Jungle Java

We're watching Sydney for a while, and we decided to get out of the house and go play at Jungle Java. Apparently everyone else in Round Rock had that same idea, the place was crowded. But Riley had fun playing with Sydney. Regan made friends and was off, but Riley hung with me in the baby section, helping me out holding her, even took her down the slide! He would be such a good big brother to a baby. Why can't he be this kind and loving to his own baby sister?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

After uploading my pictures of Thanksgiving Day, I realized I only got pictures of food. It was kind of a low key Turkey Day, with Pam and Dave in Brazil, we were all sad :( Plus, it was 10 years ago this week that mom died, so I wasn't feeling too celebratory. And David watched a Food Network Thanksgiving special and decided we had to recreate it. He made a pulley system from Alton Brown to lower the turkey into the oil. We made Giada's baked mashed potatoes and Big Daddy's sausage stuffed fried stuffing balls and gravy and Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Toffee Bars (quite possibly the best thing I've ever eaten!). And the night before, with the leftover mozzarella I made my favorite salad, a Caprese Salad.

We had Alex and Melissa over, and we ate, and we watched some of the football game (David decided to root for the Aggies since they are a "more conservative" school) and that was about it. Pretty low key and laid back.

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Brownie Campout

Regan had a Girl Scout campout just for 2nd graders, and it was at the Girl Scout Cabin in Zilker Park. This was supposed to be our introduction to Girl Scout Camping, not quite as primitive as real camping. They have a nice cabin in Zilker Park that I never knew was back there. We arrived Friday night around 5, made name tags, played a name game, had hot dogs for dinner. Oh, and it rained the whole time, so we were stuck INSIDE the cabin, where we got to make microwave s'mores.

There were two rather nasty bathrooms where we were, and 2 equally nasty bathrooms downstairs, with 2 nasty showers. So, the whole time there was a line for the bathroom. Also, it was wood floors, and most of these girls must not have wood floors, cause they sure thought it was fun to clomp around on that floor to get to the bathroom. Which just so happened to be near my air mattress. All night long, every 5 minutes there was someone clomp clomp clomping to the bathroom.

Then Saturday morning (bright and early) we got up, had breakfast, did some arts and crafts, learned about hiking and camping, earned 2 Try-Its, and then the girls got to make lunch on a Coleman Stove outside. They really enjoyed that part, browning hamburger meat and onions, adding some vegetable soup and water, and mixing it all up. After lunch we went on a short hike around Zilker Park, saw a lot of plants that we couldn't identify, and then cleaned up the cabin and headed home. The girls had a blast, which was good, I was just cold and tired.

Caring and Sharing

For part of the Girl Scouts "Caring and Sharing" try-it, we took the girls to a nursing home to help the residents make crafts for Thanksgiving Day. There was a really hard scarecrow, that even I gave up on, a squirrel and a turkey. The girls had fun, served them with cake and juice, and managed to put together a few of the decorations. I think the mom's ended up doing most of the work though. I love that Girl Scouts is so service oriented though.

ANSC Science Class

It was time for the home school science class again at the Nature Center. Riley got in to all of the classes, Regan was waitlisted, but I checked today and managed to get her bumped into ALL the classes for the rest of the year, I'm so excited. They always have so much fun out there, and I get to go meet David for lunch, a nice, quiet, adult-conversation filled lunch! (I don't get out much).

Makayla

I got to watch Makayla for a bit, and of course, took some pictures, although she doesn't seem too thrilled about it. Makayla is David's brother Kris's baby. She's getting big!

Paintball Party

Paintball

It's a toss up what Riley likes most right now, Paintball or the Skate Park. But he decided to have his party at the Paintball Field this year. I was still at Tammy's, trying to hurry home, get the cupcakes and Gatorade, and David and Riley spent the morning at church working at the Single Mom's Oil Change. So we had all had a busy day even before the party!

It was a lot of fun. David was ready to go out and teach them a few things (he used to be on a team many, many moons ago). The boys had a good time, Riley never wanted to leave the field, and he's pretty good. One of the Pro's even told me that Riley was pretty good out there! He managed to make it most of the day without getting shot, that is until Dad decided to have a go. Then Riley came off the field in tears cause Dad shot him "point blank" which was really about 20 feet away, it just felt like point blank. He has a nice big fat bruise to prove it too! But we were out there for about 4 hours, he and David were the last ones on the field, shooting their hearts out. Good bonding time. Regan was bored to tears and collecting a colorful medley of the dropped paint all over the ground.

Then we headed home for a birthday dinner cooked by our friend Andrew. He made Riley's favorite, Mexican Pizzas, Kenzie stopped by, and the Shenkin's, and then Riley left to spend the night with Tristan.

Happy Birthday Angie

Angie's Party

Regan and I went to her best friend Angie's birthday party on Friday night. We left the boys at home and headed out to the country to spend the night with Tammy and Angie and the girls. It was a fun night, the girls did makeovers, nails, the works, and after they settled down to watch a movie, me and Tammy sat up until almost 4am on the porch with a fire in the chimenea and talked like we were in middle school again (the only thing missing were some annoying little brothers!) Then we got up in the morning and took the goats for a walk around their property. Now Regan wants goats with her 3 horses when we move to the country!

Happy Birthday Riley

I can't believe it, but my little man is 11. Time flies when you are busy raising kids! I think it's funny that the name Riley means "Courageous". We certainly meant to have a courageous little boy when we named him that, but we had no idea how far he would take it. Riley wants to do everything, and I mean everything, and it's not good enough to just DO it, he has to EXCEL at it. He gets so frustrated when he can't be the best immediately, and it's probably because the boy has so much natural talent that just about anything he tries, he succeeds at. I love his adventurous spirit and his willingness to try anything, whether it's a new food, or a new sport. He loves life and makes life more fun by being around. I remember many nights when he was a baby that I wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into as a parent. He was not an easy baby, always on the go, never sleeping, and I think even at such a young age, he just had so much he wanted to do with life, he didn't have time to slow down! As he approaches his teenage years (oh wow, I can't believe I just wrote that) but I look forward to seeing how he grows and develops as a person, and what other kinds of adventures we're going to get to experience with him. I'm thankful that with home schooling, I am getting to know him better as he develops into his own person. He has the sweetest most sensitive spirit of anyone I know, and I think he's on the right path to have an amazing life, and I'm so glad to be along for the ride.

Happy Birthday Son, you're the best boy in the world.

Riley's Birthday Guitar

Riley has been wanting to play the guitar forever. I mean, forever. I made both kids take piano lessons first, I want them to learn to read music, and get a good piano foundation, and then build on it. Well, he's been in piano for a couple of months, has already flown through several music books, he practices ALL.THE.TIME and really loves music. His teacher has said he is VERY talented and could see him becoming a professional piano player in his future. So when we started talking about what he wanted for his birthday a guitar was at the top of the list. After our bowling home school group, we were right by the Guitar Center, and for whatever reason, both my kids ADORE that store, so I thought we would stop by and check it out, see if he needed a kid size, adult size, just get a general idea of what we needed. Then we found this, it's an adult size, complete with carrying case, extra strings, electric tuner, and 2 learn-to-play DVD's. He has been practicing this non stop now. He's already doing great, I hear an actual tune once in a while. And hey, it's much quieter than drums, and I have a feeling that might be our next instrument at this house!