Waco and Crawford

We drove down to Central Texas for the weekend to see some family and friends! We swam at Grandpa and Nanna's in Crawford, and visited their horses. Then on Saturday we headed to Waco to hang out with the Brookses. We swam at their country club and went to church with them in the morning. Waco is filled with so many memories for us and I love that we get to make more with our kids!

VBS #2

This past week we had VBS at our church. The theme was Big Apple Adventure so everything was based in New York. They even had a class for kids going into Kindergarten, so Aidan went and even brought his friends Kaelyn, Ryan, and Jake! And since I was working, Avery got to be in the nursery with the rest of the preschool-age kids of the volunteers. I taught Missions with my friend Catherine and although I was nervous about being on this side of VBS for the first time (I am SO not a teacher), the kids were awesome and the days went by really fast! It was fun to see them getting excited about answering questions and playing games. I had to miss the last day because I came down with a sore throat Thursday night which turned out to be strep...and Avery had it too although her throat doesn't seem to hurt at all and she seems back to her regular self! My throat still hurts but Daniel has been around to take care of the kids and let me get some rest :)

Friends & Family

I've had lots of fun get-togethers lately! It's always nice to do that before school starts and life gets crazy.

First, I met up with some of my college sorority sisters and their kids for a fun KD playdate! Abby & Hunter, Tate, Emmy, & Lyla, Gracie, Avery & Aidan, Blake & Cody:

Abby, Avery, and Gracie were all born within a month of each other. Little cuties!

Then we decided it would be more fun to go out for a KD dinner WITHOUT kids! Me with Mandy, Maggie, & Shannon:

I had lunch with three of my favorite cousins Sara, Meredith, and Tracey (and Tracey's boyfriend Jeff!):

This is actually from last month, but I went to brunch with five of my old advising co-workers from UTD. We call ourselves SOM (School of Management) refugees! Renee, Kellyn, Claire, me, Ana, Manana:

This and That

Here's some of what we've been up to the past couple of weeks! Daniel's been traveling a lot and the kids and I have done our best to stay busy.

We had Aidan's friend Cade over for a sleepover:

This is Aidan's new hobby...drawing superheroes and cutting them out (or just cutting them out from a coloring book). Scraps of paper EVERYWHERE!

Fingerpainting:

Aidan is really starting to read! He still needs a lot of help, but I'll catch him sounding out words. He really doesn't like to sit down with me and read books (I even signed him up for the reading program at our library but I couldn't get him interested!). He does really great when he wants to, and I'm trying not to push it because I don't want to burn him out before kindergarten. I'm trying to come up with fun ways to "trick" him into reading though. I saw this great idea on Pinterest on using legos to build sentences:

Just being silly:

Comanche

We just got back from a weekend visit to Comanche to visit Gigi, Cookie, & Jeff. Our trip happened to coincide with the Comanche Rodeo and Parade! We went to the rodeo both nights and the kids loved it. Cookie was convinced Aidan should try mutton busting (kids riding sheep) but it looked pretty intimidating and the kids sometimes get trampled a bit when they fall off! Daniel and I both backed up his decision not to try it :) We thought he might like to do the Calf or Goat Scrambles (less "risky," just running around with other kids trying to get ribbons off of animals), but no dice there either. He has always been very cautious when it comes to trying new things. He likes to watch, but he's just not as adventurous and likely to jump right in as his sister :) Makes me wonder how the first day of kindergarten is going to go?!? Anyway, we finally convinced him to join Daniel and Avery on the field for the Goat Scramble. He ended up not liking it but what can I say, he's a city boy not a farm boy! We gave him props for trying something new though. Meanwhile Avery (who's pretty much a farm girl at heart!) had fun although she didn't "get" it, and just wanted to pet the goat. The parade Saturday morning was fun too even though the loud fire trucks at the beginning were definitely not Avery's favorite part! We loved spending some time with our family and eating some good home cooking :) Thanks for a fun weekend, Gigi and Cookie!!

Rodeo Night #1...maybe someday I'll get a decent family picture! Until then, please ignore Aidan's grimace and Avery's Mardi Gras maneuver!


Cookie & Aidan:

Cookie's house got tp'd on Friday night! She lives across the street from Gigi (where we sleep) and Gigi and Aidan were the first ones that saw it in the morning. Aidan called Cookie and told her to look outside! Cookie is a high school teacher plus there are some mischievous kids at their church, so there are lots of suspects ;)

Aidan at the parade:

Cookie & Avery:

Aidan doing Where's Waldo with Gigi:

Water balloons in Cookie's backyard:

Rodeo Night #2: Before the Goat Scramble (sorry it's dark):

Calf-Roping!

Avery & Jeff:

The Indian statues at Miguel's (where we had lunch after church). Don't you like Aidan's "cheese" face?


How.

4th of July Fun

We watched fireworks with the Lewis family on Saturday night in Sachse. We had gone to the water park that morning, so both kids took a great nap which made it possible to take the kids out at 9:30 at night! Avery was a little nervous about the fireworks (she held onto Grammy's and Daddy's necks pretty tight) but warmed up to them after a while. It was fun, although no one bothered to turn off the sprinklers at the high school we sat in front of, and everyone got completely soaked at least 3 times! It was a little annoying having to move around as different sprinklers turned on, but it was also pretty funny :)



My mom and I took the kids out to do some fun stuff including seeing Cars 2, going to our neighborhood pool, and going to an indoor playplace called Safari Park. My kids loved it!




Of course we did our Lewis eating out traditions at El Fenix, Luby's, and Babe's. Here's a cute picture of Avery reading with Papi:

Hawaiian Falls

I got a good deal through a friend for tickets to Hawaiian Falls, a nearby water park. My parents have been in town so they came with us, along with my brother who drove up for the weekend. They had a fun kids' area, a lazy river, and a wave pool. We went on Saturday which was crowded, but we got there right before it opened and staked out a good shady spot. Fun times!!

Sage's Birthday

We celebrated Cousin Sage's 3rd birthday by having a party at their house with Cookie and Gigi. Here are some pics of the cousins!