A Surprise For Nati's Birthday

Topa Joe came to lunch for Natalie's birthday!

Tomorrow Natalie will be Nine

I have often wished that I had named Natalie "Natalie Joy" rather than "Natalie Lauren."

She brings us joy.

She is full of light and happiness.

She can be a handful when she wants, but that is rare.

She loves her brother and sister with all of her heart.

Nothing makes her happier than playing with them.

She has grown up a lot.

We are proud.

Happy birthday, Natalie.

Vomitopoloza 2014

Do not read if you are faint of heart.

Or stomach, actually.

On Tuesday night Meagan started vomiting.

This is not good.

She does not do vomiting.

Well, she does, but it is not a pretty sight for anyone.

But this time she handled it well.

Because, my goodness, she sure did a lot of it.

She was fine all day Wednesday and went back to school on Thursday.

Well, she did for a few hours.

I picked her up at eleven.

That night Natalie started.

Then I did around 1 AM on Friday.

Holy moley.

It was awful.

I didn't move all day Friday.

I had 101.8.

We thought we were out of the woods with Matthew.

Nope.

He threw up Friday evening.

By this morning you would never, ever guess.

He was 100% normal.

He wanted pizza for lunch.

Kids.

They are way more resilient than adults.

I believe at this point we are all pretty much normal.

Thank heaven, because we need life to go back to normal!

Crossing my fingers for an easy transition back to school on Monday for Meagan.

Venting a bit of frustration

A couple of times a week, Meagan comes home and tells me some very mean spirited things that a boy in her class says about gay people.  Often it involves Obama as well.  Today it was about how Obama is an idiot because he believes in the rainbow flag.  My children are well aquainted with the rainbow flag and it hurts her feelings.  My first instinct was to be angry and to tell her to talk to her teacher.  But now that I have thought about it a bit (and trust me, I have been thinking about this for over a year now since he was in her class last year), I have decided that I am just sad for the boy.  He is being taught at a young age to blindly hate without any knowledge of who the people affected by his hatred are.  All my daughter hears are insults to her uncles whom she loves very much and some strong role models in her life.  During our ride home, I told her to just feel bad for him.  He is the one who is being limited by values taught at home, not her.

Dave and Busters Adventures

 Nothing surprises us really when it comes to Texas weather.

It has been in the 90s and hot, but yesterday it was 74 and rainy. 

Most of the day it was cooler than that.

I was so happy.

Meagan had a sleepover at her friend Alex's house, but her mom is great about sleepovers.

The kids actually sleep.

She wasn't cranky, but all of the kids got a bit bored by nighttime.  So did Andy and I.

Off we headed to the Dave and Busters.

Matthew got a bonus in the photo above.

He liked it.  He was annoyed that I made him take a photo, though.

 Then, the most exciting thing happened.

My kids were looking with jealousy at two college age kids kicking butt on a game.

They noticed.

Next, they handed our kids all of their tickets.

You have never seen such joy.

 We have an old video from when Meagan was about two at Dave and Busters.  

She was excited about Skeeball in that video.

She still likes it.

 This is the game that the guys won very easily.  

We did not.

There must be some trick, but Natalie tried hard.

"What, Mommy????? Enough with the camera!"

Fun Start of the Year picture

The first day of school Meagan's teacher took selfies with all of the kids.

This is the one with Meagan.

It is pretty cute.

We are loving that her teacher looped up with her.

It is also rather nice that she got an A on her first math test of the year.

Not a bad way to start!

Matthew started his soccer class.

He did great!

I wasn't there, but Andy said he followed all of the directions and had a ton of fun.

It is indoor.

Indoor soccer in Texas.

For real.

That is amazing.

Natalie started her Mad Science class. 

She loved it too.

A great week!