Gymnastics: The Real Deal

Up to this point, our "gymnastics" experience has been open gym...you know, running amok all over the gym at our own discretion.  Last week, that all changed.  We started REAL gymnastics; having an actual coach and having to follow directions.
All things considered, I think we are doing well.  This is the first organized activity they have done, and they are loving it so far.  We are having a little issue with following the coach, but I blame their infantile attention spans.  They are good for the first 45 minutes of the 50 minute class, and then the last five minutes are like fun time at the insane asylum.  We have gone twice, and mommy is really hoping for them to settle into the routine at class number three.  I don't want to harp on them after class, because I want them to love it.  Then again, they have to listen and not run off whenever they get a whim either.  I'm trying to balance out the direction with the "good jobs!" and "wasn't that fun??"

Labor Day weekend

This holiday, we were some busy fools.  We started off the weekend with open house for the twins' school (more info on that later...you're going to want to stay tuned....this makes for a good story).  Friday night we tried to leave town to visit the Maziurs in Houston...."tried" being the operative word, considering it took us two hours to drop our dogs off at my mom and dad's and get out of town to Seguin.  TWO HOURS.  Really.  Where all these people are coming from eludes me.  Despite the fact that we didn't roll into Houston until 9:30 at night, our babies were surprisingly happy.  Everyone went to bed easily, even though they were in "new" beds for the night.
Saturday morning was spent at the Maziur's neighborhood pool, which gives a waterpark a run for it's money.  It was amazing!  Even more amazing was the fact that we basically had the whole pool to ourselves.  Cale loved the little splash park, and Sissy went down a GIANT twisty slide about forty times.  She has NO fear at all....a fact that has me quaking in my boots as far as high school is concerned.  Cale was helped down the slide (forced) by Shawn....I knew exactly what had happened when I heard the wailing get louder as he came down the slide to where I was waiting in the pool at the bottom.  The first thing he said?  "I am never EVER doing that again."  Later, Pamela asked if he wanted to slide again and he answered with an emphatic "No, thank you."  (At least he was polite)
After lunch at the pool, we had naptime/football watching time and then dinner at home.  We did lots of talking and laughing, and staying up too late.  Our kiddos are officially in love with each other, and got along SO well.  Cale kept referring to Matt as "my brother", which made me feel more than a little sad about shutting down my uterus for business.  Lots of love to the Maziurs for a FUN weekend!!!   To prove how much fun we had, here are some pictures I pilfered off their blog.

Sunday, we actually had enough energy in us to hit the Roberts' pool party in the afternoon.....the babies swam and swam, and we LOVED the company...some of my favorites!  It was actually relaxing, despite the fact that there might have been 45 kids there.  The Roberts set up a giant inflatable thing about thirty feet tall....the kids all had a blast, and even better, it was set up away from the "mommies-having-their-cocktails-area".  I proved once again what a lightweight I was, and how bad my tolerance level is since having babies.  Two drinks in I was laughing at everything and only marginally supervising my children.

The baby is already a little fish in training, and would crawl straight into the drink if you let her.  She is either fearless, clueless, or (most likely) a little bit of both.
The Roberts are always good for a great time.....we were pruney and tired when we left....and would have stayed later if it weren't for a tired baby.  Such a fun weekend!!

Lasagna night

This post is for no other reason than to post adorable pictures of my children with spaghetti sauce on their faces.

Yeah for family dinner, and double yeah for a meal that all five people in our house love to eat!

Friday night football...

Daddy can't hardly control himself....he finally has babies old enough to take to football games and explain the game to.  Well, almost.  They like to "play football" at home, but this mostly entails getting knocked over by daddy and laughing hysterically.  Bubby talks about his favorite players (Tim "Tebone" and "Lewliss" aka: Ray Lewis) but that's about as far as it goes.  Regardless, we took them to the Alamo Heights football game on Friday, hoping for the best.  (No crying)
We sat on the first row, and they got to hang over the railing and see everything.  Hayden kept asking where the "goat" went.  (The mascot is a mule.  Mule, goat....whatever.)  She wanted to shake the goat's hand and dance with her, which is really surprising since the Chick-fil-a cow sends her into spasms of fear.
Of all our kiddos, the baby was the most interested.  She clapped after the cheerleaders finished every cheer, and watched the game intently.  She danced during the national anthem, much to the delight of the people sitting around us.  The big babies lasted until halftime, and then they started whining and trying to lay on the bench next to random people.  It was time to go!  Hopefully we can stretch out our football endurance a little longer next time....

Momma needs a stiff drink....

