Ok Matt is officially 5!

So today was really the big day although I'm not sure anything could top the party on Saturday.  For someone who loves baseball to have a baseball party...Matt was in heaven!! 

But we celebrated at school.  I made 24 baseball cupcakes again...and some how by the time we got to school some of the frosting had slid off the cupcakes!  I have no idea what happened but oh well.  The kids loved them so all was good.  Dad came with us and we snuck Marlie out of class too!  I don't know if you can tell from the pics but this classroom is spotless.  And this was the end of the day.  I'm afraid Ms. Marchesani might be a little OCD like me!  I love it!!!

You can see Hannah in this picture.  Poor Hannah sits next to Matt in class.  I hope he doesn't drive her crazy.  I'm pretty certain he does but her Mom is too nice to tell me!

And here's Matt with his teacher.  She is doing a great job and we really like her.  Not just because she's a Baylor grad!! 

Thank you to Matt's teacher and class for making this day special for him! I have some birthday pics in the slideshow.  Check them out!

Matt is 5!!!

Matt is 5!  I'm excited and sad all at the same time.  He's definitely not a baby anymore.  But I'm so proud of the little man he has become.  Sure we still have some work ahead of us, but so far so good.  Doug and I try our best but we also have to give lots of credit to his awesome school and teachers. 

Since Matt had so much fun at the hitting camp this summer he wanted to have his bday party at Baseball USA.  Uncle Jay led the party for us and the kids had so much fun!  Even a few of the girls came and had fun too.  It's so neat to watch them listen and learn.  And they all did great!  Here's my family with our Maziur 5 shirts!  I figure we can wear these to his games too and embarrass him!

You can see the kids were focused as Coach Jay taught them the correct batting stance...

The girls enjoyed it too and had fun posing for this pic!  They are much more photogenic than the boys!

After the camp it was time to eat and have cupcakes!  With Melissa's ideas and my Mom's help we made baseball cupcakes.  They started off not so good, but by the last one I think I had it down! I also got the idea to make my own cupcake stand from my friend Audrey.  Why be creative when someone else already has?

We were lucky that Coach Gerald Young (former Astros player) also helped with the hitting camp.  He is such a good sport and hilarious too!  He gave out baseball cards and I didn't expect that that kids would mob him for autographs but they did and it was too cute! 

I tried to get the kids all in a pic.  It was like trying to bathe a cat.  I'm sure the kids were not excited about this but it had to be done!  Here's the best I got! Pretty funny really.

I tried to get a pic with Matt and the girls but instead they all tried to hug him and tackled him to the ground which was even cuter.  Here are Iva, Hannah, Alena and Matt!  He loved it (obviously) but it looks like he almost took off Alena's arm!!  We love all 3 of these girls.  They are so sweet.  Hannah and Alena are in Matt's class this year and Iva is in Caden and Evan's class. 

We were also very happy (especially Marlie) that Mr. Scott and his son Trevor came to the party.  You might remember my blog about Mr. Scott a few blogs ago.  The kids love him!  Poor Mr. Scott and Trevor were with Marlie most of the evening.  At one point Marlie asked Trevor for the big, yellow ball.  Trevor took her out to get the ball.  Then he went into a cage with her to play catch.  She threw it to him and he threw it back...only to get told that he didn't throw it right!  Then apparently Marlie was done so Trevor came and sat with her on the bench and she just gave him a big hug!  Then Trevor let Matt "pitch" to him and poor guy almost got hit about 20 times.  What a neat kid.  So patient and always smiling.  I could learn a thing or two from him! I told Matt on the way home that I hope he grows up to be just like Trevor!

And of course we have the usual suspects below.  I have to tell this funny story...the Wellmann's and Scott and T stayed and helped us after the party.  So we decided to head back into the cages.  The Dad's had fun hitting and Mrs. Melissa did too.  She was really good!  She was whacking the ball, one after another.  At some point we heard crying and realized she had hit Caden in the arm with the ball.  But as she realized it, there was another ball headed his way and got him right in the chest.  Caden was ok, but I couldn't help laughing because Melissa was so good and so focused that we missed that Caden was in the line of fire!

Afterwards we came home and Matt had fun opening his gifts.

Marlie claimed a small wooden bat Matt got and got right into position.  It's so funny.  She makes this same face every time.  I LOVE it! 

But I'm still hoping one day she decides to be a cheerleader like Mom was!

Thank you to Uncle Jay for hosting this party for us. Thank you to my family for helping and to all our friends for making this such a fun party!

Great Grandpa

The kids have been so excited about this weekend!  Great Grandpa came down from Wisconsin to see us!! My sweet cousin Kelly graduated from high school this year and traveled with him on the train to Texas.  She is a real gem.  My cousin Mallory and her fiance Duy came in from Dallas and Grandpa came up from SA. 

