Fort Bend County Parade

Something that I love about living in a big city with a small town feel................Parade Day.  The kids and I are off each year for the Fort Bend County Fair/Parade.  We go each year with our cousins.  This year it was especially hot and humid!  The parade lasted almost 2 hours and we got to see some great floats and see some great friends.  I always see some of my former students, which makes me happy!  We got great seats, in the shade, near the beginning of the parade.

 Sofia's first parade!  She did great, considering it was her nap time.  I did get her to fall asleep, poor baby though, a band was stopped in front of us playing.  I guess she thought it was lullaby music.  :)

 Some of the cool floats and cars we got to see.

 Our nephew, Vincent march in the Lamar Consolidated Band.  We tried to yell out his name to get his attention, but he never could hear us.  :(

 Maw Maw and her girls.



Dragonflies

This fall Maddie moved up to 8U softball.  Her team is called the Dragonflies.  The girl LOVES softball.  It will be an adjustment though.  She is BY FAR the smallest on the team and she is not playing a "prominent" position.  It is going to take a little time for her to adjust.  The rules are a little different too.  She gets a total of 6 pitches, but only 3 strikes.  It is teaching some discipline not to swing at bad pitches.  In 6U, you would swing at all of them, then get the tee to hit off of.

Here is Maddie with her cousins Mary & Lauren.  They also started softball this fall in 6U. 

Their first games were tooooooo cute!

Go to the Goal!

Today started a new chapter in our lives.....Soccer.  The kids played at the YMCA when they were 3, but I hardly call that soccer.  Well this fall Colton decided that soccer was the sport that he wanted to play.  Adam and I aren't really soccer fans (please don't tell Colton ; ), but we went with it because he kept insisting.  Mindy and Camilo were excited though.

His team is the Copperheads.  There are only 7 boys on the team, all 6, 7 and 8 years old.  They play 5 boys on the field at a time, so he got LOTS of playtime!  As usual, he is the smallest boy out there :( Bad genes on my part....sorry Colton.

Colton had a GREAT time out on the field today (and that's all that matters)! He was aggressive and scored his first goal! He was very excited. After all the running, he was VERY tired. Towards the end of the game, he didn't want to run up and down the field too much. One hour of full running was too much for our little guy. He should sleep well tonight. :) We will have to work on his stamina to last the whole game. Overall, he did great and we are really proud of him. I guess soccer may be his thing and we will learn to love it as we learn the game with him!  He is stuck with us cheering him on whether he likes it or not. :)

 Some of our cheerleaders:  Sofia, Maddie, MawMaw, and PawPaw

(PawPaw Carter and Mindy aren't pictured)

 Throw in

 Yeah, I scored that!

I didn't get my camera out in time to catch the ball going in, only the celebration after :(

 One HAPPY boy after his first goal at halftime.

Summer Recap

I have been so terrible about updating the blog and taking pictures!!!  Sorry!

What have we been up to since May?

Colton and Madilyn graduated from Kindergarten!!!

 Colton with his teacher, Mrs. Helmcamp. 

Thank you for a GREAT kindergarten year!

 What do you want to be when you grow up?  Answer:  I want to count groceries like my daddy.  (So sweet, but Daddy said "NO WAY, you are going to college!")

 Maddie's answer:  An Art Teacher (The girl LOVES to draw, write and pretend to be a teacher).

 Maddie and Mrs. Mahar.  We loved Mrs. Mahar too and she made Maddie's year fabulous!  They both had great teachers!  We were all very blessed!

                                              

I taught summer school and was able to bring the kids with me.  It was a great thing and I got to see exactly what they are capable of and push them a little farther academically.

For July 4th, we took our usual Martin family reunion trip to Galveston.  We had 2 houses this year.  My dad's uncle and all of his kids were able to come.  We had a GREAT time and stayed the entire week.  One day we took a day off from the beach and surprised the kids with a trip to Schlitterbahn.  I have never been and WOW, what a blast!

We were able to go to Dallas for a quick trip and a birthday party.  We always have a great time when we go and the kids love playing with their cousins.  We even had babysitting and all the "grown up" cousins got to go out for dinner and putt-putt.  Such a nice treat!!! ;)

This school year started Colton and Madilyn's 1st Grade Year.  They came home very excited the first day about everything!  Colton is already having trouble being quiet (can't imagine that?!) and Maddie won't talk at all (perfect angel at school). 

We just got back this weekend from Lake Livingston for the annual Carter Family Reunion.  We didn't get to stay for the weekend, but we stayed ALL day on Saturday.  The kids got to ride in the tube and ride on the ski trainer.  They did awesome!  It was so fun watching them.  They played and swam their little hearts out and were asleep within 10 minutes on the ride home.  In Colton's words "I wait ALL year long for this day to play with all my cousins!"  So cute!

On Sunday, Sofia was baptized at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  She had a large group of family and friends their to support her.  She was so happy and actually smiled as the Deacon poured the water over her head (we think she thought it was bathtime, which she loves!).  She will be 6 months on the 19th.

Tomorrow the kids start gymnastics and Wed. Colton starts soccer.  We are still waiting to hear about softball for Maddie.  You will definitely be seeing some Carter Craziness this fall!!!!  If you need us, try our cells;  we won't be home!  :)

Till another day.....

State Tournament in Galveston

Happy Memorial Day!  We were fortunate enough to rent a beach house from Thurs.-Mon.  Maddie had her State 6U Softball Tournament there.  We weren't able to get a hotel ($250/night), so we rented a small beach house and split it with our parents.  It was perfect and cheaper than a hotel!  If you haven't checked out http://www.vrbo.com/, you should.  This is our third time to rent a home from there and we haven't been disappointed yet!  Enjoy the pictures.

Daddy and Maddie spent alot of time "hanging" out in the hammock downstairs.

 The kids LOVE the beach.  The water was rough the whole weekend and the seaweed was plentiful!  YUCK!

Paw Paw helping Colton "surf" on his boogy board.

 This is what Colton does at the ballpark while Maddie is playing.  It keeps him close to us and we don't have to worry about him running around like crazy.

 After our 1st win of the tournament!

 All the moms got together and made each girl a fleece blanket that was monogrammed with their name, year and allstars.  They LOVED them and Maddie sleeps with it every night.  Great gift!

 6U Rose-Rich Stampede.  We came in 17th out of 40 teams.  Not terrible, but would have loved to go further.  After this we went to the beach as a team and Adam cooked burgers at the beach house for everyone.  It was fun to see the girls get to play outside of the diamond.  They all had a blast.

 Cousins hanging out in the hammock.

 PawPaw helped C &M track down the ice cream truck!  Of course they ate their ice cream on the way back, even though dinner had just come out of the oven.  :)

 Paw Paw & Colton playing Angry Birds.  They also played alot of Wii tournaments.

 Dinner on the back porch!  Doesn't get better than that!