Andrew has been dethroned....

So tonight the kids were playing with blocks and I remembered a blog post I did a few years back about Andrew titled my architect.  

After a few attempts at tower building Andrew beat his previous record with twenty three blocks....but it was Malia that surprised us all with a tower 25 block tall.

Looks like there is a new architect in the family!!

Andrew is Six!!

Andrew had an awesome birthday celebration this past weekend.

He ate some pizza

He played some video games

He rocked it on ski ball

He hung out with his buddies

He played guitar with a giant rat

He and his dad went crazy in the ticket blaster

He got some cool presents

And he had some delicious fondue.

Andrew is such a cool little kid.  He loves to cuddle up with his mom.  He hates being in a room all by himself.  He loves to wear old man socks.  He likes to talk about God.  He is really good at singing at the top of his lungs in the car.  He can build awesome lego creations.  He loves to dance and fight and bug his siblings.  And he is really good at picking his nose.  I love that little guy.

October Fun

October is one of my favorite months.  It is when we are finally adjusted to going back to school.  The weather is wonderful and the holiday season is still fresh and exciting.

This year one of my friends wanted to carve pumpkins with me and the kids.  I invited a few more people over and we had a really fun carving party.

 I could not get a good shot of all of them, but Kai made a Minecraft Pumpkin, Andrew's was a classic scary face, and Malia and I made a bat.

The next day was Halloween.  

Malia went as Elsa (of course)

Kai was The Scream Ghost.

And Andrew was Rocket Raccoon (look at his sweet little tail)

We walked around our neighborhood and then went over to one of Kai's classmates house, who was having a haunted house.  The kids got to help scare while the parents hung out in the cup-de-sac catching up.

It was a really fun evening.

The next day the kids went though their pounds of candy and filled a sandwich bag with all their favorites.  Then Kai and I went out with 45 and Hope to feed the homeless and gave the rest of their candy away to the people we met.  It was a great way to have fun and give back.

Beach

As the weather starts to cool down... I wanted to take one last look at this summer.

(or maybe I just forgot to post this trip to the beach and just found all these great pictures)

Either way.....Galveston pictures overload!!

The kids did a lot of digging, swimming and playing football in the sand.

(not really sure if the one above is football of ballet)

Poor Giblet (Emma's Dog) got harmlessly tortured this trip by his loving owner....

Storybook Pumpkins

This year I am keeping two of the kids school friends after school.  Harrison and Reese.  The kids have a lots of fun playing together everyday. 

So, when storybook pumpkin time came around, I asked their mom if they could make pumpkins along with my kids.  Here are the finished products:

Reese made Clifford the Big Red Dog

Andrew made Skippy Jon Jones

Kai made Harry Potter

And Harrison made Captain Underpants.

The kids had a lot of fun making them and showing them off to all their classmates at school.  (especially Harrison because he got to tell everyone that those were Kai's Underpants!!)

First days

A new school year is upon up.  Kai is starting 4th grade and Andrew is in Kindergarten.

Andrew got Kai's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Romero.  He loved the first day, but thought he would just stay home the second day and sleep.  By day three he was still tired but ready to go!

Andrew's Favorites:

Food: enchilada and ice cream

TV show: Captain America

Activity: legos

What he wants to be when grows up: cop

Kai has Ms. Brown and Ms. Snyder this year.  He is with the same group of kids he has been in class with for about three years now, so he was happy to see all the familiar faces.  He is excited about getting to get into the science lab this year.

Kai's Favorites:

Food: Pizza, cheese quesadillas,  ice cream

TV show: Crash and Bernstein

Activity: video games

What he wants to be when grows up: computer maker

And Malia was not going to get left out.  

She started dance this week.  One hour of ballet and tap.  She loved every minute of it.

Malia's favorites are:

Food: peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate

TV show's: My Little Pony and Barbie

Activity: swimming

What she wants to be when she grow up: Elsa from Frozen

Birthday!!

 We usually do not do much for the adult birthday's in our family....we go out to eat or go bowling as a family....mine is usually on a tail end of a summer vacation so it is sometime spend sitting in a car.

But this year, Ryan and I are also celebrating our 10 year anniversary, so we combined my birthday and our anniversary for a night out on the town.

We had dinner at a cool little taco place down town, followed by cheesecake and wine at a swanky italian restaurant.

Then we went and saw C.L Lewis's,The Great Divorce at the Wortham Center.

After the play, we met my brother at a bar and had a few drinks with him.  

(FYI- the below picture is a pre drinking picture)

We did not get home until 1:00 am, which is pretty late for this 34 year old!!

It was a great birthday and a great anniversary celebration.

I can not wait to see what the next ten years bring.

mini vacation to Corpus Christi

Ryan had to go to Corpus Christi for work and we decided to tag along for an end of summer vacation.

We visited the USS Lexington.

We hung out on the beach.

And we learned how to paddle board.

I read an article the other day about how everyone should get to the beach at least once a year.  It talked about it's healing and calming nature and how it helps restore people.

I totally buy into that.  We love the beach.  We are beach people.

4th of July

This year we had the most traditional 4th of July ever! 

We were in a 4th of July parade.

(Side note: When I was little my neighborhood had a fourth of July parade every year.  This year, they brought it back and my kids got to experience one of my childhood memories firsthand. How cool is that.)

We had food in the shape of the American Flag

We shot fireworks in the street and everyone (even the three year old) got to participate.

We even had a singalong--- complete with a banjo-- thanks to some very talented college students!!

It was a good night.

Happy Birthday America!!