Speedy June

June has just flown by and I realize I haven't updated at all.  So we started early June with a trip to the blackberry patch.  This was the same place we visited to pick strawberries earlier in the year.  The kids had a great time picking and we had filled up a basket before we knew it.  The plan was to make this blackberry cobbler and it was super easy.  I knew we needed 2 cups of blackberries for the cobbler and we picked twice that.  I thought the kids would enjoy having this as a fruity treat, but they each had about a bite and said they were done.  Jeff and I really loved it though.




The kids are so excited that it is finally warm enough to swim!


Shortly after that we went to see our community's parade before the start of the fair and rodeo.  We had fun watching the parade and later in the week we visited the fair and rodeo.  Jason was getting over a cold, but had a great time riding the rollercoasters.  Both kids had fun watching the "cows try to get away" at the rodeo.

Yes, my crazy boy decided to wear pants when it was rather warm!

but he was still having a blast!

Elizabeth wasn't so sure.

The sirens got a little loud.

We celebrated Father's day with Jeff and quickly headed down to San Antonio to visit the grandparents and attend the Vacation Bible School they had at their church.  Jason had a blast at their Kingdom Rock and Elizabeth got some special Mommy and Grandma time.  Silly Mommy didn't remember to take out the camera until after the grandparents left to visit other family.


Elizabeth still had a great time playing with their toys when they were gone


Hopefully I will do better with updates and pictures in the next month!

Sharing

**I accidentally deleted this post from 5/17/13, but was able to retrieve and repost it**


IMG_8584, a photo by RachSal on Flickr.


So a few weeks ago we moved Elizabeth and all her stuff into Jason's room.  It is a huge bedroom and thankfully even with all of their toys everything fits in there!  It used to be Jason's train themed room, but we are going with a more gender neutral star theme with some trains thrown in.


 

My biggest concern with all this was how would the kids do sleeping together and honestly they have taken it pretty well.  They do sometimes keep each other up later than we would like, but most of the time they are respectful and quiet when the other one is sleeping.  It was a huge change for Elizabeth because this was also her transition to a big girl bed.  When I put them to bed each night after stories and prayer and as I'm turning off the lights I normally tell them, "go to sleep, no chitter chatter."   Lately Elizabeth has been reminding me as she is going to sleep saying to me "no chitter chatter" in her sweet little girl way.  It doesn't mean she actually follows through, but she tries to be good.  They do seem to both like having a buddy near by at night and I think it has helped Elizabeth not be such a light sleeper.


So what's happening with Elizabeth's old room you might ask:  We are actually turning it into a craft room for me and guest room when needed.  Originally I think Jeff was planning on me doing scrapbooking in there and I probably will, but I recently got the urge to get out my Mother in law's old Singer and try sewing again.  I have tried a couple of times and never go very far before I got frustrated and gave up.  For some reason most things worked this time (there was still a little operator error) and my first project was this simple skirt.  Then I couldn't find the right containers to put Jason's quiet boxes and the light dawned that I could make bags, and I did!  I am using every project as a learning experience.  I am really keeping it very simple for right now and maybe one day I'll be able to do the more complicated things.

my very simple skirt


Jason with the plate he made me for Mother's day


The whole family on Mother's day

We have a lot of fun things planned for this summer and I will, as always, try to keep the blog updated with them!

Start of Summer

I'm sorry it has been a while since I have written.  It isn't that we haven't been doing anything to write about, I just haven't felt that inspired.  We have been keeping busy though, first Jason had his last day of preschool.  They had a graduation for the older kids in the class going off to Kindergarten and it even made me tear up a bit with how much quickly he is growing up.  Here was his first day of school and here he is after the last one:





For Memorial day weekend we headed way down to South Padre Island to play on the beach and we surprised the kids by going to Schlitterbahn water park there.  The kids had a blast, but we didn't get many photos.  I blame the lack of photos for part of the reason I don't feel as compelled to write the stories behind the photos. While we were at the beach we also went on a pirate ship and Jeff and I took a sandcastle building class.

 

Since we have returned I have been making a real effort to be engaged as a mom.  I admit that I had been phoning it in a bit the last month of so, but I have vowed for the kids to have a fun summer.  To accomplish that I made a schedule for our days and a pinterest inspired summer bucket list. 

 

We have been playing hide and seek

reading

sitting in boxes

hauling dirt

building rocket ships

flying rocket ships

and reading to little sister.

 

At the end of May Jeff and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary.  I was so surprised when I found this gift waiting for me!  He got me a beautiful Coach purse!  I don't think I matched him with just a new grill, but I also cleaned his truck. We are looking forward to many more anniversaries to come.

 



 

We are looking forward to fun and visits this summer so keep checking back!