April and May: Soccer and Backyard Fun!

Just another Saturday at the soccer field.

Megan's Pre-K class is the Wolves and they have a mascot, Wolfie. Each student hosts Wolfie for a weekend and he (or she?) is invited to attend all family events over the weekend. Megan was so excited to bring Wolfie to her soccer game. Below is a picture of her soccer team with Wolfie. Don't those little girls look fierce? Only lost one game, the last one of the season, by one point. Go Lil Angels!

Wolfie swinging next to Super Girl!

Juice boxes and bubbles in the back of daddy's car. They love sitting up there, for some reason. The girls will even ask us to open the tailgate so they can sit there while they have juice or popsicles. Matthew just wants up there because his sisters are there.

Matthew likes to keep it low key when we're outside. He LOVES digging in the sand and is especially happy when he takes his cars or CAT construction machines outside. He would probably play in the sand for hours so I'm happy we have a sand TABLE instead of a sand BOX. I hate sand.

James helping Megan through the car wash. She barely fits in the little bitty car but wanted to take it through the sprinklers like a car wash. Of course, that meant they had to get it dirty before going through the car wash so they dumped sand all over it. Great ... wet sand ... yaaay for Mommy.

We hosted the end of year party for Team Sprinkles (Emily's soccer team). They had a fabulous Spring season in U4 and will be moving up to U5 in the fall.  The girls are just the cutest and they were so excited to receive their trophies.

Doing the Sprinkles cheer with Coach James!

Just another day having popsicles in the backyard at our house. 

If Matthew walks up to you with the football, you better be ready to catch it. He's got a pretty strong arm for a 2 year old. :-)

A Day Out With Thomas: April 21, 2013

We have gone to see Thomas for the past few years and it's always a good time. Even the girls still love it! The train ride is getting more and more expensive and we might have to pay for Matthew next year. Luckily we had pretty good weather this year. It couldn't decide between cool and cloudy or sunny but at least it wasn't hot. Matthew's face was priceless when he first saw Thomas sitting on the tracks. He wasn't expecting it and he is definitely in a Thomas/Train phase right now. He was such a super trooper hanging out, waiting in lines and walking around the whole morning too. We didn't even bother with a stroller because he won't sit in them anymore. It would have been nice to have something to carry all our crap in but I switched from my purse to a backpack. Not cute but very practical. (Now I just need a cute backpack.)

James and the girls went into the petting zoo while I stayed outside with Matthew. We had to wait in quite a line to get in there and Matthew doesn't even like dogs so it was probably best that he was ready for a snack. He did enjoy watching his sisters and the animal from the other side of the fences though.

After the animals it was finally time for lunch. I packed some stuff for the kids but I LOVE fair/concession food. I always have. Maybe that's why I worked in one for a couple years in college (and gained about 50 lbs from nachos alone).  The girls love tearing apart funnel cakes. Emmy mostly licks the powdered sugar but Megan devours them. Geee, I wonder where she gets that?

They didn't have the bounce house or slide this year so that was a bummer. The girls even noticed it wasn't there this year but they didn't seem to mind. The bubble blower was probably a lot less expensive AND they had just as much fun chasing bubbles as they did sliding and bouncing (and waiting in line for it) last year.

Those are some awfully cute choo choos!

THOMAS!!!

Easter

We had another rainy Easter weekend this year. Luckily the eggs weren't rained on but the girls did sport their rain boots to run around the yard while hunting for loot. The EB filled about 65 eggs this year but the backyard hunt still didn't last very long. They had fun though and love the holidays that revolve around candy for breakfast. We went to Holy Cross for Mass on Easter morning. Fighting the crowds at St. Francis isn't much fun with 3 impatient kids in tow. Holy Cross meets at a local elementary school and while we still had to stand during Mass, the girls were able to leave for the children's liturgy and didn't have to stay with us the whole time. Honestly, I was surprised they went without us but Megan is growing up and wanted to do what the other kids were doing. We would switch to Holy Cross but since our kids attend the St. Francis preschool we are locked in there until Matthew (or player to be named later if there ever is one) completes their preschool career.  :)    Here are a few pics of our small, family Easter celebration. Grammy and Grandma came over for the egg hunt and lunch (and cookies)!!