We took Great Grandpa to the Battleship Texas.  Great Grandpa was in the navy during the war so he enjoyed touring the ship and telling his stories.  He wore his red hat on the trip so that he could be easily spotted if he got lost!!  Look how tall Doug looks in this pic!! 

Duy is a saint.  My kids LOVE Duy and pretty much are with him every second he's in town.  I'm sure he was exhausted when he got home!

At this point in the tour we had already lost Great Grandpa and Nene.  Luckily we spotted the red hat later on in the day. 

I think we all had a really great time!  I think Marlie kissed Great Grandpa about 100 times over the course of the weekend and he got tons of hugs from the kiddos too.  Great Grandpa said he wished that Grandma could have been on the trip with him, but I reminded him that she was!  We just can't see her, but I know she's up in heaven taking care of all of us every day! 

Today is "Church Day"

So Wednesdays the kids go to mass (well just the older kids) and so we wear our "dress uniform".  I thought that meant that the boys had to wear pants but apparently not, so poor Matt will be hotter than the sun at recess today. 

Anyway, I'm so glad that in the midst of getting them up and ready for school this morning...Marlie did not want to get out of bed...that I grabbed the camera.  Then I was proud of myself for actually taking it into school.  Lucky me...we got to see Hannah and Caden on the way in so I got this super cute pic of the kids.

It's funny...Matt loves to wear his tie and his uniforms.  I think he thinks it's like Daddy dresses when he goes to work.  But the girl's Moms have told me that they hate wearing their uniforms and bring clothes to change into in the car when Mom picks them up from school.  The girls like their pinks and purples and bling.  Shows how different we are from an early age. 

If this picture only had sound you could hear the screams coming out of the PreK-3 classroom!!  Marlie seems to be doing well but if I were her I'd be freaked out by the 1 or 2 boys that are refusing to go into class.  Poor kids.  Marlie has been a little nervous but when I pick her up she talks nonstop about her day.  She told us at dinner on Monday night that "God is in your heart" and reminded me of that on our way to school this morning.

They are doing great really.  Much better than I am.  I miss them during the day...although I've gotten so much done at home and grocery shopping without kids is so easy! I will start back to work soon and I am really excited about that.  In the mean time I am loving all these precious moments!!

Caden's 5th Birthday Party

So I consider Caden to be like... one of our own really.  We've had so much fun getting to know the Wellmann's and had such a wonderful time on our vacation.  So we were very excited about Caden's party this weekend! 

It was a batman theme which is right up my kids alley these days...yes even Marlie.  And Mrs. Melissa, Caden's Mom, doesn't do anything half...well bum.  So we walk into the party and each child has a batman cape specifically made for them.  They were SO cute (Nicole - check them out - Cale's party in a few years)!  They also had masks too.  Melissa and her Dad constructed a real bat mobile and Coach Joel put up an awesome backdrop.  It was really amazing. 

The kids were even more excited when batman came out!  And the girls (and Dad's) were excited to see bat girl!  The pictures are too cute so I have to post several of them!  Thank you Wellmann's for such a treat.  We've had our capes and masks on ALL weekend!! 

We have the neatest friends...

We have had so much fun with our friends lately.  Last week the kids and I headed up to the Woodlands to see Mrs. Gabby and her kids Asher, Keilan and Piper.  Gabby is not just any friend...she was my roommate at Baylor!  We both ended up moving to Houston and we finally got around to getting together.  Should have happened sooner! 

I felt like we had lived together yesterday.  Gabby is sweet and beautiful and was always there to give great advice.  And it was as if Matt and Asher had known each other forever too.  I think they might have had the most fun.  Matt thought Asher was the greatest thing since squeeze yogurt. 

Here are our little ones...Piper was sleeping.  I can't wait to see them again soon!

Then yesterday we headed over to Mr. Scott's house.  If you were around my kids at all you'd think Mr. Scott was a rock star or sports star.  They talk about "Mr. Scott" all the time.  Scott works with Dad and apparently has made a huge impression on the kids.  Marlie has only met him twice and unlike everyone else, takes to him immediately!!  Scott's family has taken Matt to a few Astros games and Scott has even been on the other end of the 20 questions game with my Matt.  

So we had a wonderful dinner with the Steinbring's yesterday and the kids had fun swimming in their pool.  I spent most of the time talking to Scott's wife June, trying to figure out their parenting tricks.  They have 2 children - Amber and Trevor and they are both the coolest, sweetest teenagers I've ever met.  I tried to talk June into trading kids for awhile but don't worry...we did take both of our kids home!  :) I think M&M would have preferred to stay there.  Thank you guys for a wonderful evening.  Hopefully we can bring the kids to a football game to watch Amber cheer and to one of Trevor's baseball games too.  They would love it!

