My date for the night

Mandy is at a princess sleepover at Gran and Papa's, Daddy is turkey hunting and so Kyler and I are having a date night. His food of choice for our living room picnic? McDonalds. Movie of choice? Shrek the Third! So, we are snuggling down for dinner and a movie.

Concession stand adventures

I am sure there are pictures of Kelly doing her grill duties (she truly is the deep fry queen) on her blog so here is proof I did my share. Thanks to PawPaw for saving our butts! He showed up even though we had called and let him know it wasn't necessary...gotta love him.

Grammysitting

Not babysitting, Grammysitting. While I went to do my duty as an AYA parent working the concession stand Grammy came to the rescue to keep the kiddos. Yep, they built a house for the bunnies(?), ate lunch and Kyler and Grammy made a mobile of birdhouse and birds. Sounds like a good time to me!

1st game of the season

Last night was the first t-ball game of the season and it was fun to be back out there playing. With Daddy and Uncle Shawn Coaching and a lot of parent support the game went as well as it could with 8 3-year old boys. The kids had a blast and tried really hard, Kyler ran faster to first this game than at any point last season so the blurry picture is there just to show that they are running this year! Growth is good. They are learning good sportsmanship too, after one of our players chased down a player from the other team and tagged him out (there aren't really any outs) the little boy just cried and cried. When the game was over our team shared our snacks with the other team and the kids all visited. So cool.

The season of stress...

Tax season or TAKS season? For the majority of the American population the spring stress is due to tax season, but for a different (and smaller) population our stress is the TAKS season! Yep, we are in full swing for state testing. Students working so hard to give everyone their best and pass the TAKS and teachers trying to bring their best everyday to give the kids everything we possibly can to feel prepared and have the confidence of knowing they can succeed.

"Painting" Eggs with PawPaw

Paw Paw was the first to brave coloring Easter Eggs with Kyler and now it is kind of their thing so Kyler asked Paw Paw if he could paint eggs with him on Easter and they did, even Mandy got to help this year! Then Paw Paw and Grandma Sarah hid them around the house and the kids got to hunt them down...so much fun.

Grammy and Poppy's Easter Egg Hunt

After we played with our treats (and ate a few too) we got ready and were off to Grammy and Poppy's house to hunt eggs with Sydney, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Mark. Geez! They sure did have fun, we sent the big ones in one direction while Poppy took Mandy egg hunting in the other. They all filled up their buckets! Then the kids all helped Grammy and Poppy cook lunch and played.

A visitor in the night

When the kids woke up on Easter morning they had had a visitor in the night...YEP...the Easter Bunny left them baskets of goodies!

Gran's day

Saturday was Gran's Birthday and it just so happened to be the earliest Easter ever this year so there was an Egg Hunt that day too. How can a family have so much fun in one day? We just gathered early enough to walk over to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt and then went back to eat, play and celebrate Gran's birthday. When things began to settle we decided to make the most of the pretty day and walk down to play on the playground (where my battery died)!

A change in plans

My original plan was to take Kyler and Mandy to Dinosaur Valley today because he is sooo into dinosaurs right now, unfortunately with the recent rainfall we wouldn't have been able to see them. So Aunt Kelly found out about this spring break thing in the Stockyards and off we went! What fun...Lunch at Risky's BBQ while we watched the cattle drive (as long as I have been here, I have never seen it before today!), then we took the kids to the FREE petting zoo, got their picture taken with a Native American on a horse and walked around the Stockyard Station for awhile. Couldn't have asked for a prettier day for it.

Slumber party switch

On each of my "vacations" as a teacher I have tried to do one slumber party with Kyler and the twins. This time we decided to switch it up a little...Alex came to our house after t-ball and Kyler went home with Austin and Gage. From what I hear they had a true "boys night" and Alex and Mandy had so much fun giggling, dressing up, playing dance class, playing with the babies and sharing a mattress, they barely came out of Mandy's room! This morning to awake to two giggling girls that had both made their way to our room at wee hours was just too sweet...even Uncle Kyle couldn't complain!

Spring Haircut

Handsome! What more could a mom say?

Bye Bye Maffew

Yes, it says Maffew because that is what Mandy calls him. When she woke from her very short nap today she wanted to know where he was. I reminded her she had said bye bye to him because he was driving home today. She accepted it but didn't like it and Kyler told us over and over about his friend Matthew and how they played but he had to go home. He will see him again at his birthday party. Today we took Matthew and his cousins to a place our cousins showed us and is fun the Bouncin Bonanza! Everyone had a good time and the kids were hilarious to watch. Thanks Memaw Betty Sue for taking us to lunch after too, it was yummy!

A good rainy day

Today we went to play with Aunt Kelli, Matthew, Miss Betty Sue, Michael and Seth. The big boys ice skated while the little ones and Mandy played on the playground. After lunch we all rode the carousel and they got the biggest kick out of it! I love to see them get that way. It just does something for my heart. Mandy walked around holding Matthew's hand until it was time to see the Easter Bunny (yes, I tried again)...NOPE, not gonna happen, she wanted nothing to do with getting close to him. She loved waving, smiling and talking to him from a distance though. Kyler on the other hand didn't hesitate to run on up and get in his lap. I couldn't believe there wasn't a line. All in all just a laid back day of playing and visiting. Always good to get to visit with friends. Oh, Mandy got a final birthday present, Pinky Pie (a Newborn My little Pony) If only I had a camera to capture her face when it told her "I love you mama" she turned and said "She loves me!" TOO CUTE.

Date Day

Today Kyler and Mama had a date day while Daddy and Mandy had a date day. It was so much fun. We have been trying to find a good time to get to spend some individual time with the kiddos. Today was the day...Aunt Kelly invited us to go see Horton Hears a Who with them and Kyler and I were really wanting to see it. So that was the start for our day together. After the movie we rode some terribly overpriced carnival rides (that brought the biggest smiles to the kids), went to a late lunch and a few stores. Of course we had to go get stuffed Hortons at Kohls too, the three little Hortons had hilarious conversations as we made our way through the store. After each store Kyler would ask "Where we going next?" Daddy and Mandy went and ran errands, took a nap and went fishing! She told me all about fishing and apparently she learned to be an outdoors girl and even went potty in the woods (A true daddy's girl today). All in all a great way to kick off my spring break!