Fun to be at the YMCA

My mom stopped working at 24 Hour Fitness, so we needed a gym membership so we could go to the pool. We found the YMCA in Hutto.

They were smaller than the 24, but more family friendly.

 However, the tween kids space was practically a closet with an art station and a TV. The indoor pool was too cold to enjoy most of the time, but they did have cool programs to participate in.

After a couple of months, 24 Hour Fitness asked Mom to come back and just in time for summer too.  We are able to keep using the pool, Mom gets to work out with Dustin and she only has to work once every 3 months now to keep our membership.  So all's well that ends well.

Gym picnic

 I just had to blog about this. We were all at the gym and my mom decided she would go home and make some lunches. Each of us had a banana with lunch and I don't remember who started it - it wasn't me! - but someone got the boys and Bella talking on banana phones. Yes, all our picnics are weird, but they are never the same way twice.

Johnson City Science Mill

I totally recommend this children's museum. True, it does not look like much from the outside, but you should give it a chance. After you create a digital robot avatar-which will teach you about certain things in the museum- You just need to start exploring. There is a model of Romanesco Broccoli (Which you can see Read with in this picture), Animated Texas animals, which you can control, Makey Makey, and much more than I can explain or remember.

Christmas traditions

Monty Mouse has made his home under our tree again this year.  Every morning he leaves tasks for the boys to complete that day.
So far, we have had a slumber party under the Christmas tree, Christmas movie marathon, made gingerbread houses, Pancakes in Pajamas for dinner, made an advent chain, Christmas music dance party and my favorite so far was when they made Ben and I breakfast in bed for our anniversary.
I am so grateful for these moments and I am so especially proud of my girls for taking on so much responsibility in this crazy time of our lives.

Thanksgiving weekend

 No Thanksgiving is complete without lots of cousins' time.  This year we also helped PawPaw work on the farmhouse.  Daddy and PopPop blew up all of the leftover Halloween pumpkins to kick off the holiday season.  We went to the annual Christmas night parade in Comfort. We celebrated Mimi and R2's birthdays at Mamacitas complete with sopapillas and sombreros.  The best part of the weekend was PawPaw tossing me the keys to his hot rod, Road Runner and telling me I can finally take it for a drive.  Too bad I was too chicken to really "drive" it.

double digits birthday

It is a home school holiday on birthdays, so Daddy and Mama took the day off to celebrate.  We were able to get in a matinee showing of Trolls.  Kids loved it, it had its funny moments, but I think it was a one-timer for the adult folk.

Port A Weekend Getaway

Instead of celebrating a spring break, we took a fall break to celebrate Mama and Daddy's birthday.  We took a four day weekend and spent it at Port A.  We stayed in the cutest condo on the beach and our days were filled with sandcastles, seafood, wave jumping, a few sunburns and sunrise walks on the beach.  I love these kind of days to disconnect and be with my favorite people.

round the rock challenge part 2

We marked off number 30 on our challenge this week.  We tried geocaching, found a trail in RR to hike, we skipped riding the train at the outlet mall and instead rode a time machine, who knew time travel was cheaper. We've done 8 of the 10 Where's Waldo challenges at Kaleidoscope Toys.  We had breakfast in our pj's at Chick-Fil-A which counted for 2 because it was a restaurant with a playground.  All four participated in Bass Pro Shop Summer Camp including earning badges for archery and gardening.  This past Saturday, we visited a farmer's market to complete our 30th of fifty activities on the list.
LE has been working on a list we can do after school starts.  It has really helped me to be get us out of the house and try new things this summer.

Round the Rock Challenge in June

This summer we are participating in the Round the Rock challenge.  We have a list of 50 activities to complete this summer to receive rewards from merchants in Round Rock.
In June (from top left), we watched a movie in RR, participated in the library reading program, found the wagon ruts, participated in a summer library program, played in a RR park, took a pet to the dog park, played at All Abilities Park, found Sam Bass final resting place, found the RR mural, enjoyed a cool treat, had a RR Donut, found the Round Rock, went to an Express game, and found the statues in downtown RR.
We have had so much fun and earned our first gift card to Kaleidoscope Toys.

Read Reunion

This past weekend, we traveled to Mo Ranch for a family reunion with Ben's family.  I was pregnant with Boo the last time we had been with his grandmother's sister and her family.
R2 is named after his great-grandmother's family, so he was a hit with his distant relatives.  The boys were also a hit b/c most of the cousins on this side of the family are girls.  We also learned strabismus runs strong in the Read family, with seven kids who wears glasses for the eye disorder.
It was an unanimous decision to hold the reunion every year, so we will see cousins more frequently.

