Solar Systems, etc.

Here's a few random pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Huston likes to make solar systems.  Every day he draws at least one or two, and sometimes many more than that.  He uses crayons, dry erase markers, watercolors, do-a-dot markers, stickers, magnets... pretty much everything you can think of.  Sometimes he creates 3D models, like the ones below that he made out of playdough and using balls to represent the planets.  Saturn is that marble in the front with the ring around it.  Isn't that creative?

Clarke made a "solar system" game using all these balls to represent planets, and sometimes we all play it together.  You pretty much just pick up a couple of "planets" and "orbit" around the sun (my big green exercise ball) until Huston yells "Switch!" at which point you change to some different planets and orbit some more.  It's great fun.

I went to Goodwill two weeks ago and picked up a toy doctor's kit for $1.35.  Aren't these pictures of the kids playing with it so cute?  Huston kept checking "Baby Junior" on Arden's foot.  This particular day it was discovered that Baby Junior had a thousand eye balls.

I took these pictures of Arden after church last Sunday, just because I'm so happy to have a child that will happily say "Sure!" when I ask if I can take her picture.

We took the kids swimming yesterday and today, and they have both been wearing their swim vests and arm floats.  It is making Huston soooo much more confident in the water.  When he first tried his swim vest without the arm floats, he would sink straight to the bottom.  But then he went crazy exploring and kicking using both the vest and the arm things, and by the end of the day today he shocked me by stripping off his arm floaties and kicking around ABOVE the water with just his vest on.  I am so proud of him!  Next week he starts his second round of swim lessons with Fort Worth Family Swim, and I'm praying he does really well.

I hosted a baby shower for a friend this weekend, and took home these flowers.  Fresh flowers make me so happy, but I never have them around.

And now, Clarke and I are off to watch Downton Abbey.  I'm so happy to finally be watching it after hearing so many great things!

Kid's Kamp 2012

Today was Huston and Arden's first full day of Kid's Kamp (Arden went yesterday, but the bigger kids started today).  I put Huston in the kindergarten group so he could be with some of his friends (Noah, Tug, and Grayson).

In the morning assembly, Huston was in the fetal position with his hands covering his ears - but I think it was mostly because he saw me and didn't want me watching him.

He seemed to have a great time the rest of the day, and so did Arden!  Arden told me about the puppets in her room - Boomer and Lulu.  She said Boomer was a bear, and Lulu was a monkey, and that Boomer wouldn't wake up.  She also talked about the songs they sang in the "other classroom" (because they walked to a different room for the singing).

I'm on the E team this year (evangelism team).  I got to pray with a little first grade boy to accept Jesus! It was awesome!

The theme of Kid's Kamp this year is "Real Heroes" and just a few minutes ago, Huston said, out of the blue, "My favorite super hero is God.  Because He saved us.  That's the real super hero."

Be still my heart - I love it!

Every year I'm overwhelmed by the thought of volunteering for Kid's Kamp.  It's exhausting and sometimes I wish I hadn't signed up.  But every year it is so awesome and I can't imagine missing it.  This year is no exception - it is amazing to see a thousand kids worshipping God and to hear all the small group leaders sharing the gospel with their kids.  I love, love, love it!

My Little Hoarder

This is the way Huston's room looks on any given day:

Lego creations strewn about the floor, his favorite books all scattered about, transformers guarding the entrance, and a random grocery cart full of items that he assembled three weeks ago and parked in his room, refusing to let anyone else touch it.

Here it is on a different day.  Notice Dinah standing at the entrance of her "house."

A set of cups assembled in an orderly fashion, a random drum stick, and a comet stencil.

A line of plates and teacups:

It is an absolute disaster and he guards all of his treasures fiercely.  Like a mama bear protecting her cubs.  He's always yelling, "Arden!  Where are you going?!" if he thinks Arden might be heading to his room.  He even does it to me, saying, "Mommy, where are you?  What are you doing?" for the sole purpose of knowing if I'm in his room moving something around.  Before he spent the night at Clarke's parent's house a few weeks ago, he asked, "Mommy, are you going to have to vacuum tonight?" because he knows that when I vacuum I need the floor cleared, and he hates having to clean up his floor.

It really is like he gets more enjoyment out of being surrounded by piles of things he loves.  I can only imagine the problems this could cause down the line (Hoarders, anyone?)

I finally had enough of it last week, and convinced him that a major clean up was in order.  We managed to agree on where to put everything so it's accessible, but neat.  Who knows how long it will stay like this, but I'm enjoying it for now.

I even got him a funky new little chair at a garage sale for $10.  He said it was his favorite chair ever.

The Night We Almost Went to the Ranger Game

Last night we had flashbacks to January - the episode where We Almost Went to the Rodeo. It was one of those days where nothing went right.

Clarke woke up and headed out the door on his way to Dallas for a hearing, only to come right back in the door announcing that he had a flat tire.  He took my car to Dallas and luckily made it to court on time.  Thankfully, my mom was already planning on spending the day with us, so she came over and the kids and I went shopping with her and then we met Clarke at the food court in the mall for lunch and to swap keys so I would have his car key when I called to get his car towed.

Clarke went back to work, and the kids and I came home with my mom.  I called the tow truck (free with our insurance - yea!), they picked up the car, took it to NTB, they called and said it was covered under some road hazard policy we didn't know we had, and it would be $40 (also yea! because we thought it would be a lot more).  My mom took me and the kids to pick the car up, we drove home, we got back in my mom's car and she chauffeured us to downtown to meet Clarke at his office, because we were supposed to meet our friends, Ryan and Abby, and their kids at the Ranger game.

