Ally's 11th Birthday Party

1. Today we had Ally's 11th Birthday Party! She wanted a webkinz Halloween Party, so that's what we had. As the girls got here we made bottle tops necklaces for the girls, and beaded necklaces for their webkinz. Then we had a treasure hunt, with the kids finding the wheel of wow (prizes included) Next we have a spider web webkinz hunt (the last picture is what it looked like before they started) Dinner included tacos (Ally's favorite,) chips and salsa, rice, and beans. We had a haunted table with desserts, and opened presents. We ended our evening with Halloween charades. We had lots of girls and they all had a great time.
   

Pumpkin Patch

One of the fun things about Pre-k at ACS is there are a lot of field trips. Today we went to the Pumpkin Patch that they have out at DRI. It was a little bit chilly, but it was a good time.

The DRI folks really know what they are doing. The kids get to look at all the different pumpkin (there are a ton and many different kinds.) Of course the teachers and moms use this time to take pictures. Then there is a pumpkin story time, and hayride. It's been really wet in Abilene, so the hayride had to stay on the street, but the kids thought it was great.

They each got their own little pumpkin and Kase's teacher got a larger pumpkin that the kids get to carve on another day.

Charlotte's Web

In second grade at ACS the first group the class reads together is Charlotte's Webb. At the end of the book the kids do a diorama of one scene in the book. Samantha choose the fair scene for hers. She painted the background, built the fence, made the web, and made the spider and food and water buckets out of clay. She had a lot of fun doing this project and I think she did a great job.

Balloon Fest

This weekend Arthur and I volunteered at the balloon fest with our church. We manned the children's inflatable area. Since we were helping the kids got to enjoy all the rides, which they loved for about and hour and half, and were then ready to move on to something else. Once our shift was over we headed out to enjoy the rest of the festival.

Samantha had remember from last year that you could ride up in a hot air balloon for $5.00. So, she gathered every penny she had in anticipation of balloon fest. The pictures didn't turn out so great, but she and I did get to go up in the balloon at 25 feet for maybe a minute. She was very excited about it. Kase calmed down about the whole thing once we made it clear he did not have to get into the balloon.

Busy Week

This week I took on a temporary 4 day job to make a little extra Christmas money. I organized all the childcare for Summit. ACU provides childcare for free so that families can attend Summit classes, which I think is really great of them. I did have some prep work leading up to Summit, but the majority of the work was this week. I left the house every morning at 7:30 a.m. and left Summit about 8:30 p.m. The day time childcare was located in Hillcrest and the evening was over on the ACU campus, so all the childcare supplies had to be transported back and forth. It has been a really crazy week, but a good one. Everyone that I worked with and for were just really great. ACU was great to work for, because they really wanted to have good childcare. All of the people that worked childcare were great as well as the parents that had their kids in the childcare. I will say I've eaten in the bean more this week than I have since I was a sophomore in college.

Kase takes his first field trip!

Today Kase had his very first School field trip.
It was to the fire station. He has been talking about it for a week. Of course one of the most exciting parts is that they get to ride the school bus. ACS has an extra pre-k class, so I didn't get to ride with Kase, but I met him at the station. They got to see where the firefighter live, work, and eat. The best part was of course the trucks. They even got to see the ladder lift way up into the air.

Football Time

This weekend Abilene Christian Schools had their first home football game. The kids had really been looking forward to it all week. Right before it was time to go it starting raining. We loaded up anyway and headed out to support our team. Twenty minutes after we got their they called everyone off the field. Soaking wet we headed home. The did finish the game, but we didn't go back.

Saturday we made it to the ACU game, and it was the first of the three football games we've been to this year that it didn't rain. Kase was sure it was going to rain because we were going to a football game.

Resting

Today the kids went back to school and I started a new study. Resting in Him is the study I'm doing. It's by Margaret Feinburg, who also wrote Sacred Echo which I love. The last couple of years have been very busy for me, as the kids go back to school I'm hoping to be able to take some deep breaths. I also am hoping not to crowd my life back with a crazy business.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of School for Abilene Christian School. Most of our friends in Abilene are still hanging at the pool, but not us. We were up gathering backpacks and lunches early this morning.

The biggest change for us this year is that all three of our kids will be at the same school. Kase starts Pre-k this year.


