Going to the Lodge...

Abby's Brownie Troop used their cookie money they earned to stay the night at Great Wolf Lodge. The 9 girls and 4 moms who went booked 2 rooms and had a blast. They spent Friday evening at the Waterpark, had pizza delivered to their room, and stayed up late watching a movie.


Brian, Emma, and I joined them Saturday morning at the Waterpark. You have to be a hotel guest in order to use the indoor and outdoor waterpark, but each guest in each room is allowed to have 1 outside guest for $30 per pass. So, there were 13 outside passes that could be used and several of the familes were able to come join the fun.

Emma was absolutely going crazy there and said the "Great Wolfs (she made it plural for some reason) was AMAZING"! Brian was able to take Emma down 2 of the bigger slides, the first one nearly brought tears (it's the slowest of the 4 big indoor slides) and one of the outside slides got a 'that was too scary' comment. Otherwise, she LOVED the smaller "kid-friendly" slides and the body slides in the fort. She went down these at least 50 times combined.

Abby had a great time too when we were able to find her (she wanted to stay with her Brownie troop friends). She did manage to get pushed into the shallow end by a wave (in the wave pool) while in her intertube and scraped up her back pretty badly.


A few tears, a bandaid, and off she went. She had a blast on the outdoor slides. She went with me, two other brownies and another mom down one of the multi-person raft slides and screamed louder than I've ever heard her scream before.

Brian was itching to ride the Texas Tornado, but no one else in the family wanted to join him and the line was pretty long. We had a great time though and would highly recommend going! We are hoping to go back later this summer as a family. A great getaway right in our backyard!

Emma's Last Day of Preschool

Emma had her last day of preschool today, and the school held their annual Field Day Activities. I volunteered for part of the day, and I was lucky that Emma got to come to my station with her class to be able to snap some pictures. Emma has had such a wonderful teacher this year and classmates; she is very sad that summer is here.


Emma is my very social child; she always has a friend and makes friends very quickly. Her 2 very best girlfriends this year are Jaimes and Jordyn, and I've already promised her we'd try to set up some playdates with them this summer.


As we got in the car to leave, her tears started flowing, and she told me she wished she could go back to school tomorrow because she doesn't want to leave her teachers and friends. I, for one, am so happy I have one of my kids out of school for the summer so that we can actually do some relaxing. Just 2 weeks left for Abby, and it can't come soon enough for me!

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day Tea

The tradition at Abby's school is for all the 1st grade classes to host a Mother's Day Tea. Brian worked from home today to watch Emma so that I could go for this hour long event. All the mothers of Abby's 22 classmates attended, which is pretty amazing that everyone was able to come. The students began by meeting their mothers at the door and then taking them to their seats and serving them pink lemonade. Her teacher read a very special poem (the kleenex was being passed around), and the kids each told why his/her mother is special. They also had a slide show of all the students' drawings of their mothers. We were served breakfast by our children as well and given a red rose. It was a very special day. My little girl is growing up way too fast!

Happy Birthday, Abby!

My Cinco De Mayo baby is 7 years old today! How is that possible? She decided to come into the world 10 days before my due date and boy, was I ready! I went into labor in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm - fun! She was a whopping 9 lbs. and was 22 inches long. It was a miserable pregnancy; 55 lbs gained, 20 lbs. the last 2 weeks. I was so incredibly swollen that all the nurses in Labor and Delivery kept coming in and staring at me like I was a freak show! I did manage to lose 42 lbs. exactly 7 days after her birth, does that tell you how swollen I was? And, I had a terrible pregnancy rash all over the last 2 weeks that prevented me from getting any sleep whatsoever. It was a tough, tough time for me but all worth it!


Brian took the day off to watch Emma because my name was one of the lucky 3 chosen out of a hat to attend as a chaperon on her class field trip to an outdoor learning center. All the other moms had to drive their cars, but since her class had to be split onto 3 different buses, I got to supervise a group of 7 kids on her bus. It brought back lots of old teaching memories. The outdoor learning center was the same place I took my 4th graders to 8 and 9 years ago. They had added actual bathrooms, picnic tables, trail markers, and activity areas which weren't there when I went many moons ago. So, it was fun to see the changes and improvements they had made. I am not much of an outdoor, woodsy person, and the mosquitoes were the same size as the birds, and we got drenched by the rain, but I did enjoy seeing the kids have such a great time and all the knowledge and unique experiences their brains were taking in. I do miss teaching, but I learned today that the kids and their behavior issues haven't improved much in the 7 years I've been out of the classroom. Teachers are so incredibly underpaid for everything they do. Unless you've personally been a teacher, there is no way to understand the enormous responsibilities and tasks they undertake on a daily basis. Be thankful for them! (I'll get off my soapbox now).


After school, we took Abby's friend and our neighbor to Going Bonkers and Cici's pizza for dinner. It was a busy but fun birthday.



Happy Birthday, our sweet Abigail Grace! You are such a blessing, and we are so proud of you!

Field Day

Abby had her Field Day at school on Friday afternoon. Emma and I joined her class for an outside picnic lunch and then the Field Day activities began. It was a beautiful day! They did the typical Field Day activities outside and then also did a few stations inside the gym and cafeteria (karaoke, face painting, etc.). Her favorite station was, of course, the snow cones.

Mystery Reader, Part 2.

On Thursday, I volunteered to be the mystery reader for Abigail's 1st grade class. If you remember, Jen did this back in September. Well, I was little nervous about going up and keeping the attention of 22 kids. And to add to my anxiety, Jen picked out Dr. Seuss' Happy Birthday To You. Reading was never my strongest subject (just ask me about the time in 4th grade I had to stay home while the family went to Chuck 'E Cheese because of a poor English grade)... and the tongue twisting / nonsense words Dr. Seuss just added to the adventure.


Long story short, I only fumbled a couple of words... survived the ordeal... and Abigail was not only completely surprised but loved her early birthday present. She thanked me at least 4 times that day for coming up and being the mystery reader for the week.