San Antonio trip

 This past Monday, we headed out to San Antonio with the Fox Family for our last little vacation for the summer!  We went to the JW Marriott Resort and Spa and got adjoining rooms with them.
Ryan rode in our van so the girls could have some fun on the way up.

 Of course, we had to stop at Buc-ees! :)

 We finally arrived and while the guys were unloading and parking, I got a quick picture of the kids! They were sooo excited.

We got checked into our hotel, changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool. The hotel has a huge splash pad for little kids, an enormous pool for the family, a lazy river and some huge water slides! We had a great time trying it all!  After a few hours of swimming, we changed clothes and headed outside again for some free smores! 

 Waiting in line for smores

 My girls!

 We got our marshmallows and started roasting! :)

 Yum! (The twins like to eat it all separately)

 Jilly likes it all together!

We stayed out late letting the kids run and play and then we headed to bed. 

The black-out curtains must have really worked, because we all slept until 8:30am. (My kids are early risers, so this was super rare!)

 After breakfast, we headed out again! The kids had so much fun together! We stayed out a few hours in the morning and then had rest time in the hotel. Then we went back out to the water.

 After a full day of swimming we headed out for a late dinner.

 The kids table

 Silly Ryan and Kennedy

 Sweet Jillian enjoying her pizza

 Tony and me at dinner

 Matt and Leigh

The next morning, we woke up at 9:15am! That's a record!!! 

We got dressed and headed downstairs to a yummy breakfast buffet.

 Ready for breakfast

 Breakfast time!!

 Sweet thing...she loved all the yummy breakfast foods

 All the girls loving on Baby Colin!  :)  What a sweet baby!

After breakfast, we changed and got ready for our last day at the pool!!

 A cute picture of the kids, but poor Colin wasn't in the mood.

 Jillian stayed in this green floaty the whole time. She just floats around and has fun! (Even though the pool was shallow enough for her to stand)

 Having fun in the water

 Kaitlyn

Tony and me

Around 3:00 (Wed), we loaded up and headed back home. The kids were sad to leave.
We stopped and got a late lunch and the kids watched movies and played games on their leap pads most of the way home. They did a great job!

 

 

 Yum! Lunch and movies in the car! :)

The girls always get sad after a fun trip, but a good night's rest helped them. What a fun trip! We want to do it again next year! :)

Loving summer

 Summer is just plain fun! I love the free schedule and just being able to "get up and go".  It's coming to a close fast, but we are packing in the fun.

 This past Tues, we traveled to The Woodlands to visit my college friend, Laura. We were roommates at HBU and I haven't seen her in about 5 years. We let the kids play together while we talked and caught up.

 She was sweet and helped all the kids make their own pizzas!

 After lots of toy play time, they found her craft stash and got very creative! 

 She has a 9 year old little girl, Lindsay, and a 6 year old boy, Alton.

We took a quick picture before we had to leave. 

We had such a nice time getting caught up! Promise not to let so much time go by next time!

The next day, my wonderful neighbor helped me make a wreath for my classroom door at school.  :)
I say "helped".. but it's more like "made it for me while I sat with her and handed her things!"

 Hanging on my door at school.

My classroom is a zebra theme with blue and green accents! :) 

The next day, we had a photo shoot with our good friend Becca, who is an excellent photographer!!

 Here's a sneak peek of our shoot. Can't wait to see all the pictures!

 Thanks Becca!! You rock!

On Friday, one of my co-workers from school invited Tony and me out to the shooting range. That was quite an experience for someone who has never held a gun before! I got the hang of it eventually and even got a bulls eye! :)  Tony did awesome (better than me!) and enjoyed it too.

Later that day, I took Jillian out to run a few errands, but ended up at Town Center and she sweet talked me into some fun! :)

 She liked the fountain and wanted a picture

If you know Jillian, ice cream is her favorite thing in the whole world! 

 So we had to get some. :)  

Vanilla with gummy bears and sprinkles, of course.

On Sunday before church, Kennedy lost one of her top teeth. I now have a snaggle-toothed little girl...but hey...it will help the teachers at school tell the twins apart!  I love it when they start loosing those top teeth...so cute. 

We will be going on a trip to San Antonio soon! Loving summer!!

Girls's night and first sleep over!

 The Fox family was out of town for the twin's birthday party, so when they came back in town we decided to let the girls have a girl's night and sleepover with Ryan. The girls were SUPER excited!!

 Leigh brought Ryan over to our house about 6:15pm and we loaded up the van! Every time we took a picture we said "Girl's night!" instead of "cheese!"

We headed to La Centerra and decided to eat at Grimaldi's! Pizza!!

 We opted to eat outside (even though it was quite hot) because it was an hour and a half wait for an inside table and we were way to hungry to wait that long!  Luckily, we were near a pond with sand, rocks, fish and ducks! The girls had a lot of fun while we waited for the pizza to arrive.

 Kennedy and Ryan posing with their food and drink! :)

 I think this is my favorite picture I have ever taken of these girls! 

 Such good friends.

After dinner we decided to walk to get dessert. Of course, we had to stop and get more pictures. "Girl's night!!!"

As we walked, the girls sang (quite loudly) little silly chants that they must have learned at school.

 We finally made it to the Nestle Toll house cafe! 

What a yummy place. Everyone got ice cream except Kaitlyn...she got a chocolate chip cookie. 

 There were fun areas for kids to run and play so this picture was taken after many cartwheels and handstands were completed! :) It was about 8:30 when we decided to head back home. We knew we were in for a late night with some hyper little girls!!  They were having sooo much fun!!

