Fly Fly Butterfly

Today, we went to Orange Texas to Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Center for the Annual Butterfly Release.  I even pulled Natalia out of school early :0).

Carson and his friends from pre-school.

Luke and his little friend from church and BSF.

Shangri La also offered a Caterpillar Crawl.  Employees helped the kids look for caterpillars...

I think Luke's favorite part was watering the plants!

Here is a picture of all three together.  Couldn't leave the place without a group picture!

And then it was time to go to Awana's after we drove through McDonad's to get dinner...

To be honest with you, I think THAT was their very favorite part of the trip.  The poor kids couldn't believe it when I pulled into McDonald's.  They all told me "thank you" several times.  Then I heard them discussing how I NEVER take them to McDonald's!

Now...You Wouldn't Expect Anything Else, Would You?

Well, believe it or not, my Prince Charming has done it again!  Last week he asked me to move my car so that he could go to work and yes...he hit it!  I no longer have a license plate in the front of my car.  Good thing it's not required in the state of Texas (so I think.)  He can no longer close his trunk.  He tried tying it down, but that's not working.  So now, he just drives around town with an open trunk.  He's also missing the hubcap on his left front tire.  Is anyone in the market for a Honda Civic?  I'll even throw in a dog for free!  He hunts and you can scratch squirrel off your grocery list!

Hey, who cares about the cars when you can have good coffee whenever you feel like?  Look at what got me!!!  Oh my, this little appliance is awesome. We were at Matt & Elizabeth's the other day and Matt introduced us to this gold mine.  I'm telling you, it's like having Starbucks right at your house.  I hope I slow down once the excitement wears off, but I've used this little guy every day. 

Oh wait a second though...that's not all he has been up to lately.  He also installed the wooden floor in our future little office!  Yes, he is such a handy man.... Thanks Dave for all your hard work!

Meanwhile, while Dave was at home working hard on that wood floor, I decided to also be useful and help out so I took the kids to the Stark Museum of Art in Orange Texas.  I know... that's just the kind of wife and mom I am.  Always helping out!  I was smart though and I dragged my dear friend Elizabeth out there :0).  She is always so willing and very helpful!

It was family day and they had a special feature: Bluebonnets and Beyond by Julian Onderdonk.  Natalia and Carson were very interested in the paintings and Luke, well he was just there.  The lady that walked around with us was excellent.  She really got the kids talking about the paintings.

After enjoying some excellent art work, we walked across the street to make some art.  As always, this experience was very enjoyable.  Nothing like some "hands on" opportunity.

The kids had a blast.  To end the day on a good note, Elizabeth and I decided to drive by a little snow cone stand, but they were closed!!!!  You just don't understand.  We've tried to buy a snow cone from this place several times and every time we go...it's closed!  How is that possible. Apparently, according to Hetal, these are the best snow cones ever.  I don't think we'll ever know :0( .  

Squirrel Anybody?

This afternoon we were outside playing with Freund.  Everything was going well until I asked him to go and get his bone and this is what he brought!

A squirrel!!!!!  (Wrong bone!)

Here is Freund proud of his hunting skills.

I couldn't believe it when I saw that thing right at my feet.  I tried to beg him to take it back to the very back of the yard so that Dave could pick it up when he got home, but he didn't listen to me :-( !  So.... since it was right outside the back entrance, I had to pick it up!  It was so gross, I thought I was going to throw up.  

Does anybody want a good hunting dog????  He is free!!!!!!!  I'll just wait for you to contact me. In the mean time...Bon appétit!

Tea Party!

Always looking for a teachable moment (and a good excuse for why I'm not cooking dinner)!  Yesterday afternoon, we ate pizza on our way to the Tea Party!  

Here are some photos:

Natalia and Carson enjoying the party!

Oh oh!  Now Natalia is walking around saying "That's not fair, Obama is taking our money away!" and "Why is he borrowing so much money?  That's not right!"  ~Oh boy, what have we done?!

Easter Weekend

We really don't have any traditions for Easter which makes it kind of nice.  This Easter, my parents were able to come to Beaumont for the weekend.  It was a treat for all of us!  When my parents are in town, the kids get to do a lot of things we don't usually do with them and Dave and I get some time off  :0).  

