Summer Part 1 (2013)

The first part of our summer seemed to fly by! Jacob finished up his school year sometime around June 5th or 6th. A week later we headed up to Dallas for the weekend. Justin and I treated ourselves to a concert with a couple of our favorite bands for our anniversary and the tour was starting in Dallas about a week after our actual anniversary. We headed up there on on Friday, June 14th after Justin got home from work. We went swimming on Saturday, then on Monday played with some friends and our concert was Monday night.  

Guster started out the concert and stole the show!

We weren't so impressed with Ben Folds Five - we aren't as familiar with their stuff

We headed home on Tuesday, the 18th and Justin got hard to work studying for a part of the Certified Internal Auditor exam he was taking the next Monday (the 24th). (He passed it, by the way.  Yay!!)

Justin's mom flew in to visit us on Friday, the 21st, and stayed with us until Monday July 1st. Because Justin had already scheduled his exam and time off to study for it before we knew when his mom would be coming, he was stuck at work trying to catch up on things. We tried to do some fun things while she was here like taking the kids to the park and to a splash pad, but I was also busy making cupcakes for one baby shower and helping to host another. It was a super busy time!

Presents from Gramma Jan

"Helping" to decorate cookies

This one is just eating cookies

This one isn't sure what to do

Cookies I decorated for the shower

Then we left again when Justin got off work on July 3rd and headed up to Dallas (again). We usually go up to Dallas for the 4th of July because it is Justin's dad's birthday. However this year we were thinking that we wouldn't go because we had just been there a few weeks before. That was until we realized that it wasn't just any birthday, but a 60th birthday and there would be a big birthday party and then we just had to go. Plus I was in charge of making the birthday cakes (that I didn't take any pictures of, but they definitely weren't fancy).

We came back home on July 7th and realized we had just blown through the first month of summer break!

Last Day of school 2013

Every morning, Jacob acted like he didn't want to go to school anymore.  But he always seemed happy when he got home and his teacher told me that there was a vibe that all the students and teachers could feel at school that it was the end of the school year and everyone was just feeling done.  I was done fighting to get him ready for school, but not sure if I was ready for the summer.

Here is a comparison of Jacob on the first day of school and then the last day of school.

First day of school

Last day of school

I put together end of school year gifts for Jacob's teachers - a nice beach towel, a little sunscreen and some homemade coconut lime cookies.  I hope they liked them!

Jacob's field day

Every year the PPCD has a "field day" for their students at the end of the school year.  It is nothing like I remember field day being when I was in school where we had races and played games against other students and teachers, but rather it is a splash day where the kids get dressed in their bathing suits and play for about an hour and a half in little pools and sprinklers.

I almost didn't go to Jacob's field day when they changed the date from a Friday to the next Thursday due to rain because it meant that I would have to wake up the twins from their naps in order to take them, but decided it would be worth it to get some cute pictures of the kids playing.  The twins were pretty cranky while we were there, but Jacob had tons of fun and was so sad when "field day" was over.

The twins spent the first 10-15 minutes not wanting to get out of the stroller

Starting to venture out

Ready to play now

A pool all to himself

Easter Sunday 2013

As usual for Easter Sunday we headed down to Justin's cousin's in Texas City. We went to church for an hour before going back home and seeing what the Easter Bunny brought.  As turned out, going to church was a nightmare.  Even though our boys hadn't had any candy that morning and didn't eat much the night before either they were all super restless and difficult during the hour we went to church. We left feeling like it was the worst Sunday we had ever had.

The boys were all pretty excited to get their baskets.  The Easter bunny gives them some candy and some other items.  The funny thing is that Joel is the only one of our kids really likes candy all that much.  But he REALLY loves it to make up for Jeremy not liking it at all and Jacob only liking a few things.

Jeremy

Joel

Jacob

Best attempt at getting a pic of all my boys in their matching Easter outfits

After doing Easter baskets and once I got the rolls made, we headed out to Texas City.  Traffic was horrible trying to get to the freeway because so many people were going to later services at their church (and most of them only go a couple times a year anyway).  It made me wish even more that we hadn't bothered to go to church that morning.

Once we got down to Justin's cousin's it was time for the egg hunt.  Back at Easter our cousins there ranged in age from 11 years old to 15 years old so their egg hunt is much different than my kids' egg hunt.  They are hunting eggs filled with money and my kids don't care about money or understand what it is.  Justin's dad got some candy to hide for the kids, but with only one super-sweet tooth child that wasn't too enticing to them either.  They really liked playing on the trampoline though.

After the egg hunt we had a wonderful ham dinner and after more socializing it was time to head home.

We only thought traffic was bad headed down to Texas City, but that was because we didn't know how completely awful it would be once we headed home.  I'm pretty sure I've blocked from my memory how long it took us to get home, but I definitely remember being completely stuck on 45 just coming into downtown and having to have Jacob potty in a cup because we hadn't moved for 20 minutes.

We're grateful that we don't live in Florida like we did the first couple years we were married and that it is easier to see family.  But after the long drives getting to family and getting back home on Easter Sunday it really made us wish that maybe one holiday a year could be done at our own house.  It is really hard to have 3 little kids and cart them around to houses that are not child-proofed in anyway whatsoever.

Easter Saturday 2013

We celebrated Easter on Saturday (back in the Spring) with friends and then on Sunday with family.

On Saturday afternoon we dyed a few eggs with the kids.  Jacob was the most interested in the process.

After we worked on the eggs we were busy cleaning and cooking and sent the boys to play outside.  We then had a party with some of our friends!

Counting us there were 4 families and we had a potluck dinner where everyone brought a main dish and a side dish.  We decided that there are always plenty of sweets around for Easter so we didn't really do any desserts.  At least I wasn't supposed to, but I made these cute little pudding carrot patch cups anyway.

The carrots are made from orange starburst and green twizzlers

We all ate lots of yummy food and then we had an egg hunt for the kiddos.  We had each family bring filled eggs - 10 for each kid they had hunting.  Some of the kids went crazy looking for eggs (which we didn't bother really hiding and most were just out in full view.  My kids don't really get it and weren't super excited after the initial "I found an egg".

Poor Justin.  He is always so miserable for Easter.  Justin officially has the world's worst allergies in the spring.  People always tell me that they have bad allergies too, but I have never met someone who suffered as much as he does in the month of March and into April.  He really cannot even go outside because when he does his eyes immediately start swelling up.  When it gets really bad, he wears a mask that makes him look like an alien just to walk out to the car and drive to the park and ride.  And ever since he was so sick and on all those steroids his allergies are just debilitating.

That said, Justin stood inside and snapped pics of all the kids during the Easter egg hunt while all the other parents were outside with their kiddos.  So here are just some of the pictures that Justin took.

Things to post

I have plans to get all caught up on our family blog, but life happens and instead I keep falling further and further behind. The last 6 weeks or so have been incredibly busy and stressful which means that blogging has been one of the least pressing things on my mind. I do want to get caught up though and so I'm making a list of things that should be here, hopefully I'll check them off one by one over the next month or two.

Easter
End of school year festivities
Summer part 1 and part 2
Going back to work
Back to school
Halloween
Thanksgiving/Christmas part 1
Our first family vacation
Jacob turned 5
Christmas part 2
Our "new" car and our new car

Wish me luck!