Visit from Niki and Last day of School

Niki came to visit this week, WHAT?!?  She came for the last few days of school, and then over Memorial day weekend as well.  While she was here we headed out for dinner at Blue Corn Harvest, and we even got seated at basically our own private little booth.  It was a fun dinner, and I had a great burrito.

Rolling back to Monday, I took the kids to the pool.  We had a fun time swimming, and Brooke even saw some friends from school.  As we were getting close to leaving, a turtle showed up next to the pool.  It fortunately didn't jump in.  I'm not sure chlorinated water would be very good for a turtle.

We did the honorable thing, and also the thing the kids really wanted to do, and carried it back over to the pond in the park.  That's where it had worked it's way up from.  It made us late for dinner, but Monica understood the plight of a reptile.

Winry was a super bike rider all the way up to the end of the year.  She also had some fun days, like the day they all wore pajamas and brought a stuffy and even got to have nap time!

There was an end of school sign up outside the school and Winry really wanted to grab a picture there.

The garden has been growing very well lately.  It's been almost two months, and most of this was planted from seeds!  We've got a bunch of cucumbers, green beans, pumpkins, peppers and watermelon growing.  I know there's some other stuff in there, but I don't remember all of it.

Niki joined us Thursday morning... at 12:30 am.  It was a bit of a late night picking her up, but at least there wasn't traffic!  Niki, Monica and the kids went to join Winry at school for lunch, which actually ended up being a little bit of an early morning for Niki!

We've been collecting green beans on the regular lately.  It's pretty awesome.  I think we've had them a few times a week if my memory serves correctly.

Here's Winry on her last day of school with her teacher!  She had a great year and really loved her teacher.  Ms. Pinilla was super great, and Winry is super going to miss her.

When Winry got home from school we were out waiting for her.  She, multiple times, expressed her desire to have confetti thrown over her head, so we obliged.  It was a fun homecoming with signs and some fun surprises for the kids as well.

The kids are getting close to their dance recital, and so they performed the dance in class!  Monica got a video so we could all enjoy.

Brooke has been choreographing her own dances.  She loves doing it, and I love her dances.  She taught one to Niki and then Brooke, Niki and Winry all performed it together.

On Sunday morning Winry got herself all ready for church on her own.  This included picking some nice jewelry including new bracelets from Niki, and doing her own make up!  I asked her after church if she got any comment/compliments about her make up, and she said no, but that's probably because "it was so good everyone thought mom did it."  Love that girl! And the makeup too.

After church we made soft pretzels again, but this time for lunch.  I didn't have meetings right after church, so I was available right away to make them.  We made pizza pretzels again, delicious.

We also made some in the first letter of each of our names for my family Nailed It competition.  Well, most of us made the first letter of our name, but Grayson made a T.  Monica thinks it was because he knows that letter.  I'm not sure if he knows any others, but he can fake "read" some stuff.  He really likes an album of dinosaur songs by Pink Fong, and I can show him my phone and he can click on the one he wants.

Niki definitely needed some snuggles while she was here.  Grayson was happy to oblige.  The real problem Niki had was that there wasn't always enough space around her for all 3 kids to crowd her.

Here's a GIANT cucumber we got from the garden.  Grayson does really love cucumber, but we do usually end up having to cut off his bites so we can cut them up for everyone else.

And here we are, wrapping up the week.  It's been a lot of fun having Niki here, and I'm really glad she came.  Unfortunately Monica and I have been sick, so on the one hand it's been nice having some help, but on the other hand I wish I had had more fun adventures to write about!  We did make a few trips to the dollar store, and to the neighborhood pool, and I've been staying up too late chatting with Niki each night... oops.  Anyway, we've still got a little more time together, but we'll cover that next week!
 

Monica's Choir Concert

Monica had a choir concert on Monday night!  I took Brooke with me, but Winry stayed home with the babysitter since it was a school night.  We didn't end up getting home till around 10:30, so that seems like it was a good idea.  The concert was in downtown Austin at the Long Center, and here we are outside after we reunited with Monica.  Unfortunately, all our group pictures had the building lights behind us with those nice shooty glairs.  The concert was super great, and Monica did an amazing job!

While Monica was gone there was a really big rainstorm.  I went out to enjoy it and noticed that our rain gutter is clogged.  Call it a hunch, but I'm feeling pretty good about this one.  It's probably full of beetles or something, that's where they all went.

Here was Brooke's and my view for the concert Monday night.  I got balcony seats.  Brooke and I both really like the balcony.  There's just something about it that's kinda fun!  Anyway, Monica did an amazing job and it was fun to get to see what she's been working so hard on!  I'm really proud of her.

