K's 7th Birthday

Yesterday was "K"'s 7th birthday. Where does the time go???? I still feel like I just barely brought her home from the hospital. This year she got almost a week long celebration including a trip to Seaworld and a family party on her actual birthday.

I was able to take cupcakes up to school and was there as her whole class sang happy birthday.. cha cha cha to her. She was so cute... but as I watched her standing in front of her class the little baby seemed to fade just a tad bit more... I could see her face isn't so round and chubby... her legs a long and skinny now and I swear they grew at least a centimeter while they sang to her. She is growing physically, emotionally and maturing. While I am so happy that she is excelling a part of my heart cringes that I know in the blink of an eye I will be watching her with her own children.

I love being "K"'s mother and I am so blessed to have her in our family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

First Day of School 2009-2010

The day finally arrived and "K" had to go back to school as an all grown up 1st grader. She found out that her BFF was not going to be in her class anymore, but even though she was disappointed she did find out 3 other students from Kindergarten would be in class with her. She was so good, last year it was a week of tears, begging not to go on the school bus and mom, well she cried every time "K" cried.. so it was not the easiest thing to do.


This year.. smooth sailing. She had a great day, a moment of almost tears, but she stopped and found a way to be happy. She came home all smiles and laughing.. hope the whole year goes this well. Only problem... almost 1/2 hr. late getting home, the bus couldn't get out of the school parking lot... guess they have to iron out a few problems with the buses.. but other than that it was a great 1st day of the school year.

What a give a way!

Thanks to my friend Amy for posting this on her blog.. I took a chance and am posting the link on mine... so check out this give-a-way.. it's great!

http://stephaniecastrodesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/some-thank-you-blog-candy.html

Congrats to Miss "K"

My darling daughter passed not just one level in swim class this session but 2 levels! I'm so proud of her. She started out 4 weeks ago in level 1. The goal is to pass 1 level each session. She passed level 1 the first session and went to level 2. I thought she may or may not pass level 2, but today at the awards ceremony she surprised me and passed level 2 and level 3! SHE IS SO AWESOME!!!!

My very Brave little Mermaid

It's been a long road.. okay almost 4 weeks... but "K" has finally conquered her fear of the diving board and can go off by herself. She has also tackled diving off the side of the pool. She makes me so proud. Now the hiding of her pork chop behind the couch.. not so proud... the lying about eating all her food.. not so proud. Jumping on the furniture.. not so proud. But improving at swimming and diving and facing her fear... wipes all the other away and I am a glowing, gushing, blubbering mama! 4 weeks ago "K" wouldn't even put her head under the water.. she is now swimming, doing the backstroke, the elementary backstroke and diving!! WAHOO!

OOPS! No water!

This is what we woke up to today. Katherine came running into the room asking if it was raining or had rained. I said no.. not for months now. She said mom there's a main break. We need to call it in. I called Danny at work and he said he had already called and it had been reported. Danny does this for a living, but not in our city in an adjacent city. So I thought how fun.. to document what daddy does for a living. We had no water.. hmmm wonder why? The severe drought and heat have caused the ground to shift and this makes water main breaks very common. This is the 4th one within a block of our house. They actually replaced a portion of pipe today. I feel for my husband and the other men that have to work in this heat.. it's brutal and hard work to dig and fix these leaks.

Time for a Dip in the Pool

I love, love, LOVE my baby girl. She has made me so proud! It's really kind of hard to explain. I feel more emotional that I ever thought I would over some pretty simple stuff. Yesterday was her first swim lesson. They basically tested all the kids to place them in the right class. Well today she was put in the beginner class. She no longer needs floaties... she can go underwater completely and stay down holding her breath. She can doggy paddle & tread water (she taught herself because at the end of class they were still working on the face in the water). I was so happy I could stop telling her just how proud and happy she made me. I even took her to wally world to get a new towel (mermaid of course) as a reward for conquering her fear. In wally world she said I gotta go to the bathroom bad!!! So we hurry into the stall and what do I see when my daughter pulls her suit down??? BUT UNDERWEAR!!! She forgot to take them off when she put her suit on this morning!! When she pulled them up she said mom, this feels weird. Of course I'm sure the panties were wet and cold. AHHH! My daughter, never a dull moment. The underwear thing was just tooo funny... since her daddy made her wear underwear under her suit the first swim party she went to (I was working and couldn't take her). Like Father like Daughter.

