Can someone say busy weekend?

Kate had her second softball practice on Friday evening....Justin is helping coach. The girls try so hard and doing so well.  We have practiced hitting the ball for years and Kate is a natural player (finally a sport that doesn't need a lot of height!).  But I was a bit apprehensive that she'd be scared of catching the ball.  Not at all....even after she 'caught' it with her face a few times  :)

 Little brother on the sidelines  :)

 Then after softball practice, I took Kate and Wesley to see 'Never Say Never' the Justin Bieber flick.  It was a cute movie and I caught Kate dancing in her chair a few times.  So took me back to my New Kids on the Block days when I was her age!

Then on Saturday we had not 1, but 2 Chuck e Cheese birthday parties.  The first one was for our cousin Courtland who turned the BIG 5!!  The second was for Kate's classmate Zaydan. 

Finally on Sunday after church we went to the Donkey Baseball game at the Inez Little League field.  It was a benefit for the seniors for their Project Graduation.  From the turnout, it was obvious they made a nice chunk of change.  Since Kate's teacher's son, Kolton, is a senior this year, we enjoyed being able to have fun and help out the senior class.  Plus Project Graduation is a event very near and dear to our heart.  It was at Justin's senior Project Graduation in 1995 that we first started dating......awwwwww.....
And for those that are not familiar with Donkey Baseball you can always you tube it.  It's HILARIOUS.  Our version included Kate's teachers and principal as well as some community leaders and our priest (Father Gabriel).  All riding donkeys and playing baseball.

Shhhhhh...its a suprise!

What is a fabulous mom like myself to do when her sweet girl's favorite singer is in concert in Texas on HER BIRTHDAY?

Well, that fabulous mom would get her even-more-fabulous daughter TAYLOR SWIFT TICKETS!!

So you know where we will be on Saturday, October 8th, 2011.

Dallas Cowboys Stadium with pretty good tickets!

DISCLAIMER:  due to the sensitive and very exciting nature of this post, and the fact that it is still 7 months away, we are not informing our sweet Kate of the tickets until we get closer to her birthday. 

I {heart} these guys - Valentine's Day 2011

By far, this was my favorite valentine's day  EVER!  Some highlights from Valentine weekend (when a lovely occasion falls on a Monday, we must start celebrating the Friday before, right?)

On Friday night Justin and I got to have a very nice dinner at a local Japanese steakhouse.  It must be true love because Justin does not typically do Japanese food but he loved it and couples at the table with us were so much fun and we had a great chef.

On Saturday, we got to visit with Tara and Peyton and Luke.  Cute cute kids!

We decided to go a bit 'custom' for Kate's valentine's cards for her classmates.  Her teacher asked that each student write their own name(35 times for each Kindergartner) and also write the names of the classmates.  There were only about 3 students out of 35 that did their own writing.....but Kate was one of them and her cards turned out fabulous!

Kate creating her cards..........

 Kate got matching PJ's for her and her doll Sally.....they are way too cute!

 I let Kate dress herself for Valentine's day....we didnt' know how the weather would be so I got her both long and short sleeved valentines shirt.  Luckily, the weather was beautiful and Kate was ready to get back into a skirt.  Monday was also Jump Rope for Heart, so she had to wear tennis shoes..if anyone can pair a fluffy skirt and tennis shoes and still look adorable, that would be my Kate!

This was the cutest valentine card that I found in Kate's stash...very cute idea!

Wesley was surprised on Saturday before Valentines day with his John Deere mule.  This was really going to be his 4th birthday present but it went on sale right after Christmas and we hated to see it sit in the box for 7 months so we decided to turn it into a Valentine's present.  Both kids LOVE it!  It goes very very fast and has a place in the back to haul all his rocks and dirt.

Vanessa surprised the kids with gifts...Wesley got a Tom and Jerry DVD.  He loves T&J!

 Vanessa gave Kate the new Silverlicious book.  We've already read it 2 times.  It is a cute story!

Daddy's Ribs

I have never ever eaten ribs in my entire life.  Prior to marrying Justin, I was not a big meat eater at all.  I would eat only chicken and fish and (occasionally...very rarely) I would eat a hamburger and possibly some BBQ.  Even when I would eat a hamburger, it was never a fast food hamburger.  It had to be homemade by only a select few people (and it has to have mushrooms, cheese and avocado!).  And if I ate BBQ, it was only brisket, chopped on a sandwich...and once again, I wouldn't eat just any BBQ sandwich.  I only trusted a few.  So over the course of my 15 years of dating and marriage to Justin, he has slowly made me love red meat.  He started with really tender steak and tried for years to get me to eat ribs.  I do NOT eat meat that touches bones (not on chicken, fish, beef, pork....I just don't do it!).  A few years ago Justin made ribs and Vanessa ate them and loved them.  I thought OK...if Vanessa tried them, then I should give him the honor.  Remember, he's tried for years and years to convince me that 'his' ribs were 'special.'  Well, he was right.  After trying his ribs one time, I fell in love.  I still will not eat ribs anywhere else or by anyone else.

