Weekend Camping Trip

This weekend we went on a little camping trip to Fall River. It was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures!

We started a fire and made s'mores and roasted hot dogs!



Here is our tent...it was super easy to set up!

We used our camping cook stove to make breakfast burritos in the morning.

Then we went exploring...

and the girls tried out some rock climbing...Stanley's past-time.

We drove over to see the damn.

And traveled over the creeky bridge before heading home!

Our Bathroom Makeover

This is our bathroom BEFORE! As you can see, it was pretty awful. We have lived with it for the past 2 1/2 years since we moved in. It had gold fixtures and a hunter green countertop and sink. The cabinets were a blonde wood color. I was so tired of seeing it, I decided it just had to go!

We were working in a pretty tight budget. We completed the whole bathroom for about $700.00. Here is the finished Bathroom!

Sink Before...

Sink After...

We replaced the sink, fixtures, mirror,lighting, and flooring (Vinyl tile). We painted the walls a pretty blue green. Then we sanded and painted the countertops using a product from Rust-Oleum. It was 19.95 and was mixed to the color of my choice at the paint counter. So far I LOVE it! It is very durable and smooth. Can you think of a cheaper or easier way to get rid of dated countertops? We also painted the cabinets and added a glass tile backsplash.

I finished off the room by adding fresh new towels, shower curtain, rug, trash can, lamp, and a few accessories.

I am so pleased with how it turned out. The ugliest room in our home is now beautiful!

Thanks for checking out our new bathroom!

Amelia's First Day of Kindergarten

Amelia started Kindergarten this week! This was her "first day of school picture" outside our house.

Here is the lunchbox she picked out to match her backpack.

Her first lunch...I was teary eyed as I was making it.

Amelia was so excited about school starting. Here she is in her classroom on the first day.

So how am I really feeling about this Kindergarten stuff? Well, honestly it has been hard for me. I feel torn in many ways because we had really planned on homeschooling up until recently when I decided I wanted to finish my teaching degree. I have always loved the idea of homeschooling and think it is an awesome way to educate children for those who are called to it. Homeschooling offers a family-centered lifestyle and we love that. But, at this point in our lives I must work. My business brings in a good income, but not a lot of free time during the day. I am not able to take the girls to any extra activities for homeschoolers and I don't know if spending their days in house full of preschoolers is the most productive environment. Right now, I do not know what I want or what is best...but I give that to the Lord and will wait for his direction for the future regarding my career and schooling for the girls. But, for now, I think this is a good place. It is a smaller magnet school and she only has 15 kids in her class. I am trying to let go, but I want to know what she is doing all day. I want to be there. I want to see the connections she is making in her learning. I count the hours until she gets home. I am not sure if these are feelings every mom has when they send their first born off to school or if these are feelings resulting from wavering from our original plan to homeschool. I hate not knowing what is best or if the decisions I am making are the right ones.
 So how is that for a first day of school post???

New Organization Stuff!

Magnetic White Board for $7.00

New Calendar/Planner

Happy 34th Birthday Stan!

As usual, we ate at Sal's Japanese Steak House for Stan's Birthday. It was delicious.

Mmmmm...Steak and Lobster, Fried Rice, Fesh Veggies, Shrimp, Salad, Soup all prepared at the table.

Then we headed home for Stan's Birthday Dessert choice...Chocolate Cream Pie.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Fourth of July

A Few Pictures from the Fourth of July

Toy Story 3

Grandma Nita took the girls on a fun outing to see "Toy Story 3" last weekend. They had SO much fun. Who could blame them? They got to see the movie AND eat at McDonalds AND  pick out a Toy Story toy from Walmart too!!!!

(By the way...isn't my Mada looking SOOOO old?? She has entered into a new stage and is SO adorable!)

Writing Experiences

Amelia has entered a new stage in her writing . She has started to sound out words and write them phonetically. I first noticed it when she was playing. She was trying to write the name Sarah. As I watched her (without her knowing) she said the word slowly and wrote the letters SRU. 