For this next image, I believe this is that the school had a time when Monica and the kids could come and see some of the work Winry did throughout the year. It was during lunch so they got to have lunch with her and she brought out a snapshot of my year bag.  It had a collection of projects she's worked on over the year which is pretty cool.

Monica got a new water table from Costco this past week, and Grayson's been loving it!  He really missed our old one ever since he threw our bubble machine into it and the batteries shorted and leaked into the water...  When the water finally dried the whole table was covered in brown stuff... so yeah, the new water table has been a hit.  And it came just in time for hot weather.  It's starting to get up into the 90's now regularly, which is too bad... but Grayson will spend hours a day out in the backyard playing in here.

Thursday when I started my walk to the train there was a light rain.  Well, that picked up quickly, and I got DUMPED on!  The storm was bad up by our house too and I got a text from Monica asking if I could call because Winry was worried about me, so I called home from the train.  It was nothing crazy downtown, just a lot of water.  Also, boy my hair looks fine when I'm drenched...

On Friday Monica was feeling sick, and we thought it was the last day of the gymnastics gym having open times, so I took Brooke.  Grayson said he didn't want to go, but Brooke and I had a fun time.  I've never been on gymnastics equipment, so it was fun being on the springy floor, and Brooke really enjoyed the rope swing.

On Saturday, Winry had a birthday party for Maverick from her class.  It was at Chuck E. Cheese, and it's been a LONG time since I've been there.  I think I remember going once as a kid.  They didn't have the animatronic band anymore, and instead had a big video wall.  It definitely looked more modern, but I was hoping to see some robots.  Oh well... here's everyone having some pizza!

So Chuck E Cheese is basically just an arcade now.  Winry got an unlimited play pass for the party, so we could do any games she wanted.  We had a good time.  I took her around and showed her how a bunch of the games worked, and she really enjoyed some of these riding games where you just sit in a moving car.  The arcade was fun, and we even double booped some games so that we could play together.

That afternoon Monica too the girls to Swan Lake.  They specifically went because the girls dance teacher was in it.  She was the evil black swan!  Anyway, everyone had a lot of fun.

On Sunday the primary kids got up to sing their Mother's day song since the power was out and we missed church last week.  Our kids all ended up grouped right together right in front of us!  Sweet!

At church the kids were playing with putty and Winry asked me to make a twisty pretzel out of the putty, and I thought "let's make some soft pretzels when we get home!"  I showed the kids how to roll out the dough and shape the pretzels and they did a great job making them.

Here they are about to go in the oven.  In the end I actually made some of them pizza pretzels and we had them for dinner!  They were really good and we'll have to do this again soon!  Maybe next time I'll even remember to take pictures of them after they're baked.

Alrighty, that wraps things up for this week.  Hope everyone is doing well out there!
 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Monica!  Look at all those smiling faces!  I'm so grateful for Monica.  For the great care she takes of the children, for all the work she does around the house, for being an amazing mother and wife!  Happy Mother's Day!

Hey-o hey-o, rolling back into the week, Monica took the kids to the park.  While they were there a whole swarm of turtles came out of the water.  If they approached too close they jumped back into the water, but at least they came out to say hi!

It's been getting HOT this past week.  That means the splash pad came out!  I think it was on a little too long as the yard was pretty water logged after, but the girls had so much fun!  Grayson was out there with them too.  I don't know if he played in the water with them much, but he loves being outside.  The girls loved sliding across the splash pad and spinning too.  Even synchronized! 

As mentioned, Grayson's been loving playing in the backyard.  If it's not the water, it's the garden.  He checks the tomatoes pretty much every day, and this week he's found a new obsession, BEETLES!  We had to have a little talk after he smashed one because "it was walking and he didn't want it to," and since then I think he's been playing nicer.  He likes to put them in buckets or empty plant containers, and has started collecting dead beetles to make sure they stay where he puts them...

Speaking of the garden, our first cucumber was ready to pick, and Grayson did the honors.  He also dug straight into it.  He LOVES to eat anything that comes out of the garden.  I guess we should try plopping whatever Monica cooks for dinner out there one night and say it grew on something and see if he'll eat it.  Not a terrible idea to try...

I took the kids to the park on Saturday.  Monica had a choir practice, so we had some fun.  We specifically went to the park with the zip line, and I got Grayson to ride it for the first time.  His very first time he actually held my hand and I ran along with him, but he rode it a few more times after that too.

Saturday evening we had a birthday party to attend at our neighborhood pool.  It was a lot of fun, but the water was quite cold, and it was pretty windy, so it was very cold to get out of the pool.  Here's Grayson having a cupcake.

