We love our kids' school, and Collin's class does so many fun activities each week - from field trips to letter-of-the-week show-and-tell to book reports to science experiments - all with plenty of time to play and use their imagination. This made me laugh when I saw the difference between the girl's house - complete with flowers and birds and Collin's house, which had barely recognizable stick figures "having a silly string fight."
Maya thinks goggles are necklaces and layers on any she'd find in the backyard.
Collin's "superman prayer" learned at school -
His decorated classroom for their (Halloween) fairy tale ball -
Our ninja by the castle -
Sorting out his Halloween loot in my IU shirt (which he has taken over since it's the softest shirt ever)!
On a rainy school day, Maya and I hit the play area in the mall -
Collin - who without giving me any context, asked me what made the "th" sound - and proceeded to write out "happy birthday" for a card for Cas in November. I was shocked and proud!
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I was still recovering from a 12-hour stomach bug. I sat on the curb and watched my dad, brother and uncle try to put my bike back on the rack. Cas had it secured on the way up to New Braunsfels, but he left early to go to the Green Bay game with a client, so it was left up to these three on the return drive. We had it tied up with a garbage bag for the drive to HEB, where Alex bought some bungee cords that kept it on back to Houston. By the grace of God, my bike made it both ways without falling off and causing a wreck! And of course, we didn't use the bike once in NB!
On Christmas break, after too many rainy, cold days indoors, we invited ourselves to Amber's house where she had minute-to-win-it games!
Trying to move the oreo from the forehead to the mouth without hands!
What are the silly boys doing, cookies are for eating!
The girls in the bucket!
Collin in a sweater my great-grandmother knit for my brother!
Selfie in the snow - on a business trip to Ohio
Enjoying the bubble machine we got for Collin's birthday -
And Cas and Collin inside "green top" - their outside playhouse.
Sweet morning snuggles and books -
We called to FaceTime with Uncle Alex and Aunt Coady on Coady's birthday (when Cas was out of town). The kids didn't last long on the phone, and when I hung up with them a few minutes later . . . after a few minutes of ignoring the kids . . . they had emptied the dvd cabinet and Maya had the syrup bottle in her lap!
Two days after Collin's fifth birthday, Cas took him to the Rockets game. It was a perfect game with a 4:30pm start time. We were shocked that Collin lasted the whole game in the stands. He came home still on cloud nine, so we had to make a video to send Uncle Alex and Aunt Coady since he watched them beat their Indiana team.
The downtown aquarium was buy one get one free on weekends in January, so we visited for the first time.
This huge white tiger scared Maya and pounced on the glass at Cas, which made everyone flinch!
But Collin was all grins next to the plastic one -
Collin requests the dogs every night, and Bruno's not complaining about his spot on the bed -
Late in January, Collin's new school had an open house. We got to meet his kindergarten teachers and tour the brand new school. I snapped one picture of the library, but the school, which just opened this semester, is gorgeous. Collin shyly introduced himself to all the teachers, and Maya set about destroying the kindergarten class rooms, but impressively, was putting together some of their puzzles!
At work last week, my boss re-gifted a cookie basket to me. Which would have been great except I was day 21 into a 30-day clean-eating challenge. So I had to stare at the cookies all day and try to pass them out to my co-workers. Two are in my freezer to be eaten on day 31. With four of my friends, we're doing whole30 - just meat, fruit, veggies and nuts for 30 days. The only thing I miss is chocolate and wine!
Cooking for whole30 - which takes more planning since I can't throw sandwiches together for lunch or oatmeal for breakfast - has taken up a considerable amount of my Sunday afternoons. That mixed with busy work and a lot of Cas' travel or nights studying for a finance work test, meant I hadn't blogged in weeks. I'll end whole 30 this week just in time - the next day I have lunch with my work mentor and the day after that, I fly up to Philly and back for a work dinner.
Maya takes babies everywhere (just like I did), and here's Jayla jumping on the trampoline -
Fun at Winterfest with Grammy -
After Winterfest, we headed to see Cas' cousin perform in her high school musical, Annie, where she had the lead role and did amazing! Collin and Grandma Libia posed before the show. Collin made it to intermission with minimal squirming, but we called it a night - which was a good decision since he crashed in the car only a few minutes in to our drive home.
Hopefully I'll have more time to catch my breath, take days off, and keep capturing all the fun moments!
