The Maybourn Museum

On the way to grandma and grandpa's house, we stopped at one of our favorite places in Waco - the Maybourn Children's Museum. It is awesome!!! They have soooo many fun rooms to explore. Here are some pictures:

Happy Birthday, Miles!

All Miles wanted for his birthday this year was "a blue cake with trucks on it . . ."

but he was THRILLED when he saw his new lawn mower

"oh my GOODNESS!!!!!"

a new backpack and lunchbox for school

and a bug vacuum!!!

Happy Birthday, Miles!!! We love you!!!

Happy Father's Day

This year for Father's Day, we made a really cool photo book for Jerry. We loved him so much! He is the best dad, ever! I love how he is not to cool to do silly things, and I love that he is always willing to help me out with whatever, including diapers and baths. He is the best!!!

Here is what the kids had to say in their cards this year:

My favorite thing to do with my dad is: play checkers (Darren)
swim in the deep with him (Claire)

At work, my dad: engineers (Darren)
helps put parts on an airplane (Claire)

If I could get my dad a present, it would be: a new watch (Darren)

How old is your dad? 37 (Darren) 27 (Claire)


My dad likes to: play chess (Darren)
play play dough with me (Claire)

Crazy Hair-Bear!

Here is Sammi at 13 and 14 months old.

Six Flags

My mom and brother went with us to Six Flags. I was so hoping that the day after the Fourth of July holiday wouldn't be busy, but it was! It wouldn't have been so bad, but a lot of rides were shut down because of lightening. At one point the whole park shut down because of a really bad thunder storm. We were stuck at the train depot when it happened. They finally let us on the train and then we got stuck on the tracks because of some branches in the road! We were able to ride a few rides, but I think it will be a while before we go back . . .

Fun Fridays

Each week this summer that the kids completed their chores every day, we had "Fun Friday". They would pick an activity out of an envelope on Sunday night, and then we would look forward to it all week long! They did such a great job with their chores, and it was fun to do some new things together. Here are some of the fun things we did (unfortunately, I didn't always bring my camera with us!)

Week 1: Train Ride and Picnic (mine and Miles' favorite activity!)

Week 2: Lunch at McDonald's with friends

Week 3: Cabella's

Week 4: Swimming at Crawford Farms and prizes from the Dollar Store
(plus Grandma came to visit!) Claire got her first makeup set :)

Week 5: Swimming and dinner at Chick-Fil-A
(it was Cow Appreciation Day, so we all got free food for dressing up like cows!)

Week 6: Let's Jump and Cake Decorating. My wonderful visiting teacher had us over and helped me make this cake and let the kids decorate cupcakes. (Miles licked the side of the cake, and it cracked before I was able to take a picture!) We made the cake for Jerry since he always has to miss out on our fun Fridays. We loved Let's Jump, too!

Week 7: Splash Pad

Week 8: "Shrek: The Final Chapter" - I braved a movie with all four kids at the dollar theater. Michelle Dupre and her girls met us there. The kids did great!

All in all, we had a great summer and are looking forward to many more
Fun Fridays!!!

Cow Appreciation Day

Today was cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-A. If you dressed up like a cow, you got a free meal. We even talked Jerry into going with us! It was funny to see all the people in their cow costumes (some people were in full costume.) Thanks for the tip, Susan!

Swimming Lessons

Every summer that we've lived here, I've either been pregnant or had a newborn baby, so we haven't taken much advantage of the pools. This summer, it was time for everyone to learn how to swim so that we could go more often. Miles is the youngest in his class, so he's not quite coordinated enough to do everything the teacher asks him to do, but she makes him go under water every time he jumps to her. Claire did great. She doesn't like to put her face in the water, but she can swim several feet by herself and isn't afraid of the water any more. Darren LOVED swimming lessons and learned lots of new strokes. On the first day of class, none of the other kids wanted to get in the water because it was cold. Darren tricked them by doing a cannon ball, and telling them that the water felt great. As soon as everyone else did their cannon balls, he jumped right back out!
The kids' favorite part of lessons was going down the slides on the last day. Now that Darren and Claire can swim, they can go down the slides by themselves!

Happy Nine!

Jerry spoiled me this year for our anniversary! First, he took me shopping, then out to dinner, then to see "Eclipse". Eclipse was the perfect romantic movie. Apparently, other people thought so too, because there were several parts where everyone clapped. It was kind of funny, because we were expecting the movie to be totally crowded because it was opening weekend. We ordered our tickets online and skipped the Cheesecake Factory because we didn't think we had time to eat there and get to the movies early enough to get a good seat. It wasn't busy at all because of the fireworks show and live music right next to the theater. We caught the last part at the end of the movie. As you can see, we still have fireworks! I love you so much, honey! Thanks for nine wonderful years, Jerry, and thanks, mom, for babysitting!

So, Sammi didn't get to take swimming lessons, but here are some cute pictures of her in her swimsuit. She likes the water okay, but DOES NOT like staying in her floatie!