Texas Vacation (Part One)

Andy took a week off of work so we could go to Texas.  We headed out super early on Saturday morning (June 30).  The drive to Houston takes forever with two restless children in the car.  I love DVD players and snack boxes!

The girls were so excited to see Taylor, Tyler and Shelby.

And we can't forget about their dog, Bo.

 On Sunday we headed to the beach.  My kids had never seen the ocean so they were pretty excited.  The bad weather did not really bother them.  I think it probably rained half of the time we were there.  They got to play for a little bit, and then we would sit in the car.  I guess the good thing is that there were no crowds and we did not get sunburned!

Caroline loved jumping the waves with her daddy.  I was really shocked.  I did not think she would like being in the salty water.  I was wrong!

Kayla also loved it!  That did not surprise me at all.

 The family

I just think this is a sweet picture of Caroline with her Aunt Amy.

So there was this nasty seaweed stuff all over the place.   Naturally, they have to throw it at each other.

 Gross

 The weather was not great, but we all had a good time.  It was a good first visit to the beach.

 Monday we drove around the old neighborhood.  Here is the house I grew up in. 

 Taylor and Kayla

Shelby and Caroline

Tyler and Caroline

Goofy girls having fun with my camera

Monday night we went to Shelby's swim meet.  I loved it!  It brings back great memories for me. 

It was HOT!!!

Go Shelby!  And that age group mom is doing a fantastic job!

 We had a great time in Houston.  We got up early on Tuesday morning for the next part of our Tour of Texas. 

To be continued...

Finishing the School Year

The end of the school year is always so crazy.  The blog has been hit or miss with a lot of the school activities, but hopefully this will finish the school year off.

Kayla went on a field trip to a Drillers baseball game.  It was not my idea of a fun field trip, but Kayla was excited to be out of school.  It was hot and extremely crowded.  There are only 2 days at the end of the year set aside for schools to take field trips to the ballpark.  There were a lot of people there.

They started by eating lunch outside of the ballpark.  This is Kayla and her friend McKenna.

The upper grade kids from Lone Star were also there that day.  Here is Kayla with Gabby.  She is the daughter of a friend of mine.  Her mom was one on Caroline's teachers at PDO.  We have known her for many years.  

Kayla with some of the girls in her class

Kayla and I left as soon as they started loading the buses.  She was more than eager to leave the game!

Another end of the school year activity is the Variety Show.  Kayla said it was called a Talent Show up until they finished with the auditions.  Then it was changed to Variety Show.  That should tell you all you need to know!

Here is Kayla waiting to play the piano.  She did a great job.

Kayla also did her dance solo.  Here she is waiting to perform.

The Variety Show lasted 2 hours.  I was really proud of Kayla.  The teachers in charge of the show had nothing but wonderful things to say about Kayla and her performances.  They were so grateful for having someone so prepared.

I then went to Caroline's class to take one last picture.  This was my baby's very last day of kindergarten!

Well, that should do it.  I guess I now have a first grader and a fifth grader.  We even got report cards in the mail...finally.  Kayla made straight A's and Caroline got all 3's.  They will both be moving up next year!

Field Day

Field Day at Bixby is a little different from what we are used to at Lone Star.  Kayla was confused and she told me parents were not allowed at her field day so I did not go.  She said she had a good time, but she did not do anything.  She said there were activities they could participate in if they wanted.  However, Kayla and her group of friends just walked around the track enjoying the treats they purchased at the concession stand.  From what I understand, Caroline's Field Day worked about the same way.  I was not able to go because Kayla had State Piano Contest at the same time.  My dad was kind enough to go to Caroline's field day and take these pictures for me.

Caroline enjoyed her field day.  There is not a lot of structure to the event.  They have a few little activities set up, and the kids can do whatever they want.  She had one little incident where a girl squirted water on her shirt.  If you know Caroline at all, you know that water on her clothes is a huge problem.  The tears came and she had to go change her shirt before she went back to having fun.  At Lone Star the entire class would do an activity and then the class would move on to the next activity.  I wish Bixby did it that way.  Both of my kids would have participated a lot more that way.  However, they both had a good time.  I guess that is important.  Thanks again to my dad for going in my place!

Celebrate Central

Caroline's class went on a trip to the park for their Celebrate Central day.  This is basically a special little outing for the kids that have behaved all year.  They walked to the park from the school.  That is probably close to a mile.  I chose to drive to the park and wait for them to arrive.  Here they come...

They had all of the kids line up for a picture before they let them go play.  If you can't tell, they are looking directly into the sun.  It was probably not the best place to line them up for pictures.

Time for a little snack provided by the PTA

More play time.  This is Caroline and her friend Taylor.

My monkey

Lunch time

Caroline and her friend Teralyn.  It was hot outside!

She had a good time.  Her favorite part was getting to leave early with me.  They normally got out of school an hour early on Wednesdays.  The month of May they did not get early release days.  Caroline was begging for an early day.  She got it!  I think we were home by noon.