Andrew turns 7

Andrew had a Halloween birthday party.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids dressed up, we built a cardboard tunnels that ran thought out the garage, we ate powder sugar donuts off a hanging strings, and had a pumpkin toss.  Andrew had lots of friends there and got lots of fun toys.

That evening we went trick or treating with out neighbors next door.  Harrison, Reese and Lukas joined us too.  Kai was a zombie, Andrew was a shadow???, and Malia was a black cat....I am sure if have pictures somewhere, but since I am already posting this 5++ months late, I doubt I will post them.

Christmas post....Actually on time for once!!

This Christmas was pretty simple.  We went to Christmas Eve service with our friend Liz, and her kids Harrison and Reese.  We spent the night at my parents house and wore our pajamas and worked on Santa puzzles, and we opened Christmas gifts in the morning.

The kids big gifts were a basketball goal for the boys and a new bike for Malia.  They also got board games, walkie talkies, legos, barbies and beanie boos!

The day after Christmas we  headed up to East Texas to have Christmas with Ryan's side of the family.  After the party in Wills Point, we headed over to Campbell, to spend the night at Marla's house.  After we got back to Houston, we spent the rest of the break relaxing reading and playing...oh yeah, and the new Star Wars movie came out so we had to have a Star Wars marathon!!

Christmas in the month after July

So I have kinda sucked it up on blogging...but here are our Christmas pictures....

We started out our Christmas really early by going to the Texas Renaissance Festival and getting our picture taken with Santa.

Then we made gingerbread houses with Mimi.  Ryan and I also went over tot he Sheltering Harbour house to deliver Christmas presents and to make these same houses with all the boys.  It was a lot of fun to see high school boys getting so creative and being so precise with frosting.

Christmas Eve took us to my parents house, where we completed a 1500 piece Christmas puzzle.

The morning was filled with presents, and fun, and happy faces.  Looking back now, I think the kids favorite present was the razor scooters their Uncle Scott gave them.

Next we headed up to East Texas to visit with Ryan's side of the family.  We started off at Marla's house, where we did more puzzles, crafts, and the cousins all got to play.

Then we headed over to the Roberts Party, where Sam and Josh introduced the oven mitt game to everyone.  Ella won in the end, but it was a whole lot of fun trying to get that present unwrapped.

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.