Sydney Alexis Shenkin

We'd been waiting by the phone all day, Sydney was due to arrive sometime today. Melissa was induced first thing this morning, and Alex called to update us several times, it was a long, slow process. Finally, we headed up there at 4:30, only to leave close to 7:00 to get Riley from gymnastics, and get dinner, and sure enough, Sydney made her debut at 7:09, weighing in at a tiny 6 lbs 10 oz. She has a lot of hair, the cute cone-head, and tiny, perfect features. And that new-baby smell! She is adorable! And you can tell we are all already in love:

The proud big brother and the tired Mama!

"Big Brother" Riley (who just can't WAIT to change a poopy!)

"Big Sis" Regan already wants to play dress-the-baby-doll!

Even Uncle David got in on the snuggles!

And proud (and emotional) Papa Alex:

Hot Enough For Ya?

It's been a meltingly hot 103 degrees lately. The only thing to do is live in the pool, or stay indoors. Not even indoors at my house since David thinks 80 is frigid.

On Monday the kids went to the church's new camp in Burnet for Wet N Wild day, they had a blast, and came home exhausted, took a 30 minute nap in time for gymnastics, but after that, they were plum worn out! After Regan's shower, she wanted me to braid her hair so it would be curly the next day, and it turned out so cute, she now wants a perm so it will be like this "forever"! Not sure if I'm ready for that though.

Tuesday we were gonna meet some friends at our neighborhood pool, but it was mysteriously closed again. So we headed off to Walnut Creek Pool so they could utilize the diving board. I got a couple of pictures of the kids jumping off before my feet melted on the concrete.

Happy Father's Day

I hope everyone had a nice Father's Day. We had a pleasant evening with friends and family, and lots of good food, as usual. Grilled pork tenderloin, potato salad, and the world's best peach cobbler!

I gave David his present about 3 weeks early, one because I can NEVER wait to give presents! And two, he needed it really bad and I was afraid if I waited, he would go buy one for himself. But, I got him a nice Coach wallet. His other one was in pieces and falling apart, mainly because he tries to hold onto every scrap of paper that he's had in his wallet since the 9th grade. I told him to stream it down, and hopefully this one will last forever. It's some weird Water Buffalo leather or something. It feels good though, nice and soft. I hope he enjoys it.

And that's about it here, no pictures to report. We went to church, had our Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class afterwards, and then had a houseful of company right after that. We always enjoy having everyone over though, and hope they all had a good time.

"Happiest Day of My Life"

That's what I heard Regan telling Riley yesterday. Along with, "You are the BEST.MOM.EVER!" and "I love you so much mom, you're the BEST!"

So, what did I do to earn such high praise? Schedule a trip to Disney World, take them to Schlitterbahn, let them play every game at Chuck E. Cheese? No, I bought them a one month membership to Club Penguin. This is like, the hottest thing going for the under-12 set these days. They can play for free, but for whatever reason, if you're a member, you get more perks, and they've wanted to be a member for a long time. I broke down and figured paying for a month will at least give me a little peace and quiet this summer.

They were both jumping up and down, squealing like a pig under a gate, so excited. You would have thought Christmas came early in our house. It doesn't take much to amuse them I guess. And of course, the dad genes broke through and they've played for two days, practically non-stop. This is the first time I've been on my computer since then, and I've got Regan breathing down my neck.

So, if you need to score some brownie points with your kids, I highly suggest a membership to Club Penguin. It's cheap. And it's worth every penny.

Goin' Green

One thing we look forward to in the summer is FREE activities! The Austin library usually has some great programs come once a week for story time. I enrolled the kids in Vacation Bible School through Hyde Park Baptist Church, they are enjoying that and all the fun stuff there, and then today we went with some friends to the library to learn about recycled art projects. They made sock puppets, a wind chime from a toilet paper roll, yarn, wallpaper and buttons, a butterfly sun catcher, and a pillow made from bubble wrap and scrap materials. They had a good time, and I can't wait to see what other fun programs they will have this summer.

Rockin' River

For whatever reason that I'm too grossed out to think about, our pool was closed for "chemical treatment". Of course, we find out after we have Tristan over, get our bathing suits on, and slather on the sunscreen. Even though it was 3:30 in the afternoon, we carried on, and headed to Round Rock's premier water park, the Rockin' River. It's not bad, kind of a teeny tiny, small scale Schlitterbahn. There are water slides that Regan is still 1 inch too short to ride, even though she could probably swim as well as some of those life guards. And a lazy river, and a replica of the infamous "Round Rock". It was fun, we stayed a few hours, it wasn't as crowded as it has been before, and we all had snow cones! The best part!

