Spring Break

Just when the kids thought they were going to die from so much school, spring break arrived!  Unfortunately for Matt, so did a business trip, so he missed out on most of the fun.  The Friday before the break the school had spring parties.  I didn't get any pictures of Ben's because it's embarrassing for mom to take pictures of 5th graders.  They weren't too interested in the activities anyway and spent most of the party playing tag on the playground.

Alex was happy to play with his buddy, Ryan, and the two checked out lots of games in the gym.

 

 Dry ice drinks on the playground were a huge hit!

Saturday morning we jumped out of bed, loaded up the truck, and got on the road.  Even Ben's hair was excited!!

We made tracks to Concan and one of my very favorite state parks to camp with our friends, the Hesters.

 

The campsite backed right up to the Frio river so the kids had tons of space to play and explore.  It was little boy rock-climbing, walkie-talkie heaven.

There was also an awesome tree to climb right on our site.

We made several hikes, the hardest of which was Old Baldy, which got pretty steep at the top but the views made it totally worth it.

 We checked out a few caves as well and some other big hills.

Garner State Park has had a dance on the patio every evening for decades with this old jukebox.

I danced with each of the boys and Alex was pretty interested in learning how to two-step properly.  After we were done, an adorable little girl came and asked him to dance so he shared his first dance under the stars with a girl!

After camping, we were ready for some beds and showers, so we spent a few days in Fredericksburg as well.  Our first stop there was a lovely afternoon in Luckenbach.

Alex was happy to see his old stump was still there and he reclaimed it.

We went through the LBJ historical ranch and saw some old farmhouses.  Ben was fascinated by the old sewing machine and Victrola.  He was just disappointed that he couldn't play a record.

We couldn't go to the hill country without a trip to Enchanted Rock, the one thing Alex begged to do for spring break.

I love this place!  And I love these friends!  We had such a wonderful time together.  This was the closest we got to a group shot...didn't notice till later that Grant was missing!

Another little boy heaven - huge rocks to run all over.

 Back at our rental house, I noticed we had some rooster friends as the sun was going down.  They were very cute until the full moon came up and the crowed all night!

Last stop on our Texas road trip - the famous Salt Lick Barbeque for a great meal on the way home.

Their pit is huge!

Back home, we rested up, unpacked our muddy tents, met up with some friends, and made a quick trip to the science museum.

The new Egyptian exhibit was very cool!

Always love a good 3-D Imax as well.

Ben found out about portable TVs, so I dug this one out of the attic and the kids watched it for hours.  Right underneath a full-sized, color TV.  I'll never understand his obsession with old technology, but I love that kid!

Fabulous February

When I hear February, I usually think of the coldest, grayest month of the year.  Not the case in 2017!  The weather was absolutely gorgeous for almost the entire month and the kids took full advantage of it.  Perfect sprinker-on-the-trampoline weather!

 

It was also pretty great for some ripstick battles with the garbage cans.

I have no idea where the kids came up with this one, but I laughed so hard when I looked out the window.  

We took a nice bike ride to the lake nearby and found a tiny little turtle friend.  Somehow I managed to say no to bringing this little guy home, as much fun as he would have been for a pet.

 Alex played his first scrimmage as a Phillie and his team looked pretty good.  He always loves to see a picture of himself crossing home plate :)

While Alex had a makeup piano lesson one perfect sunny day, Ben and I soaked up some sunshine and fed the ducks nearby.

This little guy was so precious!!

Ben is on the Yankees again and my favorite part of the season is the parent-kid scrimmage.  I faced off against these intimidating players and somehow I ended up playing 3rd base for the parents (harder than it looks!).  It was tons of fun...the kids took the early lead but the parents mounted a comeback and I got to score the winning run.  We celebrated with a team dinner at Cici's so everyone was a winner.

January

The new year greeted us with an extremely cold and wet weekend, but thankfully not quite cold enough to freeze the roads.  I was still surprised to see ice on our trees when the wind chill dropped below freezing.  The weather forecast said an overnight low of 30F and when we woke up it was 19!  Coldest night we've had in this house, but thank goodness the only thing that froze was the overflow valve on our sprinkler.  And of course, being Texas, it was back up to 80 degrees the next week.

 

We spent lots of time in January working on science fair projects.  Alex tested which materials weakened the wi-fi signal the most (move your router away from metal - that was the worst!) and found that human bodies have little effect.

Ben did a very cool experiment on an optical illusion and tested each of us with his two different methods.

They both got judged at school and I was so thrilled and proud of them when they each brought home first place in their respective categories!  Science is cool in this house!!

We had a fun afternoon playing with Grandma at the mall and seeing a movie.

Grandma is a trooper - she even went on the spinning teacup with Alex!  I get motion sick easily and I was so happy when Alex was tall enough to ride the carousel alone.

I had a wonderful day trip to Gruene to see two of my very favorite people in the world.  We met in the dorm at A&M almost 20 years ago! 

 

I found a bacon soda at the Gruene general store and had to get it for Ben.  He couldn't wait to try it but found out it was as good as it sounds (disgusting).  He loves bacon and he loves cokes, but not at the same time.

Poor guy got his bottom braces on and needed a day at home to load up on advil and drink all his meals.  He's a tough kid, so when he says the pain is bad, I know it's bad!  Luckily, Casey was ready to take care of him.

Even though it's still (technically) winter, we're back at the ballpark again.  Time to gear up for another season of spring baseball!

Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year like the party animals we have been in the past - with some fireworks on the street around 7pm!  (In our defense, we were planning to wait until later but the kids all got together and coerced the parents outside)

 

Fun with sparklers first...

...then on to bigger bangs.

Then we sat back and enjoyed the real show.  As much as I hate listening to fireworks for weeks, it's pretty fun watching the displays all as far as we can see.

Finally, we finished up with the kids' favorite part - the burning of the trash.  Technically not in our neighborhood codes, but it had just rained a few hours before so we let them go bigger.

And go big they did!  They emptied all of our recycling boxes from the garage and enjoyed every minute of it.

The aftermath.  Another successful celebration in the books.

It's hard to believe another year has come and gone so quickly but 2016 was a happy year for our family.  We're looking forward to 2017 and wish our loved ones all the best!