Pumpkin Patch

The Start of Summer

I'm working on my blog layout, so it will be "under construction" until I have enough time to get it completed.

Last week, Jim went on a fishing trip with his dad for three days. I was worried about being alone with the kids for so long, but we did great. Laura and I had a slumber party each night so I had a warm body in bed with me. We stayed pretty busy playing in the sprinkler, going to the park and seeing the motorcycle entry at the Special Olympics. That was really neat. I love this picture of Laura and Grant waiting by the window for Jim to return.


Laura finished up school last week. It was a great year for her with a lot of maturity gained. I'm proud of her academic accomplishments as well as developmental growth. She went from crying her eyes out when we dropped her off to entering school with a skip in her step. We decided to delay Kindergarten one more year due to her late summer birthday and other reasons, so she'll go to Pre-K again next year on Tuesday and Thursday.

First day of school picture

Last day of school pictureThe past two weeks we have enjoyed watching our caterpillars grow into butterflies! Laura especially loved watching them form into cocoons and coming out a butterfly. We fed them sugar water for a few days and released them this morning. I think we'll order the caterpillars again later this summer. Goodbye ButterfliesGrant was only interested in getting in and out of his car while we released the butterflies!

Cousin Time

A couple weeks ago, I journeyed back to Houston with Laura and Grant. This trip was different because my brother's 7 year old daughter, Kaslynn was going to be at my parents house for "cousin time". Laura and Kaslynn had so much fun together from bike riding, playing in the water at Kemah, making "pinkalicious" cupcakes, having meltdowns and sleeping HARD at night! Grant of course was just trying to keep up and not get left out! He follows Laura everywhere. It is cute, but I know the time is coming where it is gonna drive her more crazy than it already does! We all had a good time!

From the Mouth of Laura

I got this idea from Facebook and it was fun to do with Laura. She knows me pretty well!!

1.What is something mom always says to you?
yes and no

2. What makes mom happy?
playing with me

3. What makes mom sad?
when I am naughty

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
tickle me

5. What was your mom like as a child?
She looked like Grant. I never saw you.

6. How old is your mom?
31

7. How tall is your mom?
I better count...29.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
go out

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
play with Grant

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
singing (ha ha!!)

11. What is your mom really good at?
reading

12. What is your mom not very good at?
making a mess

13. What does your mom do for a job?
teach and mommy

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
ice cream

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
playing with me forever

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Minnie Mouse

17. What do you and your mom do together?
play

18. How are you and your mom the same?
we have the same eyes

19. How are you and your mom different?
lips

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
kiss and hugs me

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
he can sing

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
to school day

Home

We arrived back in Searcy last night after a five night trip to see my parents in Houston. Thankfully the return home was totally uneventful in comparison to our first leg of the trip.

Our trip in numbers:
0 pictures I took :(
1 fun afternoon for Laura at the park with Meme & Don-Don
2 shopping trips minus kids with Mom, thanks to Don-Don
3 new medicines for Grant (shot, thrush oral medicine, antibiotic) after a trip to the Dr.'s office
4 new toys for Laura. She really knows how to work her Meme.
5 mornings I slept till 8:30
6 spills of the dog's water dish by Grant
7th ear infection diagnosis for Grant
8 stories read by Meme each night
9 times I picked up dropped toys or books on the airplane
10 phone calls to Daddy who was missing us, but appeared to have a "mini-vacation" in our absence!

Laura is so tender-hearted and usually tears up when we leave the grandparents. This trip was no exception. As we were driving in our neighborhood, I look back at her to see big tears and a quivering lip. "I miss Meme and Don-Don", she says. We make a quick call to them and all was better in her world. I'm so thankful for loving parents who love my children with all their heart!

Free family fun

We enjoyed our last day of Christmas break on Friday doing free activities in Little Rock. Our first stop was at the Old State House. It was really interesting to see the different ways this old building was used. FYI, it is the oldest surviving state capitol west of the Mississippi River! Of course, this didn't interest the kids all that much, but they were more than happy to ride in the stroller. I think the highlight for Laura was getting to ride the handicapped elevators since we were in the big double stroller!
We then went a few doors down to the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks. Grant squealed at them and Laura loved that they dunked their heads under water. We rode the glass elevators to the penthouse and looked out over Little Rock. We finished the day off with some ice cream. It is amazing the fun things you can do for free!

Week in Review

We traveled to Houston for Thanksgiving to be with my parents. As usual, our trip went way too fast and it was packed with lots of fun activities. The kids traveled great on our 468 mile trek with 8 hours in the car.

We took family pictures at Portrait Innovations where everyone cooperated! Yay!! Taking pictures is so stressful and exhausting. I am so glad it went well. Here are a few pictures. I have tons more, but can't figure out how to rotate them.
We had our Thanksgiving meal with the "Looney" family and they are always a blast to be around. Laura was enamored with the 5 dogs at the house. I think getting a dog is in our very near future. I am very excited about this idea as I've missed not having a furry friend in our house.

Friday night we went to my favorite mexican restaurant Pappasito's and afterwards drove down to Discovery Green where Jim and Laura attempted to ice skate in 70 degree weather. It was a nice evening!

Laura, Meme and I went to the Nutcracker ballet on Saturday afternoon. The music and dancing were fantastic. This is our yearly tradition dated back to when I was a child. Let's just say that after the show Laura danced and twirled as we exited the theater to find our car. She loved it! We made our gingerbread house before the ballet and it was quite a production with LOTS of directions!


Now it is time to get ready for Christmas and to get geared up to make yet another 8 hour trip in 11 days to Knoxville to watch Jim make his doctoral graduate walk!

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday after two days of being homebound with a sick family, we needed some fresh air. So we headed off to the pumpkin patch in the big town of Cabot. Laura talked or sang the entire way there while Grant played with a toy not making a peep. Jim and I were talking wishfully about a possible vacation this summer without kids.

The hayride was through the pumpkin patch which was really quite neat to see all the different types, colors, and shapes of pumpkins growing. The only drawback we sat right behind the tractor and got to inhale fumes the entire ride.

They had some neat "photo op" spots which we took advantage of. Laura was especially in the mood to do some poses. We went through a few corn mazes, played in the sunflowers and picked out our two pumpkins all for the low price of $15. On our way home, we stopped at Sonic (our favorite place) for happy hour drinks and headed home. It was a fun day by all.

A Good Laugh

Thanks to my friend, Holly, for sharing this with me!

This is my favorite!!

The Beach

We just returned from a fun-filled trip to Galveston, Texas, with my parents. My brother and his family were also there at the same time, so we got to spend some time with them as well. It is always fun to get all the cousins together and watch them interact.

We ate good seafood, stayed up late, went swimming in the pool, built sandcastles and slept really hard at night! Today Laura told me she was ready to go back to the beach house with Meme and Don-Don. I can ditto that thought! Vacations are nice!

Birthday Party

We celebrated the 4th birthdays of Laura, Mackenzie and Abby last weekend in Searcy. We had a wonderful time, as you can see in the photos below.



Mackenzie's grandparents, Granna and Z-Paw, were great hosts of the farm theme party. They came up with different games to play, including "milk the cow"! The girls got a hoot out of milking the rubber glove!

Pin the tail on the donkey

Hunt for the chicken egg game

Blowing out the birthday candles together

Grant was the life of the party.

Ending the evening with a sleepover with Abby