My kids have sort of followed in my footsteps in that they don't really like a lot of 'beef' but over time, I have been able to get them to eat really tender pot roast and meatballs.  Last night for the Super Bowl, Justin made his ribs and the kids wanted to try one.  They loved them and each ended up eating two a piece.  Kate actually did much better than Wesley...he was picking the meat off the bone because he wanted to give the bone to Rex (that is a rib ritual at our house...when we finish, Justin will give Jake a bone and I will give Rex one).  Let's just say everyone in the house was loving the ribs (bones) last night!  :)

Snow Day Pictures

What happens when the kids get a day and a half of snow days but don't get any snow?  Well.....here are some pictures to showcase the past few days when school was not in session and we were couped up inside with no white stuff outside to play in....maybe next year?!?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Wednesday, Wesley's school lost power around noon so he came home early and Vanessa (Nae Nae) made him some homemade hot chocolate.  Add a few ice cubes to make it 'not so hot' hot chocolate and he was in heaven as you can see from his chocolate ring around his cute mouth!

 This picture is from Thursday after being home all day and not taking a nap after lunch like he does at school.  This was about 4pm (shhhhhhhh...don't tell dad...he does not allow naps after 2pm for that would indicate Wesley will stay up until midnight!)  And why are all his appendages in his shirt?  Well....dad keeps the thermostat on 67 degrees....so it was quite chilly in our house and he was too tired to get a blanket.

 Friday pictures.....Kate and Wesley were both home with us.  Justin didn't go into work until later due to the icy roads and at some point he disciplined Wesley and Kate (the protective big sister) decided to give us a piece of her mind....'Let hem do wut he wons to doo'.  I found this very funny but only b/c it wasn't directed at me and was directed more towards Justin.  Justin proceeded to tell Kate that the next time Wesley is pulling her hair, he'll just 'let him do what he wants'.  She was miffed.  :)

 Playing the accordion in her own way...using her feet!  Yes...cabin fever...delirium...boredom maybe?

 Wesley loves play doh.....he was being very creative :0

I still love you mom.....................

Kate LOVES to write us all little notes.  She may write them on a piece of paper at her desk hidden away in her closet or she may write them on Wesley's easel in the living room.  But regardless of where she writes them, she has given us quite a few chuckles with some of her notes.

Like this one she wrote me last night.........

The back story behind this note is that (totally my failure as a parent) Kate has not perfected tying her shoes.  Its my failure as a parent because I personally hate tennis shoes and Kate does not care for them and she would prefer the cutsie tootsie slide ons and therefore Kate does not own any lace up shoes.  For PE she now has to switch into tennis shoes and has been relying on a (very gracious) classmate Natalie, to help her tie her shoes.  So I decided that I was going to really focus on working with her on tying her shoes so that she doesn't have to rely on someone else's help (first of all....I think that when I was in Kindergarten they taught us in school....now this is no longer a part of the basics...probably b/c they expect kids to know so much so early that they assume most kids should know this coming into Kindergarten....not so much!)
Anyway, after several sessions of working with Kate for 30 minutes on end, she was getting super frustrated.  I admit..I was getting equally frustrated.  I probably used the words 'make a loop to look like a bunny ear' fifty bazillion times!  Last night Justin could tell we were getting frustrated so he came in and tried to help her........but even walked away mentally exhausted.  So I went into the kitchen to make dinner and she brought out this note to me:  'I still love you mom...I never saw a bunny'  (Of course she wrote it in her own Kindergarten language).
And just for the record.....Kate knows how to tie her shoes, although not very tight but I think that is very normal for new comers.  I think that its going to be hard to keep her abreast of her new found skills though because its something that needs repetition and once again I repeat....we do NOT like to wear lace up shoes in this house.....sigh..............

I think I caught a butterfly.....

We have these beautiful pure yellow butterflies that come and nest on our lantanas and petunias.  Kate and Wesley have chased these butterflies around for weeks and I explain that it is impossible to catch one.  I guess Wesley likes the challenge because he came running up to me this weekend and guess what he had!!  And just for the record, we thought he may have 'hurt' the butterfly but it was released into the wild again and flew away beautifully!  Hopefully one day Wesley will be able to catch footballs with as much precision and vigor!