Finally, a rider

Jack has been riding a bike since he was little. We got him a bike for Christmas several years ago, which I spent Christmas Eve putting together, training wheels and all. Last year he rode his bike with training wheels to school all the time. Lots of kindergarteners still use training wheels. When he started first grade, I told him he could ride his bike to school when he could ride it without training wheels. Cautious, cautious Jack tried a couple of times and got frustrated at how much more difficult it was than he thought it would be.

Every once in a while he would go out and give it a try and come back in after about a minute. I got him a bigger bike around his birthday and gave him a few tips on starting, had cousins over to ride, and he looked like he was going to have a breakthrough, but not quite. Then we started talking about visiting his cousin over the summer and watched a video of said cousin riding his bike up and off a ramp.

After a super-rainy-cooped-up-in-the-house Memorial Day weekend, we let the kids go out and play Sunday after church. Jack came in after a little while and said, "Mom, come out and see what I can do. I'm awesome!" I go out and he RIDES HIS BIKE around the yard. I was appropriately excited for him and he was beaming.


















Monday morning he was up at 6:30 and dressed, something that has not happened since he was five years old, two years ago. I asked him not to wake any one else up. He said, "I'm not. I just want to go in the back and ride my bike." I say okay, but please put on some shoes. Inside I'm saying YES!! FINALLY!! This from the boy who thought it was a punishment every time I took him out to practice riding. He finally got it, just in time to ride his bike to school every day for the last week of school.

Easter camping. and candy.

I'm not really sure how we ended up with no pictures of our Easter weekend, but maybe some will show up. We surprised the kids and took them to Nana and Pa's house in Gilmer. Jack Jack had been asking about camping and got the other kids talking about it. So Friday evening Jack's dad set up a tent in the back yard, found sleeping bags and a cot, helped start a fire, and got smores ingredients together. Nana helped the kids find chairs and roast marshmallows. She told them all kinds of stories about their dad when he was a kid and they were in heaven.

I'm really not sure how I ended up sleeping outside in a tent in a cot with a kicking child a couple of yards from a house with a warm bed in it, but I made it until about 5 am and then found a blanket on the couch. I remember being awake most of the night and being cold. I remember the smoke and dirt. But mostly I remember that it was fun being outside with the kids and seeing them so excited. They thought (and still think) that it was the best night ever.

Is it possible to romanticize camping? I love the idea of camping. I have great memories of the one camping trip my parents took us on when I was a kid. They had some persuasive friends, and we had great times on the Texas-Oklahoma border at the Red Rock Canyon. I have great memories of Girls Camp as a youth. I loved it so much that I went the required four years, two more years as a youth leader, and another year after my mission as a ward camp leader. I went camping a couple of times while I was in college, once in the winter when I thought I was going to freeze to death while simultaneously awestruck at the beauty of snow in the mountains in the moonlight, and once in the summer with a group of friends to help someone fulfill a rec management class requirement. I would repeat any of those camping experiences in a heartbeat.

Even the morning after "camping" at Nana and Pa's, even remembering the cold and the no sleep, just thinking about it made me happy. My girls already think it is completely unfair that Jack and Elijah will have myriad camping opportunities with scouts and the father and son's campout. I remember thinking exactly the same thing. Hopefully there will be more camping in our family's future. (Jack is reading this and shaking his head. No romantic ideas about camping on his part.)

And if the kids didn't receive all the desires of their little hearts camping, all their hopes and dreams came true Sunday after church when all Daddy's cousins arrived with their kids for lunch and the Easter egg hunt in Nana's front yard. Candy and quarters. Need I say more?

New Year and Chinese New Year

We had two New Year parties to ring in 2014, one on December 31st and another at the end of January to celebrate the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Horse.

On December 31st we invited lots of friends with kids to come early and bring food to share. We turned our clock forward to Canary Island (Spain) time and played a few games, ate, and then got ready to ring in the new year Spanish-style by eating twelve grapes with the twelve strokes of midnight. I tried my hand at creating a Spanish turron, which tasted amazing, but I had to cut with a knife and a hammer. Spanish tortilla and seafood were also on the menu, along with lots of finger foods.

Our second countdown included confetti (shredded paper!) and balloons. Everyone was partied out by about 8:30 Texas time, and the kids were elated to be able to stay up until waaaaaaay past midnight (wink, wink) so Jack and I had time to still get kids to bed, clean up a little, and hang out with his sister Jenny, who stopped overnight on her way back home to New Mexico. (It is now May, and I swept up a little piece of confetti a couple of days ago. The party continues...)

We had so much fun at our New Year's party, that we decided to host another party for the Chinese New Year at the end of January. The kids made paper lanterns, origami balloons, and toothpick umbrellas. We pulled out sparklers once it got dark, and we made lots and lots of sushi. I asked the H-E-B sushi stand folks about a bamboo rolling mat and nori, and I read a bunch of internet tutorials. Honestly, I may never buy sushi again. Yum!