Immediately upon entering the highway, the traffic was AWFUL.  We barely moved for about 20 minutes, exited and tried to get around the traffic, got back on and finally got to the ballpark.  We paid $10 for parking and started the long trek to the entrance. 

Ominous dark clouds filled the sky.  We could have turned around.  But still, we kept walking.  By the time we got to the gates, raindrops were starting to fall.  We got to the ticket window and started asking about tickets.  Don't ask me why we didn't buy our tickets ahead of time.  It's so not like us - we always buy them online.  Somehow we were thinking it was a decade ago when the Rangers were bad and you could go to a random Wednesday game without any issues.  Well - newsflash - it's 2012 and the Rangers are awesome and everyone and their dog and their third cousin and their grandma from Idaho was at the game.  

Anyway, the ticket people offered us tickets that were $45 each for obstructed view seats, $71 each for obstructed view, or $25 each for standing room only.  By this point it was raining hard and we thought we should cut our losses, so we declined the absurdly expensive bad seats and started the loooong walk back to our car.

And it rained on us.  The whole way.  Really hard.  And I was carrying Arden and Clarke was carrying Huston and it took forever to walk back to our car.  And by the time we got to our car it was late and we were hungry and wet and it was not raining quite as hard anymore and we were thinking maybe we should have just stayed at the game.

I asked the parking guy if he would have mercy on us and refund our money.  He told us, "Sorry, I'm closed."  We wondered, "Did you burn the money?  Eat it?  What do you mean, closed?"  But he did offer us a 50% discount the next time if we brought our parking ticket from this game back.  Umm... right.  We're holding our breath on that one.  "Remember us, from that random game where it rained a few weeks ago?  Here's our nondescript brown parking ticket.  You told us to bring it back.  Remember?"

Anyway, here are our rain drenched kiddos.

We pulled into Mama's Pizza.

The kids were clamoring for their dinner (by now it was 8 o 'clock).

I asked Arden to take a picture of me and Clarke with my iphone.  Here's her attempt:

Here's Huston's attempt:

Here's our pizza:

And the view on the way home - not a drop of rain.

The saddest thing is that it was going to be our last time to see Ry and Ab before they leave next week for an indeterminate amount of time to be missionaries overseas.  Far, far away.  :(  I was so sad about that.  And about missing dollar hot dog night.  But mostly about that.

So, Ryan and Abby - WE LOVE YOU! So sorry our poor planning and other circumstances prevented us from hanging out.

And, if you need us, we'll be huddled inside our house.  Not attempting to do anything fun like go to the rodeo or a baseball game.

Burger Celebration!

Yesterday when we got home from swimming lessons, it stormed like crazy!  Today it was cool and drizzling, but we were still able to have the kids' last swim lessons.

Sweet Huston was so fearful and would not swim off the step to his teacher during his lesson.  I was watching him through the window, and he was just so nervous to get his head in the water.  Hopefully these past four days have been a good primer for his lessons that are coming up in July, because he definitely didn't make a ton of progress this week!

After lessons, Courtney and I took the kids to In-n-out Burger for lunch.  It was my first time eating there, and I thought it was really good!

We were able to sit outside since it was a breezy 70 degrees - such a lovely treat to have cool weather in June.  Huston kept saying how sad he was that it was our last day.  I think that's definitely a testament to his sweet friendship with Grayson, since he is for sure not going to miss his swim lessons!  He and Grayson really did become great buddies - hopefully we'll see them more this summer!

Swim Lessons, Days 2 and 3

So, Day 2 of swim lessons involved more tears than day 1.  Both of my kids cried for part of their lessons, though they recovered and were able to keep going.

Today, their third day of lessons, went much better with no tears again.  Huston and Arden are both so stiff in the water, though.  They're not at all comfortable with it yet, but I guess that's okay.

We've been having the best time hanging out with our friends after lessons are over and enjoying some lazy play time in the pool.  Today my friend Courtney and I fed the kids pizza for lunch and then we all swam together.  Huston called this his "fun" swim lessons.   He asked, "Are we going to have my fun swim lessons today?"

All the kids enjoying their post swim ice cream treat, courtesy of Courtney!

Arden

Grayson

Asher

Huston

What a bunch of cutie pies!

Swim Lessons - Round 1, Day 1

Huston and Arden have their first set of swim lessons this week.  I took these pictures before we left the house this morning - they both insisted they couldn't look at the camera because it was too sunny (no matter which way we turned) - that's why their faces look so crazy.

I was really worried this spring when I missed the sign up for the swim school Huston attended last summer.  But my friend Courtney invited us to use her dad's pool and just take private swim lessons there right after her boys.  It's a perfect solution!  And Huston ended up getting a spot at the other school for July, so he'll have another two weeks of lessons later in the summer.

I was so proud of both of them today!  Neither one cried!  Huston went first and his teacher (Ms. Lyndsay) said he was a little stiff (which I could totally tell as I watched him through the window - he was stiff as a board when she tried to get him to float on his back).  But he refused to wear his goggles today, and tomorrow I'm going to make him wear them so he won't worry as much about getting water in his eyes.

I had no idea what to expect from Arden, but she did great!  The teacher said she was even more willing and less fearful than the boys.  She did everything she was told to do, including putting her face in the water.  It was adorable to watch her on the noodle kicking her little feet!

Hooray for a tears-free first day!