Muffins with Mom

The week before Mother's Day Emery's school hosted Muffins with Mom.  It was a really fun morning for both of us (I think, me at least!).  I dropped Beckett off with a friend and Emery and I enjoyed a nice walk to school, just the two of us.  It's pretty rare that I get one on one time with her, so when the opportunity presents itself I really treasure it.

Once we got to school we found our table and Emery had a couple of gifts for me- a painting and a placemat with some a drawing of me, her, and Beckett.  It was really sweet.  We ate some muffins together, talked with her school friends, and took some pictures of ourselves.  :)

After we ate all the classes performed a song for the Moms and it was SO cute!  There are some pretty little ones at her school and they are so entertaining to watch.  Emery did really well- she's become quite the performer and she was SO excited to see me in the audience (aawww...).

I love her school and I am so happy they put this on and we got to spend a few extra minutes together in the morning.  When it was time for me to leave she just cried and cried and cried (which doesn't happen!) and it just broke my heart.  Her teacher said she ended up having a fun day at school and got to be the calendar helper which pretty much made her day.

Thanks for the muffins and the presents, Emery!  Your the best and I love you!!! :)

A Day at the Ranch

A couple of weeks ago our friends invited us to their Grandma's house at "The Ranch".  It was only 30 minutes away from our house, but felt like we were deep in the country.  They have about 8 acres and several horses- miniature and quarter.  We spent the morning feeding the horses, having a picnic, exploring the land and playing with the biggest attraction- the 5 pound dog Bam Bam.  It was a blast!

Thanks, Rachel, for a super fun day!!!

Dance Family

Still trying to pay catch up a little bit here, so bear with me.  Alright?  OK, moving on.

At the end of last month (April 28th) Emery participated in her (and my) first dance recital!  I am totally new to this whole world of dance, but Emery has totally embraced it and fallen in love with it.  I really wasn't sure how it would go with her since it is so structured and she's, well, impulsive, but I'm super proud of how much she has learned and how she seems to genuinely enjoy it.  She loves to come home and teach all of us what she learned in class that day and that little girl can arabesque (totally had to spell check that word) her little heart out!

So, anyway, a few weeks before she got all dolled up on a Saturday afternoon to take pictures with the other girls in her class and individually.  We joined the mob of dance moms at the studio and survived pictures and celebrated with some Orange Leaf (we ALL deserved it!).

 Her recital was still a couple weeks away when she took the pictures and she asked me EVERY DAY if it was finally recital day.  She's so funny she would say "Mama, is today recital day?" and I'd tell her no and she'd say "So, it's after this day?" and we repeated this question and answer session every day until it was finally recital day for real!

Her class performed on Sunday afternoon (show 3 out of 4), which was all the preschool classes.  The studio did a great job putting on the show.  Each dance was a couple of minutes long- they would line up on the stage, perform, then exit the stage.  Quick, quick, quick which is perfect for a bunch of 2-4 year olds and their siblings. 

 Emery was the 3rd dance and so she got to stay and cheer for the other classes (which is what she wanted to do) and she sat through all the performances really well.  After her performance we all went to get her from backstage and gave her our flowers (from us and Beckett).

(I had to include this one again- it cracks me up!  No one was having picture taking as you can see.  The flowers had turned into swords and Beckett was dressed like a Hawaiian.  Love my people!)

I got a couple of better ones outside after the show was over.  I really am such a proud dance mom!  She did a good job performing.

We took her to Main Event for pizza and games to celebrate.  We've never been there before but it was SO fun!  I don't think you are ever too old to enjoy arcade games and pizza.

We are also now officially a Dance Family!!! :)

A Train Kind of Day

So now that I feel caught up on all of our Maui adventures I can move on back to our regular life.  I've had so much fun going back and looking at all our pictures of Maui it's hard to walk away.  But, our vacation eventually ended and we came back home to reality (that moved along just fine without us for 7 days!).

Our first Saturday home we decided to go see the train museum in Katy.  Beckett is currently fascinated by all things trains and cars.  He is totally content as long as he has a car or train in his hand and he is chugging them along (sound effects included).  Katy is actually named for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad that ran through here many many years ago, so there is alot of train history to go see.

