Ducks!

We headed to Brackenridge Park for playgroup one day to feed the ducks.  All the kids loved it, and luckily some of the other moms had been saving bread for months!

Thanksgiving 2013

We invited ourselves to the Craftons for Thanksgiving again, and, again, they graciously let us crash the party!

Stacia gave me a quick tutorial on my new camera and these are the (very) few pictures to commemorate the event.

Thanks for always having us, Craftons, and we will be there in November again if you'll have us!

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?

A visit from Gigi and Mr. Don

Gigi and Mr. Don were able to come visit on Jonas's actual birthday!

Jonas got a metal detector that will be super-fun at the beach.

 We took the kids on the River Boat ride.

 And then walked down the river to Rainforest Cafe.

 The birthday boy!

 This was our first visit in lots of years so everything was very exciting!

 We stopped in at the bar.

 These children ate a TON of food!

 Jonas's surprise birthday dessert!

 He was pretty excited!

Thanks, Gigi and Don, for making Jonas's day extra-special!

Donuts!

Apparently I took the kids to get donuts for Jonas's birthday!  Who knew?

The birthday boy.  Is he really already 6???

 There's no stopping this kid from digging in!

 Our serious child.

 Last but not least...

 Nailed this group shot.

 They could watch the assembly line for HOURS.  I should bring a book next time..

This was  a great way to kick off a birthday!  We were anxiously awaiting the arrive of Gigi and Mr. Don in the afternoon!

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!