Swim lessons at Lifetime Fitness

We finally bit the bullet and joined Lifetime Fitness back in the summer. While I am fairly certain that the amount we pay is not even close to justified by the number of times we go, when we do go it's fun, and there are a lot of amenities there. One of these amenities is the indoor pool, which we took advantage of for some swim lessons. The kids seemed to enjoy it once they got comfortable with Mr. Brady and I think they showed some improvement over the month.

I want to document a conversation about Mr. Brady from one day when we were on our way to the gym:

Price: I wonder where Mr. Brady lives

Charis: I think he lives at Lifetime

me: I am pretty sure he does not live at Lifetime; he just works there

Price: Maybe he lives in the sky

me: hmmm...maybe so buddy.

Another conversation on the way to the gym:

Price: Mommy, I don't want to go to Lifetime today.

me: why, buddy? It will be fun!

Price: no, Mommy, I don't want to go. I just want you to get fat. I really, really just want you to get fat.

Note to self here, do not use the word "fat" in front of three year olds. I am better now about saying that I go to the gym to be healthy or to get stronger. Three year olds will use the word "fat" when you do not want them to though.

Halloween 2010

We had a very eventful Halloween this year. The kids got to wear their costumes 4 different times! We had Spiderman and "Spidergirl". Spidergirl was made up because of the costume Ifound for her at my MCMOM's garage sale. She loved the outfit and since Price was Spiderman, the idea was born.

The first Halloween celebration was my work chili cook-off. This is always a fun event. I mean what could be more fun that chili and halloween costumes? The kids "won" their age bracket coloring contest and got to take home the Shrek memory game. This was a hit! I had two tired babies after that outing!

Next the kids got to wear their costumes to school. This was extra cute because Jax was Spiderman too! So I got to take 2 Spidermen and 1 Spidergirl to school that day. All three kids thought this was very neat too!

The next event was the Church celebration. This was a ton of fun. Complete with pony rides, small petting zoo, puppet show, bounce houses and good friends!! When this was over we headed home for their FIRST ever TRICK-OR-TREATING! We got a relatively late start and only went to about 3 houses, but this was very exciting for them. It was sooo cute! They did really good and spoke up and said "Trick-or-Treat" and more importantly, "Thank you!" They were beyond excited to get a bag-full of candy!

The final fun event was a carnival at the park with the Athans. We had been scheduled to go to a grown-up Halloween party that night, wherein we'd have been a part of a group of 6 dressed as the Village People. Unfortunately I came down with a flu-like illness. It was short-lived but no fun! So Chris took the kids to the carnival, and that was much more fun for them anyway!

Snow White! (mid-October, 2010)

The kids are very into all of the Disney books. Their books are actually my books from when I was little. I took better care of my books than they do... Anyway, so needless to say we were very excited when Snow White came to the Artisan. We made a day of it going to the show with Miss Nicole and Adley then to Central Market for a fun lunch! After the show the kids are allowed to go down on stage anddance with the characters. It is an all-kid cast and is very neat for the kids! I definitely recommend going to see shows at the Artisan!

Paraquito Azul

Dear Paraquito Azul, welcome back to our home. Each child in the kids' school gets a turn with Paraquito Azul. Our turn came early this year (early November I think). When in possession of PA, you are to well-document every outing and then do a write-up in this little journal they send home. So here's our pictorial documentation. A day at Nonnie and John's, time at Lifetime Fitness and at gymnastics. And then the trip to the zoo. Apparently the real live version of the blue Macaw became quite agitated seeing PA. And we also found a bin of PA's for sale at the zoo! I tried to do a bang-up job of documentation on this deal. And sure enough back PA came a couple weeks ago (January)...this time I don't even think I got a pic.

These boots are made for walkin'

So I invested in a pretty nice pair of boots for Price. I'd had my eye on these boots for well over a month and decided to bite the bullet. They are just the cutest things ever, right?

Since I am actually doing this post some 5 months later, I now know that it may not be prudent to spend too much on kids' shoes. He virtually refuses to wear them unless everyone else in the family is wearing boots also. I mean I can coerce him occasionally, but it's a bit of a struggle. They're still super-cute though :-)

A food post

In early Fall, my blender broke. My sweet children had helped me make homemade salsa - they are regular helpers in the kitchen. Little Price wanted to eat some and pulled that blender, full of salsa, right onto the floor. It was not my best parenting moment. I was frustrated both by the broken blender as well as the quart of salsa all over the floor and was concerned about glass in the feet. So I totally yelled at them to get out of the immediate area and it hurt their feelings. And that makes me sad. Above is a pic of them helping before "the incident".

So without a blender, I had to resort to homemade pico de gallo. This was actually quite fun and super tasty!! I read somewhere that pico should be equal parts red, white and green, just like the Mexican flag. So naturally Chris appreciates this as a fine representation of his heritage (ha) and it was a hit! I found it to be a bit more work than salsa in the blender though...

My 35th birthday (August 2010)

Well I seem to have fallen way behind here as my goal is one post per month. Here it is January and I am going to give it a shot to get caught up on this past Fall. My birthday was kind of a bummer. My sweet husband had made big plans for us. He had made arrangements for a weekend getaway to Austin - hotel and spa packages booked, childcare lined up, the whole deal. But sadly, we got a call the Thursday before we were to leave that Chris' Uncle Ricky had passed away. Ricky was very young (40's) and this was a total shock. Naturally Chris went to Illinois to spend time with his family. Sometimes we just never can anticipate the twists life will take. Here's a fairly recent pic of Uncle Rick with his 21 year old daughter, Carly. And on the right is a pic of Chris with Rick's son, Ryan and a cousin, Little Henry.

I ended up having a nice dinner at my mom's with my sweet kiddos. Then my sweet friend Amy just did not think I could stay home alone and do nothing on my birthday so she took me out to Gloria's for a fun evening! Thanks, Amy, it would have been even more a bummer to be home alone for that one :-)