1st Day of Galveston

 In the beginning of August we went to Galveston for a long weekend with Janet and her family, Victoria and her family, and Mark and his family.  We got to Galveston by late afternoon and headed straight for the beach.  This is the first time my kids have been to the ocean and they were so excited!  I was too as you can tell by the tons of pictures you are about to see!  Ben was loving it so I got a ton of him.  He just ran in and out of the ocean trying to catch a wave on his boogie board.  Elizabeth was a little more cautious so I don't have as many of her. 

 We got a kite and it was awesome, no running around to keep the kite in the air, it flew forever! 

 After the beach we headed back to our house and had dinner.  Then we headed out back to do some fishing.  It was a little nerve racking for me...there was no railing and it was a few feet down to the water.  Luckily no one fell in.  Phew!

 Here is the back of the house.  It was fantastic!  3 stories of decks, it was gorgeous. 

Here's the bottom where the kids were fishing.  I hope I remembered to take pictures of the inside!

Family Time

 I went out of town the weekend of my birthday for a PTA conference.  When I got home the kids had made me a cake!  Elizabeth decorated the entire thing by herself. It was so beautiful!  I could tell she worked really hard. 

 See the flowers?  I was extremely impressed. 

 One day during the time when Drew and Josh were staying with us I watched the boys while Janet went to work in her classroom.  We decided to do experiements with baking soda and vinegar. 

 We saw this pin on pinterest where you make your own bouncy balls.  We decided to try it out...and it didn't really work. :(  Ben still thought it was fun, though.  He also lost his 4th tooth!  Can you see the little space on the bottom? 

Cousins

 My kids have never gone bowling!  Well, maybe when they were really little we went along with our cousins or something, but as of this day when we went with our cousins, they couldn't remember ever going.  They had a blast!  Some of the cousins came to visit from Minnesota so we had a great time bowling with them.  The pictures kind of speak for themselves. :)

 These kids were so funny!  There is a kid out of the picture to the right who is just about to bowl through all the kid's legs - and it worked!! 

 I took this picture for our cousin Claire - she got 3 strikes in a row!!

 The next day we all went to dinner at Joe T. Garcias. 

 All the cousins. 

 Crazy kids!

I feel like my kids are getting to be so big - I can't get over that I have a soon to be kindergartner and second grader!

A Play and a Birthday!

 There is a really great children's playhouse near us and we decided to go see Beauty and the Beast.  It was such a fabulous play - and all the characters were played by children!  They did a fantastic job, we will for sure be going again. 

 After the play the actors came onto the floor and let the children come meet them.  My kids thought that was so cool! 

 There are the kids on the right side of the picture, they are waiting in line to meet Belle!

 Jessica's kids came to stay for a day a couple of weeks ago and we decided to get a sundae from McDonalds.  I always let my kids eat them in the car (usually as a treat for running errands or something) and I thought it would be fun to do it with Jessica's kids.  I kind of forgot that I had a not quite 3 year old with me!  I couldn't believe what he looked like when I got him out of the car.  I have never seen a kid so messy from a little bit of chocolate fudge.  I didn't get a picture in the car but if I had you would have seen even his feet and legs were filthy.  He had put the ice cream on his foot!  It was also all up his arm, but I washed him up before this picture. 

 Oh my, hysterical!

  My good friend that lives two doors down from me, also happens to be named Laura, had a surprise birthday party given to her by her husband at the end of July.  Our other friend, Melanie, and I decorated and had a ton of fun.  It was a Luau theme.  Here's Ben in our photo op. 

 Tom and Melanie's husband, Paul.  They look pretty festive, right?!

 Elizabeth looking cute!

 There's the birthday girl with her family. 

Her husband threw the party at a neighborhood clubhouse - the kids had a great time swimming while the parents had a great time eating!