Summer changes part 1

Some of the first friends we made in Brenham were the Headleys. Paula and I met through MOPS and soon discovered our boys (Micah and Mason) were in the same first grade class. Our younger boys (Noah and Alex) were in the same MOPS class. The moms and kids became fast friends. Paula and Kristi have been very close friends since they both moved to Brenham (they live a street away from each other). So I sort of invited myself to join their circle and the three of us have had a lot fun this year. The Headley's are moving to Round Rock next week. I am so excited for them because they are moving to my old stomping grounds. I can't wait to flood them with information on where to eat, what to see, where to play, where to shop, etc! We are definitely going to miss them in Brenham. But we plan to visit them when we make trips back to Pville!

Micah, Lydia and Mason 

Lydia, Noah and Mason

Summer is here!!

WOW! I can't believe this school year is over. Mason has officially finished first grade! We are soooo proud of him! Thursday the first grade classes at Krause had a pool party to celebrate the end of the school year. We had a blast. Mason tried everything at the pool including the rope walk and the big slide. He loved it all. See for yourself! :)

Splash into Summer!!!

Cub Scout Graduation

Sunday we attended Mason's Cub Scout Graduation. He graduated from a Tiger to a Wolf. Way to go Mason!

Our weekend

It was a crazy busy weekend, but we had lots of fun too. Friday night we went to preview a cattle sale that Andy attended Saturday. We drove to Caldwell to check out these girls.

Saturday morning we went to Jake's 5th birthday party at the skating rink. Check out his cake! Isn't it the coolest?! The wheels were made out of rice krispie treats and the cake was a pound cake because it had to be heavy enough to hold up the 3 layers! Jake was so excited!

Saturday night we got to go out with Nicole, Jake, Harper and Natalie. We had a great time. Sunday morning we went to a confirmation for one of Andy's cousins. After church we went to a luncheon put on by the family. It was nice to visit with the extended family that we rarely see anymore. When lunch was over, we went to tour Keith and Christine's new house. My favorite part of the house is the floor to ceiling windows. I love the natural lighting and the view is amazing. They are going to love it! We went home after the tour to change from church clothes to Cub Scout graduation clothes! Mason graduated from a Tiger to a Wolf Sunday. After graduation we went to Harper's parents house to celebrate his birthday. The boys got to take their first swim of the summer. They LOVE Gary and Donna's pool. They have a slide which apparently makes it the coolest pool around! While the boys swam I did what I do best, EAT! The food was fantastic as usual.

Andy took the day off Monday and we let Mason stay home from school. They aren't doing any work this week and he has only missed 2 days of school all year. So we thought it would be a nice treat for him. We went to College Station to do some shopping, then came back to Brenham and ran some errands. That evening set up the slip and slide for the boys. They weren't real impressed. I guess after swimming in a real pool the day before, sliding on a hard ground to some trickling water wasn't all that fun. But they suffered through! :)

From the mouth of a child

As we were driving to school this morning we were talking about the events planned for the weekend. Here is how the conversation went.
Mason: Could we bring our swimsuits and swim?
Me: I don't have a swimsuit that fits me.
Alex: What about that big ole black one you wore last year?
Me: Ummm. The BIG ole black one is now too small.
Sigh.....

1st Grade Awards

I can't believe this school year is coming to a close. Actually, for Alex it's already over. He had a fantastic year. He made great friends, learned a lot, became much more outgoing, stopped bringing his blankie into school and became closer to God. He pays such close attention during chapel, he can come home and recite the lesson word for word. He has started saying the prayer at dinner time, just one he makes up as he goes. I have to concentrate really hard to not cry, it's the cutest thing! Last night he thanked God for our family, the sun, our health and our food, but it's the way he says it that is so sweet! Next year he will go to school 5 days a week (8:30-11:30). That will be an adjustment for all of us, but it's a good segway into all day Kindergarten the following year. Although Alex's last day was yesterday, it seems like it's not really summer until Mason is done with school. Mason's last day is next Friday. Next week is just one field trip or party after another. He is looking forward to that! Yesterday Andy and I attended the 1st grade awards ceremony. Each student was presented an award for things they have achieved throughout the year. Here is Mason waiting his turn! Thanks James for snapping these pictures! Wouldn't you know it, our camera died as soon as Mason was about to walk across the stage!

Mason is shaking his Principal's hand.

He is getting a big hug from his teacher. She was amazing this year! We love her a ton!

Mason received an award for participating in the Accelerated Reader program, and a Citizenship award.

The best gift of all didn't come at his awards ceremony. It came on a simple piece of paper, inside of his backpack last week. With a small orange check mark, an entire years worth of work was validated! Mason started first grade unable to read, and ended this year on level with his class. He worked so hard and had great teachers helping and supporting him. I am so proud of him. This morning on the way to school Mason was talking about how some of the kids got medals at the awards ceremony, or they got multiple certificates. I tried to explain to him (although I know he doesn't understand the magnitude of his accomplishment) that what he received this year was the greatest gift he could have asked for.....the ability to read. It's a gift that will keep on giving, every single day. While the certificates can fade, tear, or get lost, being able to read just appreciates in value. I hope he continues to work as hard as he did this year. When he puts his mind to something, he can do it! I am so grateful for my boys. Although at times (usually multiple times a day) they can drive me batty, I wouldn't trade them for the world! I love you Mason and Alex and I am so proud to be your mom!