Forts are FUN!

The kids have turned the reading corner into a fort. They put up blankets over the couch and love seat arms, and using the cushions that we keep there as a little hidey-hole for the kids to go read in, they have a nice little comfy place to hide from mom and dad and fall asleep. It seems the only time the kids get along these days is when they're conspiring against us. I don't mind, I'll take it. It's summer, we've been letting them stay up as late as they want (within reason) and then come morning it's a mystery as to where they actually ended up sleeping for the night. This morning, this is what I found:

Regan's 7th Birthday

We had a small get-together at the house for Regan, had all the family over and had a nice big Middle East Feast complete with Israeli chicken, hummus, pita bread, saffron rice, cucumber salad, and grilled veggies. Then key lime pie, and for Regan, chocolate cream pie for dessert. Regan loves Middle Eastern food, so she was happy and it was a nice change from BBQ all the time (not that I mind David smoking some meat!)

Regan got some good stuff and enjoyed having everyone over, she had spent the night with a friend the night before and they swam a lot, so she's very sun-kissed, and she wants to grow her bangs out, which is bugging me that they are always in her face, but we let Riley grow his hair out for a while, I guess it's her turn now.

I can't believe my baby girl is 7 though. Time sure flies.

Free Bowling

I signed the kids up for free bowling at Kids Bowl Free and we went for our first time today. The kids love to bowl, and it's indoors, which is awesome since we've been having near record, 100 degree days here. I totally suck, I bowled a 75 and 68, Regan even beat me, but she had the bumpers so that doesn't count. Riley was getting all of his balls straight down the alley, so he asked to have the bumpers taken down, then he got nothing but gutter balls. Bumpers back up, and sure enough, straight down the middle again. It was fun even if David smoked us all.

Twilight Camp

When I first asked Regan if she wanted to go to the Girl Scout Twilight Camp, she was all excited, and tells me, "YES! I will get to see Edward and Bella and..." about this time I realize her meaning of Twilight, and the camp meaning of Twilight are a little different. I said "No Regan, Twilight in this case means it's at night time, NOT the movie." And boy, was she upset! No camp with Edward the Vampire!? Forget it! So, I signed her up anyway, thinking she would eventually get over her heartbreak. But it hasn't happened yet. She's still mad that I'm making her go, and still mad that there are no vampires there.

Pool Time

After the party (and a nap) I took the kids to the pool to cool off. Regan wanted a picture of her doing a cannonball, this is her in action. They were also showing off their new bathing suits. We were there for at least 3 hours, it was a great day for it, and for some reason they get along in the water.

Regan's Rock Star Sleepover Party

The last of the girls are now gone, nothing left but the carnage. Not too much really, we all had a great time celebrating Regan's 7th Birthday. She wanted a Rock Star party, a la Hannah Montana, so I made a guitar cake (she wanted it to be pink and purple) and she had a few friends over to spend the night and we made our own pizza's out of English Muffins, and Silly Stringed the back yard (Regan calls it "haunting" the yard), played Rock Band 2, and had make-overs. I did their nails and make-up and we had extra Mardi Gras beads, funky hats and sunglasses, leis, feather boas, all kinds of things to dress up and be silly.
Then we ate the cake, opened presents, rolled out the sleeping bags and watched Bolt, and then Space Chimps until around 2am. I slept on the couch to make sure we didn't have any nighttime shenanigans, and so that meant I didn't sleep well, and stayed up till they were all asleep, and woke up with the first girl at 7am. So today I'm beat and hoping to get a nap in!
But Regan had a great time, got lots of Hannah Montana stuff, and a gift certificate for a manicure (a professional one!) which she loves having, and she had so much fun with her friends. Riley seems to always have a friend over, so it was good for her to have time with her friends (we pawned Riley off on a friend too, so he wouldn't be messing with the girls all night, you know he would!) Now, off to my nap...

Pajama Party

Today Regan's class had their end of year Pajama party with breakfast. There was tons of food there, the kids all wore their PJ's and brought stuffed animals and blankets. After breakfast they were gonna watch a movie and have a fun day. I got some pictures of Regan and her BFF's: