Nursing Home visit...

As a child, I loved going to this sad little nursing home in Porter. We would go for lots of reasons...with my mom and as a church. My favorite was handing out Halloween candy in our costumes.

The girls are in choir and they have visited a local nursing home twice to sing with the church children's choir. They love doing it.

Today, I took the girls to a nursing home in Conroe. Kaytlynn's violin teacher got her students together to perform for everyone. It was Kaytlynn's first time to perform before an audience. She played Angels We Have Heard On High. She was so nervous but did such a good job! I was so proud of her but more importantly, she was proud of herself! Kaytlynn has become so shy lately that you never know how she is going to respond, but she just glowed. I am so thankful we have been blessed enough to put her in violin! Hoping it pulls her out of her shell.

Delaney also got to play her piano for her first time in front of an audience. She played Silent Night. She is really starting to do a great job! Same as Kaytlynn...glad this will give her a chance to shine :-)

Kaytlynn's Humor...

I hate the girls growing, but each year they grow more into who they will be. Kaytlynn...will be funny. She absolutely loves corny jokes! Her 2 newest that she loves to share.

"They need to come up with a new HAM. They can call it Abraham!

"What is a hip hop person's favorite city. TokYO. Get it....YO...I like Tokyo...hehehe"

Music Lessons...

I have signed the girls up for music lessons. They are soooo excited. Kaytlynn has wanted to play the violin for a good year now and Delaney has wanted to play the piano. I have put it off for 2 reasons....a little bit because of money, but mainly, because I wanted to see if their desire would wear off. It didn't so they will start taking them at a place called 7 acre woods on Saturdays as soon as we get all of their books in that we have ordered.

The moment I knew I needed a violin, I called my friend Howie. He runs a music store in Porter and we were in choir together back in high school. He is the most talented musician I've ever known...playing anything that you can blow or strum. We went by his place and bought a 1/4 sized violin. Kaytlynn has thought it was the neatest thing since sliced bread!

Delaney and Kaytlynn outside Andrew's Music in Porter

Kaytlynn being fitted for the right size violin

Howie and Kaytlynn after our purchase! She was truly walking on sunshine!

Fancy Restaurants ...

We don't take the girls out to eat often. They get really excited when life gets too busy and we go to Denny's for Kids Eat Free! Evidently, when my kids went to stay at my sister's house, they got to have the honor of going to CiCi's Pizza. For those of you that are not familiar with CiCi's Pizza, it is a buffet pizza joint where you get all you can eat bread, pizza, and dessert for 5 bucks. In other words...its a dive.

They had been asking us to take them all week. I had told the girls that I didn't know where a Cici's Pizza was and that was the truth...but I hadn't actually been looking for one either. My mom needed to go to Walgreen's for something and Delaney chose to go with her. Lo and Behold...CiCi's was practically right next door. Clueless Delaney found it...how she can find that and not her hair brush or shoes, Ill never know. But find it she did. She then preceded to tell us that we needed to go. That we could go to a Fancy place and eat Fancy food and have great time. So we did. Both girls had a great time while my mom and I chit chatted. Delaney ate 4 plates full of food! And to top it off, there was a balloonist there, so we left with a sword for Kaytlynn and a Butterfly for Delaney. Don't you just love how simple things delight children. I wish it did the same for me...Life would be so much easier!

We ate Fancy...cause that's how we roll :-)

I'm a Bad Blogger!

I can not believe that I have not blogged in 3 months! I guess summer came and I got busy thinking of other things. I am going to try to not do this again...but who knows. I want to remember this part of my life so much because I enjoy where my kids are right now...but between homeschooling the girls, being a librarian, wife and mother...I get busy living it, rather than writing about it.

My mom just left after staying 5 days with us. That HAS to be a new record. She just got back from helping her sister, Aunt Barbara, out after having surgery on her neck.

It was a good visit...full of lots of swimming. My mom is WAYYY better at being nice than I am. I don't take them swimming near as often as I want to...mainly because I am sooo tired the next day. My mom takes them swimming every night whether we are at her house or mine, unless it rains. She says it makes her feel refreshed. I don't know what that is about, but I want some "refreshment" too.