Our SeaWorld Adventure

Okay yesterday we took Katherine to SeaWorld with friends. It was blistering hot and my loving hubby who hates the heat agreed. I still don't know why he wouldn't put his swimsuit on and cool off in the water park, but he didn't. Katherine loved the lazy river.. so did I except it was sooooo crowded.

Above Danny went on the first "ride" I have ever seen him go on. He just doesn't do rides. But he took Katherine and her bestest friend on the water floom ride... he actually liked getting squirted by Katherine's friend's mom.. he said if felt good!

Katherine posing for me... we had just finished watching Shamu Rocks Texas

I just love Shamu... those whales are such majestic beautiful creatures.


I thought of my SIL here... I know how much PJ loves Texas.

So proud of being an American... I just loved the flag ceremony... and they didn't

get the flags wet either. Thought of my friend Amy with this one

after all the 4th of July is her favorite holiday.

So there you have it a small glimpse at what we did for a staycation. In fact Danny may not go back until it's cooler weather.. but I am. We didn't get to see hardly anything.. I have more shows to watch.. more animals to see... more everything. I LOVE SEAWORLD!

Picture Time!

I will fully admit I am a picture-a-holic. I LOVE PICTURES... I love seeing my own daughter not to mention family and friends children grow and change over time. So once again we set out for pictures since we had a cousin from out of town visiting. This time it was Pop Pop's idea for pictures again, but like I would object. Every time we do this I ask my husband why... it's so tiring and it hurts to think of what pictures I want and who to send them too. And each time I ask my husband tells me jokingly (I hope). Just don't do it anymore. But we all know I will. It must be like giving birth... a lot of pain involved but with time you forget just how much and will do it again. So here are the results of our 2+ hours getting portraits taken. All children even baby Kendall were great! Such troopers.. the popcorn and soda bribe didn't hurt either.

Kendall... okay come on.. this is too cute... I mean

couldn't you just kiss this face to death?

My baby girl.. not so much baby anymore.. and yes

I have tried to kiss this face to death.

Jessica... oh so grown up looking. She is just so pretty it's not fair.

What a weekend...

We had an awesome time at the coast this weekend. It wasn't nearly long enough though. We couldn't really take time off work so we left Sat. Morning and came back Sunday evening. We managed to pack in a lot of stuff in that time. We had good friends with us and we laughed and relaxed and just enjoyed ourselves. I love the ocean/gulf/bay whatever you want to call it. The sound of the waves crashing and the tide coming in are so calming and hypnotic to me. I so want to go back soon. Hopefully we can get time off from work and stay for a longer time. I'm content to just sit on the beach... well as long as I have my SPF 50+. I was not blessed with the ability to tan... so I need the old sunscreen. But other than sunburn... I love the beach!

We also love the aquarium... I would get a season pass if I lived closer. I love to watch the fish and sea life. I could stay and watch the dolphin show over and over. It's just a very nice place to take kids and have fun while learning. If you ever make it down to Corpus Christi you really should try and make time to go. The USS Lexington is there too, Danny wants to go on that, but I can't stand the no ventilation in those big ships. But you know... I would go if it were winter and cooler weather.

These were taken at N. Padre Island National Seashore.

We love it here. One of these days I'll make it down to help

the sea turtles. You can volunteer to protect

the turtle eggs. Katherine told me on the beach

that she was going to bring her daughters here

when she gets older. AWWW!

Here is one of the 3 dolphins at the Texas State

Aquarium. I love the aquarium... so much fun and well

I just think the dolphins are too darn cute... the turtles

aren't bad either.

Katherine and Daddy walking on the beach.

I have a picture like this when Katherine

was almost 3. She sure has grown up so much.

Katherine getting her first taste of salt water.

That or hating the sand she got in her shoes.

Here Katherine and "A" are getting splashed,

they were chosen from the audience to

do dolphin sign language... they didn't know they

gave the sign for the dolphin to give them a bath.

A Serval cat... and from Africa... he/she jumped so high,

just right from a standing position. This show

was at the Texas State Aquarium.

Here is a picture of a Ferry Boat taken from the ferry boat we were on.

It's kind of fun and well you never know, the dolphins like to swim with

the ferry boats so every time I cross my fingers I might see a wild

dolphin up close.

If you look closely you can see a dolphin swimming in front of the boat.

They like to chase the boats in the channel.

My pooped out little girl.

My Little Graduate

Today Katherine graduated Kindergarten. She was so cute. She worked very hard on her musical performance and did a wonderful job being on stage and in the front. She didn't even hesitate to walk up on stage to get her diploma in front of a cafeteria full of Kindergarten parents and grandparents.

I couldn't help but think that she has grown up so fast and that in the blink of an eye I will be watching her cross the stage to receive her high school diploma. I am so proud of my baby girl she has learned a lot this year and not just academically. She has learned how to be a friend and share the attention. She has had to deal with friends moving and leaving. She is an amazing girl and I am so blessed to have been given the chance to be her momma!

I love my Hubby!

I love my husband... Last week he took time out to mess with my car. There were some minor things that just bugged me and he finally was able to take care of them plus some.

He took my car into the dealer to get the oil changed. Yes he can change the oil, but it's a pain in the butt to do so the dealer can have the pleasure. I asked him to ask about the dashboard not lighting up all the way and the windshield washer spray would shoot over top of the car instead of on the windshield. He came home and told me they would need the car for a couple days to diagnose the dashboard light and he forgot about the windshield washer sprayer.

So what does my husband do? He replaced the battery, (the dealer wanted to charge him $140 for this plus replacing the windshield wiper blades.) Replaced the burned out light bulb in the dash, replaced the whole windshield sprayer thingies (yes that's a technical term), replaced the wiper blades, rain x'd the windshield, sanded and applied some stuff to make my headlights clear and remove the scratches. So now my car is not "bugging" me anymore.

I am just so glad he is so good with car repairs and that he cares enough to fix the stuff for me. Then again he might be fixing the stuff because if he doesn't I will attempt it. I seem to recall calling him when we were dating telling him I needed to drop the engine or remove the radiator to replace a fan... when he got to my house I was elbow deep in grease and not happy. He bailed me out of my mess then and continues to do so now that we are married. I love my guy!!!

The Start of Summer

Katherine has been waiting all week to swim. So I inflated the pool and filled it up. As luck would have it as soon as I did a thunderstorm hit. We have been in a drought lately so rain is a good thing, but not for a six year old waiting in her swim suit. However the weather cleared enough for about an hours worth of swim time. The dogs added a little mud to the water, and Katherine belly flopped so much that mom at a good soaking too... but it satisfied a little girls urge to swim for the moment.

Grandma's Orange Cake

Okay last week on Mother's day we were visiting Danny's mom. We got to talking and she mentioned she loved orange cake, but hadn't had one in a long time because they quit selling the orange cake mix. Soooo I file this in the back of my brain and think good idea for next week, it's her birthday.

So I let my fingers do the typing and googled orange cakes. I found all kinds of orange cakes but the one that looked the best and had the best ratings was a lemon and orange cake. I didn't want lemon and orange just orange. So I think to myself.. what a wonderful life.. ooops no that's a song. I thought to myself, I'll leave out the lemon and add some orange zest and make my own version of orange cake.

I purchase all the stuff, a yellow cake mix, orange juice, oranges, icing/frosting the cake pans (you can tell I bake cakes sooo often). Then Katherine and I set off to make the cake. She was great... the did most of the work with a little and I stress little help from me. We used orange juice instead of water and then I used the oranges for orange zest and minced/chopped mutilated the zest. Everything went according to plan. I let the cakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes, I then flipped them out onto a cooling rack.. they didn't stick. I cooled them.

Then came the icing/frosting time... as soon as I started that darn top layer broke apart and just went crazy... it was like an earthquake had hit. I have no clue why or what happened. I have never had a cake do that to me. I am not a master baker, but I have made my share of cakes when I lived at home with my parents. I managed a pretty good Pooh cake for Katherine's first birthday and I even made a barbie doll cake for Katherine's third birthday... so why now? Is it the lack of altitude???? The high humidity???? The cosmos playing a cruel joke on me??? Bad Karma???? hmmmm??? I just don't get it. However it did taste great. My mother in law said it happened to her when that cake wasn't cooled first... but my cake was cool, just maybe not cool enough? Oh well... Katherine and I had fun and the thought was there. Tomorrow is my mother in laws birthday, we already gave her the cake, but we'll go down tomorrow to give her her present and say happy birthday on her actual birthday!