Fiesta texas 2014

This year's Fiesta Texas trip was extra fun because Jonas earned his free ticket and Troy took the day off to join us!  I was worried about crowds since it was a Friday but we were all pleasantly surprised!

We spent time at the regular park, headed to the water park, and then went back to the main park.  

Jonas loved the Roadrunner Express and rode twice alone while I watched!  Reef was over at the Boomerang, his most favorite roller coaster ever.

The big swings were closed all day, so they had to settle for the small ones.  These make me much less nervous!

This is the Pandemonium.  They loved it, but I absolutely think I'd throw up on it!  That car spins while it moves on the track!  They rode it 2 or 3 times in a row.  No, thank you!

It was a super fun day with our 2 oldest guys!

Last day of school!

We celebrated that last day of Kindergarten and 2nd grade with milkshakes from Sonic!  Overall, we had a great year!

Reef's 8th Birthday!

We decided no parties in 2014 for the kids.  So, his birthday was pretty low key.  Looking through these pictures, we might've celebrated twice...

Still LOVES those Legos!  He also got gift cards to the Lego store.

Ready for the cake!

He requested a cookies and cream cake.  It turned out pretty good!

Gigi and Mr. Don got him rollerblades!

He did pretty good for the first try!  Now that it's cooler, we need to get back out there and practice!

We also celebrated at Willie's with Gigi and Mr. Don.  He wasn't feeling the picture-taking!

Reef also got to do his special dinner with the Chapmans, which is always fun.  All in all, I don't think he even missed a party!

Book It!

Nothing beats free pizza for doing something they love: reading!

Strawberry Picking 2014

In the spring we had a great field trip strawberry picking!  The kids have never done it, and the crop this year was great.

Jonas decided he wanted to make a strawberry pie with his berries.  I made him help.

I forgot to take a picture before we ate some.  Oops!

It was enjoyed by all!

Homeschool Day at The Witte

Reef and I have enjoyed homeschool day at the Witte the last 2 years and were excited to have Jonas and the Ebroms with us this year!

Reef made it all the way to the top of the rock wall!

Ellie gave it a try and made it even higher the second time!  Jonas wasn't into it this year.

Finally, he was tall enough for the tightrope bike!  Jonas really wanted to do this one but was a smidge too short.  Next year for sure!

The Texas exhibit was new to us, and there was so much to see, do, and touch!

Love that tongue sticking out!  He was concentrating hard on that Labyrinth-type maze!

We had a great time but quickly learned that the special CSI exhibit that we paid extra for was definitely age-appropriate!  We raced past the crime scenes but enjoyed looking at different fly larvae in the microscopes.

Can't wait till next year!

Fall Co-op Fun!

I'm attempting to jump back into the blogging...again...

We continued with our co-op in the fall and had a great time with friends.

Our art was to make fall leaves.  This was the sample:

 These were their projects:

 Totally nailed it.
We also packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  It was so funny to watch the girls and boys shop!  The boys were all about getting what was on the list while the girls wanted to buy every pink thing in sight!  In the end, they did great sticking to their "budget".

 Our finished boxes.

 The girls, Molly and Ellie.

 The boys.  Can you tell Jonas was having a bad day?

South Texas Maize

In November, Kristina and I took the kids to Homeschool Day at the South Texas Maize.  It fell on a preschool day, and we were glad to have the big kids (and Lily).  The maize was crowded, with a long line to get tickets, but not nearly as bad as the Sea World Homeschool Day!

First item up for business, group photos while the moms waited in line.

First, just the boys; the girls were checking out the bathrooms.

All 5!  What great friends we've made this year!  How did I ever homeschool without these other 2 families?

 Climbing on hay bales.  See that big slide in the back?

 We splurged and got the package that included all activities, including this slide.  They loved it!

 The bouncing pillows.  This was our first time trying these out.

After all that fun, we headed to the actual maze.  There were 2 sides to the maze.  The first side we tried was so hard that we walked in the same circle over and over!  Luckily we were able to figure the second side out!

Taking my inspiration from the Crafton family, who always do a silly picture!  Obviously Molly and Jonas were too cool for this.

We had a great day and can't wait to go next year!