A MINI VACAY

And when I say mini I mean mini. When we cancelled the cruise Wes was in no mood to agree to any other trips for the summer. I was persistent in asking "what about (destination)?" and all I would get was a shrug without even a head turn my direction. Because you know, had I gotten the shrug with the eye contact I could have started planning. But you see he didn't have to listen to the kids day in and day out say "How about we go to (destination and think along the lines of Hawaii)?" Until one day Calli had him trapped in the car and he agreed to go somewhere. So he comes home to me and says "I told Calli we could go somewhere before school starts-why don't you see about the Frio". Oh perfect NOW you wanna go somewhere only NOW we have no available days to go. I found 3 days where we had no commitments and planned a trip over to Lost Pines in Bastrop. 3 days was then cut to 1 1/2 days when I found out Calli had Bobcat Camp at her new school.

Regardless of our length in stay it was at least a time to get away, relax and enjoy some fun outside of the house. Calli brought her friend Lauren so as to try and distract the constant "end of summer" bickering between Calli and Colson. And because we really like Lauren, she just moved to Texas a year ago and just had a baby brother. So this was fun for her to get away, see a little bit of Texas and give her mom a little rest. Although at age 11, Lauren is probably a bigger help when she is there than when she is away.

Lost Pines has a crooked river with a water slide, a beach area, horseshoes, bike riding, activities for the kids throughout the day, golfing, spa, horses, and on and on. I was really excited about movie on the lawn with s'mores that they do every night. I had been here for work in mid July and really wanted to go lay out on the lawn under the pretty (albeit hot) sky and watch Gnomeo and Juliet on the big blow up screen. But my work had other plans like cocktails and dinner. So on this trip, I was excited and I had the kids all excited. After dinner we walked outside to the s'mores station and I couldn't figure out why the screen wasn't up and music playing like it had been before. After asking, we found out that a couple of parents were worried about mosquitoes and I guess complained to the resort and so they moved the movie inside to one of the ballrooms.
WHO DOES THAT? That parent(s) ruined all the fun for me my kids. Have they ever heard of Off?  And that's what happens when I'm not in charge. HA! Oh well, the trip was fun...enjoy the pictures!

On our bike ride, I had a football and couldn't ride with it so I just stuffed it in my shirt. Cute huh?

This was one of the activities...bubble finding. You have to find the cherry in all of the whipped cream. Colson was busy riding bikes with Wes and missed the fun.

OH HOW I LOVE ROUTINES

I'm ready to get on a schedule....my body longs for routine! There is no  very little spontaneity in me. But here's how I know my routine starts too early as of today....I didn't have to wear sunglasses when I took Calli to school. My eyes are super sensitive so I wear sunglasses even when it's raining. So the fact that I had none on this morning means it was too darn early.

Calli got up and out of bed fairly easy and we had a smooth morning. I prayed with her as I pulled into the car rider line to drop her off and then i was trying to pep her up when I noticed a grin across her face that told me she was trying to fight back tears. And before the water that was filling up her eyes could pour out onto her face I tickled her and tried to make her laugh. I'm sure that as soon as she got in the door and saw someone she knew that she would feel so much better. I was a little sad to see her go but I remember how fun this time was for me. I hope it will be for her.

Colson, who has been begging to go to school all weekend, was a little harder to make rise and shine. BUT there was not an ounce of grumpiness in him so all was well. When we got out of the car he said he was so nervous his legs were shaking. But he walked fine to me. He walked into the classroom and immediately went to the cabinets to leave his backpack as he had been trained to do as a big first grader. Only Mrs. Martin's cabinets were full of stuff. So he closed that one and opened the next one. When that one was full of stuff too he looked at her a little puzzled. Of course she laughed and said "Oh my, Mrs. Hurst had you trained. You'll have to leave your backback on the back of your chair this year because Mrs. Martin has too much stuff. I left him with a big grin on his face and he was even all game for me to take a picture with Mrs. Martin....see how happy she looks!

 

Something is wrong with my camera...the others were all blurry...this one has her eyes closed...she would probably kill me if she knew I posted this but luckily she's not a blog follower!

 I left one in tears and one with a big smile....hopefully at pick up today I'll have two smiles!

SUMMER IS OVER

We've spent the last few days mentally preparing ourselves for the S word....SCHOOL! I'm not gonna lie....part of me is really excited about school starting back. Hey-if you were at my house Friday and observed my children, you would know why. The OTHER lazier part of me screams PLEASE....ONE MORE WEEK! Calli is TARDY at 7:05 AM each morning. This means we'll need to leave our house about 6:45 every day. We didn't even wake up last year until 7:30 AM. So to avoid my negative thoughts from ruining our first week of school...that's all I'll say about that. 

