Field Day

What is the best day of the year? Field Day. Seriously I really think it is. I had so much fun watching Madalyn's class compete in the 50 yard dash, potato sack race, obstacle course, hopper race and tug-o-war. There were new things like a train ride, free time to dance, jump castles and something with a sponge and bucket and trying to fill it. Needless to say, it was awesome and we finished off the day by getting to swim at Jac's house. It was a lot of fun and just made me remember that Field Day is the best day ever.

Cinco de Mayo

In the Dual Language program, the Cinco de Mayo celebration is always a big deal. This year was no different. The kids had two dances, an outfit change, and two songs. They closed with 'De Colores' which is a great tradition. I was personally excited because there is a new boy in the program this year named Rogelio (Roger) who is taller than Madalyn! So she didn't throw poor Logan around the stage again this year, although last year was totally priceless. That's Maddy and Rogelio in one of the pictures. We continue to be so proud of Madalyn- she's doing an amazing job and is really thriving in the Dual Language program.

Creepy Man Pillow

This is the funniest thing that Bristol has been up to lately. Julie won this pillow at Six Flags a few years back and Cody thought it was creepy and didn't want it in the house. So we inherited it and its laid low for quite a while. Until recently. Beck took it to school for nap a few times and then Bristol has taken it over. It's been to Miss Amy's, HEB, Burleson, Dance Unlimited and all over our property. And he actually calls it 'creepy man'. Good times!

Random Weekend Pics

Petting Zoo

The Wiener Dog races had a petting zoo that the kids, including Jeff, loved. It had lots of baby animals including goats, a pig, chickens, a calf, and a rabbit. They were really sweet!

2008 Wiener Dog Races

Every year the Buda Lion's Club hosts the Buda Country Fair and Wiener Dog Races. This year they had dancers, an Elvis inpersonator, petting zoo, train rides and slides and the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile of course. Tara, Louis and their kids came down from Burleson to visit and go to the races with us. Here are some pics from the Nacho Wiener themed year. :) I love the enthusiam of everyone there and participating and getting to see friends from high school and Madalyn's school. It really is a great community event.

Bizet's Carmen

Friday, April 18th was a big day for the Austin Lyric Opera and for Madalyn. ALO is one of my audit clients and I won tickets in an office drawing to see Bizet's Carmen in the debut of the Long Center. The Long Center is another audit client of MLR that is the new facility of the arts in Austin. It was a long running capital campaign, but the Long Center is AMAZING! Madalyn and I really enjoyed the Opera which was set in Spain, but sung in French. We liked it a lot, and loved looking at everyone's amazing dresses. Austin is such a laid back city, so it was nice to see everyone all dressed up.

The Damselfly

Yes, remember class projects? Whether it was a science project, that pesky Senior poetry project for you Hays grads, or just anything that was due? Madalyn's class has been studying insects in science class and they (or really their parents)had to make 3D models that were at least one foot in length and labeled with labeled body parts. This is our lovely attempt at a damselfly which apparently is very similar to a dragonfly- we started early, waited until the last minute to finish and only sustained 5 hot glue burns. A success! My favorite is the marker lines we drew on the knee highs turned into wings that you can see the white coat hanger through. :)

Texas Bluebonnets

Bluebonnets aren't only the state flower of Texas, but they are a family tradition from when Jeff and I were kids and for many other families. We had a great bluebonnet area at the front of our property this year and were happy that several people stopped to take pictures in our patch. The kids are hilarious and it's hard to get all three of them to take a decent picture together! We had fun and as you can see Jeff even got in on the action. Like Colby Donaldson said on Survivor, "Everyday I wake up and thank God I'm alive, and that I'm a Texan"

Random Thought

Whoever would have thought that I would gain insight from watching a kid's movie, but I guess when you watch as many as we do it was bound to happen. Jeff and I were watching Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and Dustin Hoffman's quote was 'Your life is an occasion - rise to it.'
Absolutley love it.

First Girl Scout Overnight

Madalyn's Girl Scout Brownie troop went of their first overnight event at the Austin Science and Nature Center last Friday. The event was aptly named 'Beasts and Bedrolls'. They went throughout the Center to identify creatures and went for a nature hike and identified plants and more animals. All of the girls received two 'Try It' patches- one for Animals and a second for Nature. Congrats to Sylvia and Renee for being the best leaders ever!
My favorite thing is the shirts they got for Valentine's Day from Sylvia and Renee that say 'Who needs fairy dust?' and on the back it says 'I make my own dreams come true' Words to live by!

Madalyn's First Dance Competition

Madalyn and the pre-team from Miss Dianne's Dance Unlimited had their first dance competition of the season on Saturday. Thankfully, it was at the Performing Arts Center in Kyle, so we didn't even have to travel. They performed a ballet dance to 'Somewhere Out There' and they did a great job- I've seen a lot of the practices lately and they really stepped it up for the competition. I love them with their arms crossed- you can totally see the nerves.

They received a 'gold' desigination - whatever the heck that means because I was totally lost. We all just kept clapping. :)

Mark Your Calendars!

And save the date because you wouldn't want to miss the 2nd Annual Halfway BirthRAY Partay! It will be at the City of Kyle pool- which has a great area for toddlers, a slide, and lots of room- on July 12th from 7-10 p.m.

