When Mommy's Away....

I left last Thursday afternoon for Phoenix and Daddy was left in charge till I came home Monday afternoon.

I went to Arizona to visit my friend Melissa for a girls' weekend, and had a wonderful time! We went up to Sedona on Friday to hike and bum around. We went on Sterling Pass trail to Vultee Arch. It was a beautiful hike. We ate lunch at Oak Creek Brewry - yum - and then shopped around a bit.

 

The rest of my trip was spent in Phoenix hiking, visiting, eating at great restaurants, and doing a little shopping. It was relaxing and just what I needed :)

 

The kids said that Daddy did a good job. They had a great weekend!

Thursday night they went to Main Event for bowling.

Friday night they had supper with some friends.

Saturday, Ian had his last soccer game and scored a goal! :) And they got their trophies for the season.

 

In the afternoon, Payton went to see the Cinderella Ballet with a friend. Then Daddy grilled hotdogs and steak for them.

Sunday, Scott broke out the slip-n-slides :) They had a blast. Unfortunately, they got a little sunburn :( but it could have been worse. Then Payton had a birthday party to go to while Ian did choir.

Whew! I think Daddy was glad to have me back :) He sent me texts with pictures, so I wouldn't miss anything which I really appreciated. I enjoyed being away, but I love coming home.

Happy Birthday Payton!

Payton turned 7 today!!!!!

From the time she woke up, she exclaimed, 'This is the BEST....DAY....EVER!' (Like Rapunzel says passionately in the Tangled movie)

We had a party for her at ASI gymnastics. She invited her friends and cousins. They seemed to have so much fun. Jumping on trampolines...

 

Noodle wars....

 

Toilet tag....

And jumping and swinging into foam pits....

 

Then we had cake. Payton wanted a princess themed party, so of course, she wanted a castle cake.

 

 

This is the third castle cake I've made for Payton and the fourth castle cake I've made in my life.

(I'm starting to think I should go into some type of castle-cake business.)

 

 

Payton had an 'awesome' party and really enjoyed playing with all her friends.

 

Happy Easter!

Our morning started with chocolate bunnies.

Then we went to church. Payton wasn't much in the mood for pictures :(

This afternoon we went over to some friends' house. It rained all afternoon, so the kids played in the hot tub :) (of course, the hot tub!) while the dad's hid the eggs inside.

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.

Severe weather

I knew there was a chance of thunderstorms, but I didn't realize there was going to be such a severe weather threat. I'm learning that when it comes to North Texas weather, expect the unexpected.

I took Payton out of school early because the two storm cells that were moving in our direction were going to hit us about the time school was going to let out. As I walked out of the school, the first siren went off. Payton and I ran to the car and drove the 30 seconds home. The kids and I sheltered in our downstairs half bathroom. I put pillows in there, made the kids keep their shoes on (only because I heard a weather man say to do so right before I got Payton), and we had our iPad and my phone. I monitored the weather while the kids played games. Scott was at the hospital working.

The kids were pretty scared. Payton kept saying, 'I can't calm down, Mommy.' Ian was actually more calm than Payton this time around in the bathroom. I tried to reassure the kids that there wasn't anything more that we could do. We were in the safest part of the house. I told them that the most we could do is pray. So the kids wanted to pray. We prayed for our safety and the safety of everyone affected by the storm. After about an hour in the bathroom, our warnings expired, and we got out.

We are very lucky that we didn't the worst of it. We had two tornado warnings and a severe thunderstorm warning. We just had the electricity flicker, high wind, and some pea size hail.

When you look at the map of where the tornadoes hit and damage occurred, we were in the middle of the two paths.

Before we went to bed, we thanked God for everyone being safe. So far there haven't been any fatalities reported and we pray that it remains so.

Three rowdy boys

On Sunday morning at church, both kids declared that they really wanted to have a friend over. I tried to explain to them that lots of people have plans and that you can't expect to have a play date on-demand (so to speak). So we talked about who they wanted to have over and I told them I would contact mothers and try to plan on a Friday afternoon play date. Unfortunately Payton's didn't work out, but Ian ended up having two boys from his school over this afternoon.

 

I picked up all three boys at carpool. As soon as they were in the house, they were off like a shot. Ian's friends had never been here, so Ian gave them the whole tour. They ended up in Ian's room...on the (in)famous slide/bookcase (please see, 'Yup, it's broken', June 2011; The Bookcase, Aug. 2009). And I knew this because I heard a big kaboom and then crying. As I'm flying up the stairs two at a time, I'm dreading the worst and hoping for the best. One of Ian's friends was laying on the floor crying and Ian and his other friend were trying to help the hurt boy. I asked what happened and they said he jumped off the edge towards the bed. (you'd think Ian would learn after 'Yup, it's broken'!)

 

I calmed the boy down. This is when I told them (again actually) 1. No jumping and 2. No running. It didn't take long and hurt boy was ready to go at it again.

Everything seemed ok for about 10 minutes and then another boom, and TWO boys were crying! Ian wasn't one of them. Ian's two friends had come around a corner, going opposite directions, and bumped heads. When I got to them, they were sitting on the floor holding their heads, crying.

 

I felt horrible. Maybe I shouldn't have invited both of them over. Maybe the boys couldn't handle all the excitement. That's when, I decided I had to turn into Lay Down the Law Mommy.

 

I reiterated the rules. And told them if they get hurt again, their Mommies probably won't let them come over again.

It helped...for the most part. There were no more incidents...whew! But I was on edge the rest of the play date. Ian had a great time, and the boys were not ready to go when the play date was over. But, I don't know if I want to handle 3 rowdy 5 year old boys anytime soon!

 

Bowling

On Thursday, we went bowling at Plano Super Bowl.

I know there are a lot of newer and maybe a little nicer bowling venues. But this place reminds me if the old school bowling alleys. And it is reasonably priced and sends out coupons regularly :) Oh, and they have the BEST french fries!  - Even at 10:30 am, they just hit the spot.

The kids really enjoyed bowling.

I think the adults did too.....

Happy Spring Break!

This past week, we had my brother and his family visiting from Cat Spring. When the cousins get together, there is always something going on. Games, trains, tree climbing, chase, playing restaurant....you name it, it happen this week. The noise level in my house increased by threefold when everyone was here. But everyone had a great time and were sad to say good-bye.

Kevin, Dawna, Kiera, Kaylee, and Kevin Jr. arrived on Monday afternoon. We just laid low that afternoon, took a walk around the pond, and played at the park. Tuesday, we went to Lifetime Fitness (our gym) to play in the indoor pool. They had the slides running, so Kiera, Payton, and Ian each went about 10 times :) Tuesday night, Aunt Lucy came over for dinner for steaks - yum!

On Wednesday, we took the show on the road and went on a train ride. We traveled on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad from Grapevine to the Fort Worth Stockyards. Kevin Jr. is very much into trains right now, so he was glowing with excitement. The train ride was fun and surprisingly relaxing.

This was our conductor, Bob. He was 6'4" and super nice :)

The only drawback to the ride was that when we were 5 minutes from the Fort Worth Station, we had wait for four other trains to move while we sat on the tracks for 45 minutes. I don't think it happens too often. So, we got to Fort Worth late, and stayed later to accommodate some sight seeing.

We let the kids have a pony ride.

Saw the cows moseying down the street.

Got a couple of souvenirs and were back on the train for the return trip.

It was a fun, but long, day.