The girls are also big into Go Fish right now. Except, when they don't have the card you are asking for they say "Gold Fish". So we played several games of Go Fish this past week.

Kaytlynn's First Pinewood Derby

Kaytlynn is in AWANA at Spring Baptist and each year the T and T kids (ages 8-12) have a Pinewood Derby race. The kids are basically given a block of wood, 4 separate wheels and told to shape it into a car. You hope in the end that your car either makes it first to the finish line, looks really good, or both :-) Kaytlynn is really into Star Wars, so that is the theme she used for her car. Todd searched all over the internet and I grabbed a few books on the cars for ideas. She did everything herself that she possibly could....right down to using the drill! Todds dad used his saw to cut it in the shape she chose. For design she chose black with sparkly glitter. She cut out her favorite star wars pictures and adhered them, and the end result looked really good. She competed against about 40 cars. There are 4 lanes on the ramp and they give your car a turn on each lane...she won all 4 heats! Then the top 4 cars race again and she won that too. We have been calling her speed racer ever since. She was able to bring Kayla Green to the race and Delaney, Kaytlynn and Kayla were so excited with each race that they would hold hands, scream and jump up and down. It was a great night. I think Kaytlynn's favorite thing about it was that she received her 1st trophy and she is quick to tell people that too! Love my baby girl and so proud of and for her.

Delaney's Daughters...

When Delaney was little she would tell people she was going to have a pink baby and her name would be Cocoa Calypso.

Delaney has grown and matured. Now she knows that she isn't pregnant yet...but that she will be one day. She knows she won't have a pink baby and she knows Cocoa Calypso is not a great name. She chose 2 much more appropriate names for when she has 2 daughters. Betty White and Josephina.

Here is to hoping for a very open minded future husband.

Mexican Delaney...

Delaney has decided she wants to be a Mexican when she gets older. I tried to explain what a Mexican was; she didn't get it :-) I asked if she knew any Mexicans. The obvious ones would be Mrs. Carmen or Chris Gonzales, but no. She chose Mrs. Kim. Blue eyed, strawberry red haired, Irish skinned Kimmie.

Each day she asks if her outfit looks Mexican, she lives on tortillas, and now wants the American Girl doll Josephina.

Its one of those times where the age old Motto "you can be ANYTHING you want to be" just ISN'T true.

Spring Break...San Antonio

For Spring Break we headed over to San Antonio. Todd took the week off, so it really was a nice little vacation. We stayed with Cousin Buddy and Nancy. They have a house that is less than 30 minutes from Fiesta Texas, Sea World and most other S.A. attractions, so its free and convenient. Their pool is larger than most the ones at most hotels isn't bad in the kids eyes either!

The first night there we played spades. We always try to play a few games when we go to visit. They play with domino cards. Ive never seen them anywhere but there, but they work out quite nicely with Buddy's shaking hands. I am not used to using them...and I set them up to far from the edge, so that the people on my left and right have a perfect view of my hand.

We took the girls to Natural Bridge Caverns. They had never been to the cave and it had been a good 20 years since I had. It is as cool as I remember it. We enjoyed looking at the stalagmites and stalactites. ...A cool way to remember which is which...a stalagmite MIGHT reach the ceiling. A stalactite has to hold on TIGHT to the ceiling or it will fall.

We went to Fiesta Texas the next 2 evenings. We like to go in the evenings because it is cooler, less crowded and is so pretty with all the lights. The girls favorite ride is still the swings. It seems like yesterday that they were babies on the swings and they would go to sleep riding it! They also really enjoyed the musical shows. I am sure we will go back a couple more times because we bought season passes.

The girls also wanted to go eat at the Magic Time Machine. We had Ace Ventura as our waiter and he did an EXCELLENT job. The food and fun there is hard to beat.

Kaytlynn and Delaney felt the need to swim twice while we were there too. The water was in the 50s, so they didn't last that long, but had a ball while we were there.

Todd did some honey-dos around the house, and I am so grateful that he was willing and able to do them. Most guys wouldn't find it alluring to replace lights, fix doors, and put stuff up in the attic on their precious vacation time, but he did it with a smile and they truly appreciated the jobs being done.

We got home and needed a vacation from our vacation, but it was definitely worth it.