After cupcakes we got back into the pool, and I got in to swim with the kids.  I tried to swim around constantly to warm up, but I never did.  We still had a good time, and it was my first time back in the pool this year.

Sunday morning someone drove into the power pole in front of the church building and the power went out, so church got cancelled.  For Mother's Day we (the Elder's Quorum) were going to do a brunch for the relief society sisters, but the church was no longer an option.  I stopped by the church in the morning, and here are the workers working on the power pole.

With church being cancelled we offered our house as an alternate venue for the brunch.  It was raining all morning too, so parks were not an option.  We were planning to use the paper goods at the church, so the kids and I went on a journey for plates, cups and napkins!  We brought flashlights to use and the kids had a fun time finding everything we needed.

The brunch was a big success and we had around 30 people come over.  Everyone had a great time.

We got to do the sacrament at home, and so we did some church around that as well.  We bore testimonies, and Brooke gave a little talk, and the kids also sang their song they were going to sing in sacrament meeting for Monica!

That night after the kids went to bed I prepared a charcuterie board of desserts for Monica.  What a stud.

That night there was the big solar storm, and my sisters saw the aurora in Utah.  It didn't make it down here to us in Texas, but we're really far south so it would be pretty crazy if it ever made it here.  Anyway, I really liked this picture with the Aurora over my parents house! Sweet!

And that finishes up the week.  I hope all the mothers out there had a fantastic day!  Thank you for all you do!
 

Happy Birthday!... ME?!?!?

What a birthday!  Thirty six.  It's definitely an age you can be.  I'm trying to think of something interesting about 36, but nothing comes to mind.  It's like, I'm getting slightly old-ish, and it's not a "big" number.  It is a multiple of 12, so that's something I guess.  Anyway, I had a fun day, and we had a wonderful and HUGE cake that evening with the people I love most!  Look at those cuties clamoring all over me!  What a blessed and lucky life.  And on top of all that there's Monica too!  She's on the other side of the camera, but is just as wonderful.  Who could want anything more?  Brooke also worked on and played Happy Birthday for me on the piano, and I still got presents too!

So after Gram came to visit, the towel she used fell off the hook and apparently Jelly could still smell her on it.  Jelly took several naps on the towel over the day or two before we picked it up for the laundry.

After work one day I went over to meet with everyone at the Eller's neighborhood pool.  We had the reusable water balloons with us and had a really fun time with our water balloon fight.  Monica was the winner because it wasn't THAT hot, and the water was THAT cold, and she didn't get THAT wet.

For my birthday we had lasagna, which was amazing.  But the biggest shocker of dinner was EGGNOG!!  Around Christmas Monica made eggnog and when she did I told her that I would never remember, but if she really wanted to surprise me for my birthday she should make some for me then.  I completely forgot, as I predicted, but she remembered!!  It was awesome.  For my birthday the kids all gave me a basketball hoop, which I guess I don't have a good picture of from my birthday...

We'll come back to the hoop later, but the girls had dance pictures this past week.  Here's Winry in, I believe, her jazz outfit.

And here's Brooke in her ballet outfit.  Monica took some pictures of them while they were getting pictures taken.

They also let them take pictures together, and I liked this one more than the ballet one.

Grayson gave the scripture in primary on Sunday.  I came in to help him with it.  Here he is sitting up front waiting for primary to start.

Sunday afternoon we were out playing in the front yard.  There was some basketball, and some bike riding, and some relaxing.  Grayson found a bike helmet that he REALLY needed.  Looking good.

I was sitting on the back of my car keeping an eye on everyone, and he wanted to come up and join me.  Later all the kids were sitting on the car during my family's call, and I took a picture, but my phone... lost it.  My phone has done that a few times.  I'll take a picture and it'll show it was captured, but then it's just not there when I go look.  It also only happens whenever I don't go check that the picture worked...

While we were out there, Winry did a lot of bike riding in loops around the drive way.

The basketball hoop has a spot for a basketball on the back, and Grayson loves to keep a ball there.  He was also standing on the ball, and I was pretty impressed with his balance.  Also, I don't have any pictures of this, but Brooke and I played some one on one on Saturday, and the loser had to go start Brooke's laundry.  It was a very close game, but I won 5-4.  It's been a lot of fun playing basketball.

It's beetle season here.  Our back door is glass, and at night the bugs get drawn to it due to our lights on inside.  We'll be sitting downstairs and hear bugs flying into the window over and over, and the sound draws Jelly to the window to play with her new friends.

And now you're all caught up!