This year, I decided to make the Easter Cookie Story with the kids.  It was getting late (past their bed time) and I was so tempted to say "forget it, we'll do it next year", but I couldn't.  Natalia and Carson kept asking me if it was time to make the cookies, so we made them and I'm glad we did.

 

The Easter Bunny brought the kids rain  boots, some Easter eggs with money (BIG hit!) and, as always, a Chocolate Bunny (which is a MUST at our household!) 

  

And you are NOT going to believe this, but I have no pictures of the family on Easter Day!  Now, what happened?????  I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of at least the three of them with their Easter clothes on.  I don't know!  Well...the boys wore jeans because Carson decided that he doesn't like to wear khaki pants and NO button up shirts for him.  Oh and no pastel polo's either!  I mean, is he old enough to decide what he is going to wear?  I don't think so, but to tell you the truth...that's one battle I DO NOT want to fight.  Dave tells me I fight way too many battles so I'm trying to back off a little and that is one I really don't care enough about to fight.  Natalia, on the other hand, was wearing a beautiful and I mean BEAUTIFUL dress Grannie made for her.  The only picture I have is this one :0(

I mean, how pitiful is that?  This photo was taken at Lowe's.  Look at my poor Dad, he was so tired!  My parents had taken the kids to the bookstore after lunch while Dave and I stayed home cleaning the carport.  Right before dinner, I met them at Lowe's to buy some items for the guest house we are building on the back of our house.  ~Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us with the kids!  

Hope you had a marvelous Easter!

Week Recap - Can You Say Crazy?!

I still haven't finished blogging about our Spring Break fun, but just wanted to let you know what we've been up to this week.

Wow, what a busy week.  Ready for some rest!!!!

*Last Saturday, we attended the Annual Easter Party at Mr. & Mrs. Ivey's house.  As always, we had a great time.

 

Natalia and her best friend Hannah

   

The kids went fishing and we also went on a little canoe ride.

*Sunday morning, my friend Brittney picked me up at 6:00 a.m. to go and buy junk at Round Top!  Oh, I love doing sort of thing.  Dave, on the other hand, stays home hoping and praying that I don't go too crazy and buy too much junk.  

Here is Brittney and the truck full with all our junk!

   

Meanwhile, Dave and the kids were planting an herb garden!  

  

*Oh yea, and this is a picture of Dave and my new old outdoor furniture I got at Round Top.  You have to have vision to see what this furniture will look like one day!  :-)  ~Dave just can't wait to see!!!

*Lately, Natalia has been waking up with the desire to serve her Daddy.  ~More power to you girl!  It is the sweetest thing.  She is so proud of all her hard work.  And Daddy, well, he is eating it up!

  

*Carson had a little presentation at school this past week.  He is so shy that he just stood there looking cute.  ~I sure hope he grows out of this :-(

  

*Oh, what a busy day I had on Thursday.  Carson's Easter party was at 11:00, then Luke's was at 12:15 and Natalia's at 1:30.  They had a blast though!

  

Natalia and some of her friends from school.

  

*Dave went to Houston on Thursday night for a tennis tournament, so we decided to have fun. We rented a movie and built a fort.  What????  I can't believe I did this.  If you know me, you know that I'm all for schedules and I definitely won't make a mess I later have to clean up.  But, I did on Thursday night.  The kids couldn't believe it and we had so much fun.  

  

*Today, we ended our week by making breakfast together.  Natalia cooked the eggs, Carson was in charge of the bacon and Luke took care of the biscuits.  We spent our afternoon at the park and ate dinner at Chick-Fil-A.

Hope y'all have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

Rain, Rain Go Away - Spring Break Part 2

Our stay in San Antonio durning Spring Break was planned out - so I thought, until it started raining on and off for a couple of days.  But, no worries, we stayed busy during those rainy days too.  First of all, per Carson's request, I mean supplication, we enjoyed bagels for breakfast one morning!  We also went shopping, got haircuts, watched more TV than usual and enjoyed an afternoon at the Children's Museum.

Enjoying yummy bagels

Shopped until they dropped (which didn't take long)!

Ah, amazing what a haircut can do.

They loved "grocery shopping at HEB!"

     

They enjoyed making humongous bubbles too!