Wordless Wednesday

fingers and toes

Friday I painted Lauren's nails and toenails for the first time.  I let her chose what color she wanted and she decided on hot pink. 

She felt like such a big girl and was so excited. 

I love my little girly girl!

Martha Speaks sneak peek party!

Today I was lucky enough to host a Martha Speaks Sneak Peek Party!  The wonderful people at PBS sent me a box full of goodies and two new episodes so I could host a viewing party.  If your kids haven't seen Martha Speaks, they are missing out!  It's a great show about a talking dog that focuses on increasing children's vocabulary. The show is great for siblings of different ages since the younger kids will enjoy watching Martha, while the older kids learn new vocabulary words. 

We invited 10 friends over to watch the new shows, snack and play games.  We started off the party by reading Martha Camps Out.  I asked quiz questions after every episode and gave out prizes. 

Martha (the dog) learned to speak by eating alphabet soup, so we thought it would be fitting to munch on alphabet Cheez-Its.  We ate smores and drank lemonade since the new episodes were summer and camping themed.

At the end of the party, we had a special guest appearance by Kirby the Wonder Dog. She did all her tricks and the kids were very impressed.

The kids loved the Martha Speaks gift packs that had an adorable plush Martha dog, flip book, pencil and sticker sheet. 

Special thanks to PBS for inviting me to host such a fun party!  We love PBS and I'm so grateful they have the passion to create educational shows that my kids enjoy!  Thank you PBS!

The boys' first swim lesson and Lauren's last

Today the kids had their first swim lessons of the summer at our neighborhood pool.

Ethan jumped right in and did great!

Lauren waited patiently for her swim lesson. She loves the water, but we figured we had a 50/50 shot of her actually participating. 

Austin had fun at his lesson and did great too!

Lauren's class did not go so well.  Maybe it was the male instructor, the three older boys in her class, or the fact that the lesson was at a depth in the pool that was almost over her head, but she did not participate for most of the class. 

She did enjoy kicking in the shallow water for a minute, but that was the extent of her lesson.  Since it was obvious this swim class wasn't a good fit for Lauren, her swim lessons will continue in our cold hot tub and we will try again next year.

Father's Day 2011

We celebrated Father's Day this year at home.  We surprised Eric with a new Orion smoker.  It's an outdoor convection cooker that Eric has been eyeing for a couple years now.  He cooked up some amazing brisket today in about four and a half hours. 

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 My parents came over to celebrate Father's Day with us.  It was over 100 degrees and H O T, so Eric set up some misters for us.  It really cooled things down and made our outdoor fun bearable. 

 

The kids had fun playing in the hot tub and water slide with Eric, while my parents and I enjoyed watching them. It was a great way to celebrate Father's Day with Eric and my dad.  Love you guys!



my 35th birthday

Friday was my 35th birthday.  It's still hard to believe I'm 35 years old and married with three kids.   



We decided to celebrate my birthday at Rocco's in Lakeway.  It is one of our favorite restaurants.  It wouldn't be my birthday if I didn't eat shrimp, so we had to get their jalapenos stuffed with shrimp and cheese and wrapped in bacon.  They have the best spicy pecan and apple salad and we always get their peppered steak Marsala.  Everything was delicious! 

We shared Miles of Chocolate for dessert.  I think I may have embarrassed Eric by taking a couple pictures of our yummy food, but he didn't have a choice since it was my birthday.  I told him the chef may think I'm a food blogger and make our food extra special.

My parents got me a Babycakes machine for my birthday and we tested it out.  It made the cutest cake pops!  Thanks mom and dad!

Eric got me I picked out and bought for myself a new Jo Totes camera bag.   It is marigold and has adjustable padded sections to hold my camera, wallet and even a diaper or two will fit in it. 

I love the black and white hounds tooth lining.  I'm excited to have a safe, attractive way to carry around my giant camera.  Eric surprised me throughout the day with presents too. It was so sweet and I'm a lucky girl woman.

I had the best birthday and I feel so blessed.  I have great friends, a wonderful family and I really got the chance to soak it all in this year and appreciate all that God has given me. 

Happy Father's Day!

 

Happy Father's Day Eric!  We love you!

made with love

A while back, Ethan decided he wanted to make me something out of wood for my birthday. He drew out the plans for his creation and instructed Eric on the supplies they would need. The boys and Eric kept the plans a secret and worked on building my present together.

When they were putting the pieces together, Eric asked the boys how he should attach the dog's head to it's body. Ethan suggested using the ears to hold them together, so they did just that. I love his little engineer mind!

I love my cute wooden dog and I'm so proud of my boys!

happy birthday to me

Thanks Mom and Dad!

our birthday celebration 2011

Every year Sammy and I get together to celebrate our birthdays.  We started this tradition in college since our birthdays are just three days apart. 

2010, 2009, 2008

 

This year we celebrated at Hula Hut.  Great drinks, food and conversation made for a perfect birthday celebration.

 

I had a wonderful time and I'm so grateful to have such amazing friends to celebrate with! 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Yogi Bear Lonestar 2011

Tuesday we loaded up the camper and headed to Waller for our second annual camping trip at Yogi Bear Lonestar Park. Last year we scoped out the best camping spots and secured them a couple months ago.  We had a great spot next to the craft center, Yogi stage, pond, water park and outdoor movie theater.   

We rented a golf cart again this year and the kids had so much fun going on golf cart rides.

 

The Kuenstlers joined us camping for the first time!  Madison was great with Lauren.  She brought books from home to read to her. It was so cute!

Matthew and the boys had fun playing with Legos.

It was nice to be so close to the outdoor movie theater.  We ate dinner every night outside while the kids stayed up late watching a movie.

The boys had fun painting ceramics in the craft center.  Ethan painted a horse to look like Cutter and Austin painted a colorful snake.  

Gege and Granddaddy joined us Thursday and brought Jake with them.  The kids were so excited to spend time with their cousin!

 The kids and I kareoked on Yogi's stage.  The boys were supposed to dance while I sang "No One Needs to Know", but only Lauren joined in.  At least they were up there with me for moral support.

The next night the kids had fun dancing on stage with Yogi and Boo Boo.

Gege brought birdhouses and wooden cars for the kids to paint.  She sure knows how to keep the kids happy!

We had the best time at the water park!  Even Lauren went down the twirly slide this year. 

The kids did great at swimming.  Lauren swam around in her awesome Puddle Jumper and by the end of the first day, they boys were diving underwater for torpedoes.  We were so proud of the kids.

The big slide was awesome.  The kids loved it and so did the adults.

Look how much air Eric caught!  Crazy!

We went fishing in Horseshoe Pond and caught a bunch of fish!

It's always fun to fish when the fish are biting!

We saw a beaver up close at Horseshoe Pond!  I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the kids.

Friday night the Millers and Simmons joined us and we celebrated Ryan's 6th birthday. 

We had jump rope contests with our makeshift glow stick jump rope.  Fun times!

It was a really fun trip and we are already looking forward to next year!