Rockin' at the Rodeo

We had a blast at the rodeo last week during spring break!

We went with Don's parents and were able to do most of our favorite things, plus adding a few new things. The first ride of the day is the good ole' Metro park & ride, always a crowd favorite!

Then it was on to the Farm where the kids planted & harvested vegetables, milked a fake cow, and cashed in our earnings all in at the end for a treat.

This year we took in a magic show & both Trevor & Don were picked to help with the magic tricks.

Luke took advantage of the show and caught a few winks.

After that we headed inside to see the animals & tractors.

Who can resist getting a chocolate milk after visiting Borden's Bessie the Cow?

And of course, we had to stop at the largest fake green hill in Houston for the traditional roll.

All that walking left us needing some good tasting vittles to eat, so we headed outside to get some of our favorite rodeo food. Nothing says rodeo like sausage on a stick!




Then it was off to the carnival rides. Jake wanted to ride the teacups & the guy let me ride for free. Who could turn down that? I should have...we were spinning so fast & I couldn't even keep my head up & barely kept my lunch down. And I thought I had the easy job, sticking with the younger kids & grandparents while Don took the oldest 3 on the bigger rides. After that I stuck to the ground and just took pictures.

We all met up at the end for the kids to go through the bubble house together.







And what better way to soothe those upside down stomaches than hitting the fried food for dessert. This year we just stuck to the fried cookie dough & deep fried oreos, and even Luke tried to get into the action. The wind was crazy and we were all covered with powdered sugar by the end.





We barely missed getting into seeing the pig races, so settled for another trip around the farm & a brief stint in the petting zoo before heading home.

Enjoying the ride home in style.

Thanks for such a "sweet" time Grammy & Grandaddy!

Eating Your Greens

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
The one day a year some kids actually eat green in our house!

In addition to going to bed on March 16th wearing green, just in case someone decided to start pinching in the wee hours of the morn', the gang also had green pancakes for breakfast & lots of shamrock sugar cookies through the day.

Lucky Luke!

House of Laughs & Pi

In celebration of National Day of Pi, we made a chocolate cream pie on Sunday. All in the name of education...we do what we can :)

More importantly than the 3.14 slices of pie I didn't get to eat all of, were the fabulous smiles and laughing kids. I love it!

Kite Day

Last week Trevor & Hayley made kites for Kite Day at school as part of learning about the Japan culture. Trevor continued the tradition of getting sent to the nurses office every year with a "kite string" injury, this time on his finger. All injuries aside, it was a great, blustery spring day to go fly a kite! Hayley even brought her kite with her to fly at the park later that evening.

Full House

About 6 weeks ago, I started babysitting my friend's kids 4 days a week, going from 2 to 4 kids during the day & from my 4 kids to 9 kids afterschool. I don't have a picture of all 9 together but the breakdown is Luke (11 mo), Ian (2), Emmy (4), Jake (5), Hayley (7), Kennedy (8), Trevor & Morgan (9), & Michael (13). It is a full house! But the kids are all great friends and get along really well. Plus it is a great motivator to practice piano before school & get homework done really fast so everyone can play afterschool.

Thank goodness for great spring weather to play outside!

Jake & Emmy getting their Wii time before the big kids get home.

Nothin' Says I'm a Texan

Like a good pair of boots!



It's Go Texan Day here in Houston, giving us a chance to dress up in our finest Texan duds. So grab your boots and hold on to your hats, cuz it's rodeo time in Houston!

Scouts

Trevor has been busy with Cub Scouts lately. Sunday we were all happy to help eat a cake he made for one of his requirements. He looked up a recipe for "The Best Chocolate Cake Ever" and made a few adjustments, adding a delicious chocolate icing and a few chocolate covered strawberries for edible decorations. It was delicious!!

The Blue & Gold Banquet was Wednesday night, and even Luke was decked out for the 100 year Scouting Birthday Celebration.

And just in case we didn't have enough cake this week, I made cupcakes for a fun cake walk at the B&G. It was a sweet night of fun & games!

It's Official

Luke's first tooth poked through today on the bottom. Luke is so easy going, even his fussy is low key. So I was surprised tonight when feeding him butternut squash to hear a new sound of tooth hitting spoon. I have been checking everyday for the last few days because it looked like his gums were swollen, but yesterday he was smooth. I will miss those toothless, slobbery grins! Good thing it takes a long time for our kids to grow (& lose!) teeth.



At 10 months old, Luke has been busy learning other new tricks as well.



He has perfected the crawl and has moved on to pulling up and creeping on furniture. His favorite spots are looking out the windows and will stand for long periods watching the wild animals outside (ok, mainly just his brothers & sister with an occasional squirrel, bird or cat thrown in!). It was fun to come up the sidewalk and watch Luke recognize me, get excited, and then lose his balance because he was so excited, and fall over. Was that so wrong to laugh at? He recovered really fast and was almost to the door by the time I opened it. No permanent damage!

Valentine Treats

Nothing says I love you like Red Velvet Chocolate Dipped Heart Shaped Cake Balls



With Love from us to you!!

We've Got Talent!

A couple of weeks ago we had a Primary Talent Show at church. The kids all did a fantastic job & it was so fun to see the different talents, everything from dancing and twirling, roller skating, different instruments, and playing catch. Trevor, Hayley & Jake had a lot of fun performing too.

Trevor was our host, the great Master of Cermonies. He introduced the acts and told jokes. He even had his cousin Alex who was visiting help him out towards the end.



Hayley performed 2 talents. In the first half of the show, she did cartwheels across the stage. In the second half, she dazzled the crowd with her amazing hula hooping abilities.



Jake and his friend Zach paired up as a couple of Jedi's, showcasing their sword fighting abilities. Their performance brought down the house! Good thing we went with the foam lightsabers from Jake's bday party instead of the real hard lightsabers we have.

Visitors

A couple of weeks ago my parents came to visit for the week-end and they brought a special surprise, my nephew Alex.



Trevor and Alex are 2 peas in a pod and love any chance to spend time together. It was so great to have them here for the week-end.



They got to see all the craziness of the week-end, Scouting for Food, Talent Show, UNO games, eating delicious food and even squeezing in time for a little BBall with Michael. Don's parents were able to come down for the talent show too & we had a fun pizza party at the house afterwards.



It was a great week-end, even though it was a little hard to say good-bye!

School Happenings

Hayley has been busy with her Chinese class at school, performing in a couple of Chinese New Year celebrations, including one at the Chinese Community Center.

She is also picking up a new skill doing cartwheels on the balance beam in gymnastics. It's really fun to see her learn new things.



In addition to being on Student Council, competing in 2 UIL Academic Competitions (Number Sense & Oral Reading), & learning Chinese, Trevor decided to step it up a notch and add Safety Patrol to his daily school actvities. Both Trevor & Hayley love getting to school early & Trevor does a great job on Safety Patrol (& looks great in his vest too!).



Trevor also was named a Character Star Student of the Week for showing respect and coorporation. This is an award that the teachers from each grade level nominates 1 student for. Great job Trevor!




Michael has wrapped up another season of basketball, helping the Greyhounds to another year of being Zone Champs!



In the last year he has really grown & can really play a good game of ball, especially from beyond the arc. I love the days of home games when they dress up. Lookin' good W.M.!

The Olympics

In preparation for the Winter Olympics (and in honor of the letter O!), we held our own mini Olympics in preschool a few weeks ago.



From the passing of the torch relay to the good ole' orange in a spoon race and competing in obstacle courses, we had fun parading around and earning medals.