Trip to visit Uncle Will

In late August, we took a weekend trip to visit with and celebrate Uncle Will's birthday! We had been wanting to go to the Johnson Space Center so that's where we went the first day.

We took the tram on the Mars Control Room tour. It was pretty interesting to see a Nasa Control room and even see live pictures from the International Space Station!

This is the Saturn V rocket that they have there. It's huge!!

The next day, we went to the San Jacinto monument which is just like the Washington Monument, only taller! We walked around the museum in the bottom and took the elevator all the way to the top.

After that, we went to the Battleship Texas.  It's right by the monument. That was pretty fun and interesting as well. WE enjoyed exploring all over the ship. We were getting in LOTS of Texas history on this trip. Evan especially loved this. He is very into all things military and always has lots of questions for my Grandpa about WWII. 

It was a very fun weekend to visit Will and explore some new things in Texas! We'd love to do it again if anyone wants to visit us and go too :)

Start of school

The rest of August flew by and before we knew it, it was time for school to start!  These two were pretty excited, especially Caitlin who was starting Kindergarten! 

Kids made a sign to welcome their teachers!

They both got wonderful teachers and welcome walk was really fun. I love the surprise of waiting to see what teacher will come to your house.  Plus, all the kids are outside and you see different teachers going to all the neighbors. Such a fun tradition!

Evan and his teacher Ms. Collier

Caitlin and her teacher Ms. Ybarra

First day of school!

A bunch of the neighbor kids waiting for the bus on the first day!

We followed Caitlin to school so we could be with her in her classroom on the first day... not that she needed us! She was so ready to start Kinder.

Trip to Minnesota

I was lucky enough to get to travel to Minneapolis after Evan's birthday to visit with some very good friends from college.  We had arranged to all meet up (2 live there, 1 is from there) for a girls weekend/15 year college reunion.  It was so great to see them and catch up. I love that we can get together, and it's like we haven't been apart!

We went boating on the St. Croix river with 'Aine's dad - beautiful!

We enjoyed a picnic by one of the many lakes in Minneapolis!

 We had some delicious ice cream!

 We got a tour of Minneapolis including the Minnehaha Falls.

We went to the Art Museum

And we finally drank this bottle of wine - we had been saving it since 2001 and figured our "15 year reunion" was a great reason to open it and celebrate almost 20 years of friendship!

Thanks ladies for a fabulous weekend. Can't wait to do it again!

p.s. Get ready for blog overload... I'm going to try and do a quick catch up to at least 2016! I can't believe I'm so far behind.

Evan's 7th Birthday Party!

Evan LOVES swimming so it was only natural that for his birthday, we had a swim party at the YMCA.  It was a perfect day for it and everyone had a great time!

Mom and Grandpa had just gotten back from Florida to enjoy the party. 

Evan and some friends waiting for the water slide

Mema and Ryan - I think he loves the water as much as Evan!!

You know me - can't do a party without some pinterest action so here a few pics of the fun things I did to go along with the "swimming" theme!

Swedish fish in blue jello

The vegan cupcakes

Evan's birthday cake

One happy 7 year old!

A little cake on the face never hurt anyone!

All the boys from his soccer team who came to the party

Evan is one lucky boy! He had a great time at the party. Thanks to everyone who came to help him celebrate.  Let's do it again next year :)

July 2015

We stayed in Austin for the rest of July which was nice. The kids had various camps and their normal activities but otherwise, it was nice to just take a break (well, a break in my book at least... I know, I keep us busy!).  

The first week back, Evan did a soccer camp with two of his best buddies. We were lucky that the weather wasn't too hot... yet to hit 100!

Evan lost ANOTHER tooth! I think right now (as of 12/3/15 when I'm writing this post, he has lost 7 teeth and the 8th will fall out any day!).

Caitlin does a gymnastics class and in July they do a showcase where parents can come in and watch everything. Here's some pics from the showcase:

Trampoline - probably her favorite!

Doing backbends and kickovers

Beam

And her medal! Congrats Caitlin!

 

Evan also did his very first swim meet! It was fun to see him get to compete for the first time and he LOVED the whole experience. Great job Evan!

And not to leave the little ones out... we did a VBS at the end of July. Even Ryan and Chelsea got to participate... good practice for the fall when they go to preschool!

July 4th Celebrations

We made it back to Texas just in time for the 4th of July. The kids and I joined the Matz family for the Round Rock parade - always a hit... a cross between parade/Mardi Gras as all the "floats" throw candy to the kids! Due to all the construction downtown, the parade moved to Old Settlers park. We had a great time and got in/out pretty easy!

Waiting for the parade to start

Swat/Police/Fire trucks are always a hit

And even some Star Wars characters made an appearance!!

Texas parade is not complete without covered wagons and horses!

That evening, we went over to a friends house to celebrate some more. We'd missed our friends while we were away!

Evan and his best buddy Alex

Caitlin and her best buddy Ellie- I'm not sure what kind of pose this is!

They even had a water slide - Ryan was in heaven! He LOVES the water.

Group photo with Bomb Pops - da bomb!

And no 4th of July party is complete without sparklers!

Overall,  a great way to celebrate America's birthday - friends, family, and bomb pops!