Green-Clad Kids for St. Patrick's Day 2015

I was at lunch with one of my co-workers from Boston the first week of March, and he mentioned that he'd be receiving the annual installment of my kids in green soon.  I thought it was so cute that he had remembered - it hadn't crossed my mind yet.  Ever since Collin was two months old, I pretty much only send my work team one picture a year of my kids (though my office is covered in photos), every year on March 17th.

So the night before St. Patrick's Day, I got the kids in their green gear and headed to the backyard to take a photo or two.  It was an ordeal!

Maya was ready to ham it up for the camera in this cute skirt and bow my friend Kelly made - 

 

After putting them together in a chair, I was pretty sure I got the winner picture.  But when I looked down to check the photo, I realize my camera setting was in black and white.  Two smiles but no green - mom fail!

Switched to color but still didn't realize that I needed to wipe the outer lens, so every picture I took was blurry, despite the fact that again, two smiles and eyes looking in the direction of the camera -  

Cuddles and smiles - they're happy until someone goes overboard with the hugs and the mood shifts dramatically on a dime!  But oh they love each other.  Tonight my cousin Daniel and Aunt Debbie came to visit.  Collin talked Daniel into tumbling and wrestling, and Maya was distraught.  She didn't understand they were playing, and we had to pause the wrestling to get her out of the room where she was whimpering for Collin.  And then when they started back up again, she couldn't finish her book until she checked on Collin.

My jumping, 1/8th Irish son -

This girl loves her dolls.  Her babies go everywhere - on the trampoline, on the swing, and in the stroller or grocery cart throughout the backyard.

So far she has a few new baby dolls, but the ones she gravitates to the most were ones I had as a child.

I finally cleaned the camera lens and attempted a shot of the two of them.  By this time in the afternoon, they were over posing for pictures.  

With the promise of gummy bears, Collin smiled.

When I dressed Maya in her shamrock skirt, I put her diaper on too loose.  She tugged on it and it came off.  I wasn't too worried since we were outside, and initially I thought I'd only be taking pictures for a minute or two.  Well of course she pooped.  And Fergie rolled in it.  And in cleaning off Fergie, I got some on my pant leg.  And at one point I may have muttered to Collin, "ignore the poop, just be a big boy and smile at the camera!"  It was a glamorous night!

The next morning, a leprechaun visited Collin's school, leaving footprints in the doorway -

And that night, my kids struck gold, as B joined us for dinner, venturing into the kids' play house, bringing homemade cookies, and allowing us to enjoy her company on the back porch as we ate supper.  

Little Texans and other random iphone moments

She wakes up earlier than her parents would prefer, but luckily she wakes up this happy.  What a joy she is to our family!

Late afternoon scooter ride on one of the coldest days in Texas means you wear layers to double your size, including mom's scarf -

How many Hershey Kisses does it take to keep a 20-month-old awake on the 40-minute drive home from the Children's Museum?  On this Friday, FOUR, plus countless rounds of "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Maya likes to take every blanket from the basket in her room to make a pallet for her dolls in the living room.  

 Bed head -

Fun with "Bear Bear" the preschool class bear that came home with us one weekend.  He explored the Children's Museum with Collin, Maya, Grammy and Brownie -   

After several days of rain, I took the kids to the play area in the mall one day after school.  They had fun, but it was insanely crowded.  Collin is a brave climber!

Maya was pretty nervous about approaching the plastic giant originally.  She's normally such a daredevil, it's comforting to watch her be tentative.  The other thing she's hesitant about - bugs!  She's not a fan of lizards and wouldn't touch a doodle bug this afternoon despite our encouragement.

Picked them up from school, where Maya's shirt was inside out and she was wearing an infant headband as a necklace.  And Collin had his undershirt on the outside of his striped wool sweater.  I lay out the clothes and assume that's enough to get them to school looking normal!

Playing with Collin's race set.  She knows one . . . two but she prefers eight . . . nine!


A few weeks ago, we had a fun weekend at my parents' house.  Collin and I started Friday afternoon out with a date to Marble Slab - all smiles for ice cream!

Then that evening, we went to the birthday party of my best friend's 6-year-old.  My kids had a blast, but it made me laugh that on a table filled with pizza and cake - two of Collin's favorite foods - and with the knowledge that it was back to the ball climbing area when he finished, he was still the slowest eater!

