noodle's celebrations

as always, birthday celebrations go on and on each year for our boys.  we have recently adopted "family fun days" as a better substitute for a birthday party.  and believe it or not, the boys prefer it...maybe because they get to plan our entire day, including meals and activities.

we celebrated noodle's family fun day on a friday that we did not have school.  it began with a trip to dunkin donuts.  i didn't complain!

then we headed to walmart to buy a small present for him (he chose a new beywheelz), after trying out the skateboards!

this is completely hysterical to me!

then we ventured on to the fort worth science and history museum to meet up with a few of his friends from school that graciously invited us to take advantage of their membership there.  we spent the morning hours digging for dinosaur bones and exploring their exhibits, including a bed of nails and a hurricane wind tunnel.

bed of nails

i love their faces!

noodle chose mcdonald's for lunch.  i am not a fan, but hey, it's his day.

then we went to main event for some family fun bowling.  after 3 games, the lure of the arcade games was too much.  after trying to convince both boys not to waste their money on those claw games that are designed to never let you capture and grab a cheap stuffed animal, we relented and this is what happened!

he won twice!!!  we ended the day with dinner at chili's and renting a movie and eating candy.

the next birthday celebration was at mimi and poppy's house.  he was so excited to get a harry potter lego book, a new beyblade, some new athletic clothes, and a new scooter with light up wheels!!!  we ate cookie cake and played outside.

on noodle's actual birthday i took cookies and drinks up to school at recess for his school buddies.

before dinner, he opened presents from us.  he got a new basketball goal (which broke in 2 minutes and i had to ship back so don't buy this one!!!), basketball shorts and a beywheelz stadium from his brother burrito.

don't ask me why he is doing the star trek sign???

we also went out for dinner (again, his choice!) at ihop and then came back home to open presents on skype with nina, pappaw and nonna in st. louis.  he was so excited to get more beywheelz, a beyblade destroyer dome, money and a scooby doo game (thanks uncle daniel!).

i would say that this boy is blessed beyond measure and we sure had a good time celebrating him!  happy 7th birthday noodle!!!

Happy 7th Birthday to my Noodle

 well, it's happened again.

another of my babies grows a year older.  i don't like it.  at all.  but i haven't figured out a way to make it stop.

my sweet noodle is 7 today!

noodle, you are such a blessing to our family.  you are just the right person to level out the other 3 high-strung residents of your home.  you are sweet and sensitive.  you don't take things too seriously but you do your best.  you are still a game nazi.  you love playing games all day long.  you are quite the sports buff too.  it's been fun for us to watch our little leftie play baseball this season.  you are doing great in 1st grade.  your lowest grade was a 99 for the first quarter.  you are a great reader and i am constantly amazed at your tenacity to sound out words that you don't immediately know.  math comes natural.  i think it's from all those games you make us play.  you are a budding musician and we are so glad you are learning to play violin.  you are a good friend and easily float from one friend to another....everyone is your best buddy.  i love that you and your brother are close and share a room and sometimes sneak into your big bed together.

we are so grateful for the gift from God you are to us.  we look forward to seeing the Lord develop your gifts and skills for His glory.  we pray that you will be a passionate fireball for Him for your whole life.

we love you so much!

Meet the Teacher & First Day of School 2012

Last night the boys had the opportunity to go to school and "meet" their teacher.  Of course, they know most of the teachers at school already but it is still fun for them to see where they will sit and know exactly where to go on the first day.  The teachers always have a sweet little treat waiting for them there too.

burrito the third grader with his bag of special treats

burrito checking out his REAL textbooks with his buddy

noodle with his sweet 1st grade teacher mrs. s

i can't believe my baby is a 1st grader!

my husband really loves that i INSIST on taking his first day of school pic too!

and here are my cute men before we headed off to school this morning.  this is their chapel uniform because they have chapel on wednesdays.  aren't they handsome?!?!

here we are walking into school.  that's burrito and john ahead of us.  i made john come for my emotional support! :)

burrito outside his 3rd grade classroom

noodle outside his 1st grade classroom

when i picked them up this afternoon, they both said they had a really great day and loved their new teachers.  burrito had his textbooks because we had to put covers on them tonight.  i had to conjure up my book-covering abilities from years past.  i can't believe he has real textbooks.  does this growing up thing ever slow down???  noodle talked about how they can earn tickets for good behavior and then cash in their tickets for little prizes.  they both talked about seeing their old buddies at recess and not having any homework for this first week.  hooray!

i was not as emotional about leaving them this year.  i think i am finally accepting that they are growing up and learning new responsibilities and that's a good thing...even if it's hard for this mama.  i just love them so much.  such a treasure and gift from Jesus.

praying sweet blessings on them this new school year...

Summer 2012...where did it go???

well, you won't believe me when i tell you this, but we start school in 3 days.  yep, you read that right.  sickening i tell you.  i told john the other day that our school is an evil institution because it steals away my 3 most favorite people all at the same time. ;)

so since we head back to school on wednesday, i thought i better jump on the blog here and document a little bit of our summer, before i start posting "1st day of school" pics!

we started our summer with an immediate trip to st. louis back at the end of may.  and when i say immediate, i mean immediate.  we attended graduation on friday night and left 5 hours later in the wee hours of the morning to make the 11 hour trip.

here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to visit john's family.

Noodle and Pappaw playing croquet

burrito sticking his hand in a rabbit hole!

we had a great time at the science center

they built the gateway arch!

don't be fooled!  this was at the st. louis zoo but they so badly wanted to visit a cave.  this was as close as they got! :)

at the zoo on a beautiful day

our other big trip of the summer was to our favorite texas beach location, rockport!  this was our third summer to visit and as always, it was totally relaxing and fun.  this year we rented a house for a week just minutes from the beach with my family and had a great time, minus the jellyfish.  these are a few of my favorite pics from that trip.

of course we planned our trip around being in austin at breakfast time so we could eat here

first day at the beach

does he look like a surfer dude or what???

cousin porkchop

love this picture of my burrito

the grandsons with mimi

in the ocean eating a snow cone...life just doesn't get much better!

john and burrito and the vast ocean

our beach home on the fourth of july

waiting for the fireworks

celebrating our freedom

this is outside the texas state aquarium in corpus christi.  that bridge in the background makes me squeamish!

the boys at the aquarium

under the sea

other summer memories include lots of bike rides to the park with john, swimming with our cousin, ice cream cones from braum's, john's intro to baseball class for the boys (they're playing baseball this fall), going to the movies and eating popcorn, swimming in our blow up pool, and reading the harry potter books.  it's been a good summer and i'm thankful for my family.

spring soccer 2012

both boys played on the "monsters" soccer team again this year and had a great season.  the team consisted of several new players this season so it gave noodle and burrito the opportunity to step up and lead their team.  both boys had several goals this season and had a great time playing soccer.  they are ready to try something new so next season we will be a baseball family and see how that goes.  here are a few of my favorite soccer shots from this year.

burrito #10 scoring a gooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaalllllll !

noodle geared up to play goalie

noodle in the goal ready to defend

our team, the monsters! we love coach jason!

our cutest soccer fan!

noodle about to score a goal

noodle

burrito as goalie

burrito

noodle

 we had a great soccer season and it was SO fun to watch our guys play their hearts out!