She's 8 (and some other stuff)!

My lovely little Lollipop is eight! Eight is definitely great! She's such a sweet girl and I cherish every single minute of her! In lieu of a birthday party…we headed to Dallas for the weekend. We had a girls' lunch at the American Girl Doll store, went ice skating at the galleria, and got to see the pumpkin village at the Arboretum. It was fabulous!

Halloween was up next! We had so much fun this year. I'll admit that Halloween kind of stresses me out. I love to see the kids dressed up, but I'm not a huge fan of trick-or-treating. We went to a little get together next door with the neighborhood kids instead of trick-or-treating, and it was great! I hope its a new tradition!

My gum ball machine...

 Harry Potter playing Quidditch (spelling?) and my adorable Pink Elephant.

 We had trouble with the headpiece all day, but she's pretty darn cute!

 How adorable is a class full of three year olds dressed up for Halloween???

 My Boy played in the band at our last home football game. His teacher is so awesome, he encourages the kids to come "make some noise" for a few minutes to get used to playing. I love it! My Boy only played about 10 minutes, but his teacher was so excited he came. Heart-melting!

 Another perk of a small school: your kids get to run the flags when your team scores!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

It's Mid-October Already!

So, I knew that when I accepted a leadership position in the JLM that some things would slide. I figured that my little blog would be one of them, and clearly I was right on that count!  Here's what we've been up to since mid-September:

I made a quick trip to Detroit for Junior League's fall conference. I was pretty nervous about going after hearing some horror stories, but it wasn't too bad (I must admit, we didn't leave our hotel.) This is a view from the restaurant at the top of our hotel, I still haven't been to Canada but I've seen it now!

I learned some great things....and got some theme inspiration for next year....

We've been really good about going to church and Sunday School this year so far. My Boy's class is studying Narnia and he adores it!

 I missed it while I was a conference, but BOTH of my girl babies cheered at a home football game!

 Such sweet girls!

We've also been doing our thing--meetings, homework, swimming, gymnastics, tennis, piano and dance!

A week ago Saturday, My Boy had his first swim meet! I'm so proud of him. The first meet was all freestyle. There were about 35 boys in his age group. He placed 12th in the 50 free and 10th in the 100 free. Not bad for a first timer!

 We got our flu shots, followed by ice cream!

 Last Friday, we had swim meet number 2!  This one was with a wider age range of kids and involved all the strokes. He doesn't get to pick what he swims. In fact, we don't know until we get there. He did a freestyle relay with his teammates, a 50 yard backstroke, and a 50 yard freestyle. I'm not sure about where he placed, but I do know that he was about 2 seconds faster in his 50 free than the week before. I was also proud that he was in the final heat of his age group (which is of course the fastest). We've been swimming at a different facility for several years. This is the first time he's been in a competitive group and he's doing so well! That's him in lane 1!

More good times coming home....hopefully I'll be back to update before another month goes by!

September is here!

September is here, which means go-go-go!  Here is a photo description of what we've been doing:

Celebrating our first Spelling, Science, and Math tests of the year with a little Orange Leaf:

Hangin' out with friends and watching our beloved Aggies play

Heading to church on Sunday mornings

Attending pep-rallies with classmates (and cousins)

Starting off our whirlwind of after school craziness (gymnastics for both girls, dance for both girls, tennis for My Boy, piano for Lollipop and swimming for My Boy--oh my!)

First day of dance!

We love being back into a routine--but we sure are exhausted!

Other stuff

And in other news....Baby Gumdrop turned three (I have no good photos of her bday), we had a Splash party for My Boy and we started school!

 My baby is a Pre-Schooler! I don't know what to do with myself. I have EVERY MORNING to myself! It's crazy. I've been going to the gym and the grocery store. Alone! Man.... three hours goes by fast.....

 She survived her first day of K-3! I love her to pieces!

 My Boy chose Band over Choir and had to pick an instrument last week. He chose the cornet! Bring on the earplugs! We are super pumped about our new school year!

Beach Highlights

Here are the highlights from the rest of our vacation...trying to get caught up on this!

We love our lazy days at the beach and pool!

 There is nothing like a beach sunset!

 The Hub's cousin's husband (confused yet?) coaches for the Baltimore Orioles. It just so happened that the Orioles were playing the Padres the night we were supposed to leave. When Jamie and I figured this out, we decided to extend our trip by a day to go to the game with them. I got our flights changed but couldn't book another night at our hotel. So...we stayed with the team in downtown San Diego. I absolutely prefer the beach, but it was pretty cool to see the other side of San Diego. I wouldn't normally recommend three hotel changes in a week, but we did ok! The view from our hotel room was amazing!

 We also got to swim and hang out with the family that day. We don't get to see them much, because they spend half the year in Baltimore and the other half in Florida.

The kids had so much fun at the game hanging out with their cousins.

 Finally, it was time to head home.  As you can see, our adventure wore every one out!