One Direction concert

In July, my niece Rachel turned 10 and Sarah turned 9. 

Hilary and I decided to take them to the One Direction concert as a belated birthday party.. in lieu of a party in July.

It was the night before school started.  We got in after midnight, and it was ROUGH waking up for school... can't lie!  BUT it was-- oh-- so worth it!!

Fun night...
(Even though I only knew a few of the songs and my ears were ringing for a good 15 minutes after the concert.)

 

 

Abby's Plano baby shower

Monday night we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law.  Abby and Brian are in town from Virginia. 

They took a trip to New Orleans, came into Plano, and will head down to San Antonio before heading back.

We threw a Peter Rabbit-themed shower in honor of Abby's nursery that she's setting up for the boys.  At least 30 of our friends came and loved on Abby and B.  We prayed over the babies, opened presents, and had a great time.

Rachel and Sarah were included in the fun, and Sarah said that she loved being at the grown up party.  In fact, since we were some of the last to leave, she told my Dad that she got to stay for the "after party". 

After party.  Where does she hear about these things?


My little brother (who turns THIRTY tomorrow-- what?!!)  and me

Family shots...
Let me point out who Abby is SINCE SHE DOESN'T EVEN LOOK PREGNANT from the front.  It's ridiculous she's so cute.

So it's Sarah, me, Brian, Abby, Hilary, Karen (my cousin), Rachel

 

The hostesses and Abby

The loot! :)

We can't wait to meet the boys!! Hurry up, May!!

Caroline's wedding

Not my Caroline of course.

My cousin, Caroline. 

Not my cousin' s daughter, Caroline.

My mom's cousin's daughter, Caroline.

 

You follow?

 

I love family, am close with extended family, and-- clearly-- we all tend to use the same names for our kids.

 

Anyway, Caroline got married and what a beautiful ceremony it was!

 

And the reception??
Get a good band who will sing current hits and throw in some college kids and you've got a party!

 

 

 

My sister was out of town so my BIL brought my niece Rachel as his date.

 

We ate... and we hit the dance floor.

 

 

 

I must've burned a gazillion calories out there. Even the bride needed a water break.

 

 

 

My sweaty mess of a face and my awesome dance partner.  No one can accuse us of not having a good time!  ; )

  

 

Congratulations, Sweet Caroline :) 

 

American Girl Fashion Show

Once again Sarah and Rachel participated in the Junior League American Girl Fashion Show. 

This was right after Sarah got her braces.  :)  She modeled AG pajamas.  So fun!

Here I am with my sister and Caroline waiting for the show to start.

Here are the girls.  Not the greatest pics.  As you know, I always struggle with whether to focus on a good pic or selfishly be in the moment and personally enjoy it.

I usually choose to selfishly enjoy it, and snap whatever pic I can to commemorate the day.

Sweet girls :) Fun day.

Picture dump

Rather than making several small posts, I'm uploading pictures from unrelated events in one post.

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So that Rachel doesn't think Aunt Julie forgot all about her...

Pizza and cake for Rachel's 9th birthday

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So Jack doesn't think I forgot all about him...


The poor kid lost tooth #3 weeks ago.  I've posted every time Sarah's lost one but totally forgot to document Jack's.

Sorry, buddy.  This was a pic I took while we were waiting for Caroline to finish swim lessons.  Not great but it counts!

 

 

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Clearly I must've forgotten all about Caroline and (once again) didn't realize she was tired.  I found her like this a couple of days ago.

 

 



Even worse--- I took her picture and left her sleeping there.  But I did uncover her head to make sure she could breathe.

Yep, I go the extra mile to be the best mom I can possibly be.

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So Sarah would know that I love her....

 Sarah's been in a Weird Science camp at church this week, and she came to me with this...

... and said, "Mom, you wanna try one of my gummies?"

"What are those???  Gummies?  Like gummy bears?"

"Yeah, I made them in Weird Science camp.  Try one!"

"Have YOU tried one?"

"No, but I bet it's good."

"Ok."  And I ate the gummy.  Because I love her.

This was like when Ross was about to drink the fat for Rachel.  Only Rachel stopped Ross before he actually drank the fat. 

Sarah didn't stop me.

I can't really describe the taste or texture to you.  But I would use neither the words "gummy" nor "good" as descriptors.

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So we'll always be able to remember today...

Mom took the girls with July birthdays to Sweet and Sassy today.  They got their nails done.

And I told Sarah that if she wanted to get her ears pierced, for her upcoming 8th birthday, she could.  She's had a big year of increased responsibility and she's really grown up a lot.  She's a HUGE help to me, and this was something she wanted to do to show that she had grown up.

So here's my newly ear-pierced, soon-to-be-8-yr-old.