First Day of School

If you can believe it, Friday was the first day of school for my tiny humans! We've been hyping up this day like it was the Super Bowl so the kids were excited.  We got to meet our teachers the night before and feel very blessed that Marlie will be with Mrs. Mary and Sister Mary (same teachers Matt had in PreK-3) and Matt will be in Ms. Marchesani's class.  She is a recent Baylor grad and we've heard nothing but wonderful things about her. 

It was a very emotional day for me.  I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend the summer with M&M.  We've all grown so much and we were able to do so many things.  I will miss them every day.  I also can't believe that my baby is in a real school. 

So we headed to school on Friday morning.  Dad came too and I was so happy when Matt said he wanted to ride to school with me because usually if Dad has the opportunity to take the kids they get so excited.  So as Matt and I were driving I was trying so hard to hold back the tears.  We walked both kids to their class and both couldn't wait.  They walked in with big kisses from Mom and Dad and were on their way!  I'm so proud of them.  They are so brave.  Much braver than I.

Matt was so excited he got to wear his new uniform and new shoes.  Here he is tying his own "new shoes with laces". 

I love how the shorts are hiked up to his arm pits.  For some reason he loves this style!

Here is Marlie looking for her name to put on the I'm Here board.  I still can't believe how well she did.  Probably because she was excited to be sharing a cubby with Annie and that Ashdin, Daniela, Sam and Hayden were all in her class too. 

When I went to pick them up, they were so excited when they saw my car.  They were holding hands and running to see me.  I was so excited to hear about their day.  Then they got stopped and were told that they couldn't run and that slowed down their excitement, but once they got in the car they couldn't stop talking.  Well... I guess Marlie did because about 5 minutes later she was passed out.  It was a big day!

Andre Johnson's Biggest Fans

We all had a really great weekend.  Doug headed to New Braunfels on Thursday night for his annual boys weekend on the river.  As usual they had a blast, although Doug said they seem to be getting old because they would worry about younger kids on the river that didn't have parents around.  They were also up before 8:00am one morning because...well between work and kids your body forgets what it means to sleep in. 

Last minute I thought maybe I'd take the kids on an overnight trip somewhere fun.  I searched but nothing jumped out at me.  So then I decided to have the girls over Friday night when the kids were in bed.  Matt helped me straighten up the house (not kidding...because of him it was spotless).  He was so interested in who was coming over and thought it was strange that we were just going to chat.  We had a blast!  We had chocolate croissants, wine and chocolate martinis!  My last guest left at 2:00am and afterwards we were all just amazed we had stayed up so late!  It was lots of fun. 

I was in bed by 3:00am and then up at 6:00am because last minute we also got tickets to the Texans football training camp!  Practice started at 8:00am and since I was solo with the kids I wanted to get a seat.  Initially I wasn't excited about getting up so early, driving all the way down to the field and sitting for 2 hours in the heat.  But when I mentioned it to Matt he was SO excited.  The whole event was free so I couldn't say no. 

I'm so glad we went!  The seating was so much closer than a real game so we could see and hear everything.  Dad loves Andre Johnson so of course Matt (and Marlie) love him too.  Doesn't hurt that he wears #80, Dad's old high school number.  We cheered loud every time Andre caught the ball.  Matt asked questions the entire 2 hours.  At one point I wanted to so badly to plead ignorant but this was a great opportunity to teach him about the game.  Matt was slightly disappointed when I had to tell him that Tom Brady did not play for the Texans.  I guess he got confused with the blue and red jerseys (he owns a Tom Brady jersey because both Mom and Dad have a slight crush/man crush on him).  Marlie sort of paid attention but was so good the entire 2 hours. 

Matt also asked lots of questions about the cheerleaders.  It was pretty funny.  First it was, "why are the cheerleaders here?".  They were signing their calendars but I just told him they were helping downstairs.  Then "why do they wear such small shirts?  You can see their belly button!".  I told him if they wore big shirts then they couldn't move well and then wouldn't be able to dance.  He replied, "well there shouldn't be dancing.  You should be paying attention to the game."  Of course I agreed with that one.  Then later he said, "Mom are we going to see the cheerleaders again on the way out?".  I laughed and asked if he wanted to see them and then he said "no".  They weren't there when we left.  I'm sure he was disappointed. 

Here are my Texans and some other great shots!  We had so much fun!!

Afterwards I made another last minute decision to take the kids to the cupcake place!  We loved the cupcakes and the kids thought it was so cool that we had our treat before lunch!!

Then I thought we should probably have lunch and it was off to my favorite dive for tacos - El Rey!  It was so good and the kids loved it too.  We crashed when we finally arrived at home.  It was a great day!!