Daddy's Fountain and some school pics

We have a decent amount of photos now with this sign.  It stands at the front of Faith Montessori and for some reason, Matthew likes to stand on the little ledge.  Today I thought I would get a few shots of them to show how they are growing.  We started at this little school years ago (6!!!) and now Matthew is there.This is a link to when the actual center opened, rather than the inhome daycare.  The girls and Matthew all had the same lead teacher, which says a lot in the constantly changing world of preschool staff. 

Natalie bought Matthew this shirt at the mall yesterday.  It is full of characters that he likes.  His newest fave is Spiderman.

Andy put in this new fountain a few months ago instead of the old one we had before.  I think it looks good.  We've gotten some rain so things aren't as completely dead as before.  The lake continues to look pathetic, though.

The Fastest Summer EVER and Happy Birthday Brian!

Truly, I have no idea where this summer has gone.  It is already almost over!  I can't say it is the best summer, certainly ,but it sure is going by way too fast.  As far as this top picture goes, don't feel too bad for Brian since I posted it.  He sent it to me. This is with our family's first pug, Pugsley, whom is still my fave.  My brother turned 35 yesterday.  I was lucky enough to see him this week and we got to celebrate together for once.  My mom took us out to dinner at Jack Allen's up in Round Rock.  My telling you to go out to eat in Round Rock happens just about never, but in this case it is worth it.  The restaurant uses locally sourced foods and is creative.  I have heard their brunch rocks, so that will be my next time there.

 The pile behind Matthew is an entire box of cars that he has dumped out.  The boy loves, loves, loves his cars.  Natalie is super sweet and will play with him for hours with them.  She likes for them to go to car school, have car families and be best buddies.  Matthew wants to crash them, but they find a happy medium.

The girls got haircuts a few weeks ago.  Meagan always wants to grow her hair out, but swimming has taken a toll on her hair.  We trimmed off a few inches and it looks great.  Natalie always likes her hair short.  It matches her personality and shows off her eyes.  The girls are home with me next week.  We have lots of playdates and special things to do.  After next week, they are in camp most of the time.  I have trainings sprinkled in those weeks and then I go back to teacher work week.  As I said, the summer is going too fast.  It is capped off with a trip to San Fransisco for me.  I am not taking the kids this year but will take some combination of kiddos next summer.

Papa Joe

I have both wanted to blog, but not wanted to blog at the same time.  On May 31st, our last day of school, my dad passed away.  It was very sudden.  He was only 68, active and even still working.  We found a very lovely place to bury him, a place that I know that he would find peaceful.  He loved all of us with all of his heart and he will leave a big, big, space in our family.  The hardest part of all of this, of course, is as a mom.  My kids miss their papa and it breaks my heart to know that Matthew will never truly know him.  My dad's smile lives on in Matthew's smile, and his open and good heart hopefully lives on in all of our hearts.  We are all doing okay.  This is very hard for my mom and for Brian and I as well. 

The day after Papa passed away, Meagan's dance recital came around.  We debated whether or not to send her, but we decided to let her choose.  She struggled, but we reassured her that Papa would be proud of her dancing.  She did a great job.

We went to a new restaurant (new for us), the Reunion Grill.  I didn't so much like the food, but they had a fun band and awesome balloon creatures.  They also had a huge playground.

Meagan and Natalie went to Sun City camp as planned.  I know it was quite a bit of work for my mom, but the kids had a ball.  The camp is very well run and all of the Sun City clubs worked with the kids.  Meagan's shirt says "Future Resident of Sun City."  Pretty awesome.

Joe Topa is one of my best friends.  He and I are probably unlikely friends, but he and Alice, his wife, are two of the kindest, sweetest people that I know.  They are moving very soon to Florida.  I am excited for them to be with their grandkids, but I am so sad knowing they won't be here anymore. I wish that I could make this Gangham Style Joe work, but it is just a screenshot. :-)

Below: My Natalie is being her typical self.  Still obsessed with Moustaches!

Happy Celebrations

Look who is 40!  Yes, he took that picture on purpose.  I do not think that he anticipated my putting it up for people to see, but oh well!  We had a surprise party, just a few people, at his brother's house.  As you can see below, we did have an awesome cake.  My friend, the amazingly talented Betsy Melton, is in the cake making business and she does not fool around.  Natalie is in this picure with Zachary and Ava, Andy's friend Mike's kiddos. 

I wish that I had a better photo for this one.  I am hoping that Inyaa's mom has some better ones.  She has a neat nice camera, so hopefully she will.  Inyaa and Natalie had their big performance of the Three Piggy Opera last weekend.  It was super cute, although at one point Natalie just kind of sat down on the stage. :)  Inyaa and Natalie have been friends for 5 years, something that is pretty impressive when you are only seven.  Her little brother just joined Matthew's class, which is fun!

School Carnival

The school had an awesome carnival this year.  There was a little bit of everything.  All three kids really enjoyed the foam pit.  It is basicly a big blow up pool with soap bubbles being pumped in.  You couldn't even see Matthew with all of the bubbles around him.  The lines were pretty insane, so some things we did not get around to doing.

Matthew loved getting to hop aboard the real fire truck.  You can see his little sticker on his sweatshirt.  Actually, that is something interesting too.  You see, this carnival was on May 3rd.  The fact that the kids were wearing sweatshirts is remarkable.  It could've been crazy hot, but it sure wasn't.

I realized that somehow I didn't get many photos of Meagan at the carnival.  If you look carefully, you can see her in purple on the left side.  There really were TONS of bubbles!  The kids were really cold afterwards, though.

Of course, Natalie had to pose with Matilda for a photo.  The two of them are just the cutest things ever.  Natalie has chocolate frosting all over her in this photo.  The kids went nuts at the bake sale.

At the NBC studios, kissing a huge Dwight bobblehead.

Some famous statue.  I have to look up what it is called. :)  We went on a neat dinner cruise so that we could see the Statue of Liberty, as it is still closed from damage from Superstorm Sandy.

Times Square at night.  There is simply no place like it.  We saw Spiderman on Broadway and walked around Times Square at night.  It is just so alive and oh-so-crazy.

Andy and I spent an insane amount of time on this trip eating.  This is at the Carnegie deli, it of the cheesecake fame.  My favorite treat there: the black and white cookies.  Insanely delicious.

On a more serious note, I am so sad by what happened this week in Boston.  I couldn't help but think about the fact that we were in such public places this weekend.  We can't not keep on living our lives in a normal fashion, but it is so sad to think that we can't just do things without worrying anymore.  Hoping that peace is brought to Boston.

Chewie

We just returned from a great vacation to New York City.  I don't have all of the pictures organized yet, so I will have to write about that later.  I had to post this picture of Matthew, though.  We all call him Chewy, so my mom bought him this Chewbacca T-shirt.  Chewbacca is wearing shades.  As you can see, he really likes it!