 

She wanted a close-up of her new sparkly studs.

She's had them pierced for about 5 hours now and has cleaned them twice already and turns them every hour on the hour. ;)

forgotten Easter pics

I meant to add these but forgot.  I have to add them for scrapbook purposes.

Cousins at Easter...

Yes, they're all very similar... But you know when you have 6 kids you just press the button down and continually "click" hoping that at least one will be good.

I thought these were all cute.

Back row: Alex- 7, Rachel - 8, Sarah- 7
Front row: Caroline - 3, Kate- 2, Jack- 6

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning we had an Easter egg hunt at church.  "Hunt" is the wrong word.  More like a "scramble" or "pick-up". 

We got there right on time, and I'm sure glad we did!  Caroline's group (3's, 4's, and Pre K) were the first to pick up eggs.

Here she is ready to go.  A fierce competitor.

She seemed to be picky at first, running past certain eggs and picking up others.  Then her greed kicked in, and she picked up whatever she could find.

Caroline with Morgan and Keegan. We'll see them later today.  It's Morgan's 3rd birthday. :)

Then it was the Kindergarten - 2nd graders turn.  Jack VS Sarah.
 

GO!

Checking out their loot.

The cousins were there too.  It's so hard-- read "impossible"-- to get them all to look at the camera at the same time.  But you get the idea.

We'll get together with them tomorrow at Mom and Dad's for lunch and a true HUNT.  When Dad hides eggs, it's no joke!

BTW, did you know they make plastic eggs called "Hard to Find" eggs?  They're gray and shaped like rocks.  Or brown and shaped like sticks.  Or green with blades of grass drawn on them. 

Somewhere there are diabolical people in Easter Egg Factory boardrooms thinking of ways to frustrate kids.  They're probably the same people who thought of trick birthday candles and pinatas that are impossible to break.

Mary Poppins

Last night we went to the theat-uh  (That's "theater" written in a British accent.) to see "Mary Poppins". (I don't know how to type it the way Bert says it, but that's the way I'm saying it in my mind.)

I spoke in a British accent a lot yesterday. (It's hahd to stop a British ahccent once you've stahted.) I think my kids grew a little sick of it... especially because my accent sounds a whole lot like Eliza Doolittle before Professor Higgins helps her.

We all went to eat at the food court in our mall before our night out.

Then everyone in this picture (+) my mom (minus) the men (minus) Kate went to see the show.

More easily said-- Sarah, Jack, Caroline, Mom, Hilary, Rachel, Alex, and I went to see the show.  Hmm.  Maybe that wasn't more easily said. 

The kids loved it! I think if they had one word to describe it, it would HAVE TO be... supercalifragilisticexpealidocious.

The dancing was fun!  The actors were so talented.  Even watching the sets change was spellbinding.  But I'm pretty sure their minds were blown when Mary Poppins flew with her umbrella and when Bert walked on the wall and on the ceiling.  I, of course, saw the cables, but Sarah was convinced that he had on suction cup shoes.

It was a late night, and Caroline ended up sleeping through most of the second act.  But Sarah was still talking about it this morning.

Jolly good show, ol' chaps!

(That's British, right?) 

Ok, I'm done with the accent.

Memorial Day 2012

We invited my sister and her crew and my mom and dad over for a pool party yesterday.

One thing that really helped keep us cool-- Jason bought another fan for outside that had a mister with it.

As in a spraying device in front of the fan. Misting water. For some reason, when I wrote that, I felt like that sentence read as though we had a "Mr." as opposed to "Mrs". Like we bought a fan that came with a man. Not the case. Just didn't want anyone to be confused. ;)

Pressing forward in the recap of the afternoon...

We had all snacks and drinks while the kids swam.

Caroline swam a little...

I didn't catch whether or not Kate got in, but she was ready at any moment. :) Noodle. Check. Goggles. Check.

Other pics from the afternoon...

After swimming, we ate burgers. We had a tent/canopy thing set up for the kids. The adult area was pretty well shaded by 6:30 so we were good. The kids played in the sandbox for a little while. Then we headed out front to the swing.

Jason was pushing the kids pretty high.

Then he introduced them to the "Tornado of Terror". He wound the swing tight. Round and round. Then he pulled them back high and let them go. So, not only were they swinging, but they were spinning. I'm not quite sure how we managed to not have anyone throw up.

It was hard to capture the Tornado of Terror digitally and do it justice.

This is one of my favorite pics. Jason was describing the Tornado of Terror to Alex. Asking him if he could handle it. Telling him it was intense. And Alex is just smiling away.

He didn't back down. He loved it.

Everyone went home around 8:00. I threw the kids in the tub and then they crawled into our bed to watch TV before they went upstairs.

Terrible pic. Sorry.

A fun day!