Leap Day!

February 29th, not a day you see on the calendar very often...those poor babies born on February 29th - I think Blythe would be devastated to not see her birthday on the calendar every year.

We have some friends that recently (as in the last few weeks) took a huge leap and decided to leave home life for life on the road. Lucky for us their first getaway was to Boerne so we have been enjoying their company. Today we psyched them up for story time at the library followed by a picnic and they were both grand. Story time did a special queen and king day where all the kiddos wore crowns and sipped tea, kid-style.

The weather delivered, parting the rain clouds and bringing out the glorious sun just in time for our picnic. We ate, we chatted, we explored, it was better than a grand ball... I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.
























Apparently tights and rock climbing don't mix very well

Jericho "I don't understand why you wouldn't want this cute baby to jump into your bed, shimmy in the covers and toss the pillows around right after you made the bed."



Sister learned how to do a forward roll


Mommy WOW, I'm a big girl now!


Blythe: "I make three-and-a-half look good"



Blythe: "Mommy, come quick look what I can do"

Making the best of it

Today I could write a several 1000 word essay on how horribly we were wronged by Enterprise, but instead I am going to brag on my amazing kiddos.

My kids did not lose it once as we had a pick-up and a quiet waiting area to entertain ourselves for 2+ hours. We pretended we were in a magic school bus, with Jericho as the driver, that took us to a far away palace where we were princesses and queen's and waiting for our prince and king's to rescue us. We guessed which color our night and shining armor would arrive in. Blythe really wanted to guess pink, but in the end (after realizing how many pink cars we ever see) had a hard time deciding between red and blue, so we let her have both. I took white and Jericho chose silver (strongly encouraged by Blythe). We will never know what car those princes or kings were going to rescue us in that morning because we left our magical palace and piled back into the magic school bus for the enchanted forest.




In the back of the pick-up we hopped through an enchanted forest, we had sword fights with sticks, and practiced writing letters in the air. Once the enchantment had left the forest we headed inside to see what crafty entertainment we could come up with in there. Had it been the Enterprise location I would have let my kids play "monkey bed," [in case you aren't familiar with this game it's where your kids jump on the bed/sofa and pretend to be one of the 5 monkeys..minus the falling on their head part] but I deterred them from that and we scanned through the trashy magazines in hopes of spotting a "dog," or a "cat," or "baby." An hour later with the kids still acting like angels we cut our loses and headed to gymnastics where we caught not quite the last half of our make-up class (GRR).



So tonight when Jason called to say he was on his way home, he heard a mouthful about my day, and promptly responded, "I'll take care of dinner." That was music to my ears because it was 5:30 and I was not prepared to even think about dinner plans I was D.O.N.E. and had 200+ reusable stickers to find homes for with my girls.





I did stumble upon a lemon-doughnut recipe on pinterest and if I didn't dislike the flavor of lemons so much I would use come cookie-cutter line like "When life gives you lemons make lemon doughnuts," but instead we're just gonna try regular ol' fashioned doughnut holes....the dough is rising so we'll see how they turn out.

Some days leave you with more boo boo's than others, but that's just part of the climb.

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and oh did we celebrate our love!

We started out the morning with heart-shaped waffles.





We decorated Valentine's and Blythe denied being my Valentine, Jericho's, or Mamo's she insisted that Ian was her Valentine! We told her she could have more than one, but she wasn't interested.









I love her people. They don't have a neck, much less a body, but they are SO happy.







And sometimes all they have is a face, but she makes up for it by giving them earrings.



This wasn't exactly what I had in mind for Blythe to wear on Valentine's day, but when you have a 3 year old with a mind of her own, you rarely get to pick out her outfit...regardless of how hard you try.



This little ensemble inspired a day of Paton Twirling and marching..





We concluded our day with a warm bowl of home-made tomato bisque soup and some yummy valentines day treats.







HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

An Unexpected Getaway

Last Tuesday Jason called at noon to say that he was going to a conference in Houston and would be back Friday. Within 30 minutes I had finagled a way for the girls and I to join him, meet up with a good friend at the outlet mall from Bryan, and spend some quality time with our cousins from Montgomery. Then I quickly fed the kids lunch, put them down for a nap, packed us up, shut down the house, and we were on the road by 4:30!

We arrived to this:





A quaint little resort nestled in Cypress, TX where the girls and I would spend one night and Jason would be for his conference.

The resort delivered all of your classic 'hotel' entertainment.

Unlimited access to all cabinets and drawers:



Jumping on the bed:





Talking on the phone:





Watching Movies:



And my personal favorite, a photo shoot!








sometimes there are little moments that melt your heart and this was one of them. Blythe very generously gave Jericho her pinecone.







We packed up and headed to the Cypress outlet malls where we spend the day with the Romansky's. We scored two new pairs of shoes for Blythe, but the best deal we got was spending much needed time with our good friends whom we miss dearly. There is nothing better than meeting up with good friends where the conversation just flows and everyone is so happy to be in each others presence.

Once we wore the kids out and we couldn't deny them naps any longer the Romansky's headed back to Bryan and we headed out to the next leg of our getaway... COUSINS!

I loved having lots of cousins as a kid and sadly my kids don't (yet) have that experience too often. Blythe was very pleased to learn that even in a house full of boys there were plenty of dress-up clothes.



She watched her older cousin in aw as he taught her the finer points of jump roping.


This is a patient and loving boy. He worked with Blythe for a good 20 minutes teaching her when to jump so he could jump rope with her...SO sweet

Having older cousins who know how to read is a huge bonus!


My child has a problem with clothes - she thinks they are completely useless and usually by 5 I have stopped trying to convince her otherwise - hence the more than half naked Blythe

And young cousins are just as much fun too. To the park!




This little lady would swing all day if someone was willing to push her







Sometimes last minute and unexpected is JUST what we need. I need some good 'girl' time with people I knew well, not with new people. Both types of conversation are good, but sometimes you need one more than the other. And while yes it is true that you have to have the first to get the latter and some of these firsts will transform; I needed a big scoop of the latter and Robyn and Julie delivered!





SMILE..it's Valentines day and I have two little valentines to craft with and get ready for when our main valentine gets home!