August

It is simply shocking that August is already over! We definitely made the most of it, and here are the highlights. Not represented in the pictures: a trip to the revolving sushi restaurant to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday, my first visit to a chiropractor because of a very sore back, a couple of visits from the plumber to install a new kitchen faucet, Jeff joined every conversational Spanish group in the DFW metro, Clay started his Ninja Warrior class, Max started his yoga class, Arrow Academy orientation, my mom came to stay with the kids for a week, Weston got to work with the Scouts at the Highland Village Balloon Festival, Ruth and Weston's first cross country meet, Weston attended Boy Scout leadership training, and Ruth started college classes at the local community college.

I took a beaded bracelet class at the library and produced this lovely piece.

We had a better-than-average time at Walmart.

Jeff finished up his bartending class and
got to do an externship at The Magnolia Hotel in Dallas.

 

We visited the Giant Eyeball in Dallas.

Max got to go to Lego Mindstorms camp while at Nana Camp.

We spent several lovely days out in the Davis Mountains.

I had an essay featured on the Art of Simple blog.

The younger boys and I got to spend a day with Granny.

We had a barn/playroom built in our backyard.

We attended a back-to-school party with Arrow Academy at a super cool splashpad.

I turned 41 and received sweet cards and drawings from the kids and
gardening supplies, including these awesome Sloggers, from Jeff.
We also ordered dessert using Door Dash and had brunch at Nico's.

Jeff and I became locally famous by making it into the Flower Mound
activities catalog, which featured a picture from the dance class we took a while back.

We successfully shopped for new school clothes.

Jeff took a motorcycle class at Harley and became a licensed motorcycle rider.

I cooked enough food to feed an army in preparation for being out of town.

The boys started their classes at Arrow, which include
things like History, Science, Art, Robotics, P.E.,
Speech and Debate, Dance, and Guitar.
Clay has been belting out Bubba Shot the Jukebox all week,
even though the only thing they are supposed to be
practicing is tuning the instrument. Such an overachiever!

Jeff and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in Costa Rica.

We started school, and I can hardly believe we have kids in each of these grades.

Max started saxophone lessons.

The entire family supported the Aggies for the first game of the football season.

   

Back in Texas

We flew all night and were terribly spoiled in the First Class cabin. We finally made it back to DFW around 5:30 this morning. Even at that early hour, Summer took us into her sweltering embrace, and it was quite a shock since yesterday Winter had us firmly in his grasp. Since some of our people stayed up all night watching movies on the plane instead of sleeping, they were completely wiped out when we got back to the house and crashed immediately. Those who remained awake were in a flurry of activity, checking the mail, cooking, buying groceries, unpacking, and taking care of the neglected business of the last two months.

So spoiled in First Class

Five minutes prior: "I'm not sleepy. I just want to play."

Our first order of business was to shower and store up some water to use throughout the day because we had a notice attached to our front door stating that the city would have our water off from 9:00 until 4:00 today. Ironically, our list of things we were especially looking forward to contained both "hot water" and "flushing toilets" since our last place in Santiago was a little inconsistent on both of those points.

Later in the morning, Jeff took Ruth to the DMV to try to set up an appointment to do her driving test so she can officially become a licensed driver. The first available appointment was a month from now, which was obviously disappointing. But, when they got home, Ruth searched around for other appointments at other offices throughout the state of Texas and finally found one for Monday...in Wichita Falls.

In the afternoon, when everyone was rested up, we celebrated Max's half-birthday by seeing Incredibles 2 in the theater, picking up donuts and ice cream, and watching a couple of other movies at home. 

March

March was full and fun! Here are the highlights:

• A visit to the C.R. Smith (American Airlines) Museum

• Mom's Night Out mug exchange

• Lots of track meets with improved times almost every time

• Weston and Max started an online coding class that they really love.

• Weston attended a couple of 4H meetings to see if that is something he is interested in participating in for the coming school year. 
• We discovered Local Pint and kind of made it "our place" since it's within walking distance of our house and since it's a pretty fun place to hang out.