We drove back home and everyone took a quick bath and then settled in to watch Tinkerbell.
 We started the movie at 9:30pm.  My girls thought they were sooo cool to stay up so late! (They usually go to bed at 7pm)

 Kennedy, Ryan and Kaitlyn watching Tinkerbell.

 (Jillian was sitting in the recliner and I thought for sure she would fall asleep.....but she didn't!!)

I think it was about 11:15 when the girls finally all fell asleep. They had a good night (aside from the bad dream Jillian had at 3:30am)

Everyone was up at 6:30 am ready to go!!

 Breakfast!!!

The girls played and played before Ryan had to go home around 11am.  They played "Just Dance Disney" Wii game for a long time. It was adorable seeing the girls dancing!! 

The girls were so sad to see her go and are begging for another sleep over. I'm so glad they had such a fun time!!

7th birthday party

We started out the twins' birthday with BIG cinnamon rolls and we sang Happy Birthday to them!  They were super excited that not only was it their birthday, but their party was going to be later that day!!

Kaitlyn, Kennedy

Daddy lighting the candles...did you notice that Jillian has candles in hers too? Can't be left out!

Sweet expressions while we are singing

Blowing them out!

After breakfast, we let them open the gifts from us.

They were SUPER excited about getting a watch! Kennedy, especially, has been asking for one for a long time.

Jillian gave them a Wii "Just Dance Disney" game. (I like the types of presents that all three girls can be included in!)

And our big surprise was a new swing set! The girls LOVE to swing and they were quickly outgrowing the ones that Tony had built. We stayed up until midnight putting it together. It's HUGE and even Tony and I can swing on it! Hopefully it will last forever!

They were so surprised and excited!

Trying it out! (Again, love the gifts where all 3 girls can play!) 

We left Jillian's swing up (behind the big one) but we can also change out the trapeze and put in another swing as she gets older.

After church, the twins' chose Olive Garden for lunch. They have recently gotten into trying new restaurants and they wanted to try "Italian food". I thought this was a great choice! (Kaitlyn said she did NOT want to eat at a Mexican food restaurant because she didn't want to wear the "big hat" while they sang to her)

Happy little girls (wearing their new watches)

My three little loves

The girls got cheese pizza and LOVED the yummy bread sticks! (I think that was their favorite part)

Each of the kids got a free dessert too!! Jillian got ice cream (of course)

Kaitlyn got chocolate cake which she graciously shared with Tony and me!

Kennedy got ice cream too!

After eating, we went back home to prepare for the party. This year, the girls wanted a "My Little Pony" party.  At first they wanted a "Barbie" party, then it changed to "Fancy Nancy" and it ended up with "My Little Pony". I was a little surprised that they wanted that, but they have really been into the show lately. I do like that they still have that innocence about them to choose this theme.

The cupcakes!

I got a few pics of my 7 year olds in their "Sassy at 7" outfits (Kennedy)

Kennedy

Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn

My twinkies

Best friends

The party started and the first thing we did was make flip flops using strips of fabric! This was easy for some of the girls, and harder for others.

Tying the fabric on the flip flops

Finished product!

Next up: Pin the "Cutie Mark" on Pinky Pie (A variation of Pin and Tail on the Donkey)

Kennedy

Putting on Andrea's blindfold

The whole group! (Kenzie, Liberty, Cooper, Kennedy, Micah, Andrea, Kaitlyn and Jillian)


Next, we played a balloon game outside. Tony and I filled each of these balloons with candy (NOT an easy task, let me tell you!) and then each child was handed a dart. They had to throw it and try to pop one of the balloons. When it popped, then that child (only) got to get all the candy from that balloon. The kids LOVED this (but it did make me a little bit nervous with the kids throwing darts! LOL)

Kennedy deciding which color to go for!

Jillian

Each child got 2 turns and lots of candy! :)

We went back inside and opened presents next.

Kennedy

Kaitlyn

Leap pad gift cards from Grandma!

Aunt Jenn and Uncle Chris gave them a closet for their  American Girl dolls filled with clothes! They really love this!!

Jillian got a trunk with clothes for her Bitty Baby....they had saved this gift for her to open on the twins birthday because they knew it would be hard for her to watch them get presents. How quickly little ones forget that just a month ago SHE got all the gifts!

After presents, we had dessert and sang Happy Birthday (Kennedy)

Kaitlyn

Enjoying cupcakes and ice cream

Kennedy was super excited her little friend from school, Micah, could come!

And Kaitlyn's little friend from school, Andrea, got to come too! These two girls play SOO well together..it's so sweet to watch them.

Cooper, Jillian and Liberty

Kenzie and Kennedy (Sweet pic)

There were a lot of friends that we invited that were out of town. :(
I guess that's what happens with summer birthdays.

After all the guests left, Grandma and Pa had one last gift for the girls...they each got their own jewelry box "like mommy".  You can tell by Kennedy's face, that this was a perfect choice! (They really needed a place to put all their "treasures" and jewelry and this is perfect!) 

I couldn't get this picture quick enough, but here's the kids telling Grandma, 'Thank you!" More like "jump on Grandma and tackle her" Lol.

We had  BIG day and it was a lot of fun (and work), but it was worth it. Can NOT get over the fact that I have SEVEN year olds. That just sounds old! No longer babies. 

Their sweet friend, Ryan Fox, was out of town for their party so Leigh and I are planning on letting Ryan sleep over tomorrow night! We haven't told the girls yet, but I know they will be super excited. They have been wanting to have a "sleep over" for a long time!!