Go Texan Day!!!

So every February in Houston the trail rides make their way into the heart of the city (downtown) for the Rodeo Parade signaling the beginning of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. 

As a kid we always participated in the trail rides, thanks Uncle J for having a wagon pulled by mules for us to ride along in!  And some of my most fun memories are riding through downtown in the parade in the back of that wagon and hearing Uncle J yelling, Gee Kit, Haw Kate.  If you don't know, don't worry about it.  My other favorite memory was when my cousin Kelli fell out the back of the wagon on a particularly abrupt start and fell smack into a pile of horse manure.  Good Times....

So, today is Go Texan Day, the annual arrival of the trail riders to the city and the kickoff to the HLSR which starts this week.  As such, all school kids in Houston dress like little cowboys and cowgirls and dance square dances for the amusement of their parents.  Mine were no different and here are the pictures to prove it!

Josh and his classmate Yusif sneaking in the back.

 

Josh and his square-dancing partner Caroline. (You will notice Josh doesn't have boots on because, 1) they are uncomfortable and 2) they cost a lot and you really only wear them once or twice!)

Josh, Yusif, Ava, Allen and Carter gettting ready to start.

Josh and Caroline square dancing.

 

Jake in his western wear.

 

Jake's square, Melissa, Ayla, Jake, Josh, Cole, Joel, and Makenzie.

 

Jake and his partner Ayla.

Jake do-si-doing his corner.

Cowgirl Jill came to watch and cheer!  Those are real Wrangler jeans and a pearl snap shirt!  And she loves her hat and boots.  Really.

And we got to see Auntie Courtney!  Jill was tired and hungry and wasn't having any more of the picture taking today!

A Whole Lotta Nothing

So, I haven't posted in a while and there really has not been a whole lot new going on here.

Jake had his last BBall game of the season today.  He did great!  Scored another basket (his 2nd of the year) and made a freethrow!  A huge day for him!

Meanwhile, Josh and Jill are hanging out and being kids.  I'll leave you with a few pics of Jill since I got nothin'!

Jill has recently fallen in love with Baby Einstein.  Now she demands to watch it all the time.  And loves sitting all tucked into her chair while she watches.  As a side note, she only likes the ones with farm animals and neighborhood animals.  Won't watch the others!

And here is Jill with her new laptop from GranDeb.  She always shows such an interest in everyone else's computer's that GranDeb thought she should have one of her own!

Josh's 6th Birthday!!!!

This past weekend was Josh's 6th birthday!  I can't believe it has been so long. 

It seems like just yesterday I was hoping not to go into labor during the Super Bowl since it was in Houston and Justin was there watching and really didn't want to have to leave his Pats to meet meet me at the hospital! 

It seems like just yesterday I was checking into the hospital at 7PM and being put on the IV and epidural only to be told at midnight they were just going to wait until morning (try and get some sleep, uh-huh,  riiiiiight....). 

And it seems like only yesterday that I frantically woke Justin up at 2 AM and told him he better the get nurse that the baby was about to fall out!  And then it was 3:30 AM and there was Jake at my bedside to see his new brother.  No, that wasn't on purpose, but he was woken up when the phone rang and insisted on coming!

And then there is Josh, my little sweetheart!  He still loves to snuggle, doesn't like to go to school because he would rather stay at home with me, and eats anything anyone offers and likes it!

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So, in Houston in February you never really know what the weather will be like and now with a baby, I really don't want to have to do a lot of work to have a birthday party, so again this year we went with the indoor, destination party!

It was at Biron's Gymnastics over on Dairy Ashford.  The place has been around since 1972 and we all grew up going there for something or other, classes, parties, haunted houses.  The boys had each been to a party there a while ago and they had fun, so we decided to go for it.

The kids had an absolute blast and were worn out!  Here are some pics below.  Excuse the graininess or blurriness.  The lighting in there was so bad that action shots were grainy for lack of light and regular shots were blurry waiting for a flash!

The kids huddle up to get instructions before going to the first activity.

 

Josh leads the way over the obstacles in the obstacle course.

 

Josh swings on the ring across to the other side.

 

Jake launches off the trampoline into the foam pit.

 

Jill has some fun of her own in the barrel.

 

The kids wait for instructions on the rope swing into the foam pit.

 

Then a foam pit fight!

 

Josh blows out the candles.

The birthday group.  Josh's classmates from his Kindergarten class plus our neighbor MaryAnn and cousin Owen.

