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Monday, May 30, 2011

Mason's first story

All through our school year Mom has tried to get Mason to write a story. He would only write 2 or 3 sentences and give up. Tonight Mom walked into Mason's room to find him writing a story, all on his own! I'm going to copy it just as he wrote it.

The bigist grape ever
bi Mason

One day it was evene (evening) and I was eating grapes and I fond (found) the bigist grape ever and I wantid to brin it to my camp it was so cool. and i have a dog to. and it is almost the same size as my thumb. 

We are so proud of him! He is doing really well with his writing and spelling! He is really excited to start first grade!
 



Solution for bored kids

Problem:  Bored kids.
Solution:  Stale Marshmellows and Toothpicks.

30 minutes of fun....

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Minion

We had been talking about getting a dog for months now.  We went back and forth and could never reach a consensus.  On a fluke, we dropped by the pound and found a 10 month old golden retriever.  She was just found and they wouldn't let us interact with her for 3 days in case her owner called.  After the 3 days, we got to see her and we decided to adopt her.  We still had to wait for 2 more days for her to be fixed, but we finally brought her home on May 26th. 

Her name is Minion...or Minnie for short.

Tori Turns Three!

Our little Victoria turned three years old.  Last year we took her to Chuck-e-cheese and she loved it, so we decided to take her again.   Since she loves princesses, we made her a castle cake with hearts, and she LOVED it.  She went around the house singing "happy birthday to me" for 3 days before her birthday.  For her birthday, she got most of the Disney Princess dolls. 


 Tori's Cake
 All of our tickets at Chuck-e-Cheese!
 Tori with her new dolls and sunglasses!
 Mason helped Tori open most of her gifts.
 Mommy with her favorite doll, Mulan.

 Enjoying her cake...we started with plates and forks...and ended up diving in with our faces!

 Aryah loved the little rides and rode them over and over and over!
 Daddy and Tori
 Last year, Tori was scared of this horse, but she loved it this year!
 There was a large wheel (like Price is Right) that you could spin to get tickets.  The jackpot was 125 tickets.  Daddy got 3 tickets and Mason got 2, but Tori hit the jackpot!  This is her with all those tickets!

 Mason was earning tickets like crazy!


 Here is Aryah on the rides again....
Tori on her birthday.

Random

Everytime we go through our video cards, we  find random clips....  some taken by us, and some taken by Mason.  Here are a few....

Mason said, "Look, I have an idea!"

 Catching butterflies with their feet...
Daddy got REALLY dirty mowing the lawn one day...

Self-portrait
 Blanket surfing!

 I'm a fairy!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Our new pet Roomba

We have a new pet, named Roomba, a robot vacuum.  The kids love to follow it around and watch it clean.  It was Ashlee's birthday present and a pre-qualification for any potential pets.  Granted, it doesn't get every spot in the house clean, but when it's done, it has a full bin of trash and helps out a lot!  Plus, it keeps the kids entertained for a while each day!  

Welcome Roomba! 

GO DRAGONS!

Mason's second season of soccer went really well!  Jes, the coach, tried to encorporate a few more fun activities to encourage the kids to play and they seemed to work great.   Each kid go their "dragon stripes" (face paint).  The dragon stripes were so popular, the kids stopped the game once when we forget to put them on!  The kids earned badges and stickers too.   Mason even scored a couple of goals throughout the season which was great! 



 Making their dragon faces!   This was after the game and usually by the end, the dragon stripes had been smeared off.


 Tori wants to play soccer so bad.  She begs for dragon stripes and she sneaks onto the field now and then! 

   Mason guarding the goal!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Galveston Island

There was a hair show in Galveston that Ashlee wanted to attend, so we took the opportunity to make it a family trip and spend some time at the beach.  We dusted off our old beach gear from storage, packed the car, and headed down to Galveston, Texas for four days!  The trip had it's challenges (what trip doesn't?), but overall was a really fun time!   




Galveston isn't known for the best beaches around, but the packed, wet sand was perfect for making sand castles, and in this case, Sand Mer-People!



By later in the evening, seawood would start to gather on the shore, but each morning the City did a good job of clearing it from the beach.  


This was Aryah's first dip in the Gulf.  She didn't care much for it at first, but by the end of the trip, was enjoying charging the waves and finding seashells!


We walked around a bit looking at some shops on Seawall Blvd.  The two girls were being extra cuddly that morning.  Our hotel room door was probably 100 feet from the shore.  It was a great location and allowed us to spend more time playing and exploring then traveling and setting up.

As the days progressed, so did our castle making skills...This was named "Boulder City", because it was made out of many "boulders" or rolled balls of sand.  Mason was thrilled to learn that a city in Colorado had the same name.


Time for a quick nap..





At the hotel room.  One of the only downsides to the trip was that everyone got sick on the first night.  We all developed a cough and sore throat.  During the day, the symptoms went down a bit (or were ignored) but they seemed to amplify in the confined hotel room during the night.  That made for some long, rough nights, but we pushed through!

On our third night, we took the kids to Rainforest Cafe.  Tori was in animal heaven and still declares that her favorite part of the trip was the alligator/crocodile/dragon (it changes each time) that she got to see (it was a man in a suit).  The "Thunderstorm" every 30 minutes scared Mason a bit, but he was super brave. 
Tori LOVED the animals!



For dessert, the kids got to eat "Lava Mud" which was gummi worms with crushed oreo and pudding.  It made a bit mess, but they thought it was cool!
Even Daddy tried the worms!

While Ashlee was at the hair show, Daddy had some time with the kids.  The first day, they spent the time at the beach, but the second time (the last day of the trip), we all went to Moody Gardens in Galveston.  It was a bunch of pyramids and gardens with activities for all ages.

Mason looking up the side of a pyramid.
Playing in the fountains by the ocean.
One of the highlights of that day was the Dora/Diego 4D movie!  Not only was it in 3D, but wind blew at you, water splashed you, it snowed, there was bubbles, and crazy smells!  The kids LOVED it!  Tori had a small problem keeping her glasses on, but she did her best.

Tori hanging out at the Acquarium.  Every 30 seconds or so, a seal would swim by.
Looking at the fish!