November 2021 Roundup

November is a very transitional month here. The fall season of soccer ends and we suddenly have our weekends back. We say goodbye to Halloween and hello to Christmas. We pack away the shorts and tee shirts, and move into winter clothes for good. The highlights of the month were watching Sophie's team become U10 champions and our road trip to St. George, but here are a a few other things we were up to:

Took advantage of a beautiful November day and went to the zoo with the two little boys

Having fun with a few Boo at the Zoo games that hadn't been cleaned up yet

Running away from me in the maze

It is so fun to see these two become better friends now that Davey is off at Kindergarten

We had large patches of lawn sustain grub damage, but it's tricky to reseed in Texas as the window between scorching and freezing is usually very short. Luckily we seemed to catch it right this year and by early November there was new grass coming in 👏

It's exciting anytime the Discovery Center adds something new! This month brought an outdoor play area with a ropes course, swings and sand box.

Silly Griffin

Sam's had hot chocolate to sample, which made for a happy Charlie!

Boys live here :)

Dave is gone more now on weekends and evenings with his bishop calling so the kids are happy whenever they can catch him for a snuggle on the couch

Charlie loves this box at the Discovery Center that creates pictures by rolling a ball, controlled by a computer, through sand. He always runs to it first to see what the new image will be.

Once it was Starry Night - so cool!

Charlie called this Lego creation his "Christmas Lights"

Decorating the tree!! This moment looks magical but I promise there was plenty of arguing over who hung what and where they put it.

I also gave them their Christmas jammies on this day so we could have fun wearing them all month long! This year they were from our kids consignment store, which has great selection if you shop early. This will be my new plan going forward. Who cares if they match?!

Snowman branch, brought to you by Davey :)

Summer Isn't Over Yet (Thanks Covid!)

We returned home from all our trips for Sophie to start school on the 20th, but then it got pushed back to September 1st. I was actually not sad about the delay, and hope the district is using this extra time to make sure all the proper protocols are in place so the kids can return to school and stay there! I would hate for her to start back up and be all excited, only for everything to shut down again the following week. Sophie would be so sad and disappointed and I would be too! I am looking forward to getting back into a somewhat normal routine after all these months of unknowns and uncertainties.

One of the best part about our bonus summer days, was the neighboring district did not delay their start so we were able to enjoy some local fun without big crowds. We did a day at Lake Mackenzie with friends are were the only ones there! It was so awesome to to just relax and enjoy the water. I could have stayed there forever.

The Discovery Center opened a new outdoor play area with dinosaurs and a sand dig pit. Davey was so excited to finally go see it since we had been watching them install things behind a fence for months. 

Griffin was very skeptical of the sand

We also took the kids for a midweek play day at Chuck E Cheese! They think it is the greatest place on earth and always have so much fun when we go. 

Our last bonus summer outing was too the zoo. Sophie hardly ever comes with us to the zoo anymore since she is at school and we don't like going on Saturdays when it's crowded.  Like most zoo trips we spent a quick 30 minutes looking at animals, and then a good hour playing in the sand.

Sophie loved this little tiny turtle

Griffin was more comfortable in the sand this time around

September Roundup

The boys and I missed a good portion of September while we were traveling, but we fit in plenty of fun adventures while we were home. Here are some other photos from this month:

Kids Night at Freddy's - free kids meals, custard, face painting and balloons!

More slushies at Sonic because September was so hot 

Sophie lost another tooth on bottom, bringing her total to five

ALL CHARGED UP: The Discovery Center opened a new exhibit in September. We like the Discovery Center, but it's very small so it's fun when they change things up. The new exhibit was all about electricity and we went on a Saturday so Dave was able to join us!

I couldn't get the bike to light up to the top and told Sophie it was too hard for her, but she wouldn't give up and after a few minutes of pedaling she got to the green! 

Messing around with circuits 

Dressing up in lineman gear. Our friends' dad/husband is a lineman so the kids enjoyed seeing what kind of tools he uses at work each day. 

Having fun with the shadow wall

Baby Iron Man - Charlie has really been enjoying the dress up box lately

SCALES & TAILS: the home school group in our area went on a field trip to Scales & Tails, and since the kids love animals so much I invited our family along. I checked Sophie out of school early and we had a great time meeting and handling different critters!

I held the big lizard and it was surprisingly light for its size. She liked resting on my shoulder just like a baby with extremely long finger nails. 

This girl loves her snakes!

The kids were not allowed to hold the tarantula (even though they really wanted to), but they did get to stroke its legs and belly. Later that month Sophie and Emery actually found a wild tarantula at the fields where we play soccer! We wouldn't let them hold that one either. 

September 2019 Video Clips