Cousin Camp

After Regan's big Girl Scout weekend in Houston, I traded kids with my cousin Christina. Regan stayed in Houston for the week and Jeremiah came to Austin with me. We had a good time with him. He and Riley get along so well, and they played Xbox and computer games most of the week. When they weren't killing something, I took them to Jump Street (a new indoor trampoline place) where Jeremiah got to ride the mechanical bull! They spent one whole day at Austin's Park and Pizza (and I mean, the WHOLE day! Open to close, they were exhausted after that). We saw Cowboys & Aliens at the new dinner theater in Round Rock, and went swimming to beat the heat.

Then we went to Houston to switch back and spent the night down there. I sure missed Regan, the house was much quieter with her gone! But she had a great time too, and she wasn't even really ready to come home. I hope we can continue Cousin Camp every summer, the kids had such a great time. I know some of my fondest memories growing up were summers spent with my cousins!!

Girl Scout Trip

Time for our end of year, cookie reward trip! We had a nice, big trip planned since our troop was the highest cookie seller in our service unit! Riley had gone to church camp at the beginning of the week, and then on Wednesday, Rgan switched and went to church camp, so on Friday morning, I had to drive out to Burnet to pick her up from church camp and meet at our Girl Scout Leaders house by 10am! It was a busy morning!

We loaded up the cars and headed to Brenham, for a picnic lunch and a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. The girls loved it, and we got some good group pictures and all got a free scoop of yummy ice cream!


Then we loaded back up for the rest of the way to Houston. We checked into our hotel, and then went down the street to Prince's Hamburgers for dinner. They had the best root beer, which of course, when you have 12 nine year old girls, root beer is a must! Then we headed back to the hotel for a swim at the pool.




The girls all wanted to sleep in the same bed, so they looked so cute laying longways with their little blankets!!

Then we got up, had breakfast in the hotel lobby, and then headed out to the Children's Museum. We split into our groups of one adult/three kids to make life more manageable and had a great day exploring the museum. I had Regan, Hailey and Azure, and we had a great time. We played in the Kidtropolis, played on the giant indoor playscape, and then braved the outdoors to play in the water area a little while.

Children's Museum

Then after the museum, we loaded up and headed to NASA. We got there and unloaded our bags, and went to dinner, and then after dinner, we spent the next 4 hours or so doing badgework for the girls to earn a cool badge for their new Junior vest! They were so tired but we were up till after midnight working on badges. Then we got our assigned sleeping area and it was in the spaceship gallery. It was very cool, we got to sleep right underneath models of the spaceships and an astronaut walking in space, but they don't turn all the lights off, so it was very hard sleeping in the super bright room, and it got VERY cold overnight there!

So the next morning, we got up (no showers, grumble) and loaded our vehicles, had breakfast, and then took the tram tour to see mission control and an Apollo rocket. Then we spent some time back at the space center, letting the girls play on the giant playscape and then touching an actual moon rock. Then it was time to make the long, traffic filled drive back to Austin!

NASA

But first, I met up with my cousin Christina and traded kids. Regan stayed in Houston for the week with her cousin Joy, and Jeremiah got to come home with me in a truck filled with Girl Scouts. I don't think he appreciated being the only boy on the ride home, the girls were really giving him a run for his money! It was cute though.

So, the trip was a success, no typical girl fights, or frumpy moods, even with so little sleep! But, I vote for next years trip to be somewhere where we have a shower every morning, at least!

Jump Street

A new indoor fun place just opened up here. And of course, with our record heat that we've been having lately, indoors is the only place to be. So we took the kids to Jump Street to enjoy the wall to wall trampolines. There was also a mechanical bull, a foam pit, a giant slide (boring) and a giant maze. The kids loved it, except that it's only 2 hours. They could have stayed there all day. But here are some videos of the kids on the mechanical bull. Regan was hesitant at first but the guy promised her he would go slow, so she finally decided to try it. I think she did it maybe 3 times and fell on her face once and that was it, no more bull riding for her!

