{school dance}

Tonight the girls had their first middle school dance.  They looked so cute in their new dresses and they were so excited to go.

{eleven}

Happy Birthday Kaidee!  Today she is eleven finally.  She has been waiting for her birthday ever since we moved to Texas in June.  Kaidee is at least a year younger than the kids in her grade so she was excited to finally be closer in age to them, see most of them are 12 or their turning 12 soon.

After school Nan, Lynda, I picked her and Livee up from school and took them to Bahama Bucks.  It a new shaved ice/smoothie place.  It was nans first time and she loved it too. They also have several games that you can play while your eating your treats.  This is a great date place.

Livee and Kaidee played battleship.

The three little's played fibber.  The glasses they had to wear were pretty funny.

After we took Kaidee to Genghis Grill for dinner.  Its a mongolian bbq place where you pick all the ingredients and then they cook it for you.  It wasn't very good so I won't be going their again.  I have been before and it was good but the last two times it was bad.  After dinner it was activity day girls at the church.  I will do her birthday interview tomorrow.

{back to school but this time in Texas}

The first day of school has finally arrived here in Texas.  Our summer has been especially long because we are so used to starting school at the beginning of August back in California.  The kids excitement levels were all over the place.

Cole was ready to ride the bus and make new friends but he really wished he was going to the same school as his cousins.  Grayson goes to school where Amelia teaches and Miles and Rowdy go to Justin Elementary.

Kaidee was the most excited!  She could not wait to go to middle school and make some friends.  She has 8 different classes and a locker she was beyond excited.  I on the other hand am nervous for her because she will be the youngest in 6th grade by 2 months.  The cut off in Texas is September 1st and in California its December 1st.  Her birthday is November 6th but because she already did 5th grade in California and her report card and star testing was so good they wouldn't keep her in 5th as I wanted.

Chloe's emotions were all over the place.  She wants to make friends but then feels like she won't.  As a mom that makes me sad.  I know she will be ok it might take a little bit but I know she will make friends.

Chase will be a senior this year at Northwest High School.  I am having a hard time knowing that I will have an 18 year old in just over 2 months.  He has grown up so fast and he really is a good boy.  So far being the mother of teenagers has been pretty easy and I love it.  I have been praying my guts out for this boy.  He has taken the move pretty hard, he misses his friends, his school, and the fact that he only would of had 4 classes at GTHS.  He has had a few melt downs but I have seen how much he has grown from them.  I look forward to seeing how everything turns out for him this year.

I am loving the start times of their schools too.  Cole's school is from 7:45 to 2:30.  Chloe and Kaidee go from 9:30 to 4:30.  Chase's school starts at 8:30 and ends at 3:30.  I love that I will have alone time with each group.  Cole and Chase will be in the afternoon and the girls will be in the morning.  Chase has seminary in the morning then he goes straight to soccer practice the right to school.

Cole was so excited to ride the bus.  He gets picked up and dropped off at our house.  In California my kids went to a magnet school so I had to drive them to and from school everyday I am not going to miss that!

Paisley couldn't wait for him to get home.

{Grapevine Botanical Gardens}

 Today Celeste took us on a little trip to the Grapevine Botanical Gardens.  It wasn't a very big place in fact it was just right.  They had a playground with this fun spider web (as the kids called it.)  Ezra climbed all the way to the top but didn't like coming down.

 Paisley and Elliot liked the swings.

 They had a cute little fountain.  Paisley has been watching too much Toddlers and Tiara's.

 My cute Kaidee.

 Cute little Elliot who just turned 2 yesterday.

 There was a beautiful pond with the most beautiful koi fish.

 In the middle of the park there was this huge oak tree.  It was fenced off and had a little plaque that said that this tree was here when the declaration of Independence was signed.  This picture only shows part of the tree.

 The kids all enjoyed watching the fish.

 Elliot must of seen something funny.

 It was hard for the kids to keep their hands out of the water.  The fish would swim right up to you when you got close.  They must get fed a lot by people.

 This little botanical garden is one if the many stops that the monarch butterfly takes as it migrates from Canada to Mexico.  It was cool when we spotted one flying around and then it landed just long enough for me to get a picture.

We all had a little picnic on the grass area the kids really liked this part.

Texas really does have so many cool things to do.  I am so happy that I was able to come.

{candy corn cupcakes, activity day girls}

One of my responsibilities at church is working with the 8-11 year old girls it is called activity day girls. Once a month we meet at my house to learn new things and pass off goals. For the month of October we learned to bake cupcakes and then we delivered them to friends. Well we actually "Boo'ed" them. It was hard to hide during the day but the girls had fun trying.  My girls have also been inviting their friends to come to activity days too.

Here is how we made candy corn cupcakes.  We made a plain white cake mix and then divided it in half in two separate bowls.  We then added food coloring to make one orange and the other one yellow.  It was an easy process.

Next we added a small amount of yellow cake batter, then orange  We had to be careful and not mix the colors.  The girls did very well.

We then baked them according to the directions on the package and this is what they looked like when we took them out.  Make sure you get the white cupcake liners so that you can see the different colors through the liner.

We added white frosting to a plastic bag snipped the corner and then piped the frosting onto the cupcakes.  Then you had the three colors to make it look like candy corn.

We put candy and the cupcakes in a Halloween bowl that I picked up in the dollar section at Target.  Last thing we did was to add a cute poem and ghost then we went to deliver our special treats.