My little Chef

Alex has really shown an interest lately in cooking. Or maybe he has always had the interest, but I just recently started cooking! Either way, he has been a little helper. Here he is sauteing onions and garlic for chicken spaghetti. Andy's mom gave me a cookbook for Mother's Day called "Mom and Me Cookbook". Alex has already looked through the entire book and picked out all of the recipes he would like to make! It's interesting because all of the recipes he wants to make are dessert recipes! Big surprise there, huh?!

Pictures of the day

We had some handy men in house today. Aren't they adorable?!

We enjoyed our afternoon snack on a blanket in the back yard. It was so relaxing!

Spring Musical

Tonight Alex's class, along with the 1st grade class, had a Spring Musical. Alex was nervous about going on stage in front of a crowd and cried when I had to drop him off. But he did fantastic!! We were so proud of him. He sang all of the songs and did all of the moves. He was so cute! He is on the top row with the yellow shirt group.

The theme of the program was "All in a kid's day". In the middle of the program they had a "parade" where the kids acted out different activities they may do during the day for fun. Some of these activities were cart wheels, scooters, sack races, walking on big cut out feet with string (which is what Alex did), bouncing a ball, etc.

During the "Rubber Ducky" song they got to blow bubbles. He was really concentrating on this activity!

At the end of the program they sang a song called "Nighty Night". So sweet!

All of the kids did a great job. There were lots of smiles and a room full of proud parents by the end of the program! 

This and That

Thought I would post some random pictures. Alex's room has a cowboy theme. It's pretty interesting since he is NOT the cowboy type at all! But I loved the cowboy quilt and the colors, so cowboy it was! It would be more fitting if Mason (with the safari themed room) and Alex switched rooms. Alex is much more of an animal person and Mason is the cowboy! Anyway, I wanted to find a big star to put over Alex's bed as the center piece of the room. We finally found one a couple of weeks ago and Andy hung it up Monday. I love it! Here are a few pictures of Alex's room.

I think I might have a slight reputation of liking my wine! Here are some of my Mother's Day goodies! :) I love them!!

One good thing about having three trees snap in your yard.....fire wood for next winter!

Happy Mother's Day

I had a fantastic day spending it with these boys! I love you all!

Garden Update

Our garden is looking pretty good. We have been able to pick some broccoli and tomatoes. Yum! The boys love picking everything, but so far I can't get them to eat it! I'll keep working on that!

Maifest 2010

In March we received an invitation for the boys to participate in the Maifest which was held this past weekend. Maifest is a German festival that has been held in Brenham for the past 120 years. Andy and his family grew up attending and participating in Maifest. This was my first experience with the festivities. The Maifest festivities include parades (one for the younger kids (Junior) and one for the high school kids (Senior), carnival, German music, food, booths, and a coronation (one for Jr. and one for Sr.). There is a Sr. King and Queen and a Jr. King and Queen. The Sr. King this year was Natalie and Harper's nephew Jacob, which is how the boys were invited to attend. The theme this year was Spotlights and Showcases. The boys were asked to be Alp Horn players (think Ricola commercial). The day after we received our invitation I was told we needed to reserve a seamstress just incase their costumes needed to be made. Once we got our costume assignments I was relieved that we could put together their outfits ourselves. They had to wear khaki shorts, a white shirt, white socks, and suspenders. We were told to bling up the suspenders. With the help of my friend Dee we decided to go straight for red sequence and suspender clips. We could make our own suspenders. When I say we, I mean Andy and his mom. We also put a strip of sequence down the sides of the boys shorts (thanks to Andy's mom and my mom). But then decided the day before Maifest to take them off (sorry moms!). The outfits weren't hard to piece together but how were we going to make an Alp Horn?! Thanks to Dee's ideas and Andy's hard work we were able to come up with the perfect homemade alp horn. Andy used a pool noodle, an automotive funnel, pvc pipe and brown duck tape. It turned out great and it actually makes noise! Once the costumes and props were complete (I will spare you all of the stress that went along with that!) we started coaching the boys on their role in Maifest. They would ride on a float in the parade and they would bow on stage at the coronation. Easy right?! For Mason, it was pretty easy (outside of him not feeling well). For Alex, there were some initial tears. But in the end, he ended up loving it. Thursday night we had coronation practice. There were lots of tears shed there by Alex (he didn't like being separated from us). Saturday morning they rode on the float and did a great job. Saturday night we dropped the boys off with their group at 7:45pm and didn't see them again until the show was over at 10. They did fantastic!! There were NO tears. Alex even told Andy he liked just hanging out with the kids without Mommy and Daddy. Although Maifest was a stressful time for Mommy (only because we waited until the last minute to do everything and Mason was pretty sick), the boys had a great time. I think there was a lot of confidence building during this experience. For that I am thankful. The first two pictures are at practice Thursday night. The great thing is the boys were grouped with their good friends Brandon, Colton, Jake and Aislin.  The next picture was taken during the parade. The last pictures are during coronation, right before they did their bow.

Mid South Picnic

Friday Andy's company hosted a family picnic. It was in Montgomery (outside of Conroe). It is beautiful there. If you don't count that it was 96 degrees outside, we all had a great time. There was a bounce house, a dunking booth, a clown, sack races, tricycle races, snow cones, ice cream, popcorn, sumo wrestling, etc! The meal was catered (fried chicken, potatoes, corn, green beans) and was SOOO good. The employees brought dessert for a dessert contest. They were incredible! Here are a few pics of the fun.