National Night Out 2011

With neighborhood friends.

gosh it was hot.

This is always a fun day in our neighborhood!

National Night Out 2010

Love our neighborhood...

Um JM is a card... Leaning on the officer like that like he is her long lost buddy. Hmm..

Happy 40th Aunt Debra!

Cousin A made the very cool tissue paper flowers!  Which of course my girls loved!  We discovered JE loves to sit on a bean bag chair with her sisters and watch loads of TV!!! hmmm...

Cousin J!  My aunt is the one in the pink dress.

Presenting Quacks the Duck

In Longview, JM participated in her first Theatre Camp and Artsview. Six and seven year olds put on The Tortoise and the Hare. JM was Quacks the Duck. It was so cute. JM was in the 'hare's gang' and had to act cool. They were doing it 50's style. Super cute music for the dance and singing numbers.

And we got to perform with L, who is my friend's daughter who we see most summers. They were super cute. I was so proud of JM for trying something new, having no fear and just showing what a kind and fun-heart she has through all of it. The lady who did her make up stopped to tell me how sweet JM was. JM apparently complimented her on her make-up job and the lady was a volunteer and it made her feel good. I love JM for making others feel good, even adults!! That's amazing!

Cool theatre experience for kids. Hope we get to do it again.

Summer Reading Train

Summer Reading Program begins at the library and we made the last train ride!! YAY!

Sara Hickman Performs

Georgetown schools get out before Leander so I took the younger two to see Sara Hickman at the Georgetown library Summer reading kick-off. I love Sara Hickman. I used some of her music in my classroom for Mother's Day Out. Is it just me or does JE look at big as JC??

Leander Kite Festival 2010

Oh, you are Joyous!

Oh, Leander... So they have this Kite festival every year that no one goes to. We like to support it and the kids are perfectly happy about it. We love this park too. It was a GREAT day for flying and our cheap-o kites flew well!

The Climb

JM recently went to a birthday party. She was the only girl from the class that went which I thought odd. I thought climbing on a rock wall would be a cool experience, but I guess not "girlie". She was so nervous! BUT, she did it! Never made it to the top, but kept inching her way up and trying over and over and had a GREAT time! I am so thrilled she made the effort and saw it was fun!

Spirit in the 'Hood

We have such a lovely neighborhood. I am sure I have said it before, but it's unique. This year they put together this great Christmas event. The kids decorated cookies and cupcakes and we ate chili. And of course the visit from Santa. It was all a hit. And I think maybe our neighborhood tree might be our own tree this year!!! YIKES. I can't keep my floors swept much less get a tree out of the attic right now! ugh.. We are doing plenty of Christmas stuff and have the spirit, just doing a bad job of decorating. Not really sure what we should do... Maybe paint one on some banner paper!!??? Been such a weird year for us!

BUT, through it all my kids get cuter and cuter! HAHA I know all moms say this, but just in the pictures I've taken the last few days I just think they are so sweet and adorable! They make me happy. I really do have a gift for overlooking the obnoxious behavior we get on occasion! :-) I just think they are funny.

Safety Fair at HEB

I went to this event knowing it was COLD and few would come due to the temperatures - I was right! No lines, plenty of goodies. The ambulance gave the girls beanie babies! Cool give-a-way! They both love their new little bears. The ambulance driver also took their pulse and did their heart rate on a machine. They had a great time.

Magic!

Huskyfest at JM's school. Lots of junk food and magic show. I was totally impressed with the show. The magician was a former teacher who was super enthusiastic/comedic and didn't mind sharing a few tricks and making sure the kids knew it was all fake and that they could do it too by reading about magic in their library. Fabulous! In one part he said don't blink or you'll miss it cuz I ams o fast...the picture of JC is her keeping her eyes open so she wouldn't blink! :-)

Annie in Georgetown

Annie was playing at the community theatre in Georgetown. Pretty cute for an amateur production. We enjoyed it! The girls acted like they were "working orphans" afterwards anytime I asked them to do a chore! I told them the orphans on Annie don't get to make chocolate chip cookies after their chores!!

