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:

Last Day of School

For Regan's last day of school, she had a recital in each class. She was not real happy with this school, and was so anxious for it to be over. This was in music class, the kids played a few songs on the recorder that they learned this year.

Piano Recital

It's that time again! Piano recital. This one was L O N G, but there were some really good performances. Here's Regan playing Russian Sailor Dance:



And here's Riley playing The Theme Song from The Office (he loves this show, and has wanted to play the song for a while now, he got it about 2 weeks before the recital):



And my favorite song that he did, Riding the Wind:



After the recital, we went to East Side Cafe for the best dinner ever (seriously). After the kids at, they went out back to the gardens to play with the chickens and see the huge sunflowers.

Austin Symphony

Austin Symphony Day

Regan's music teacher always organizes these music field trips for her class and her piano students. It sounded like fun, so I made Riley come too, and it was fun. The Symphony had cameras set up so you could see each instrument as it was being played, and they had an announcer come out at the beginning and introduce each instrument and have them play a little bit so you could hear what it sounded like.

That was the fun part, the timpani played a bit from Star Wars, and the bassoon played Katy Perry's "Firework". Anyway, the kids liked seeing all the instruments and hearing the individual sounds.

Then we had some time to kill before we headed to tutoring, so I thought I would share my obsession with Torchy's Tacos. They have some of the best tacos in town, sold out of a trailer, of course. Our tacos were super yummy, and we even had birds come to share our lunch with us. And just as we finished up, Holy Cacao was opening their trailer, so we got some yummy cake balls for dessert!

Then we went to the Barton Creek run off area, (the free part) and the kids got to play in the water. Regan had a change of clothes in the car, but Riley didn't, so he rolled up his jeans, and I think he tried not to get wet at first, but then slipped and fell flat on his butt, so that didn't last long. There are a lot of dogs there playing fetch and swimming around, so the kids loved that, they found an extra tennis ball and played fetch with this one cute older dog that would come right by them to shake, it was cute.

But, short lived, as we had to get to the other side of town for tutoring, but it was a nice break from school, and a fun packed day. My favorite kind.

Chuck

I got to watch Eli for a bit, I'm calling him Chuck :) He's so cute. This is just a picture update.

Girl Scouts End of Year Party

Can't believe it's been another year. Most of these girls have been together since Kindergarten and now they're heading off to 4th grade! We had our annual end of year pool party at our co-leaders house and they gave me the coolest watch as a present for being a cookie mom this year! Our reward for selling so many cookies this year is a sleepover at NASA Space Center in Houston this summer, so we're looking forward to that!

Home School Small Group

One more thing I would miss if we don't home school again...our home school small group! We have the best group! We met at our neighborhood pool for this week's outing, and the kids had a great time, they played, we talked, it was a lot of fun. We've been having some unusually cool weather lately, so it was a nice day to sit and talk, and we weren't dying of heat stroke for a change. But that water is still pretty cold! The kids didn't seem to mind though.