This year Ally is going to be is 4th grade. The big project in 4th grade is the Renaissance Fair which will be in the spring. As you can tell Ally is very into animal prints right now. I think she is sporting three different animal prints in her first day of school outfit.

Samantha is going to be in 2nd grade. She is very nervous about having a new teacher this year. Ally had this teacher, so I know that she is going to have a great year. She pick this outfit, because she says,"it looks like school uniform. "

Kase is really excited about Pre-k. He has been asking every night before bed is school is tomorrow. Last night Arthur and Kase went to get a back to school hair cut. Isn't it cute. He pick his dinosaure shirt and his football lunch box.

Kase went into the classroom and got right to work. He gave us a big smile and wave good-bye. No tears for Kase.

between

Currently the girls and I are reading "between." Normally I would wait until we finish the book to do a review, but I noticed that it's on sale at Lifeway this week. This book is for "tween girls," so if you've got one or will have one soon this book is for you.

It's mostly just about living a christian life. It has information about being a good friend and choosing good friends. Dressing pure, and obeying your parents. My girls have really enjoyed them. (there are two of them) They are set up like a magazine with quizzes and stuff. The best thing I like about these book are they are good go to books. We one of the girls come to me with "friend problems," and I am searching for some great wisdom I don't seem to have I can grab one of these of the shelve flip threw and fine the topic.

The author is Vicki Courtney who wrote 5 Conversations you must have with your daughter.

$10 at Lifeway.

Apple Camp

This week the girls are going to Apple Camp. (as in computer apples) They are having a great time. The first day they learned how to take digital pictures. My friend Tammy who is a fabulous photographer showed the kids what to do. She did a great job my kids have been taking pictures to enter into the fair all week.

Yesterday they learned garage band and today are going to do video. On Friday we get to go and check out all of their work.

The top two pictures were taken by Samantha, and the bottom two by Ally.

Learning from Little Mouths

Kase and I have been reading a little pre-school devo book before he goes to bed a night. Last night one of the questions was where do we find God's words. The answer was of course the Bible. Kase answered our hearts. It made me smile.

A Box

A couple of days ago Ally got a package in the mail and Kase claimed the box. Tonight at nighttime Kase ignored cow, cowboy, froggy, beary, elephant and snuggled down with box. Who needs all those soft snugly things when you have a box.

Finishing up our Vacation

For the last two days of our vacation Arthur had a conference to go to, so the kids and I were on our own. I have a friend that lives in San Antonio, so on Thursday we met up with her and her kids and swam in the hotel pool. Our kids got along great and it was so nice to catch up with a friend that I hadn't talk to in forever.

On Friday the kids and I set out on foot and headed to the Children's Museum. San Antonio has the best Children's Museum. They had a ball exhibit that was Kase's favorite. You put balls in the tube and they move up to a bucket and they dump them on top of you. He really wanted to stay here the whole. time.

Ally is milking a cow in the pioneer section. Sam is working the construction crew.

The girls favorite was the grocery store. They played here forever.

After the Children's Museum we walked down to the Alamo. Ally studied Missions in school this year, so she was very excited about this. It was a little too crowded to get the full enjoyments out of it. You basically stood in line all the way through. The kids all had a good attitude about it though.

Our last event of the day was what Kase had been waiting for since we got to San Antonio. You could see the river from our hotel window, and it didn't take long for him to figure out you could ride on those boats. So instead of walking back to he hotel we took the boat taxi.

That night Art got done early enough so that we could all go out to eat one last time. The next morning we headed home. We did make a stop in Fredricksburg and had some yummy German food.

Fiesta Texas

The day that the kids were looking forward to most was the day we went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The girls got free Six Flags tickets for reading at school so, we decided to use them in San Antonio instead of Dallas this year.

I
I was a little worried about this little excursion, because we our kids are all different heights and can not ride all the same rides. Also the weather prediction was for 104!

However, everything turned out great. I was only about 90 and there were hardly any lines. We didn't wait more than 5 minutes in line for any line. It was great!

Ally rode every large roller coaster she could get on. Samantha really wished she could ride all the big rides, but had a good attitude about it. We did the park until about 5 and then headed to the water park part.

Aquarium

Tuesday we had lunch and then headed to the aquarium. We watched the dolphin show and the wild exotic bird show. They were both really good. One of the main things the kids talk about when people ask about our trip is the dolphins.

The kids got to pet a sting ray and thought that was really neat. They also had a place that the kids could pick up sea urchins and hermit crabs.