We found out about 10 days ago that Calli has no chance of being with any of her friends for most of the day.  In middle school, they divide the grade up in 2 prides. Each pride has their own set of teachers. All of Calli's friends are in the other pod. She has one boy that I would consider a friend in her pride and that's it. I am so proud of her though...she was upset for about 24 hours and that's it. She's okay with it. All the parents are making a bigger deal about it (to me, not her) than she is. She's so grown up! And it will actually be a good break from them...they can reconnect at lunch and have lots to talk about.

This past Thursday they had Bobcat camp. They took all the kids away from all of us and showed them the ropes (I guess). The principal stayed with us and told us what to expect. No more elementary. No more cupcakes for birthdays. No more nights of no homework. No more walking your kid in. After she finished with us, the kids were doing a mock class change. They have 4 minutes between classes, so they let them go class to class ringing the to go and tardy bell. I was laughing....they were running! It was quite comical. Luckily Calli was calm and cool. After that we had just a few minutes to meet with them and help them with their locker. The little girl next to Calli couldn't get it. Calli did it for her every time. And here's HER locker..... 

None of the boys around her wanted her extra zebra print wallpaper....imagine that!

Last night we got to go meet Colson's teacher Mrs. Martin. Colson is soooooo excited to start school now. When we left last night he said "I don't think I can wait until Monday to start school. My teacher is so happy I can't wait for second grade". Oh that made me so happy! He LOVED school last year and Calli's second grade teacher who I LOVED, now teaches first grade so I wasn't sure about the others. Today he told me that "he was really worried about second grade but now I can't wait! Can you please make Monday get here fast!!!!"

I think we are going to have a great year! I'm sure I'll be a little sad on Monday when I just drop Calli off at the curb and don't get to walk her in but I'll live. She's still into talking all.the.time. so i think we're good on her telling me all about her day(s).

COUSIN SWIM

Last week Grammie (my mom) and Boo (my aunt) coordinated a swim day for all the cousins....well second cousins. Try explaining that to Colson....it left him confused so I just said they were cousins. Boo brought my cousins kids down to play and swim with my sister and my kids. Boo left Charlie, Mark's son who is 1 and Austin, Harris' son who is 6 weeks at home. I don't blame her.

All the kids got along so good! I don't know that I was surprised but it was sweet. I was surprised that Colson got along with them so well. Him and Bailey are 1 week apart and they played great together. And Georgia loved doing stunts with Calli and Layne was my new friend. Or maybe it was me who was following her around because she was so darn cute! I asked her if she was hungry and she said "No. Not all the little boys and girls are hungry". In that sweet little articulate 3 year old voice of hers. Then she asked why Calli had a pretzed on her painting. Huh? Ohhhhh....she meant the Peace sign. She thought it was a pretzel. And here is the most important thing I took away from her for future gift giving. Layne does not like polka dots. She didn't want to put on her shorts and we kept trying to get her over to us to put them on and she very matter of factly told us "Um no....I don't like polka dots".

 Georgia and Calli

Layne

Hudson and Camden spent half of their time capturing pictures with my aunt which just wore Camden out. Look how big he's gotten. He's filled out and so sweet.

We had fun and I was so glad we could get them all together since that only seems to happen at Christmas time.

PAINTING WITH A TWIST

Calli has always been interested in all things arts and crafts so when this new placed opened up in Conroe called Paining With A Twist and I saw they did kids camps, I thought it would be fun for her. She asked Lauren if she wanted to join her, we picked a week that fit our schedules as well as had cute paintings and she was set.  A typical class is led by an instructor who walks you through step by step in the creation on whatever the painting of the day is. So everyone in the class walks out with the same painting but still each with their own flare. You walk in with a blank canvas, you walk out with a masterpiece. This particular week the masterpieces were brightly colored animal themed and they painted a cat, dog, frog and peacock.  I couldn't believe the outcome. Wes insisted it was paint by numbers. I thought she did great and they look good in her room with all the bright colors. A few weeks later she did a one day class with the another friend...the peace sign which also goes well in her brightly colored room.  

My little diva artist!

And that same week I flourished into an artist myself. For Robyn's birthday I gave her some quality time with ME! I mean who wouldn't want to spend 3 hours on a Saturday night with yours truly. I know...I can't do it with all of you though because then I would never get to blog. So we went in and created these abstract paintings customized with our own initial. We enjoyed the time together doing something relaxing and stress free. Although Robyn's personality had her a little more stressed and focused than she should have been. But of course hers came out great! And panic soon overcame her when she walked outside held up her paining in admiration and wondered why she had painted a d...of course it was upside down.

I'M IN NEED OF

When Septmeber 11th comes along and you can't think of what to get me for my birthday consider spatulas because mine keep turning into drum sticks for the Wii.