Vitality

Again, it's been a while since I've posted, but it's been a whirlwind!! I heard about this new company, ViSalus Sciences, they have a 90 Day Challenge weight loss program, and when I heard about it, I was on board. I signed up to start the 90 Day Challenge, and then flew to Orlando for a long weekend with some friends to go to the company's annual meeting. It was a blast and I was only feeling partly guilty as we danced till 3am, or had dinner at Margaritaville, and thought of David back home with the kids. Oh well...they lived! And I had a GREAT time, and just fell in love with this company and all it stands for. Right now I'm starting my 3rd week on the challenge (but not 3 full weeks since I've had other trips that have gotten in the way, more on that later!) Anyway, I've lost around 3 pounds, but the energy I have is amazing! I can't believe how much of a difference I felt just on day one. Anyway, here's a link if you want more information on it, watch the videos and let me know what you think!
www.visalus.crappell.net

(The picture is me, in the penthouse suite of the hotel, the founder of the company, Nick Sarnicola, invited our team up for a champagne toast before the Black and White Party! It was nice, and a nice view as a storm rolled into Orlando)

Got Feathers?

So I guess these feathers are all the rage right now, I've been seeing them all over the place. And of course, Regan wanted her own feathers. So we had a "girls day" which was really just a "return things to various stores around town" day, but she was okay with that. I took her to get her feathers at the spa, and then we went to the Domain and had a ladies tea. She loved it, even though she's not a fan of tea, she got some tart lemonade, and she had a sandwich with the crusts cut off, a pine nut plum scone with jam, fruit and a tea cookie. I had a bacon, arugula and tomato sandwich that she tried to steal (it was yummy) and a cashew salad. It was nice to be "girlie" and sit and enjoy our tea time.

Then we went to Macy's and tried on clothes and then she got to play in the fountains on the way back to the car. It is just so hot here right now, and I was pretty tempted to run through that fountain myself!

Updates

I know I haven't blogged much lately. I guess we've been pretty busy.

We heard about a new charter school in Georgetown, Gateway College Prep, and we went to an information meeting about it, and David really liked the sound of it. So, I think we may be done with homeschooling. Maybe not for good, maybe just for now, but my goal was to always take it one year at a time and do what seemed right for that year. Well, Riley has such high ambitions of going to a military academy and I want to help him realize that dream, so I think in order to acheive it, he really needs to be challenged a lot more at school. He's VERY smart and sometimes VERY lazy, so I think having a teacher push him for a while might be better than having mom push him.

Regan is still working with a tutor, working on the dyslexia and dysgraphia, so we thought she might need some time in a regular school setting again to kind of put those skills to the test. Neither one of them are terribly excited about not homeschooling anymore, but Gateway did a summer bridge program, kind of like a summer camp, where they got to meet all the teachers, meet the kids that will be in their classes, and play games and go do fun things together. They both really enjoyed that, and that way no one shows up to school the first day a complete stranger and not knowing anyone.

Swim team is over, and we are all happy about that. It was getting to be quite the chore to be up and at the pool every morning by 7am. And swim meets on Saturday morning at 5:30 should be outlawed! But Regan had a good time, and maybe by this time next year she will have forgotten the early morning practices and want to sign up again.

And to top it all off, I've been watching Baby Eli for the last 3 weeks until Kenzie could get her first check and pay for day care. He's the cutest little monkey, but man, having a newborn again after all these years just wore me out! He doesn't like riding in the car and half of my life is on the go, so it made things interesting to say the least.

And then there's just the regular, dentist visit for each kid, Riley had to go back 2 more times to have 3 teeth pulled and 1 tooth filled, doctors and chiropractors and all that fun stuff. And when Riley is at work, Regan wants to have "girl day" and go shopping and go to lunch and all that fun stuff that costs a ton of money.

So, I guess we have been busy!

Where's Riley

I have posted a ton about Regan, and not much about Riley. Well, that's because Riley is now gainfully employed! He has a summer job with his Mimi and Papa and so he's not with us much during our daily adventures (and swim meets are just way too early for normal people). But, here's some pictures of Riley at work. Sounds funny to say. He's really enjoying his job though, and I think it's teaching him some good life skills.

Camp Texlake

Regan got to spend another week at Camp Texlake this year. I'm bad, I didn't think to take a picture before she left. She is about to be a junior, and for God only knows what reason, the Juniors at Camp Texlake stay in "unclimatized" cabins. Meaning, no a/c. I was a little worried for her, she gets hot when she sleeps anyway, but we got several fans, squirt bottles, shorty pajamas, and hoped for the best. This year we didn't get to go to their cabins and set up like last year, you just drop them off after the check in process and leave them with their counselors and wave goodbye. Very grown up. Most of her troop went, the cabins were "tree house" cabins, with screens and high up in the trees. She had a good time and spent most of the week in the pool. The lake is super low so they did kayak, but they didn't do any other lake activities, other than fishing, which is always her favorite thing to do at camp!