It's a good thing that I love this kid and that he came from my own body.  If I didn't adore him like I do, I think I might have sold him on the black market today.  We have had a banner day, even by his standards.  We started the day with some covert pants pooping, which I thought we were WAY past at this point.....after we cleaned up THAT whole situation, I discovered about four hundred thousand tiny pieces of paper on the playroom floor.  I put my detective skills to work, and realized they were a: sticky and b: covered with tiny pink writing, that when pieced together read "Hubba Bubba".  I'm not even sure where he found it, since no one in this house chews hubba bubba, but it was clear from the volume of tiny paper slivers that it started out as a whole pack of gum.  Clearly, my detective skills aren't as good as his hiding skills, because it took me ten hours to actually figured out what happened to the gum.  (Each piece, carefully unwrapped and stuffed down into the post of his batting tee....and I still can't figure out how to get them out)  After cleaning up all the tiny pieces of paper (which were sticking to the carpet, necessitating them being picked up BY HAND instead of by vacuum)  the boy decided he was thirsty.  He got out a brand new gallon jug of apple juice, dropped it on the floor and watched as it cracked in half and became a veritable flood of refreshment that tidal waved under my refrigerator and washing machine.  Awesome.  Keep in mind this was all before ten a.m.
"Naptime" (in quotations since no actual sleeping occurs) consisted of taking every item of clothing out of his drawers and off the hangers in his closet.  When I asked why, he told me he "needed to make a leaf pile" and told me not to "be a bad guy".  After nap he liberated about six hundred peach puffs from their container, and their new home is EVERY crevice of the playroom.  Under the couch, in every toy basket, all over the carpet, in every piece of kitchen equipment belonging to the play kitchen.  After the kind of day we've had, the only thing that really surprises me is the amount of puffs that came out of that container.  Maybe those things are a good deal after all.  I used to think 3. 50 was a little overpriced, but seeing them all over the room made me double think that assumption.
Added to all that "fun", he also left the hot water running in the bathroom for who knows how long, got some of the puffs stuck to the bath mat (because we all know they start to dissolve when they get wet), and took all the bath toys out of the basket and loaded them in the bathroom sink.
We haven't even had dinner yet, so I am cautious about referring to this day in the past tense.....there are a few more hours left for him to wreak havoc.

In case you are wondering, this is NOT one of those days when I think I might want a fourth baby.

My babies....

Take us out to the ballgame....

The second week in July we headed to Houston to see our cousin Nick play some baseball.  This is his first year playing MLB at the highest level for the whole season, and we were glad they (The Cardinals) were coming to play the Astros in Houston.  The twins were SO excited...they see Nick on TV and know he plays baseball, but it has been awhile since we took them to a live game.  They LOVED it.  They were excited to see Nick, but let's be honest: they might have been a little more excited with the endless snack possibilities offered at the ball park.  By the time we'd left our family had consumed one order of giant ballpark nachos, one huge bucket of popcorn, and two GIGANTIC bowls of Bluebell ice cream served in the 12.95 commemorative plastic batting helmets.  (Okay, I'm guessing on the price, but I'm sure I'm not too far off)  I was excited to get to visit with Casey (my ACTUAL cousin...Nick is just by marriage)  We talked the whole game, and only stopped to pay attention when Nick was batting.  I think the Cardinals won (shows how little I was paying attention) but that is probably just a good guess since the Astros aren't that good.  Nick and Casey live in Magnolia during the off season, and since the allstar break started the day after we got there, they were going to be home for a few days.  After the game, we headed back to Casey's mom's for some relaxation. (It looked a little like this....)

The babies (mine, plus Kate, Casey's little girl) got to run around and play while we visited.  We left the next day so Shawn could get back to work, but it was a fun little two day trip! Here are some more highlights:

Running ahead of us on the way into the park....so excited!

As usual, climbing something and making me wonder where she went....

Longsuffering husband at the game.  In his defense, I think this is right after we polished off the nachos.  That would explain the grumpy look.

Coveting the guy's popcorn in front of her.

Petitioning Popee for ice cream.  Seriously, the kid is smart.  He knows which tree to bark up, and when.  Popee is always good for some ice cream.

It's Nick's turn!  We are all paying attention here!

This is totally unrelated to my family or baseball, but we saw this guy at the gas station on the way from the baseball game to Magnolia.  Hello?  Seriously?  You can see two rolls underneath his black, size 4T crop top.  When editing pictures, I was laughing at the image presets available....Should I edit this photo with "Soft and Dreamy"?  No, not quite appropos.  "Surreal Moment" is more like it.  In the end, I didn't edit it at all.  Nothing can be done to improve this image.  The blur in the foreground is my dash board....I was hunched down like a papparazi trying to get this shot without this dude seeing me.  Because clearly he's the kind of guy who might whup some ass if he saw you photographing him.  Then again, probably not. He didn't bother to pull up his own pants.  

Cale at cousin Brenda's.  So, SO excited about the plastic Barbie jewelry set he found inside.

Playing with cousin Kate.  Notice the blur in the photo....no sitting still for these three.  The situation looked a little like this:

"Hey guys?  Look over here!  Right here!  At my camera!  Now smile....no!  Don't go up the stairs!  Come back!  Sit down!  I mean it, cousin Brenda doesn't want you going upstairs...come back!"

Sweet baby Kate!  Love her!!  We were so excited to get to spend some time with her!!