Day Trip to The Woodlands

Matt is taking vacation time this week since he has some and he never takes any.  But we’re not really going anywhere.  Today we drove over to The Woodlands just for fun.

I don’t know what this area is called, but it’s by the mall, and it’s a fun little place to walk around.

I started doing something new today – shooting on manual mode on my camera!!

It takes me longer to get everything set how I want it, but I am enjoying seeing how everything works together for a good decent shot.

Joanna is so good to continually pose for me without too much complaint.

When she grumbled I told her she could make a funny face for me.

Natalie needed to go to the restroom so James and Joanna stayed with Matt while I took Natalie into Barnes and Noble.  {Man it was hard to just walk in and walk out of that store!}  Matt found a shady spot for them to wait.

Isn’t she a beauty?!

We got a later start that we’d really planned on, so it was time for lunch pretty much when we got to The Woodlands.

We went to Sweet Tomatoes, because that’s our current favorite restaurant.  :)

I had to pull out my camera when James was eating his ice cream cone. 

{For the record, I had intended to get him vanilla, but I messed up.}

He didn’t mind.

I should go spray his clothes right now.

One reason I wanted to got to The Woodlands is that they recently got a Trader Joe’s!

I’d never been in one, but I like it!  It’s a bit far for weekly grocery shopping though.  :)

As I assumed he would, James crashed on the way home.  He sure is a cutie pie!

We hit Academy on the way home to continue the backpack search for my kindergartener!  We found one at Walmart the other day, but it just wasn’t quite right.  So we’re going to take it back.  Academy had a zillion so Joanna and I were able to agree on a good one.  It’s purple.  And it doesn’t look tooooo super huge on little Joanna.

Anyway… today was a good start to our vacation!  I’m planning to blog everyday this week (warning!!), especially since I’m playing with my camera so much.

Friend somebody you give up last cookie for

That is according to Cookie Monster.  :)  It goes for brothers and sisters too.

After dinner the girls each got half a big cookie, and I told them to eat it in the kitchen unless they wanted to share.  (James is kind of still at the age where if he doesn’t see the cookie, he doesn’t know he’s missing out.)

So what does Natalie do?

She shared her cookie with her brother, just because she’s so sweet!

James sure is a lucky boy!

Yesterday Natalie wanted more yogurt and I told her she first needed to eat everything on her plate.  So…

She hid her quesadilla under her plate.

Her see-through plate.

She cracks me up.

She drew this picture for Joanna.  On the left is Joanna.  On the right is Joanna’s octopus teacher.

I love Natalie’s artwork!

This evening Mamma and Pop stopped by to see their grandbabies before they leave for a little while on a road trip.

It was pretty cloudy outside, so the pics aren’t great, but I love them anyway.

Matt stumbled on a youtube video the other day called “The Duck Song,” and he was showing it to his folks.

The kids love it; it’s hilarious. 

Here it is.

EIGHTEEN children

Kim and Jaci were both (but separately) in town today, so we had a reunion play day of sorts over at Lisa’s. 

Umm… you’ve met Joanna, the model, right?

My baby girl loves to swing!

These three are the original play group members, from way back in ‘06.

Sweet Emma

James has been doing this a lot lately.  I’m not loving the phase.

This is only a taste of what Lisa’s kitchen looked like at lunch time with seven mommas and eighteen children.  My oh my.

I was playing with my camera, adjusting settings and Natalie was kind enough to turn and smile for me every few seconds.  :)

We decided to do something crazy and attempt to take a picture of all the kiddos.

This is Kim’s shot that I stole from Facebook.  Not all of them are happy, but they’re all there!

These are our kindergarteners!

And Kim’s shot:

It was a very fun morning – thanks so much Lisa for hosting all of the craziness!!

Cleaning up is hard to do.

James sometimes favors his sister’s pink boots over his brown, manly ones.  And sometimes he rocks a headband too.

I’ve had this Sesame Street book for forever, and James LOVES it!  I think Cookie Monster has outstripped Elmo as his favorite Muppet, but for sure they’re very close.

During rest time the girls play in either James’ room or their own room, sometimes both.  On days when the rooms are messy going in, I don’t worry too much about them being super cleaned-up after nap time.  BUT on days when we I have worked hard on giving them a clutter-free space to play, I insist (most of the time) on the room returning to that state after their quiet time.  The girls don’t love this rule.  Sometimes I’m lazy and don’t feel like enforcing the clean-up.  Other times it’s just very stressful to stay on top of it.  And everybody’s whiney.  Yesterday I decided to “lock” them in the room so they couldn’t get out until it was cleaned to my satisfaction.

 

I can see them so I know if they’re actually working on it, and I can call out some encouragement.  :)  Now, they are big and the gate is small, so it’s not like I’m really locking them in, just visually reminding them that they have a job to do.  And it keeps me from being too lazy and just letting the mess slide when they’re whiney and I’m tired.

It has worked well the last couple of days.

Last night the signal from NBC worked great for the first two hours of the primetime broadcast of the Olympics.  Fine through sports I’m not particularly interested in and preliminary races I don’t enjoy watching.  And then when it was time for the Olympics and some swimming finals, the signal got crappy.  Of course.  I know we need an new antenna, we just haven’t done it yet.  Despite it’s age and the fact that one of the ears is a little broken, it’s a good little piece of equipment.  And anyway, we didn’t have a new one at 9:30 last night.  So we moved it around until it was in the only spot for a good signal, and then we built it a tower.

All it took was two TV trays, a bin, a basket, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

We plan to go shopping this weekend.

Yesterday I stripped our cloth diapers (to remove any residue from detergent or creams), so this morning they were all clean at the same time.  I couldn’t help myself – I had to take some pictures of the stash.  :)

I have 17 one size Bum Genius snap pocket diapers, 2 Fuzzibunz one size pockets, and 3 Fuzzibunz medium pockets.  These are what fit James right now anyway.  It’s the bulk of what we have though.

We really have plenty for cloth diapering just one child – it’s wonderful!  If we have another baby a few of these will need to be replaced.  Some are showing the wear we’ve inflicted on them.  The BGs are my favorites, and since we have enough, I’m sticking the FBs in the closet for back-up.  They make good back-up; they don’t fit James quite as well as the BGs due to his slightly scrawny physique.  :)

Well, that post was all over the place – time to go fix dinner!

Jamesie Wednesday Photo Shoot

I was itching to take and edit some pictures this evening, and James said he’d help.  :)  As you can see, he was already in his jammies.

Those eyelashes!!

And this one is actually not edited at all.  I’m not sure if that’s because I ran out of energy or because the Olympics is on.  :)

Is he not THE STINKIN’ CUTEST little boy ever?!!