Achieving

Spring Break odditites

So we drove 3 hours away for spring break and found it really odd that our kids seemed to have the most fun on...the teeter totter????

Apparently they have never experienced a teeter totter and therefore it was a radical new idea.   The thrill of flinging each other in the air...

The hilarious agony of slamming your bottom onto the board.....

The nerdy scientist in them all had to take turns finding the balance point...

Oh...and I am reminded yet again that I married the biggest kid of all....

AND, as an added bonus....I think we also managed to take what will be our christmas card photo for the year

Yup, that about sums them up!

Spring Break 2010

This spring break we headed down to Mathis, Texas.  Some friends of ours were staying at the KOA there so we met up with them for a few days of fun.  There were 11 other kids around to play with so play they did.  The boys had a great time fishing...Jared even managed to catch a fish after 3 days of trying.

Miss Carlie is determined she is going swimming.  Her daddy is trying to ignore that request because the water was disgusting and cold.  Luckily she found another sucker....

One morning we drove into Corpus Christi to tour the Lexington.  It was a very long tour, lots and lots of climbing up and down all over the ship.  We only lost one kid and nobody fell down any hatches so I figure that counts as a success.
Josh in a training module...

Hanging off the back of the aircraft carrier...

And, just because everyone needs to have a picture of themselves inside a giant shark...

Fires and smores...

And of course...the injury of the trip.  And of course it was Carlie.  She fell and tore the frenulum in her upper lip. 

Miss Snippy

It is no secret Carlie's hair has been a source of frustration for me.  She has wild, crazy, restless hair.  When I took Jared in for a haircut the hairdresser begged me to let her cut Carlie's hair.  Finally, Carlie had wonderful hair.  It was manageable, it laid down, it had darling little curls.  I was so excited!

And then that came crashing to a halt!!!!!!!!

Yes, the child who has never been able to successfully operate a pair of scissors suddenly develops cutting competency?  And without seeing what she is cutting either?  Seriously?  All her pretty curls are gone.  She cut it right to the scalp.

Luckily my friend Shandrea was able to get us in that morning and cleaned Carlie up a bit.

Sigh!  Now to hide all the scissors!

No joy like snow joy

I have to say some of the funniest things I have seen in my time in Central Texas are the reactions to snow, or the chance of snow, or pseudo snow.  In my 14 years here we have had icy snow but not true snow and we thought that was a treat.  BUT this year we had true snow.  Pure, giant, flaky, fluffy, catch it on your tongue snow!  And it was fantastic!

 

Jacob pulled Carlie out of bed so he could show her the snow before he went to school.  She was not impressed at this point, but give her time.  I was hoping hoping hoping the teachers would let the kids go outside during the snow, and crazy enough they did.  The whole school trooped outside.  To illustrate what a rare event this is here...by the end of the school day each of my kids said there were only 6 kids left in their respective classes.  Yes, parents actually went and pulled their kids out of school to enjoy the snow.  It is a rare event and the excitement from adult and child alike is grand! 

Snowball fights galore!

Little brother's revenge!

Sweet Carlie goes on an explore and decides snow is very good to eat.  But..not so fun to take your shoes off and jump on the trampoline in.

Snow man building is big business

In the days following the snowstorm it was hilarious to drive the streets and see the multitude, plethora, crowds of snowmen in all the neighborhoods.  And these were no ordinary snowmen.  We had snowcouples holding hands, pregnant snowwomen, snowmen dancing, snow turtles.  I have to say I have never seen a group of people enjoy snow as much as I did here and it was extremely fun to see kids and adults share the wonder of simple snow!

Sorry George...your museum's a bore

 

We had this great idea to drive the kids (plus extras) 2 hours to Fredricksburg to visit the Admiral Nimitz museum and the George HW Bush Pacific War Museum...say that 10 times fast.  Here is the crew all hopped up with anticipation for the trip...no not really..half of them were carsick and the other half were desperately trying to entertain themselves.

We started at some little podunk museum which had missles, airplanes, tanks, anti aircraft guns.  Who knew this would be the funnest part of the trip.  Our tour guide kept trying to skip parts of the tour.  I think he was intimidated by the number of kids.

 

  

Oh...and the best part of that tour???

 

The reinactment area.  See we were walking around the vehicles behind us and Carlie climbed up on this little area at which point the tour guide mentions, "OH...she needs to get down from there...we use live ammunition in our reinactments and there might be some unexploded ordinance in there."  Hmmm...thanks!

Then off the the George HW Bush Pacific War Museum....it's even a mouthful to type.  This museum was jam packed with pictures and words...words on every wall.  And the walls were arranged in a kind of maze.  Overwhelming, dizzying, TOO MUCH INFORMATION!  Holy cow it made my head hurt to look at all of it.  Patrick finally said he couldn't process any more words and was only looking for video displays.  The kids were laying in piles on the few benches scattered throughout the maze...their eyes glazed over.

BUT

the bestest part of the museum

 

  

The miniature japenese sub that was captured off the coast of Pearl Harbor on the morning of the attack.  That's what we came to see!

When Daddy is in charge

Ever wonder what happens when dad is in charge of watching the toddler and he wants to work in the garage??

I know...I'm asking myself the same thing...Why didn't I think of that????!!!!!