We had fewer friends over, but just enough kids for the sparklers. Again, a success!

Time for another party...

Holidays, holidays

Nana's Christmas gift this year was a huge joint effort. We all got together for Uncle Richard's wedding after Christmas. Aunt Jenny made the boys matching ties. I scored the cutest dresses on clearance at Wal-mart in Waco the night before we had to leave to get to Gilmer.

Aunt Jenny bribed the boys with the promise of candy, but the girls weren't feeling it. Typical.

This is when she was happy to take a picture :).

Breakfast with Santa

A friend gave us tickets to the Waco Junior League's Breakfast with Santa event.

I made a huge effort for once and made Rose wear something "Christmasy" and accessorized with pink shoes and skirt.

I put on make up, fixed my hair and wore a skirt and jacket.

I'm so glad I didn't just show up in jeans and a t-shirt. Most of the other kids there were wearing matching Christmas pajamas and giant hair bows, and accompanied by entourages of parents and grandparents.

We had a fancy catered breakfast. Rose loved the little sausages.

There were fun life-sized decorations.

They gave each child a huge jingle bell, and then asked them all to hold the bells still while Santa read The Polar Express. Ha.

Rose visited the hot chocolate bar several times, mostly for the sprinkles and marshmallows.

They made a craft while waiting for their turn for a picture with Santa.

Rose was all over the photo ops.

Elijah kept his distance, but the whole experience was an 11 as far as Rose was concerned. Everything a kid could want in a breakfast party. Thank you, Amber!!!

Wait, that's not a halloween plastic spider ring.

Yes,

that spider

was huge!

I escorted it out the front door with a broom, and I felt creepy crawly for the rest of the day, and every time I look at these pictures!

Jack o' lantern

I put the kids in charge of taking pictures of our pumpkin carving family home evening.

We did some prep work before Daddy got home from work.

The other kids have commented that Ellen looks like "Tow Mater."

"Two buck teeth for one buck!"

Elijah is appropriately attired, thanks to Nana.



There was a sprouted seed inside. Would another pumpkin grow inside our pumpkin? Weird. And interesting.



Everyone was a little more adventurous this year, and all the kids pulled out some seeds and braved touching the slime.





I love what kids take pictures of. It's all in the details, right?

Selfie.

Selfie with brother.















The end result!

And this being Texas, the next day our pumpkin was completely filled with mold spores, and the following day, Halloween, it was almost completely caved in and decomposing. Gross.

Nine years

On Tuesday Jack and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary. According to Google, the traditional gift is pottery or willow. I'm glad I went with giving Jack steak (dinner out) and Jack chose dark chocolate for me. He also has this incredible gift for picking out cards that say exactly what I would want to have him tell me.

We both agreed that we love each other more now than we did nine years ago. On the day I got married, I hardly thought that was even possible. If I were to write a memoir about our married life, it would be something like this:

Once and Forever (I should probably Google this to see if someone has already written it for me!!!)
"Nine years, four children, three college degrees, ten jobs, eight moves, and two heart surgeries later, we're even more in love than when we married."

I was just looking for a link to a previous blog post with a wedding picture, but apparently in the five years I've been blogging, I've never once blogged about my anniversary. So when I get motivated enough to turn on the other computer where the wedding pictures are, maybe I'll post one. For now you can just look at this.

I still love gerbera daisies and red :).

More summer fun

When my husband let me know that he wasn't planning on taking a lot of time off this summer because of how busy he is at work, the conversation went basically like this. Me: "What about doing ___?" Jack: "Whatever you want." Me: "How about ____?" Jack: "Whatever you want." Me: "And what about ______?" Jack: "Whatever you want." Me: "So basically I'm on my own for summer fun?" Jack: "Yep."

So then I decided to take the kids to visit my brother in Houston for a couple of days during the week by myself. We had so much fun!! Thanks, Uncle David and Aunt Chelsea.

All of the kids had some breakthrough swimming moments. Ellen and Jack got really good at swimming under water. Rose got really good at getting in the water without screaming and crying and clinging to me. She figured out the noodle and worked on kicking and paddling solo. Elijah got really close to jumping in to me. Mostly he just leaned over until I pulled him in and caught him.


Ellen was a very willing beauty shop client.

They "cut" and "curled" relentlessly.


We ate popsicles.


We ate more popsicles.


We attempted cousin pictures.


And more pictures.


Aunt Chelsea knows how to French braid!


We ate popsicles and jumped on the trampoline.


Air shots are the best.


Jumping with cousins is the best.


Jumping with cousins


and getting air shots is the best.


Elijah took some time warming up to the idea.


But finally decided maybe the trampoline wasn't so scary, as long as Mom was there, and he got to bounce and run all by himself. No cousins. No air shots. No problem.


On our way out of town we went to eat lunch, say goodbye, and try for one final group shot. Apparently we were all funned and pictured out.

Actually, Ellen and Jack were mad that we were going home and would have happily stayed another week.

Thanks for having us!!