My little Kindergartner!

Well, it's still sinking in, but my little boy is growing up! He started Kindergarten this Monday! I was afraid that he was going to be scared and timid on the first day, but he was so excited and jumped in with both feet. He was literally giddy before leaving the house. He woke up at 6:20 AM even before I did...this wasn't out of sheer excitement it was due to the fact that we set an alarm clock for him. It was an old fashioned really loud Curious George clock. This may sound like a harsh way for a 5 year old to wake up, but he begged me for one, and he is REALLY hard to wake up in the mornings so I thought I would give it a try. It did the job! When I came out of our bedroom he was sitting in the living room staring straight ahead...I said "wow your up!" he answered, "it's a really loud clock!" You see this is quite an adjustment for him since he normally wakes up at 8:00 and now we are leaving the house at 7:30! It's a good thing that the first week they get out of school early (1:00) because he was exhausted when he got home! We started getting them to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 last week and they seem to be finally slipping in to the routine.

After picking him up from school on Monday he said he had a great time, but was mad that he didn't get to ride the bus home! Little mister independent all of the sudden! Anyway...it was a success, and I am slowly learning to not hover so much. Doesn't he look so old in these pictures?

The Tooth Fairy and God Speaking

Well, our big boy lost his first tooth last Wednesday night while munching on a banana of all things!!! Could there be anything softer than a banana? He had been working on this tooth for weeks and it was hanging by a thread. When it came out he yelled at the top of his lungs "Hey everyone! I just lost my very first tooth!!!" He was overjoyed to join his two friends from preschool who had lost their's a few months ago. I thought a kid had to be older to loose a tooth, but his baby teeth started coming in when he was around 5 months old, so I guess that makes a difference. Anyway, my sister had given us this cute little tooth holder that glows in the dark. So he was thrilled to have it under his pillow finally.

OK...I just couldn't resist putting in this pic of Alec when he was 5 months old! He was eating rice cereal (at his Nanny and Poppy's house), and somehow it ended up taking the shape of two little front teeth...so funny!

I also have a really cool story about Ava. Last week my pregnancy brain had caused me to forget to pick up Eriik's prescription at Walgreen's twice! We had never talked about it in front of the kids nor had I mentioned to them that I needed to go to Walgreen's. But on Friday we had left WalMart and I was almost back home (forgetting Walgreen's again) when Ava said in an urgent voice "Mommy, you've got to go to the drugstore!!" I said in a shocked voice, "Ava, how did you even know that???" She replied matter of factly, "It wasn't me, it was God" then added with a great big smile "He's my God!" Wow! Last Sunday I sang the song "God Speaking" in church and the words of that song ring so true. "He'll do and he'll use whatever he wants to, to tell us I love you."

Me Ma's house in Missouri!

Well...last week I ventured out with Alec, Ava and my niece Sydney to my Mom's house in Missouri. This was the first big drive that I have taken with the kids without Eriik. I was a little intimidated to say the least, but I knew that Syd being 11 would be at least a little bit of a help. It turned out to be a really fun trip (except for a few Ava tantrums! But hey that's just where we are right now in life.) We took the 11 hour drive in two days which we normally don't do, but with being pregnant and without Eriik I wanted to take it easy. It really turned out to be great we stopped around dinner time on the first night and got a hotel with a pool. The kids were able to eat a nice meal, swim and wear themselves out enough to get a good nights sleep. And then the next day of travel was only four hours! Well, I have tons of pics so here you go! I will explain the pics more in the captions.


The kids love to have Me Ma read them a bedtime story...she's pretty good at it, she got lots of practice since she was a preschool teacher for 25 years!

There was a fund raiser carnival at the catholic church just across the street from Moms house. The kids noticed it right away, so of course we had to go check it out. We went after church and lunch on Sunday.

The swings are always a hit.

Mom with the kids in front of the fun house!

The butterfly house was a huge hit. I didn't know what to expect but when we walked into the atrium butterflies were all around us, it was really beautiful..but a little too hot that day (at least the kids didn't care about the heat)

We saw so many brightly colored butterflies but this is the only butterfly pic I took that wasn't really blurry. Their wings were usually moving which made it hard to get a clear pic.

They had a little room with a butterfly library and activities for the kids.

They all got to dress up...so cute.

Alec's favorite part was the "Jurassic Bug" exhibits.
This one was some really gross roaches...yuck! Alec liked the giant terantulas and scorpians the best.

We swam over at Pam and Marios house one day. It was great to be able to swim since it was over 100 degrees that day!

Chillin at the Beach!

We spent all last week in Galveston, and had a wonderful time! It was kind of a last minute planned trip since we had cancelled our trip to Destin because of the oil, but it all worked out great! We stayed in a beautiful condo on the far east end of the island called Palisade Palms. It sat right on the beach, and the kids loved the pools. We loved that it seemed like such a short drive (it only took 4 1/2 hours) verses a two day trip to FL. And plus it was oil free..yay! Here are way too many pics..sorry...I did narrow it down from over 200 pics though! I explain more details of the trip in the captions.

Ava loved finding sea shells!

Look how wild the waves were on this day! The Ziesemers joined us this day at our beach.
The beach in front of our condo was never crowded..it was so nice.

We went with the Ziesemers and each rented this funny bike to ride along the sea wall. It was an adventure!

Ava and Eriik about to hit the waves...she loved "surfing"!

We went with the Ziesemers to Schlitterbahn for a day and the kids (and dads) loved it! Since I'm prego, I didn't go on any of the really fun slides...just kind of hung out at the kiddy places. Even Ava went down some of the big slides with her daddy...and loved every minute of it.

Back at our condo pool.

That is our condo in the background.

Here we are with the Ziesemers at the Rainforest Cafe. We loved having them with us for a few of the days!

A view from the third floor central patio of our condo. This was actually the only day it was a little rainy, and it was the morning we left. Perfect timing!

On our way back home we stopped at NASA...it was a quick visit, and very crowded that day, but the kids still had a great time!

Fun on the Fourth!

I've gotta catch up my blog a little. We had a really fun fourth of July! The night before we did our annual trip out to our spot off of Hwy 80 to watch the Longview fireworks. The Ziesimers joined us just like last year. It sprinkled a little, but we still had a great time. The fourth started off with church of course and it just so happened that it was my month to teach Kinderville, so I missed the service, but Eriik said that it was really good. We had the Ziesimers over for dinner for some burgers and hotdogs. It's always so fun hanging out with them. Then we headed over to The Myers house for dessert and fireworks since we can't blow stuff up here in town. Good times with good friends!

Alec loved these crazy glasses that made all lights look like fireworks...the flash about blinded him when I took this picture!

Ava sure is going to miss the Deboer's...we all are! They moved to FL shortly after the fourth.

Helping Ava with a Roman candel.