The girls had so much fun and when we were all done they wanted to make more so that they could of Boo'ed more people.

{a page in the history books}

Today my mom, kids, and I witnessed history.  We went to see the space shuttle Endeavor fly over Disneyland as it flew to its final resting place in LA.  It was definitely worth every bit of traffic, heat, and gas to see it.

I woke up early to see what time and where the best spot was to see the shuttle fly over and the closest location was Disneyland.  I called my mom and we thought about going down to Huntington Beach to see it there but we thought Disneyland was the best location because it was Friday and in Southern California that means traffic.

We left our house at 9:30am because the shuttle was supposed to fly over Disneyland at 12ish.  I am so glad we left when we did.  Trying to get into the downtown Disney parking lot was crazy.  The traffic on the side streets was insane.  I had no idea that many people would be out watching it.  At 11:15 we got to the parking lot.  We thought we would go hang out at Downtown Disney but we thought we might as well just stay in the parking lot and see it their along with a lot of other people.  Besides it was a wide open area perfect for pictures and videos.  We were not prepared to wait in the parking lot.  No shade, no where to sit, no drinks, no snack for the kids, and no restrooms.  Luckily the kids were very well behaved and nobody had to use the restrooms.

I was sad that Darian, Chloe and Chase didn't want to go.  Garrett had to be at Football so he wasn't able to go either.  So it was just my Mom, Kaidee, Cole, Paisley, and I.  We lucked out that the kids didn't have school today.  The plane finally came at 12:20p, and it was worth it.  I had goose bumps immediately and the moment it came into view I felt so proud to live in this country.  What an amazing thing to see this space shuttle that has been to space and back several times.  Now I want to go and see a Space Shuttle land at Edwards Air Force Base.

Today was a day I will never forget and I hope my kids who were with me won't either.

{goodbye auto, hello manual}

When Darian bought me my new camera a few months ago I told myself that I was not going to shoot any pictures on auto.  This was the only way I knew I was going to get more comfortable with the manual settings on the new camera.  (I got the new Canon 60D)  Thanks to pinterest I have learned a lot.  I still have so much more to learn but it really has been fun.  I am still nervous that I won't get the clear shot that I want but so far so good.

I love this picture of Kaidee.  It was at the hotel the morning of Sydney's wedding.  The lighting was perfect so I snapped a picture of her while she was talking to me about how excited she was for Sydney's wedding.

Our Summer is now officially over and i'm not very happy about it.  School started today and it's not even August.  This year we start school earlier too.  Last year we started at 8am this year we start at 7:40am.  Too early if you ask me.

This year Cole is in the first grade and in Mrs. Heney's class.  I am happy that I don't have to go back and and forth to the school three times a day now that he is full day but i'm sad that my baby boy is growing up.

Kaidee is now in the 5th grade.  She has Mrs. Plumb who was Chloe's teacher last year.

This is Chloe's last year in elementary school and I am having a tough time with that.  I do not like the middle school years.  I wish they could just skip those years and go straight to high school.

Paisley wanted to be included in everything.  She even cried after we left each classroom because she wanted to stay and go to school.  She still has another two years.

These kids are growing up so fast.

I just wish the school year was shorter and the summers were a little longer.  I love having my kids at home with no schedules.

Chloe is in Mrs. Herrera's class.  My brother's grew up and went to school with her and her siblings.  I am excited for Chloe to have her as her teacher.

{Beauty and the Beast part 2}

Here are some pictures of my kids and some of the other characters. Can you guess what my kids are?

Here is the Prince, Cogsworth, and Maurice (Belle's Father)

My kids standing in front of the fireplace and the enchanted rose.

This year Garrett was able to help backstage.  It was fun having four of the kids involved.

{Beauty and the Beast}

Beauty and the Beast has come and gone.  It's really bittersweet, on one hand I am happy to not be so busy but on the other hand I already miss it.  This was the first year that I wasn't able to be in the audience.  I was backstage for all four shows.  I have to say that seeing it just off stage is so different.  I really missed being able to see it from the audience.

Everyone that I spoke to said they loved it and several said they were crying.  Our cast was amazing this year and being able to work with these amazing children made everything worth it.  Here are a few photos from backstage.  I will be sharing more in the next couple of days.

Here are a few of my napkins.

Gaston with Cole and Kaidee.  I just wanted to mention that we had to fire our original Gaston the Monday before our first show.  Shane came in and did a perfect job for us with only two days of practice.  I was nervous at first but he acted like he had been practicing with us from day 1.

Cogsworth was great.

Chip was played my Nicholas Morales.

Taryn one of the napkins.  My friend Keriann was the designer of these amazing costumes.

Chloe as the rug!  I only wish I could of taken pictures while they were on stage.

Geri Marquez our amazing Director with her assistant Dolores Ramirez.

Belle and her father.

La Foo, Gaston, and Lumiere.

Here are all the children eating their lunch between the shows.

These woman work hard behind the scenes to make this show happen.

Mrs. Potts.

The plates.  These costumes were my hardest to make.  I made the first set too small so I had to start over and they gave me a fight the entire time but everyone loved them in the audience.

Gogsworth, plate, and Lumiere.

This was my work are backstage.  Every night I had mending to do.  It was not the cleanest spot but I had to be close to the dressing rooms and this was the only spot available.