Katie's Field Trip

Today Katie's class went on a field trip to Sam Houston Jones State Park.



We started out going on a hike down one of the trails on a nature scavenger hunt. Since I had gotten very little sleep the night before (because my sweet baby was up a good part of the night sick), it seemed like we must have walked at least 50 miles, but it was probably only a mile or so. We got most of the stuff on the list, but never did find anything faster than a snail.................



...............unless you count these guys. But we couldn't very well fit them into our bag. And not that we wanted to either.



After the hike, we ate our sack lunches. The rest of the day was free time. So we went fishing, along with several of Katie's friends. We didn't catch much, except for a turtle, and some swamp gunk, but it was still a fun time.



After fishing, we walked around the park doing a little "exploring". It is a beautiful park, and it was a gorgeous day too.

Thanks for letting me spend the day with you sweet pea!

Expensive bubbles

Apparently the last time Danni spent the night with the girls, she showed them a cool way to make bubbles. You just hold your soapy hands like Sarah is doing in the picture below..............



..............blow softly.....................................



...............and you too can make these awesome, huge bubbles.



It wasn't until I was watching Sarah for a few minutes tonight and saw her re-soap her hands, that I saw that she has been using shampoo to make these cool bubbles. No wonder we've been going through a ton of shampoo lately.

I Really Hope I've Started Something!

Tonight after Sarah finished her homework, I told her to go get a "Dick and Jane" book to read. I don't know why it hasn't occurred to me sooner to get her to read some of our beginner books because she does so good sounding out words.



I wanted her to come sit in my lap and read to me, but she wanted to read all by herself. She originally picked the hallway as her reading spot.



She was so cute, I had to take pictures, but she said I was "interrupting" her reading.

So I left her alone, but John David wouldn't. So she moved to her bed. But he followed her into her room, and climbed on her bed with her. She ended up locking herself in my bedroom so she could be alone to read. She was so excited and impressed with herself. I love it! I've already decided that I need to come up with a reward/bribe system for her and Katie to get lots of reading in over the summer!

Family Time

Something we haven't had a lot of lately. Seriously. It's been so crazy the last few weeks, that Katie came to me the other night and suggested that we have a night where Daddy doesn't answer his phone. I told her I thought it was a fantastic idea, and suggested that she talk to Aaron about it. I knew it would be better coming from her. This is the first weekend that we have had nothing planned--or nothing planned for us--in a while. So we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves. We talked about being productive and working on some projects around the house. Nah. We can do that another time. So after getting our Saturday chores done (and some Saturday naps too), Aaron suggested that we take a ride down to Holly Beach.



It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon.







Katie had a blast just running and dancing on the beach.





Sarah spent all of her time collecting "treasures", or shells.



John David was very busy discovering ...............



.............the water. He would walk right up to it, but go back if it got too close.



He also discovered sea shells, and decided that they didn't taste very good.



He also decided that wet sand was not very appetizing either.



Then he discovered Sarah's bucket that she was putting her shells into.



Then he dumped out the shells.



And started dispersing them back along the beach. Poor Sarah. She wasn't too upset with him though because....well.......he's just so cute. Who could be mad at him for too long?

Me. I just enjoyed watching my favorite people relax and unwind.

Sarah's Field Trip

Thank goodness Sarah was feeling better today, because it was her class field trip that she has been looking forward to.



We went to Jellystone Park to visit Yogi Bear.



Things didn't start out so great at the park though, since it was raining. So our plans were changed a little and we started out watching Yogi Bear cartoons. The kids didn't seem to mind the change of plans at all.



The rain finally stopped and we were able to go try out the mini golf course. Sarah had a blast. Here she is with her friend Kaylee.



Next, it was craft time, where the kids made picture frames out of popsicle sticks.



Then they had a little free time, where they got to play with different things. My little hula hoop champ went straight for the hoops. Her little friend, Elliott, kept trying to get her attention and wanted to impress her with his hula hoop skills.



I think they are a little "sweet" on each other. A while back Sarah asked me if I thought that Elliott liked her. I said, "Of course he likes you. Everyone likes you." She said, "No. I mean....do you think he likes me like a girlfriend?" I said, "Oh, you're too young to worry about that. You don't need to worry about having a boyfriend until you are much older." She said, "Like when I'm thirteen?" I said, "Nope. Like when you're thirty!" She said, "Oh. Okay." Whew! That was easy. I'm glad we agree.

Then we ate our sack lunches. Have you ever seen a cuter kindergartner?

After lunch, the kids got to play on the playground equipment. Sarah ran into her friend Audrey, who used to be our neighbor. She is such a cutie.



Then it was onto the nature hike around the lake. This was Sarah's favorite part of the day. She loves discovering and learning all about nature. So it was no surprise that although we started out at the beginning of the line, we ended up being at the very end. They put a piece of tape around the kids' arms and told them it was their nature bracelet, and that they could collect any flowers, leaves, rocks, etc. that they wanted to and stick it to their bracelet. Sarah's favorite "discovery" from the nature hike was pointed out to us by her friend Mo's mom. She showed the kids a plant that she said she grew up calling "the sensitive plant". She didn't know the real name of it. When you touch it, it closes up. Sarah couldn't get over how cool it was.



After the hike, we got to sit down with Yogi Bear and sing camp songs. Then each kid got to take a picture with him, and then we took a group picture.



Then we got to go to the gift shop. I told her she could pick out a couple of small things. I saw these funny hats and made Sarah try them on. She humored me, but then finally said, "Mom, this is embarrassing."



When she spotted the rock bin, I knew she was done. My sweet baby girl loves some rocks. So she very carefully picked out a little bag full of pretty rocks to add to her collection.

Here is a blurry self portrait that I took really quickly before it was time to load her back onto the school bus. Thanks for such a fun day Sarah!

Sweet Siblings

Sarah has been home with us the past two days. She woke up early Wednesday morning complaining that her ears and throat were hurting. So I kept her home from school and took her to the doctor to get checked out, and sure enough, she has an ear infection. So while she doesn't feel great, she hasn't felt so bad that she can't have some fun with her little brother. And John David has been loving every second of it. He really misses the girls while they are at school.



He LOVES to swing, and Sarah loves to push him. Sometimes a little too high.



He also loves to jump on the trampoline. Actually, he mostly just gets bounced around on the trampoline. Sarah is so sweet to him, and takes good care of him. I think she thinks he's her baby.

Today Sarah said her ear was still hurting, so I let her stay home again since she had a doctor's note for today anyway. I did feel a little guilty because she probably would have been fine, but I love having her here, so the guilt didn't last very long. When I got out of the shower, I came into the living room and Sarah was saying, "Shhh!" She said John David came and laid down beside her while she was watching TV and he fell asleep. It was the sweetest thing! I hope they will always be so sweet and good to each other.

A Trip to Vidor

Tonight we made a trip to Vidor to Amy and Shane's house. After some delicious Wright's BBQ for dinner (seriously some of the best BBQ on the planet!), we celebrated Kent's birthday. Jessica and I wrapped his presents with his favorite Disney characters, Tinkerbell and the Disney Princesses. ;) He loved it.



John David had a fun time finding things to ride on, and playing with the pool sticks. Sorry, I just can't resist taking pictures of this handsome little guy.



Ammon was in town, and we got to meet his girlfriend, Julie, who is super sweet. Tomorrow is her birthday, so we celebrated her birthday too.

And we met her cute boys, Bode and Kai. The girls had a great time playing with them.



Good times.