June Randoms

A wrap-up of June:

4 - Claire's sweet teacher handed out Gigi's Cupcakes to her parent volunteers, and I shared with Claire and Will.  Delicious!


9 - One night when Robert was out of town, the kids and I drove down our street to get the mail.  I'm normally super strict about car seats, but I let them sit in the front seat for our short, slow drive to the mailbox.  They were thrilled!


14 - We saw so many beautiful fields of wildflowers on our day trip to Santa Anna for a family reunion.  Claire asked me to take a picture for her.


Will and his new dragon, Stormfly from How to Train Your Dragon.


21 - Blanco BBQ is always a hit with our kids.  On this night, there was a balloon artist walking around making things for the kids.  Will asked for a T-Rex, and we were all amazed at what the artist created.  Will was really careful with it - and I got the guy's card (would be so great for a party!).

Weird Animals!

Instead of a traditional Vacation Bible School, our church does something called Backyard Bible Club.  We had about 12 church families in the area who volunteered to be host homes during BYBC week.  We all had the same theme and activities (Weird Animals) and met for four nights, with the 5th day activities held at church the next Sunday morning.

One of the host homes was down the street from us, which was fun and convenient!  Claire was old enough to fully participate this year, and I volunteered so that Will could come for a portion of the activities, too.  I was a crew leader, which means that I had a group of about 5 kids that I supervised as we went around to each of the different stations. I loved getting to spend time with other kids from our church and our neighborhood and help them learn about Jesus and how much He loves them!  Each night Robert came over after work to help out where he could, and usually, to take Will home a little early (he got restless halfway through).

Claire and Will singing and doing the motions during worship time




My crew at the Critter Cafe (snack station)

Fiesta Texas

June 13th was Robert's company's annual family day at Fiesta Texas.  We arrived close to opening time and were able to ride several rides.  This year both kids were big enough for the log ride - it was a big hit for both of them.  The line went through a "castle", and Will was excited to see the dragon.  We saw Carol, Jeremy, Grace and Jacob and were able to ride a few rides with them.











After lunch we rode the train and a few rides with our friend Elliot.


After we had our fill, we went home to rest and get cleaned up, and that evening we took the kids to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2."  We all enjoyed it - Will said it was the best movie he's ever seen.  :)

Fun Run 2014

Claire's school put on a Fun Run in February to raise money for the school.  Claire came home from the kickoff really excited and determined to run as many laps as possible.  There were prizes for hitting different levels of donations per lap, with the top prize being an iPad at $50 per lap.  Claire said she was going to get an iPad, so we had some conversations about how that was a great goal, but not to expect an iPad at the end.  :)

Claire asked several family members to donate, and she ended up raising $29/lap.  Here is one of the letters she wrote:

 
Sweet girl.  :)  The organizers handed out prizes leading up to the run (which we thought was pretty smart), and one day she came home with an awesome headband.


When it came time for Kindergarten to run, she came out with a big smile on her face that lasted pretty much the entire run.  The maximum number of laps they could run to raise money was 36 (2 1/4 miles), and she ran the full 36 - plus a few extra.  She was thrilled, and we were so proud of our little ball of energy (and thankful for generous family members).




Stopping to get her lap marked




At the finish!

Let's Rodeo, San Antonio! (2014 Edition)

A day at the rodeo fairgrounds has become an annual tradition for our family since moving to San Antonio.  Robert got tickets to an afternoon performance on Feb. 8th.  We spent the morning checking out the exhibits and activities.

Will had been talking about riding the pony at the rodeo since our visit last year, so as soon as the ticket stand opened, we were in line to get pony ride tickets.  He loved it again this year!




Other highlights - the Little Buckaroo Farm, Petting Zoo (for Will), and an ice cream treat.






They were a little worn out by the time the actual rodeo started, but they lasted through a few of the events.  Always a fun time - another reason why we love San Antonio!

A Snow Day in February

I'm going through photos from earlier in the year and realized I never posted anything from February - so behind this year!

We had a snow day!  In San Antonio!  In February!

School was cancelled, and as usual, everything was fine by 10 am.  The kids were so excited to see the dusting of snow in our yard.  Robert stayed home that morning, and then we all went out for lunch at Mellow Mushroom before he went into the office.




When we got back, the kids were able to find a few places where the snow accumulated - enough to make some small snow balls.  I was the main focus of attack.  :)






They realized the snow would stick to the fence, so there were a lot of dots on the fence before we went in.


Our hands started getting cold, so we made some hot chocolate to warm up.  Yum!

Reunion at the Flying L: Cowboy Dancing!

As I mentioned in the previous post, Will really loved the live music.  Really, really loved it.  He's recently starting dancing more and created a special silly dance for the theme to the Magic School Bus.  It's always fun to watch.  Will is not afraid to be the center of attention, but we'd never seen anything quite like the performance he put on at the chuckwagon dinner.



I've probably watched this video at least 20 times and still laugh every time!



My favorite thing about this picture is how you can see strangers laughing and some random guy making his own video.




Jacob getting in on the fun.


It was awesome - my favorite memory from the weekend!

Reunion at the Flying L: Part 2

Saturday at the Flying L - we had breakfast with the family, then headed to the water park as soon as it opened.  It was actually a little chilly, but the kids had a blast.  The small water slide and the lazy river were the biggest hits.  The kids had so much fun playing with the other great-grandkids!

Some photos from Robert's aunt.

In the evening we all gathered at the main building for a family photo before dinner.  The kids had so much fun posing in an old buggy.  Will's hands were up in almost every photo as he pretended to hold reins for the imaginary horse pulling the buggy.

Wheee!

Dinner that night was a special event at the ranch - we rode in a wagon out to the "ghost town", a collection of western style buildings.  In addition to barbecue, there were several activities - cowboy dress up, face painting, practice roping, archery, etc.  Will's favorite part was the live music - he put on quite the show for the crowd (more on that later!).

Filthy boots - he had a good time!

We all slept well that night.  :)  Sunday was our last day, and we'd planned to go back to the pool, but the weather was not in our favor.  We enjoyed a last meal with our group, and then drove back into San Antonio.  It was so nice to spend time with our family and give the kids their first "dood ranch" experience!