Back to School 2013

Summer is finally over and it's time to start back to school. Sunday night's back to school festivities included a [quickly thrown together] back to school dinner and a Missions baseball game. The afternoon was a bit hurried because there was a lot to pack in (and much still to be done for the morning), but I think it was a good way to end the summer!

Carson writing down his goals for this year.

Carson & Daddy at the game

I told her to smile. She was not happy about that.

Monday morning, everyone was up early and raring to go! Abby's fourth grade teacher is Ms. Gilstrap and Carson's second grade teacher is Ms. Bratcher.

Looking forward to a great year!

Walk to the first day of school.

Last Days of Summer

In the last days of summer (literally), the kids and I decided to make one final road trip to go visit my sister and her family. Friday, we drove to College Station and spent the night. It was a short visit, but we had a fun time hanging out together!

Amorette, Jerah, & Carson on the slide

Cute little Benjamin

Andre & Benjamin

All six kids checking out the ducks and turtles in the pond.

Umm... Carson? That's my seat.

Girls Beach Day

 

While Abby was away, Carson spent the night with Jackson, and then he and I had a Mommy/Carson Date that evening. He picked Toys 'R Us and burgers and ice cream at Freddy's. We had really nice time, and I love that he still enjoys the time we spend together. Such a sweet boy!

Boys Beach Trip

This week Carson had the privilege of taking a trip to the coast with his cousin Jackson! Tuesday night, the boys spent the night at Ammie & Poppy's house, and then Wednesday morning, the four of them headed to the beach. It was such a special day, and Carson had the best time! He came back late Wednesday night with a shark jaw as a souvenir and lots of stories.

Carson is quick to point out that it only looks like he was
surfing--he was really falling off!

Beach boy

Of course, while Carson was gone, Abby and I got to have a little girly day--shopping and lunch at La Madeline. It was so nice to get to spend the day together. We laughed and talked a lot, and I can't believe how grown up she's getting.

Ahh, happy summer memories!

A Week at Mattie & Grandaddy's

Aaron was speaking at a youth summer camp last week, so the kids and I headed up to visit my mom and dad for the week. It was laid back and fun, as always.

Some of the highlights from this trip were:

• Art camp at FBC Howe for the kids
• Getting to see my friend Ashley and her kids
• Tucker the Turtle (Tucker because he "tucks" his head in his shell), who was picked up on the side of the road and quickly became the focus of all of the kids' attention
• Extracting honey from the beehives

Planning

When we got married, Aaron and I decided we'd go to Europe for our 5th anniversary. Well, you know how that goes. Life happens. We never made any hard and fast commitments, but we hoped that we might be able to make it happen for the big ten. Even up until very recently, I had my doubts, but I'm happy to say that this is happening!

I am beyond thrilled to say that in September, we'll be flying to Dublin! We'll be gone for 10 days (though two of those will be mostly travel), and we'll do Ireland and Paris (and hopefully another country--like England, Belgium, or Germany--if we can manage)! We bought our tickets to Dublin a month or two ago, but today is the first day that we've really sat down and begun to plan things out. We bought our tickets to Paris today. I'm having a hard time believing this is real.

Our (preliminary) route through Ireland.

Yeah, I make spreadsheets for vacations.

Our poor kids have been a little neglected today with us planning and me making up all my nerdy spreadsheets and trip plans on various websites. Sorry, kids! They're thrilled at the prospect of spending that much time with grandparents while we're gone though.

Stay tuned!

Sunday Afternoon

Sunday afternoon we decided it'd be nice to have a family day after church, and we headed to the McNay Art Museum to see the amazing Norman Rockwell exhibit and enjoy all the Rockwell-era insipired activities! We had our photo taken to resemble one of this famous pieces ("The Runaway"), had ice cream, and the kids did a potato sack race!