• We saw A Wrinkle in Time, which was pretty disappointing as a movie but still made for a fun outing.

• Paralympics

• Weston went on a Boy Scout campout. He also worked super hard on merit badges throughout the month.
• We celebrated Pi Day in a big way, with pie for every meal.

• Jeff went to yoga with me.
• I participated in the next wave of a longitudinal health study I've been a part of since I was in high school.
• We decided on the spur of the moment to take a long weekend in Sallisaw, OK for Spring Break. We had fun hanging out at our KOA, hiking through the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, and hiking at Devil's Den State Park in AK. 

• We started making our plans for the next school year.
• We finalized all our plans for our upcoming summer trip to South America.
• We spent a night in Allen, TX, where the kids were delighted to find a putting green and swimming pool at the hotel, in addition to the awesome breakfast buffet. 

• Ruth took a practice PSAT test and did very well.
• The bluebonnets started blooming!

• Weston and Clay participated in the district PSIA meet, and Weston brought home ribbons for Math (6th) and Number Sense (3rd).

• We hiked the Katy Trail, which runs for three miles through downtown Dallas but feels somewhat removed from the city. 

• We discovered Bishop Cider Co. aka Cidercade, where we had fun trying some hard ciders and playing vintage arcade games.

• We had a Wind in the Willows picnic, which we all agreed was the most epic picnic ever.

• Ruth took her first CAP orientation flight. She actually had control of the plane for about 15 minutes in the air, and she had a blast. I think she's truly hooked now!

• We finally got around to visiting the Shannon Brewing Co. in Keller, which we've been meaning to do pretty much since we moved here. The kids enjoyed the yard and table games, and Jeff and I enjoyed sitting on the patio sipping on stouts. I'm sure we'll visit again.

• Clay lost his first tooth with absolutely no fanfare. In fact, the baby tooth just sort of disappeared (seriously, we have no idea when it fell out or where it went!), and his permanent tooth is already filling up the gap. 

• Jeff and I took a cheese making class at Dallas Mozzarella Company.

Field Day

Our CC campus got together with several other CC campuses in the area today for a huge field day. The weather was perfect, and the boys had so much fun hanging out with old and new friends, running races, and playing games which included Tag, Tug-of-War, Thieves, and Capture the Flag! 

Sometimes you just have to hold your mouth right to get away from whoever is "It."

And, apparently sticking out your tongue while running is a family trait.

But sometimes the tongue stays where it belongs, but the dimple comes out!

Play-by-play of this crazy day

I loaded up the three oldest kids this morning around 8:20 to take them over to Grapevine for their end-of-year testing. By 9:00, I had gotten them all dropped off at the testing location and signed into their classrooms, at which point I headed over to Southlake to look for birthday party supplies and a replacement pair of travel shoes. At 11:30, I headed back to the house (in Flower Mound) to pick up Jeff and Clay, who had been working on some math lessons and playing at two different playgrounds while I was away. They were waiting for me when I pulled into the driveway and immediately hopped in the car so we could go pick up the other kids at the testing location. The last test ended around 1:30, and we headed over to Carrollton to celebrate Jeff's half-birthday at Gen Korean BBQ House, a fun Asian eatery where you can cook a variety of interesting meats and veggies at your table. We finished up our party around 4:00. Then, Jeff dropped Ruth and I off at a mall in Lewisville to do a little shopping for fancy dresses for our upcoming cruise, while he took the boys to various sports practices (in Flower Mound). Jeff picked us up around 6:30, and off we went to pick up Weston from football practice by 7:00. After that, we stopped by the house for five minutes, so Weston could shower, before making our way to the baseball field for Max's 7:45 game. We left the field at 9:30 and rushed home to get everyone to bed, because we were all completely exhausted. We put about 112 miles on the car today, without ever getting more than 20 miles from our house. I guess we could consider this a warm-up for our upcoming road trip!

Half-birthday party at Gen Korean BBQ House

Giant ice cream-filled macarons for dessert

Even ninja turtles can get tired on a day like today