Playing Pretend

So, my friend Jen is pretending to sell her house. Why? Because she imagines that she is building a new house somewhere else. I am sure it's all pretend.

She's even got a pretend listing in HAR: http://search.har.com/engine/3015-Providence-Oak-St-Houston-TX-77084_HAR20709414.htm. Doesn't that look awesome? She really goes all out when she pretends.

No, I am NOT in denial.

Why do you ask?

I'm just going to sit here and eat the rest of the Girl Scout cookies that I've hidden in the back of the freezer and maybe this pint of ice cream and cover my ears with my hands and sing la la la la la I can't hear you la la la la la! Because I'm mature like that.

In case you are wondering, it is a really nice house in a really nice neighborhood. And I am happy for her as she plays make-believe.

Although, she keeps putting things in boxes, and it's getting harder and harder to know she's just pretending.

Sigh......

Who can say if I've been changed for the better...but.....

I have been changed for good.

Wicked!

 

I'm so grateful that our wonderful friends Toby and Amy and Jen and Paul went to see Wicked with us when it was playing in Houston this summer. Without getting too sappy and sentimental, I know that their friendship has made me a better person and I'm so grateful for them. None of them had ever seen Wicked, so it was really fun to see their reactions. Especially since it's one of my very favorite musicals.

The production was really well done - probably the best cast since we saw it in Chicago. I haven't ever loved Fiyero's character before, but he was one of my favorites this time.

After the show, we all came back to the house and Travis grilled steaks and fingerling potatoes. It was better than any 5 star steakhouse meal.

All in all, it was a good day - a good show, good food, and best of all, good friends.

Our Wheel Parade

We had a Wheel Parade to celebrate the beginning of summer. Everyone came and decorated their bikes and scooters with ribbons and streamers and pipe cleaners and paper plates. When they were all ready, they lined up and paraded down the street to the end of the cul-de-sac and then back up to our house.

There was lots of decorating.

There was lots of posing.

There was lots of jumping out from behind the light pole and yelling "Surprise!"

There were LOTS of friends.

There was lots of zooming.

There was waving.

There was a little crashing, a little bleeding, and a few tears. But not too many.

There was lots of fun wheel-themed artwork.

And best of all, there were popsicles.

The kids had a great time. What a fun way to kick off summer vacation!

Oh, and I made the invitation in PSE, with Kim Meeder's super cute Tike Transports Collection from Scrap Girls.

The Great Crawfish Boil of 2013

 The Bounds and the Boyers hosted a fun crawfish boil this year. (To get a taste of what crawfish boils are usually like, see THIS post. This time, everybody brought salads and stuff to share, so there was a bit more variety. Whew!)

Kate LOVED the whole experience. She thought it was hilarious to poke the bag of live crawfish and see them wiggle and snap.

She was eating crawfish as fast as Travis could shell it. And when he wasn't fast enough, she started sucking on the discarded heads. Everyone said they were pretty spicy, but it didn't seem to bother her.

Jared liked holding and playing with the live ones, but he didn't even want to taste the cooked ones.

It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time enjoying the sunshine with friends.

Hurricane Kate turned 2

Kate's birthday fell on Memorial Day this year, so we got to spend the whole day celebrating.

We opened presents in the morning. (Well, Megan and Jared opened presents. Kate really wasn't very interested.)

Later that day we had friends over for a BBQ and to play in the water. I was a bad parent and didn't get pictures of any of the mayhem, but it was really fun. Thanks to the Thomas, Christensen, and Breinholt families for coming over and getting wet! (Sorry about the fire ants! Ouch!)

We had been practicing with Kate so she'd know how to blow out the candles on her birthday cake and she was getting really good at it. Unfortunately, blowing out a candle with just the family around and blowing out two candles after a room full of crazy-loud people sing at you are to very different things. She got a little case of stage fright. (It's always good to make your kid cry on their birthday. Give's'em something to talk about in therapy later, right?....)

Eventually she did calm down and blow out her candles.

And got to enjoy her ice cream in peace.