 

Spring Break - Galveston - Part 3: Our Last Day of Fun

I don't have many pictures from our last day and I don't know why. My picture-taking (with the real camera) has slowed quite a bit. I guess I have been snapping every second of their lives for over 5 years now so maybe it's OK?  We went to the beach Wednesday morning but didn't last long. We were having fun building sand castles but everyone wanted to go to the pool instead. I didn't quite finish my sand kingdom. Maybe some day I'll get the chance. We we went swimming and Grandma even joined us for some of that. After the pool, we packed up and headed out in search of some lunch. Plans were for some good seafood (not that the kids would have cared much for that) but we ended up at an old Drug Store off the Strand. It was one of the top grilled cheese sandwiches of my life, for sure!! After lunch we walked to The Strand for one last trip to LaKing's (of course). I think Emily was a little tired ...

We had a little down time in the afternoon before heading down to the picnic area for s'mores. The girls had never experienced s'mores, or marshmallow roasting for that matter, so we thought it would be fun. Well, Emily doesn't eat chocolate so I ate her s'more. Megan decided she didn't like it so I ate her s'more. They had a great time roasting marshmallows, lots of marshmallows, all of which were given to me because nobody else likes them. After steering the kids away from filling me with 30 lbs of marshmallows, we played chase for a while and pretended to be crabs.  It was a good last night on the Island.

 

We spent a little time in the pool the morning we left. We weren't in a huge hurry to get home since it was only Thursday and we still had the rest of the week off. We also wanted to get the kids a little fun in the sun time before locking them into the car for 5 hours.  

Matthew wouldn't put on his swimsuit so he sat by the pool catching up on his Facebook, emails and tweets. Then, when he saw how much fun the girls were having, he decided it was time to take a dip so we had to go back up to the room to change. I think we checked out about one minute before check out time. Sometimes vacationing with kids can be just crazy and not really much of a vacation but we had so much fun, nobody wanted to leave.

On the road again!

This was actually our "Happy Birthday Uncle Coach!" picture.

Spring Break - Galveston - Part 2: A Day at the Pleasure Pier

It has been less than a month since I posted the first half of our Spring Break. Multiple posts in one month? Consider yourselves lucky! I had a hard time going through things trying to figure out where I left off but I think I figured it out. The old brain just doesn't work like is used to. Age? More likely the constant interruptions of "mommmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyy".

We spent our middle day at the "fair". The all new "Historic" Pleasure Pier. The history of the location is neat but it sounds like the pier doesn't handle hurricanes very well. From Wikipedia:  "Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier is built 1,130 feet over the Gulf of Mexico, where the original Pleasure Pier stood from 1943 until it was destroyed by Hurricane Carla in 1961. More recently, it was the site of the Flagship, an over-the-water hotel built in 1965 that was demolished after Hurricane Ike in 2008."  James and I have stayed at the Flagship and it was a neat concept but it was in such terrible shape when we stayed there (before we were married, I think) that Ike probably did the place a favor. It is expensive but well worth it for the fun the kids had. Even Matthew had a little fun in spite of his fever and, you know, lack of ride eligibility.   

Kids Bumper Cars

The girls rode the bumper cars AT LEAST 10 times.

I had to ride this ride with Emily. She wasn't tall enough. Really? It is a car that goes around in circles and, frankly, my ass was way too big for the seat in the back. She was all upset she couldn't ride in the purple car (seen in the background) because I didn't fit in it. You would think a rainbow barbie jeep would be her first choice anyways!!

Tea Cups. I didn't have to ride with the girls but I wanted to. I LOVE the teacups. Besides, they wouldn't have been able to spin them around without my help, right?

A smile from Matthew! 

I had to ride with Emily on the carousel too. Silly Pier people were sticklers for the height requirements. They measured my kids on every ride.

Face painting was not included in the price but they wanted it so they got it!

My beautiful pink butterfly!!

This is the frog ride that hopped up and down. I didn't have to ride this one with them but they wanted me to. It wasn't really made for kids my size.

My beautiful purple butterfly.

The sample was pink and it was the only one shown on the wall but my little Emmy hopped up in the chair and told the lady she wanted a PURPLE butterfly. Good thing the lady agreed. They would probably still be searching for her off the coast if Emily didn't get her way.  ;-)

It really was a lot of fun and a beautiful day too. I think we will go back again next time we are down there. I'm not sure the girls would let us skip it but I had so much fun I don't want to skip it. It was crowded later in the afternoon with all walks of life clad in various beachy attire wandering around so get there early. I think the pier was a good addition to the Seawall.