Mimi and PawPaw 's Barn Home

If you haven't heard, my parents bought a 1930's farmhouse about a mile and a half from Ben's parents.  A few weeks ago, we took the kids for a weekend of projects as they had never seen the house.
My parents told us over the Thanksgiving holidays they were contemplating buying the fixer-upper.
Over the Christmas holidays we were able to get in the house for the first time and discovered the people were hoarders in every since of the word.  As in they hoarded their trash.  They were evicted and left this trash, years and years of trash.  There were three out buildings floor to ceiling trash, the plumbing stopped working so they used their chicken coop as a port-a-potty.  The house was full of trash.
Our first weekend to work on the house was the last weekend of January, so my parents had gotten all of the trash out of the inside, but the outbuildings were still full of trash.  Dad rented a bobcat to clear up the outside of the property and we had a burn party.  As we started hauling trash we discovered trash bags full of clothes, toys, and of course trash.  We found out the wrong way had fireworks in it, which had us stuck in the house until the explosions halted.
It was an all hands-on deck weekend.  HR's favorite job was pulling staples out of the shiplap.  The other kids helped haul paneling to the bonfire and metal to the scrap pile.

mailbox workshop

A few weeks ago, we stopped into Home Depot to pick up some things for RSB.  When we arrived they were having  a free workshop for kids, building Valentine mailboxes.  The kids hammered, screwed and painted their projects and have been writing each other messages for their mailboxes since.  Gotta love free Saturday morning fun.

backyard campout

We have been wanting to try camping with the kids, but have been more than a little apprehensive about how it would go. With this awesome weather, we decided to give it a try in the backyard.  It worked, kids slept through the night (noticed I clarified kids).  But, it was a lot of fun. Boo did her schoolwork in the tent the next day and the boys played in it for the majority of the day. I think we are ready to branch out into the real world.

slumber party

The kids were gone all last week for VBS and swim lessons.  The girls left Sunday for church camp, so the best way to celebrate?  Slumber party in Mom and Dad's room!  And the best part, they all slept till 8:40 a.m.

Express Game- boys first baseball game

We were invited by some friends at church to an Express game earlier this week.  It was the first game the boys have attended other than watching Jacob play high school ball.  They did really good for several innings, but once the hot dogs were gone they started to get bored.  LE caught a souvenir ball that was thrown into the stands and was caught dancing on the jumbo tron.
Thank you Miss Elizabeth for a free family night out!!

best.day.ever.

We celebrated the last day of school at the gym pool.  LE said it was the best graduation party ever.  R2 said it was the best day ever.  It WAS a great day.  Such a huge difference from last year, both boys jumped right in and began splashing and exploring.  Both girls went straight for the slide and picked up on "swimming."  The pool temps were still pretty cool, but the air temp was fabulous.  

Pioneer Day-Fredericksburg

This past weekend, my dad and the girls participated in Fredericksburg's Pioneer Day.  Landry had her display table with her pioneer toys and Bella enjoyed playing with PawPaw's friends band.  We took the boys and explored the pioneer museum.  Read even made his own rope.
LE even got paid for participating, guess she is a professional now.

New hobby? Geocaching

I was recently searching for cheap date ideas around town and found an idea of geocaching around downtown to find all of the murals.  I have heard about geocaching as it is popular among home schoolers, but was not exactly sure what it was.  After some research, the girls and I decided it sounded like a fun project.  The premise is to log into the geocaching website and locate nearby geocaches which have been previously hidden.  You then use the coordinates to get within twenty feet of the hidden cache and then you use clues to locate it.  Our first search led us to our neighborhood park.  The hidden cache was the size of a film canister.  It was not easy to locate and we had to use a cheat to finally find it hiding in a sprinkler drain.  We have been on a couple more searches, but hoping now that summer is upon us, we might be able to take up the hobby a little more seriously.

nursing home visit

Ben's schedule has recently changed and he is going into Dell on different days.  One of the things the girls and I had been wanting to do was sing with our friends Ken and Peg at the nursing home again.  With his new schedule, we can leave the boys napping and sneak out to join them for an hour.  We really enjoy visiting this assisted living home, it is where we play BINGO each month too.

Valentine's Party at the nursing home

This week at our visit to the nursing home, we played Bingo and the kids distributed Valentine's and cupcakes to the participants.  In the past, we have played games, but BINGO seemed to be the biggest hit.  Everyone got in on the action as R2 helped Pastor Clint call the numbers, both girls, Daddy and I had a bingo partner that we assisted.  HR was too cute and made all of the ladies giggle.
Have I told you how much we love our new church?  Or how much I love raising children who love to serve?  Or how handsome my husband is playing Bingo with widows?