4th of July

We headed into Baytown for the 4th of July celebration this year. 4th of July is always a big deal and Baytown goes all out. I remember going every year when I was growing up and it was tons of fun! They had lots of good food, rides and games for the kids and lots of booths with handcrafted items.

Brinley and Clayton dressed and ready to celebrate the 4th of July

Although the festivities start that morning, we opted to head in after nap and dinner since it was 100 degrees outside! We got there around 6, found our spot on the lawn (in the shade) for our chairs and blankets and took in all the fun! The kids had a blast sliding on the big slide, riding the swings, playing carnival games, and begging my mom to buy them everything under the sun ;-)

She loved her patriotic, glittery tattoo!!

Entertainment for the evening included Django Walker (jerry jeff walker's son) and Pat Green! Both guys put on a great show and had my kids dancing all night! Luckily, once the sun went down, we had a cool breeze and enjoyed the fireworks to end the evening.

Clayton cheesing with a mustache made from his flashing necklace

Bubble gun fight!

We had a wonderful July 4th and celebrated america's birthday with all the favorites: funnel cakes, lemonade, baseball (clayton won a baseball and bat), country music and fireworks!!!

newest addition to our family

We have a new puppy in our house and her name is Pixie!! She is a catahoula/great dane mix (at least that is what our vet thinks). We rescued her from a friend who had found her wandering around but couldn't keep her. Jason has been wanting another dog for a year now, but I have been turning him down becuase I didn't want to potty train, crate train, and deal with a new puppy!!!! Once I saw her cute face, I knew I had to have her. Once I talked to my friend, I knew I COULD have her! She is about 5 months old, crate trained, house trained (with the occasional accident when I not paying attention to her knock at the door) and so sweet and calm!!!

The kids absolutely LOVE her and she is so tolerant of their grabbing, tackling, and chasing!

Rylee has even enjoyed playign tug of war with her and chasing her aournd the house. Of course, due to her old age (almost 8) she gives the occasional growl to let Pixie know that she is done playing ;-)

San Antonio Zoo and Childrens Museum

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and went to the San Antonio zoo. I have heard from several people how great the zoo was and it didn't disappoint! We wanted to see the zoo in the morning before the heat set in. One of my favorite exhibits was the bird habitat. We bought a few small cups of nectar, and the birds will land on you to drink them! Brinley was very cautious at first and clung to my side, while Clayton jumped in with gusto feeding the birds! By the end of the exhibit, she was feeding the birds on her own.Both Jason and myself had birds land on us (my picture wasn't flattering because the bird was nibbling on my ear at the time!)

We left the zoo at lunchtime, when 4 hot and hungry kids were done looking at animals. After we filled our bellies, we headed to the children's museum for some indoor entertainment during the hottest part of the day. The kids were able to play in airplanes, trees, grocery store, boats, and a big fenced in area where you can shoot balls everywhere.

Brinley testing out a career as a grocery store checker with Russ emptying the cart he filled

Clayton wanted to stay in the trolley the entire time! He cried when we took him out!
After the museum, we ate dinner on the river walk and headed back to the hotel for more swimming! The kids had a blast with the Lipsey's and we enjoyed seeing them!

Sunday, we stopped in Gruene, TX to eat at my favorite restaurant, the Gristmill. The food was yummy and filled our bellies for the drive home. The kids slept for 3 of the 4 hour drive!

Clayton was so exhausted and wanted nothing to do with this picture by the river!

Sea World

We got up Friday morning and headed to Sea World for the day. It was sooooo HOT! The temperature hit 100 for the day and the black asphalt made it even hotter. Luckily, we found shade whenever we needed it, drank tons of water and hit the water park during the hottest part of the day.

Meredith, Brinley, Clayton and Russ---All looking and smiling!!!

The kids had a blast at sea world! Clayton really enjoyed watching and feeding the dolphins, while Brinley loved the Shamu show. The park was not crowded at all. I guess with schools getting out that week, people weren't ready to go on vacation yet. We didn't have to wait in line for any rides and the kids could run wild without bumping into anyone.

Waiting for the Shamu show to start

Brinley was fascinated with Shamu and Clayton is still walking around saying"Shamu jump"The newest part of Sea world to open is the Sesame Street section. Here we were able to see all our favorite characters and take our pictures with them. The fave at our house is Cookie monster. I have no clue why, but Clayton walks around the house saying, "COOKIE!!!!"Brinley and Meredith riding the Shamu express. Since there were no lines, they rode it 5 or 6 times!We stayed until the park closed. Our hotel has a shuttle that drove us there, we were the only ones on the shuttle, so we tipped our driver to stop by McDonald's to grab dinner to take back to the hotel. We were not about to test 4 exhausted kids sitting in a restaurant! Another evening in the pool to rinse off one layer of sweat/sunscreen and we slept like babies that night!

On our way out the door, we ran into Shamu and then Shark interrupted our picture to get in! This picture is funny because Brinley had picked a Shamu out of the gift shop and Clayton a shark!

San Antonio Riverwalk

We drove to San Antonio Thursday to meet up with my dear friend from college, Rachel, and her family. Our kids are all the same age, so it makes it fun to meet up and let the kids play and adults catch up on much needed adult conversation!

We got there after lunch, so we checked into the hotel and then headed to the pool for an hour. After unpacking and resting, we headed down the River walk for dinner. We ate a yummy Italian restaurant and then walked around the river walk.

We also saw the Alamo (it was closed, but we took a picture in front)

We also took a boat tour of the river walk and found out all kinds of neat information about the buildings, where movies had been filmed, and we saw a wedding taking place! Clayton really loved riding the boat too!

We headed back to the hotel for dessert! The hotel has fire pits and smore kits you can buy. The kids really had fun listening to music (there was a DJ on the patio) and toasting marsh mellows as the sun went down!!!

Ballet Recital

Saturday afternoon was Brinley's 2nd ballet recital. The theme was Peter pan and Brinley's class was Tinkerbell. It was so cute to watch how far her class has come from last year. They were doing some difficult moves and remembered the dance so well. Brinley did really great and after the dance, we were eating dinner and some older girls in the recital came up to us and told that they were watching Brinley perform and she was the best Tinkerbell :-) She certainly has a talent for dance and I think we will be doing this for years to come!!!

Their tinkerbell costumes glowed when they first came onstage

our little ballerina with her perfect form

how she manages to jump so high with little effort amazes me!!!!

my family with our little ballerina

Our ballerina had quite and audience cheering her on this year: my parents, jason's mom, marian, lizzy, blake, robin and reese! Thanks to everyone who came. Brinley was thrilled to have all those eyes watching her!!!

the cousins eating dinner afterwards and my new favorite picture of them!

We are now officially done with everything and are on summer time! Tball and dance ended last week and school for the kids ended yesterday. We are now on the countdown to our vacation to Sea World!

Preschool Graduation

Tuesday night was Brinley's preschool program and graduation. It is so hard to believe my baby will be in Kindergarten next year! These past 5 years have FLOWN by!!!!!

We have been very fortunate for Brinley to attend the same preschool the past two years and have the same teachers. She has learned so much and made many good friends. She can write her name, recognize the letter and sounds of almost all the letters, count to 20+, create patterns, and pretty much everything I taught the first semester of kindergarten 5 years ago!! Man has the educational expectations changed!!!

Both sets of grandparents came out to watch our little girl sing ocean themed songs, play the bells, and get her diploma :-)

She learned the musical notes to twinkle twinkle little star by using color coded bells. Each child had their own bell and read the notes off a poster board to know when it was their turn...pretty impressive!

Getting her diploma from her teachers, we will miss them next year!