Is it just me or does JM look like a cross between Rainbow Brite and Michael Jackson? She needed black shoes and she picked these, which I was glad to buy as they were the clearance ones! :-) And the rest of the outfit is our attempt at making a spring dress into a fall one. Not sure we pulled it off, but I do think JM pulls off somehow making it cute anyway! ha

We took our friend L, who is someone I always enjoy going to the theatre with and I knew the girls would too! :-) JC always plays shy at first, but JM is her instant buddy of course. Our visits seem to be less frequent and the girls are getting to that age where they forget people after a while, so they know L's name of course and we talk about her, but poor things (especially JC) are starting to forget her too fast if we don't see her!! L was the first person I think to keep the girls overnight without us and took part in their Baptism! Important person! :-)

Starting Traditions

Here are the first pictures off my birthday gift - an iphone. :-) Not as great as my camera, but I loved capturing something and not carrying a big camera for once. I am going to need all my hands sooner than you know!! Thanks hubby for knowing I'd enjoy it!

This is at the Christmas Tree lighting at the Domain! The kids, particularly JC, were hungry. Surprise, Surprise. Thank goodness for the Boy Scouts roasting marshmallows! Everything else had ridiculous lines. Fireworks afterwards made it worth it for the girls I think. Will it be a tradition to attend this? I am unsure. I am not big on crowds when I am handling the girls alone, but we managed and learned there were screens down the street we could watch and we didn't have to be super close to enjoy it.

Harvesting a Saturday

Making Pumpkin Bread in our rarely used bread machine. Turned out good although not a perfect pretty loaf.

Later we went up to the school JC and I go each week and they were having a Harvest Festival fund raiser. They had a photographer there who I got to take pictures of my girls. Can't wait to see the pictures. I suppose it sounds odd that I did that, since I never do, but the prices were reasonable and it was a fund raiser of course. After the pictures the girls painted their hair blue! JC washed hers out fast at home, but not JM. Notice I did not take my camera to the event!! :-) The girls kept asking me to take pictures of something and I couldn't! It was so funny.

Oh and see the drawer of "make up". The girls love make up and really only get to wear it at halloween. They dug up some old magazines and cut out the make up in the ads andthen put it in their bathroom drawer. Tickled me. How creative!

Here's the pumpkin bread machine recipe I used:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation:

Spray bread machine pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a bowl, mix first 4 ingredients together until well blended; stir in the baking powder, soda, salt, spices, and flour just until mixed. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and set on the cake or quick bread cycle. Carefully loosen the loaf and turn out onto a rack to cool.

Birthday with Chuck E.

We met our friends S, N and A (siblings) at Chuck E Cheese to play on a school holiday and we celebrated JM's bday at the same time since we knew we weren't doing a big party this year. We had almost 4 hours of entirely too much fun.

The bottom corner right picture is our friend S! Our buddy since we moved to the Austin area. And of course we got lucky that Chuck E. Cheese came out for photos.

Thanks friends for the birthday gift too! Oh my goodness! It's a Polly Pocket mall and I made the girls figure it out and put it together themselves and they had so much fun!

Where the Wild Things Are

I took JC to a "Where the Wild Things Are" puppet show that middle schoolers puton at our local library. It was short. She said she liked it but had no interest in looking at the puppets up close. She was more interested in going with mom to Subway for a sandwich. :-)

National Night Out 2009

We always seem to live where National Night Out is a big deal.

And we bought a new bubble toy that works SOO great. I am going to use it at school with those bubble loving 2 year olds.

Mr. Puppet

I took the kids to see "Mr. Puppet" at a toy store. Amazingly entertaining. The kids loved it and were really paying attention.

The Great East Texas Balloon Race

Up at the crack of dawn for a new tradition! We actually can walk out my in-laws front door to see quite a display but I made everyone load up to take a closer look. I am glad we did.

Faces

Mia with her oldest grandgirl and oldest grandboy!

Cuties, but the group shot was NOT happening! We tried.

Mr Johnny and Friends were at a local toy store. We had just seen them at the Georgetown library and we liked them so we were happy to come back with the nephews! JM sand Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for everyone! Cute store too. It was Kaleidoscope Toys in Round Rock. They do Friday events every Friday evening this summer! Very cool! Hope we can manage to check out another event!