Want to try a few more???

Gramo

Sale

Butrfli

 (Grandma, Sally, Butterfly)

At this stage she is exploring with sounds and writing them as she hears them. It is really fun to watch her explore this new found skill.

This picture does not really show her writing, but shows the detail she has started to put into her illustrations.

Thanks for letting me share!

Sun Bathing

The girls have been having fun in the little plastic pool. Here they are relaxing in the sun!

Summer Garden

There are beautiful Hydrangeas in bloom right now in the garden!

This picture below is of our baby hydrangea bush that we planted (and then replanted two weeks later because it was about to die).

Here is what it looked like when we planted it in its first location. I didn't get a picture of it when it started to shrivel up. But it looked aweful! I think it was getting too much sun and not enough moisture.

So we replanted it in its new location near the garage by the pond. This area has drip irrigation so the soil is always moist. I tenderly cared for it daily for about a week. I piched off the shriveled leaves, watered it and kept a close eye on its progress. It really paid off! Now it is flourishing. Take a look at the newest Annabelle Hydrangea in our garden...

Close up of our baby Hydrangea

Here are our GIANT Annabelle Hydrangeas

And finally a surprise in the garden!

Okay...now remember I dont know much about gardening and I am learning as I go along. Ever since we moved to this house 2 years ago, I have tried to stay on top of the weeding in the main garden area back by the pond. It is not hard to pull them if you get them when they first come up out of the mulch. They arent coming from underneath, but are seeds that have fallen on top of the mulch so they are super easy to get out. But there was one plant that always looked like a big weed to me. So for the last two years I have cut it down to the ground but not pulled it out from the roots. This year I was a little behind on my late spring/early summer weeding. So as I made my way around the garden beds, I found a beautiful surprise!

The "weed" I kept cutting down was another Hydrangea bush (I think). This one is a pastel pink with light green (almost white) petals. The leaves are not solid green like the Annabelle Hydrangea but are veriegated. Absolutely Gorgeous!

Thanks for letting me share my garden with you!

Memorial Day Trip to San Antonio

Over Memorial day weekend we drove to San Antonio to visit Daniel (Stan's brother who is in training there). We had such a wonderful trip! The girls were SO good. It is a 10 hour drive so we weren't sure how our littles (3 and 5 yrs) would do. We decided to go ahead and buy a portable dvd player for the car. Stan and I had both said in the past that we would NOT have a dvd player in the car because we wanted them to look out the windows and watch the landscape just like when we were kids. But, we found out that watching the scenery leads to throwing-up (at least for our kids) and so we ditched that and bought the player in hopes of making the trip smoother. SUCCESS!

We stayed on base in Temporary Housing (kind of like a hotel) and only paid $40.00 per night. Also, we were able to visit Sea World for FREE because of their nationwide "Here's to the Heros" promo that they extended through 2010. Normally tickets are nearly $60.00 for adults and $50.00 for children. We ate icecream, rode on rides, and watched Shamu of course!

Waiting to see Shamu!

There she is!

There we are in Penguin Egg #4

Here we are with two tired kids at the River Walk in San Antonio.

Mmm! Yummy BBQ Ribs!

We played games to win tickets at Dave and Busters!

The girls didn't know until afterwards that you trade the tickets in for prizes!

What a fun Family Vacation

Wrapping up Pre-K

When summer comes I start to get lazy with my blog posts. As you can see I haven't posted in almost a month!
Well, Amelia has done so well her Pre-K year. She loves to learn and is always excited about working in her school books and doing activities. Here is her notebook of many of the activities she did over the last year.

This year Amelia learned to read, learned many beginning math concepts, learned to write her name, and practiced writing words using all the sounds she has learned. Just the other day she called me to the easel and said, "Mom, I am writing the word wish. I have the W-I. Now I just need the SH. After reminding her what SH looks like, she wrote the word all by herself! She is well on her way to being a reader and writer.