But on Friday when I picked her up, she was in the infirmary, running a fever and with a sore throat. They thought she was just dehydrated (she also had sunburn blisters all over her face, poor thing) but I got her in to the doctor first thing the next morning and sure enough, she had strep. They said if she gets strep one more time this year we will talk about getting her tonsils removed. Anyway, other than getting sick the last day, she had a great time, and I didn't even send her with a disposable camera! But, some of her friends had one, so I'm hoping one of them got a good picture or two of her and will be willing to share!

Regan's Birthday Part 4

We've had to spread out the birthday celebrations, since we have had so much going on this summer. Regan has swim team every morning from 7am-8am, and then swim meets on Saturdays that start at 6am. So, we're either at the pool, or recuperating from being at the pool! But since this was her actual birthday, and we had to go to the pet store to get dead mice for the snake, she wanted to hold some animals, and I let her. She would LOVE a pet ferret, but they sure did stink! Someone there was getting a chinchilla and she would have loved one of those also, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a giant rodent for a pet. Maybe for her 10th birthday?

Regan's Birthday Part 3

Regan wanted to go to Chuy's for her birthday lunch after church, so here we are, the waiters came out and sang to her, she was very embarrassed, but I think she decided it was worth it for the free ice cream!

Swim Meet

This was at Regan's swim meet, the Pflugerville Piranhas vs Balcones Sharks. Regan had a good time, and swam great. She is getting MUCH faster!

Regan's Birthday Part 2

With some of her birthday money, Regan wanted to go to Build A Bear to get a new "pet". She got a black and white dog, named it Alyssa, and then got a cute outfit, and a "puppy" that she named Bailey.

Regan's Birthday Party

Regan's Birthday Party

Regan wanted a pool party for her birthday this year. Easier said than done, but after a few phone calls, emails, and arguments with our HOA, we were finally able to have her party at our neighborhood pool. She wanted a simple party where they swam the whole time, so that's what she got!

It was a long, hot, sweaty day since we started off at 5:30 am at a swim meet, then when it was over, at 2 in the afternoon, we had to rush home and make 50 hot dogs, and rush to the pool. The kids swam almost the entire time, took a quick hot dog break, and then swam some more. We took the presents home to open them at home so we didn't have more trash at the pool, and so the kids could swim even longer!

She was happy, it was just what she wanted. Oh, and the night before, we colored her hair bright red! She wanted her hair to be the color of "vampire eyes" and we got it pretty close. But with her being in swim team and in the pool all the time, the red will not last, I'm sure.

Summer Smash!

Tonight was the big summer smash kick off at church. There were inflatables for the youth, ice cream and popsicles for the kids, and we all had a great time. Riley brought Cody and they ran the obstacle course inflatable a hundred times I bet, and Regan had fun with her friend Caitlyn:


Then we prayed over the 5th graders and on Sunday they will officially be "Middle Schoolers!" And then prayed over Pastors Shawn and Amanda who are leaving as kids pastors and going to be the head pastors at our new South Austin campus. So, it was a bittersweet night. But, the kids had a blast with all that ice cream!

Regan's First Swim Meet

It was Regan's very first swim meet and she was excited! She has really enjoyed swim team, and I'm SO happy she's found her "thing"! But, neither one of us was very excited about the 6am start time! Yikes. Riley spent the night with a friend, so Regan and I were up BEFORE the crack of dawn, and headed to the pool. Since it was the first one, I had no idea what to expect, but I tell you, I had no idea there were that many people involved in swimming, and at 6am. We got checked in, and got her races written down on her arm, and she got to sit in the "pit" with her friends and her lunch and wait for her races. When it was her first race, freestyle, I couldn't tell which one was her! All the girls wear the same suit, with the same swim cap, and it seems ALL the girls have pink googles!! So I didn't start my camera until she was done swimming. Anyway, I did get her on the backstroke, which is not her favorite stroke, but she did pretty good. I was just so proud of her for getting out there and giving it her all! I am so happy that she is loving this! So, here's the video of her doing backstroke: