This is the crossword spelling list J made with Bananagrams:
This is the sunny soccer game we had on Saturday:
That we went to Taco Mama for lunch after:
And then made margarita pizza from scratch for dinner:
And this is how we started our fall garden
And gave our redwood a new home:
I would love to say everyone on our house is on the mend, but I’m really afraid of jinxing it at this point, so I’m just going to say nothing and continue on with some happenings around here.
First up, B and I are officially the same age again:
We didn’t celebrate like we had intended since A caught J’s croup by the end of the week, but the four of us had fun nonetheless:
I made Halloween candied popcorn, mainly so we could drown our Auburn loss sorrows in it…ha!
I can’t say enough how much I love my work. In part because my hybrid courses have given me the flexibility to join the boys on field trips that aren’t on Fridays. I went with J’s class to learn about animals and plants:
And we saw a goat that was the GOAT:
I went to pick up some items from Target and came upon this:
The only time a Target worker hasn’t asked if I need help with anything.
And the boys got to have donuts with Granna that they were very excited about:
The boys love that Granna teaches at their school and so do we!
Lastly, our final countdown to Disney is on now that our magic bands arrived:
I’m so ready for this trip!! We are praying for everyone to be healthy and for good weather!!
Okay the sickness in our house needs to go away. Stat! I’m currently running around like:
As soon as one person gets well, somebody else gets sick. So I’ve been cleaning everything and then cleaning it all again, and then saying a whole bunch of prayers that this week we are officially on the mend.
In between all that, J had a soccer scrimmage:
We harvested hydroponic basil that is literally the size of your fist:
This is my new favorite hat:
The hat is Codeword hats and the donate a percentage of their profits to children’s hospitals in that area code.
And despite the fact that it’s still 90 plus degrees I’ve been doing some fall online shopping and picked up this top from Nordstrom:
And finally the boys are obsessed with battlebots, so I already started Christmas shopping:
It’s never too early, right? Ha!
Several years ago B and I went to a food truck event and split a box of these amazing fresh, warm, and small donuts at this airstream trailer shop called Bigfoot’s Little Donuts. Then I took the boys for a back to school treat. Now that airstream shop has a store front and my sister and I took all the kiddos for an end of summer breakfast. It is just as amazing as I remembered it, and you’ve got to try it, friends! Here is a look at their menu:
They also have different specials if you follow them on Instagram! We picked the Cookies and Cream and the Cinnamon Sugar:
Pretty eye catching right? And they melt in your mouth, they are made to order, and oh so delicious! The kids ate two boxes and we ordered a third to take to my parents:
And we took a picture with the store mascot (of course):
We had a great breakfast! Their staff is awesome, and they split milks and waters for the kids. It was a great end to our summer vacation! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself without having five kids at my house two days a week, ha! Besides work and all. I’m so glad these five have each other!
For the teachers….
For the kiddos….
We are ready for fourth grade….
And first….
I cannot believe summer vacation is over! The boys were ready to go back to school, I was ready for them to go back to school, but I still had a moment of “woah, did it really end that fast?” We did a lot this summer! We went to the beach and Texas! We had loads of cousin time, ran laps through our “family farm”, spent hours at the pool, went fishing, and saw The Incredibles, Han Solo, Hotel Transylvania 3, and Christopher Robin. We played Fortnite, MARIO, and Kirby All Stars. We read a whole bunch of books (J read thirty Magic Treehouse books!), and we made it to story time at least three times. There was VBS, FCA, baseball camp, and swim lessons. And best of all we slept in (some, my kids get up early), took time to be lazy, and spent some afternoons just doing nothing.
To me that is the best part of summer.
Bubbles and water balloons…
Storytime at the library…
Lunch at Granna and Papa’s…
Building worlds on Minecraft…
Catching fish….
Going to Cub Scout events…
And celebrations at church…
And ice cream for dinner!
As I referenced in my Waco post, our Texas road trip idea began because my youngest cousin (I have ten first cousins), was getting married. After we went to Waco we headed to Dripping Springs for the wedding, which is about twenty minutes outside of Austin. If you’re ever in Dripping Springs for a wedding, the Holiday Inn Express has a good pool…
And some nice nearby playgrounds…
But we were really there to hang with my family, and see my Grandparents:
And climb a few trees…
And go to a wedding…
We’ve been to quite a few weddings with these two. My tips are lollipops and iPad time bribes. Obviously they behaved:
J accidentally broke the corner of his iPad, and we are trying to keep it from dying completely, so I replaced it with this cover and have been really pleased (especially because it fully covers the broken corner). We were so excited to celebrate with our family…
And then we were headed out again with Austin in our sights! Stay tuned!
On the Fourth of July, while everyone else (literally everyone…no one was on the road!) was celebrating the holiday, we headed out on a week long road trip to and through Texas. My youngest cousin was getting married, so my sister and I planned a family trip that sandwiched the trip to Austin for the wedding in between Waco and San Antonio. We definitely didn’t have time to do and see everything, but we had a blast, and we fit in quite a bit for eight days with driving time, five kids, and a wedding included. I’m starting in Waco as it was stop number one. We had one full day to spend in Waco before we had to head down to Austin, so here is what we did!
We arrived in Waco at lunch time and made a beeline for In and Out Burger, where J declared he no longer eats burgers (tip to note: they have a secret menu with grilled cheese that you can order). This is the kid who ate burgers up until Thursday, July 5th…
Then we headed over to the Dr. Pepper museum (a great reprieve from the July heat), and spent a good hour and a half (you can definitely tour it in less) letting the kids wander, and enjoying Dr. Pepper floats.
The sweet kiddo next to J is one of my cousin’s daughters. Blonde hair does actually run in our family!
A now has a thorough knowledge of how Dr. Pepper is made, ask him anything! After the Dr. Pepper museum we headed over to Magnolia Market and Silos (as you might expect).
However, as you might not know my maternal great grandparents are from Waco. And Silos Baking Company? My Great Grandfather helped build the original building.
We used to go to Waco almost every summer, but I haven’t been in almost twenty years. It has changed quite a bit since our last visit! At Magnolia Market and Silos we wandered the grounds, the kids got slushies, and we bought a few souvenirs.
Then we headed to see the Baylor Bear. We wandered just a bit of Baylor’s campus (one of my cousins played baseball there), and J declared he definitely wants to play baseball there when he grows up.
He picked out a Baylor Bear souvenir and we headed down the street for dinner. We ate at Coach’s Smoke and the food was great and the staff was super helpful and kind.
Our landing spot for the night was the Homewood Suites. It’s not as close to downtown as other hotels, but it’s perfect if you’re headed out the next day to Austin, which we were!
Other notable spots to check out if you have more than a day are:
The Wooly Mammoth Park
The Texas Rangers Museum
Other fun food places to try would be:
Torchy’s Tacos
Twisted Root Beer Company
Magnolia Table
Next we headed to outside Austin for a wedding! Stay tuned…
This is my favorite pair of shorts this summer…
That is J working on an art project…
These are new Tsum Tsums I’ve hidden for the boys for Christmas and other surprises….
This is what summer is all about…
And finally this is us checking off one thing on our summer to do list:
Our driveway has never been cleaner!
It’s not often that the two youngest of all my sister and I’s kiddos get one on one time. With the older three boys all having camps this week, the youngest two have gotten to go swim, play in the sprinklers, eat lots of popsicles, and check out the latest Mickey and the Roadster Racers episodes. I think J has enjoyed bring the oldest for once, especially because my niece pretty much wants to do whatever he’s doing. Cousins are the best!