Happy birthday Kate! We are so glad you are part of our family!

Spring Break 2013

During Spring Break this year we kept things pretty low key, but we did go on a couple of outings.

We went hiking and had a picnic at Steven F. Austin campground. (The Thomas family was camping, but we just joined them for part of a day. Not brave enough to camp with a newborn.)

And then we went to the beach in Galveston with Auntie Eleanor and her kids and our friends the Milletts. It was COLD! And WINDY! Nobody played in the water much, but they all had fun flying kites and building sandcastles on the beach.

We had a picnic at the Water Wall with Travis and the our friends the Haynes.

And of course, we went to Ritters.

A Babyshower for William

Have I mentioned that I have the nicest friends? Because I really do. You might think yours are nicer, but you would be wrong. Really. Mine are the best.

A week before I had William my wonderful friends threw a shower for me. It was so much fun to get together and visit and relax. And eat. And eat. Mmmmmm. Everything was fabulous. And so thoughtful. Lots of vegetarian options. And best of all, for dessert we had Ritters. Quarts of it. It was the best party ever.

See - I told you my friends were the nicest.

New Years Eve 2012

In years past, we haven't done much for New Years Eve. Until this year, our kids didn't even know that people usually stay up late. Since they are getting older, we decided it was time to let them get in on the celebrating.

We had the Christensens over for dinner - Travis grilled chicken and beef sliders, and we all filled up on yummy sides and treats and cookies. We played Canasta (fyi, Amy and I TOTALLY won) and just generally had a great time hanging out.

After the Christensens left, we put the kids to bed (around 9:30). We woke them up at 11 and got ready to go over to some other friends house to watch their annual fireworks display. Travis has gone to this before, but it was a first for the kids and I.

The fireworks were pretty impressive. Probably better than many small city displays. It was steady explosions for 45 minutes straight. The kids LOVED it (including Kate) but I think next year I'll bring ear plugs.


In case you didn't know, one of Travis's favorite things in the world is fireworks. He LOVES Texas because the rules regarding what types of fireworks are allowed are so much looser than in Utah.

Camping

We went camping at Steven F. Austin Park with the Bounds and the Fosters on Friday and Saturday before Easter. It was lots of fun to be outdoors, and to spend time with friends (although I could have done without the gnat swarms and the mosquitoes who sucked vats of blood out).

Since we haven't done much camping (I'm more of a hotel/pool/room service kind of girl in general), we needed a tent. Travis chose it. I think it's larger than our first apartment - it can hold 3 queen sized mattresses and has three separate rooms.

The kids found a tree with lots of low branches. They loved climbing on it, hanging from the branches, etc. Megan had me take her picture while she was climbing.

Kate was just starting to take a few steps when we went camping. She wasn't really walking, but she was crawling and cruising. By the time we came home, she was FILTHY from playing in the dirt so much. She LOVED it.

Since Easter was the next day, we arranged for the kids to have a little Easter Egg Hunt in our camp ground. They had lots of fun collecting eggs.

Thanks to the Bounds family for coordinating everything! We had a lot of fun!

Spring Break 2012: Pi Day

March 14 is known around these parts as Pi Day (it IS 3.14 after all!). We had some good, nerdy fun with our friends the Thomas's.

We decorated (what's a holiday if you don't decorate?),

we did Pi-related projects (some of the kids are a bit young to do much with pi, so we learned about diameters instead),

 we colored large pi symbols,

and best of all, we ate pie. Mmmmmm pie. Jen (who is uber-talented, by the way) cut a pi symbol into the top of the chicken pot pie. She also made a fabulous lemon meringue pie. Mmmmmmm. Pie.

Spring Break 2012 - Picnicing at the Houston Water Wall

We have a tradition to take a picnic to the Houston Water Wall during Spring Break. Since Travis works near there, he's able to come eat with us. It's always fun to see him in the middle of a work day.

We had fun playing with a hula hoop, playing kickball, crawling around and eating leaves, and getting sprayed by the fountain.

We were exited that our friends the Christensens could come with us!