mixing with the mixer...

 I can't even imagine how excited they'd be if I was fancy and had a KitchenAid.

And tada (or tata...as Char says)...the final product!

When we were done I told the kids we could take it to someone to share with them.  They chose daddy, so we drove out to Las Colinas to visit James at work.  It was quite an adventure, but he was thankful that the kids thought of him:)

Then when I got home from work today, Hunter and I sat down at the kitchen table and had a piece while he told me about his morning.  He said, "My favorite part is the icing.  It is sooooo good.  It tastes like honey!"  It tastes like peanut butter to me, but I guess honey's just as sweet!

Ready for our next activity tomorrow!

Summer FUN List

The kids have been looking forward to today because it was finally (well, finally for them, at least...it's actually a little early) time to put up our family fun list for the summer...

I know it's ambitious, but we already checked off our first activity tonight.  Frozen yogurt at Yumilicious...

Charlotte chose a concoction of cheesecake yogurt with strawberries, mini m&ms and gummy bear toppings and Hunter chose chocolate yogurt with mini m&ms and gummy bears.

We all loved it!  And afterward we went out to the kinetic fountains in front of the yogurt shop and let the kids play in them.  In their clothes.  We are totally the coolest parents ever.

Can't wait for our next activity!