Once we were done we packed up and headed for San Antonio.

The Beach

Life around our house is settling into a New Normal. I recently finished with one job and pick up new responsibilities at another. For the first time in six year I have one job, not two, and thank goodness not three. It's been really nice to focus on one job and spend more time with my family. So, hopefully blogging we be a more regular thing.

Last week we took our summer vacation and really had a great time. One the first part of our trip we went to Corpus Christi, so that we could go to the Beach. Our kids had never been and it been something Arthur and I both wanted to do with the kids. Several months ago I got a great rate on a hotel right on the beach in Corpus bay. We got to the hotel, dumped our bags, and then headed to the beach. We played in the waves, collected sea shell, and played in the sand. We saw two Jelly Fish on the beach and Kase was so proud that he was the one to discover them. (Nobody stepped on any so we were good to go) Once we were done we cleaned up and headed out for a Sea food dinner. We saw some dolphins while we were at the restaurant.

The next morning we packed a lunch and headed across the bridge to Mustang Island to the the beach for the day. The sand there is smooth, fine, and white. We saw a number of critters that live in shells, and the kids thought that was very cool. The sea shell collecting was much better here for finding whole shells. The sea gulls were just like they are on Nemo, and we saw several pelicans.

Sandcastles were made, waves jumped, and sunburns gained. We really had a great time.

Vintage Baseball!

This weekend Arthur took the kids to the Vintage baseball tournament out at the Buffalo Gap Historic Village. (I bailed out due to cold weather) Anyway one of Arthur's friend was doing a report and it's over on the Abilene Reporter's Web Site. Go check it out Arthur's brother, Arthur and Samantha where interviewed.

Annie Moses Band

This afternoon on a very uneventful shopping trip I saw that one of our local churches was hosting an Annie Moses Band concert tonight. I was so excited. I love this band and who could believe they were here in town, free and on a night I had no church obligations!

I've posted about the Annie Moses Band before, and I have heard them twice on stage. There music is so beautiful. They are an entire family of Julliard trained musicians that have a beautiful family legacy of faith and music.

So, since my husband did a church obligations I loaded up the kids and we headed across town to the concert. It was great and I love every minute of it. Their music is so peaceful.

On the way over I was telling the kids where we were going , and I told them they were a group that I listened on my ipod. Samantha's pipes up and say are they that Daddy's girl group, that's my favorite on your ipod. I thought it was so funny that out of the 50 songs on my ipod she picked one of their songs. She was in luck because they did sing this song right before we had to leave to pick up our daddy.

The real name of that song is When Daddy says I'm beautiful, and it's one of my favorites too.

Downtown Abilene

Today was day #2 of our Spring Break Stay-cation, and this morning we headed to downtown Abilene. We started of at the NCCIL. This was not Kase's favorite, but it short. Samantha was excited to see books in the gift shop from her class trip last fall.

Once we were done with the NCCIl, we walked over a couple of block to catch the downtown trolley to find us some lunch. Downtown has some really great restaurants, but they mainly serve lunch for adults on lunch breaks that work downtown. Not the best for kids. So, we headed for Gloria's Grill (I figured they would at least have hamburgers) and it was the longest trolley ride! There was no kids meal, so it was a little pricey to feed kids, but everyone found something they like. They have the old time greasy kind of hamburger.

Once we were done with lunch we had a little bit of a wait until the trolley came back, so we played I spy and Simeon says. It was really nice to have good weather while we were waiting.

Next up was the 12th Armored Division WWII museum. This one the one stop for the day I wasn't sure the younger kids would like. Ally's a history buff, so I had no worries about her. As it turned out I had nothing o worry about they loved it. They had lots of tanks, so Kase was set, and Samantha love all the old time re-creations. They have a tank made of plywood that the kids can climb and pretend to drive.


They have two floor of exhibits and and outside area containing vehicles. They also have a room that honor the fallen soldiers. Each soldier who died in battle has a gold star next to his name.

After the WWII we headed to McKays for a little treat. I figured we needed to see all the downtown sites. Then it was onto the Grace. The Grace is someplace Kase and I go pretty often, but it's still fun.

Tomorrow Nanna and Papa are taking the kids to Frontier Texas. The weather is also supposed to turn cold, so I guess we will be saving our Buffalo Gap Historic Village tickets for warmer days.