Kinder Here We Come

How can they be 5 years old already??  The kids started round one of Kindergarten this fall and they were crazy excited.  We decided to split them up this year to see if it helped with all the arguing that's been going on in our house.  We'll see if that makes them miss each other so much that they magically becoming kind and loving to each other all the time. 

Of course we started preparing them months ahead of time and here are a few things they mentioned when we talked about school: 
                
Tucker said,  "I don't know if it's going to be fun.  We will only get to go to recess one time everyday."

Reese said, "Well, I'm not excited about the homework." 

This mama managed to get through the first morning without any tears.  I wish I could say that about all the mornings since.  It's been somewhat of a struggle in the mornings... these kids are wiped out!

Quick side story on Tucker....
The kids ride the shuttle bus to my school everyday and I have a high school student babysit them until I am done working.  One day Tucker decided he didn't want to ride the bus so he walked to my school.  Yep, you read that right... my 5 year old walked himself to my school - through a parking lot where teenagers park their cars.  Could. Have. Been. Killed.  Of course I freaked out and punished him for days.  I even made him look at pictures of missing kids on the Internet to scare him.  He just asked me "Are all the kids on your computer missing?"  Really?  Someday his confidence, fearlessness and independence are doing to be great qualities, but right now they just scare me to death. 

Praying we all survive this year. 

Cutest Little Lemonade Stand

My crazy talented, creative, photographer bestie took some adorable pictures of the kids at her lemonade stand mini session.  Love, love, love how these turned out....

Andrea has unbelievable patience when she's photographing my rug rats. They make me crazy stressed and I'm always feeling like she couldn't have possibly gotten an good ones b/c they are so uncooperative.  She constantly amazes me!!  Thanks sister!! 

Lakeside

Well, the lake was pretty low this year but it actually worked in our favor.  Most people couldn't get their boats out so there were days when we pretty much had the lake to ourselves.  The kids had a blast (who am I kidding, the adults did too) swimming, jet skiing, tubing and even knee boarding. 

We're loving that Grammy and Grandpa live on the lake!  We get to see them so much more and they have really fun toys too! 

Little Ladybug

Hard to believe Rylan is two already!  She's by far been the easiest of the three and I often joke about how she got the best of both Reese and Tucker's traits.   She's got Tucker's out-going, friendliness and Reese's silly side.  She quite the talker but we're not sure she speaks English.  The girl speaks in paragraphs but we are lucky to catch one or two of her words.  Sometimes the kids can translate for her but most of the time we just nod and say "really" or "I know" when she talks.  Love this little lady bug and had a fun picnic at the park to celebrate...

 

 All her family and friends came out to play and celebrate her big day...

 

Amber made the yummy cake again this year... turned out so cute!  I'm pretty sure it's bigger than her! 

 

 She had so much fun opening all her presents.  Reese was right there to assist.

 

 They both have the best "excited"  I love how little it takes to get them excited... too bad it all changes as they get older.  Limited are the days that they get excited over dollar store toys. 

 

Girls Weekend (Plus Tucker)

I had to go to the softball state championship in Austin so we decided to make a girls weekend of it.  Tucker never wants to miss anything so we let him tag along too.  Unfortunately, the Ladycats lost, but we got to have a little fun in Austin.  The kids loved feeding the gazillion turtles at County Line Barbecue and we had a blast at Zilker Park.  I finally found a place in Austin worth going.  Ha!

 

Snow cones, train rides, balloon animals... and lots of just being silly.  I guess Austin's not so bad after all. 

Beach Bums

Who needs to spend hundreds of dollars on a vacation to the beach when you can go to Granbury, TX?  When you have little ones, it's all the same right?!  It is to them...

A friend of theirs had the cutest birthday party at the beach, complete with pirate and buried treasure...

 

Reese spent almost the entire party digging for buried treasure. I'm pretty sure you ended up taking home most of the gold!  Love that she can sit and do things for hours without getting bored.

 

 Rylan got to come too... she had fun digging, getting messy and then washing it off in the water!

 

 

This was the start of a great summer!  Much of which was spent in the water!

A Day in the Big Leagues

Every year there is a baseball clinic held at Ranger Stadium, and this year Tucker got an invitation to attend.  Since Caden is a big baseball stud, we invited him to go too.  The boys had fun pretending they were in the big leagues, while mom sat in the stands terribly afraid that Tucker would drop his pants and go to the bathroom in the middle of Ranger Field (this is currently an issue we're having... Gotta go? Go wherever).  Luckily, they were prepared for the little guys and had lots of potty breaks.  The boys had a blast....

 

 The bat may have been a tad big for Tucker... of course he didn't care.  Notice that the boys are wearing socks?  We totally didn't get the memo that they wouldn't be allowed to wear their cleats on the field so they had to play in their socks.  Won't make that mistake again next year!

They gave the boys a goodie bag including a Ranger hat, t-shirt, baseball cards, a foam finger, etc.  Plus they fed them some famous Ranger dollar dogs for lunch and they got to go through the dugout and get autographs.

He keeps asking when we can go to a Ranger game... guess we'll have to start taking an annual trip to the ballpark!