Be there, it won't be the same without you!

Madalyn learned to ride her bike!!

Super huge news, after just a week and half of practicing Madalyn learned to ride her bike with no training wheels. I have pictures and will post them when I finish the roll. I miss technology, this whole deferred gratification thing is way overrated. :)

Watch out at Texas Roadhouse

When Jeff and I were out on a date a couple of weeks ago my car got broken into and my purse stolen. Unfortunately, my digital camera was in my purse, so we're back to using an actual film camera. Oh, wonderous days - but pictures will be a little slower coming for awhile. And probably in clusters like these!

New Bikes & a Scooter!

The Easter Bunny must have had a great year because Madalyn and Beck got new bikes and Bristol got a toddler scooter. Beck took off on his and has not looked back. He often likes to take it up on two wheels- meaning the front wheel and one of the training wheels. I constantly cringe watching him. Bristol likes the scooter and is getting the hang of it. Madalyn got a cool pink Huffy that she is trying to ride without training wheels. Awesome! I loved the picture of Bristol- did I mention how sweet he is? :) Also the one of Jeff and Daddy teaching them how to ride down the driveway was greatness.

Easter Hunt at the Raymond Ranch

We had a super laid back Easter- Mom, Dad, Cody and Julie came over to the house for lunch and we just hung out. Until the Easter bunny came to visit of course. Then the yard was full of action and excitement. Madalyn insisted on putting her dress to hunt again, the boys could have cared less. :) Beck just wanted to hunt with his Spiderman bucket from Halloween. I loved the action shot of Madalyn too, sheer joy.

Steeplechase Easter Egg Hunt

The Saturday before Easter we went to huge hunt at the Steeplechase park in Kyle. There were thousands of eggs and it as a lot of fun- even if they didn't drop them out of a helicopter (much to Beck's dismay). We had a whole crew of kids as you can see, and two of them (Addison and Mason) didn't make the picture. Kim was in town vacationing at home from New Mexico, so we all gathered to enjoy the entertainment which included a wheel of fortune, moonwalks and this crazy bungee game that Madalyn is playing. You're strapped to the thing and see how far you can get- hopefully further than the person you're up against.
Kids are Dylan and Beau in the back, then Brenah, Makayla and Madalyn and the little ones- Beck, Bristol, Eric and Ella. I just have to say, is Bristol not the sweetest little boy ever?!

Parenting can be so much fun!

We are currently waiting for the Caldwell County Sheriff's department, no not for anything big except that Bristol is thinking of being a jail bird early in life. He decided to play with the phone in mine and Jeff's room and call 911. And apparently the more you try to assure them everything is okay, the more concerned they become and insist on sending someone out. D'oh!

And while on the lovely note of parenting, Beck tried to burn the house down a couple of weeks ago with Madalyn's Easy Bake Oven. Of course it's all kinda funny in hindsight, but when Madalyn and I came home (Jeff and Bristol were taking a nap) and the house smelled like burning it wasn't so funny. Beck decided to take advantage of the others napping and get the Easy Bake out of Maddy's closet, mix up some powder (minus the water) plug in the oven and wait. Thank goodness we came home when we did, but Maddy was pretty ticked we had to throw away her Easy Bake because of Beck. Melted plastic and smoke- I'm sure it will be the next new scent for Glade. =)

Parenting is not for the faint of heart!

Juanita Claire Watts

As many of you know by now, Jeff's grandmother passed away last Thursday. It was a tough weekend, but the vistation and funeral services were very nice. I included this picture of Ma Ma and Bristol, taken last Spring when we visited her for her birthday. It is one of my favorites and I'm so glad that we named him Bristol Watts, so that he can be a reminder of everything that Ma Ma and Pa Pa were to us.

I included a link to her obituary in the Fort Worth paper, and there is an online guestbook if anyone would like to sign.

http://www.legacy.com/dfw/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=105247997

Valeria is here!

One of my favorite people in the whole world had a beautiful baby girl last week. Valeria Judith Guzman came into the world on March 5, 2008. This is a picture of proud parents Aimee and Gerardo at the hospital the day after she was born. The little boy is Ryan Tang, Rachel's little boy who was also there during the visit. Welcome sweet princess! Both Ryan and Valeria have links to their blog just to the right if you want to find out more!

Cody's Endurance Race

Cody and my cousin Bryon participated in the Endurance Race at Thunderhill Raceway on March 2, which consisted of 200 laps in the Grandstock division cars. They worked super hard to get the car ready, and unfortunatley took a hard hit into the wall between turns 1 and 2. Even worse than that was that it was only the third lap. D'oh! Regardless, we had fun and even though the car was wrecked the kids still loved playing in it.

Basketball Season Over

And as quickly as it started, a mere 9 practices and 6 games later the season is over. On March 1, we had our last games for the season at the SMAC. The boys did a great job, and I'm very proud to say that my girl's team went undefeated. I'm sure that it's just a matter of time before UT calls me up to be an assistant. Since I was coaching and Jeff was kid wrangling we don't have many pictures from the game, but here is one I took of Madalyn and Beck at the house before Madalyn's big win. You would have though that they won the state championship- I haven't heard that many girls sreaming that loud since the Hannah Montana concert.