I've been wanting to take them to the Katy Depot for a while now and so we finally did.  It's the original depot used by the railway that has been restored by the Katy Heritage Society.  They've done a great job and we even got our own personal tour of the building.  She showed us the ticketmaster's office, the waiting rooms, and luggage room.

 (He kept shouting "TRAIN!" "TRAIN!")

I thought it was fascinating and the kids just wanted to play with the coin machine and scream at the model trains.  After out tour of the depot we went to see the caboose.  It's closed and locked, but you can still climb the outside and sit on it.  They LOVED it!

After we left the Katy Depot we headed up to our favorite train place- the train park!  It's an amazing park- it's huge and they have made a giant play structure that looks like a train.  I don't think the kids have caught onto this yet, but they've never asked why we call it the train park.  Beckett is finally a good age for these places so they have a lot of fun when we go.  Each one takes off in a different direction (which is awesome) and they climb and run and swing.  It's great!

After lunch and naps we all somehow ended up in our bed.  I don't know if this has happened before, but it was really sweet.

 We all decided there was only one thing missing from our Saturday- haircuts!  So we got out the clippers and the scissors and everyone got a little trim.  It was more obvious on some of us...

I love our weekends together and the adventures that we have!

Maui Day 6

On our 6th day (Tuesday) in Hawaii we decided to tackle the road to Hana.  This was the one activity we were pretty on the fence about- it's several hours in the car driving, it's a twisty windy road (bleh!), and we just didn't really see the draw.  But, everyone (seriously EVERYONE) I talked to about Maui said "You HAVE to do it!" and so we did.

Here's my honest opinion- it was REALLY amazing.  You will see scenery on this road that you will never see again.  You will also get to experience some really incredible things- hiking through a rainforest, a bamboo forest, a tree garden, and swimming in a waterfall.  But, it will take ALL DAY!  We were prepared for it to take a while, but at the pace we went it took 8 hours for us to get to Hana and back.  It wouldn't have been bad, except at the end of the day we were racing the clock to be off the windy road before dark.  Locals commute on this road daily and they drive FAST and they don't get CARSICK! :)  So, we were trying to stay out of their way and be done with that road!

So, here's the pictures I got.  Really, spectacular views.  Unforgettable views, so enjoy!

 Hiking in the Kaumahina State Park- it was super windy up here, but had gorgeous views!

 The Ke'anae Arboretum.  This trail was full of trees and flowers from all over the world.  It was peaceful, and drizzly, and cool (like chilly cool, not just cool cool).

The Ke'anae overlook.  Full of lava rocks with waves crashing against them.

The Coral Miracle Church.  This was slightly off the beaten path, but I'm glad we found it. 

Waikani Falls

(I didn't get any pictures, but we swam at the Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Park.  It was FREEZING!  But, I swam- in a waterfall- in Maui.  Check!)

 

Also- this probably would have been a good place to turn around.  We had really seen all the amazing cliffs and hills and experienced a wide variety of climates.  We just thought we had to go to Hana since, ya know, we were doing the road to Hana.   From this point on we left the twisty scenic roads and just headed to Hana.  Not that the scenery was lacking, but we felt like we had seen enough by this point.  Just so ya know...

The Wai'anapanapa State Park.  Beautiful and the only black sand beach in Maui.

Hana, finally Hana!  We waited half an hour for some hot dogs and chips...

The next day- Wednesday- was our last day on the island.  Our flight wasn't until 8:00 at night, so we stayed around our hotel all day (see, finally getting in that relaxing pool/ beach time!  Actually, this was the first time I got IN the ocean.)  Our hotel had a hospitality suite we could use to clean up before we got on our plane and it was so nice to freshen up before we headed home.  We flew all night and got back to Houston around noon the next day and got to Emery's school in time to pick her up.  She was so surprised and excited to see us and we were happy to be home too.  

I have to send out a HUGE shout out to Gigi for staying with our kiddos all week.  They had so much fun (like, I could never live up to all the Gigi fun!).  We really needed a few days to get away and we couldn't have done it with out her, Thank you, thank you, thank you Mom!!!!!!!

Aloha!