 

And finally, Josh gets to leave his handprint to mark his birthday party.

Pinewood Derby

So each year the cub scouts have a Pinewood Derby where the dads (oops, I mean kids) carve cars out of a block of wood and paint them and put wheels on and race each other. 

Most people want to win so they design their usual wedge shaped car that looks like a race car and name it something really clever like "lightning." (Sorry if you, dear reader, are one of these people I just insulted). 

But not in our house.  No way, in our house, we go for the coolest, most fun design we can think of (and then actually build).  This year was no exception. 

We entered 2 cars, one for Jake and one for Josh, since there is an open division where siblings and parents can enter their cars to compete.  I think this is supposed to ease the pressure on dads so they will actually let their kids touch the car instead of just look at it.  I'll let you know if it works.

Jake's entry, the Swiss Army Knife Car.

Josh's entry, the Brickmaster.  A Lego Brick.

And I how could I forget the most important part?  The electronic finish line and the camera for watching the finishes.  You know, in case it gets too close to call!!! 

Super Bowl Party

So I am totally over Super Bowl Parties and don't really watch the game or the commercials anymore (well, let's be honest, I would, but with 3 kids who has the time?).

So we went to my mom's yesterday for a Super Bowl Party which really involved hanging out with Michelle and Scott, Courtney and Anthony, and Kiki, Aaron, and Owen.  The WHOLE gang was there and it was raucous.  No one cared about the game, so we laughed at the commercials when we caught glimpses and mostly played with the kids outside.

The best part, for me anyway, was the gambling!  We set up one of those grids where each person gets a number that corresponds to each team.  Then at the end of the quarter if your numbers match the last digit of the score for each team you win.  Well, I won 2 quarters!!!!!  Oh yeah!  40 smackers!  I am so living it up this week.

Anyway, that truly was my highlight.  Sigh.... so sad.

The crew in a calm moment.

Justin representin' the 504.

Josh's 100th Day of School

So being the perfect and wonderful mother that I am, I completely forgot that Josh had his 100th day of school parade yesterday. 

He had told the several times the week before and we talked about it over the weekend, and his teacher even sent emails home!  Thankfully it wasn't until Tuesday, so when I remembered at 5 am Monday morning, (no I didn't go back to sleep after that) I panicked!

I spent Monday morning before a summer league swim team meeting (yes already!) trolling the aisles of Michael's begging something to jump off the shelf at me so I could glue it onto a shirt.

I had considered pennies (since he LOVES money), but wisely changed my mind when I realized 100 pennies can make a shirt pretty heavy if you are 5 (almost 6).  I thought about stickers, okay, or those fuzzy balls, so-so, but then I finally found it, google eyes.  What 5 year old doesn't love google eyes, especially 100 stuck all over his shirt and moving and making noise?  I brought it home and Josh loved the idea.  He was so pumped to have his google eye shirt to wear to the parade.

Score one "save" for the forgetful mom!

That little Stinker (really - she was stinky)

So Jill's new thing lately is one of my personal favorites.  I love to watch her in action.

It usually starts with me smelling something foul.  Then I ask Jill, are you poopy?  Did Jill do poo-poo?  She smiles this shy smile.

Then I say, let's go change your poopy diaper.  So off she trots, without being distracted along the way - shockingly! - all the way back to her bedroom.  She walks right over to the corner, grabs a diaper, holds it up to me until I take it and then lays down on the floor to wait for her clean diaper. 

It is just so cute.  And it just amazes me to see that she has followed the whole process and now repeats it exactly by herself every time.  Babies are amazing!

Here is a pic of her sweet little face after it collided with the pool edge at Lifetime Athletic a few days ago.  She is okay now, but was not happy about it then! (sorry about the bad quality.  I had the camera on the action setting and all my pictures turned out bad this morning.)

Jake Tae Kwon Do Belt Test and some BBall pics

So Jake just had his Yellow Belt Test this past week and passed!  That means he moves up to Orange Belt at the Belt Ceremony this week.

I was nervous because he had been sick with swine flu all week and I didn't know if he would be well enough or have the energy, but he did a great job!

Here is a short video of him doing his blocking test. 







And the next day he had a basketball game.  Jake has been improving so much this year and was the defensive player of the game for his team this week because of his awesome rebounding!  He had 5 or 6 rebounds total!

The huddle.

Jake and his buddy Cole get fired up.

Jake takes the 1/2 time free throw.  I just loved his "follow through."