Kai's Birthday

For Kai's Birthday we headed down to Galveston with his two best friends, Harrison and Lukas.

We played all day at the beach: checking out mussels in the sand, boogie boarding, digging holes, building sandcastles, and playing in the waves.

The next day we headed down to The Strand to Kai's favorite place in Galveston, Boardgame Island.

We played games and sipped on sodas for hours.

Happy 10th Birthday Big Guy!!!

Spring Break

This Spring Break Rocked....While is rained all week in Houston, We enjoyed sunshine and snow in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

We went skiing for the first time as a family at Apache Ski Resort.  On the mountain the weather was cold and snowy.  The first day, we actually got to experience thunder snow, which closed the mountain for a little bit, but is supposedly super rare and brought with it huge snowflakes that looked like dip 'n' dots.  The second day it was sunny and beautiful, and by this time the kids were pros.  They flew down the green (and even a few blue) slopes with ease as Ryan and I raced behind.

On our way back to Midland, we stopped by Roswell, NM to do a little alien search and eat some delicious mexican food.

Back in Midland, we visited the The Museum of the Southwest.  

The kids and I spent over 5 hours exploring the different sections of the museum, but our favorite by far was a room filed with nothing but cardboard boxes, scissors, markers, and tape.  The kids were allowed to create, construct, and let their imaginations run wild.  

They loved it.

After a long ride back to Houston, Malia and I went to see the new Cinderella movie with Emma while the boys spent some quality computer time with Coleman at Mimi and Pawpaw's house.  The next day we hit up a park with Mimi, Emma and Coleman and discovered the joy of Geocaching.

It was a packed break, but did not feel exhausting. It was just the getaway we needed.

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!!)