Maya getting down on stage at the party - 

On Saturday, we met my best friend and her daughter who is Collin's age at our second mother-son date:  Cinderella.  We both loved it - and I appreciated the motto to "be brave and be kind."  

We tried to return some baby equipment, but not before Maya took one last turn in them.  And holding onto Eric, Collin's doll, who they both prefer -

We headed back to our side of town and had to wake Maya up a tiny bit early from her nap, as we were already more than 30 minutes late to our second birthday party of the weekend.  She was not pleased.

But was content once we got there - a park birthday party complete with veggie straws and chalk.  Both of them had a great time! (I put her veggie straws on a plate but she was adamant about eating them off the sidewalk.  Building immunities!)

Maya's curls are even more evident in our super-humid weather.

Proud singer -

The destroyer strikes again.  She can reach her water faucet, which provides her with limitless entertainment and provides us with a higher water bill.  And unfortunately she can also reach the diaper cream on her changing table.  

 

Collin's school celebrated Dr. Seuss week, and he dressed up for Wacky Wednesday.

Finally, the kids dressed up in about as "Texan" of clothes as we had in their closets for Go-Texan Day at school.

Valentine's Day 2015

We had a wonderful Valentine's weekend.  On Friday, Collin had a school friendship party, and Maya and I had a play date with friends.  I left them in Collin's room Friday morning while I changed, and walked in on them reading together.  

Warms this book-nerd mommy's heart!

Snapped a few more iphone pictures at school drop off - 

Giving her brother a kiss - 

Then we met up with some friends on a gorgeous spring day in Texas.

Maya enjoyed playing with my friend Rachel's 8-month-old daughter, following her around saying "baby."  She lounged in the swing -

And serenaded everyone on the steps to the slide with her ABC-Twinkle, twinkle- Baa Baa Black Sheep rendition - 

After Maya's nap, I picked Collin up from school and headed to drop off the kids with Grammy and Brownie.  Then I turned around and drove back home to meet up with Cas and drive to dinner with our friends.  Before we had even started our whole 30 (30 days of just meat, veggies, fruit & nuts), we had planned a Feb 13th celebration dinner.  And we went to town - bread, wine, and an AMAZING cookie cake Lindsay made us.  We had such a fun time at a delicious restaurant that was new to almost all of us.

Despite having no kids on Saturday, I woke up at 5:30am coughing from this obnoxious head cold.  But I enjoyed a calm morning, and then Cas and I planned to see American Sniper.  The movie theater was so packed that after spending 20 minutes trying to find parking, we called it a day and decided to go to the driving range.  After hitting a bucket of balls, Cas suggested we play some holes.  He went in to the golf office to see if we could hit just a few holes, and the initial person was going to charge him the full (municipal course) rate of $37 per person.  He negotiated with the manager who ended up letting both of us play for $23.  This is hilariously wonderful to me - it was a situation where it never would have occurred to me to negotiate, though we definitely wouldn't have gotten our money's worth out of the full price cost.

So for the first time in my life, I played on a golf course.  I considered myself hugely successful in that my ball stayed on my hole the entire time, quite often I played my own ball, and of the six holes we played, I only lost one ball.  There was no one behind us - which was huge since our first hole took at least 25 minutes - and Cas could create a few drills to teach me how to get the ball out of the sand trap.  We had a great Valentine's date.

Meanwhile with my parents, Maya and Collin were enjoying the morning at the park -  

My parents' neighbor has a cute puppy named Dash.  Maya brings him up in conversation daily.  She asks about Grammy, Brownie, Dash - in that order - all of the time.  So of course as soon as my parents get them out of the car, they run to see if Dash is outside.  

Saturday evening, we had a fun, casual family dinner.  My Aunt Debbie stopped by and read with Maya while we got dinner unloaded from the take-out bags -

We ate some Cuban food, finished off with heart sugar cookies Collin and Grammy had made, and then burnt off that sugar in a foam sword fight -

 No mercy for Maya

Silly faces while swords are swinging -

Collin got a taste of his out-sized medicine -

The boys battle -

And wrapped up the night with a group shot or two -my grandmas, my parents, and my kids -

Sunday morning, Cas and I mistakenly changed clothes for church at the same time, leaving Maya in the living room for about 2 minutes unsupervised.  And in that short time, she found, tipped over, and then covered herself with unsweetened cocoa powder.  She tromped into my closet leaving chocolate dust and footprints in her wake.  Our sweet destroyer -