Bike Riding Milestones

It was another busy weekend in the life of the Wilkens family.  Jude recently got his first bike and I'm happy to report that he is able to peddle all by himself (before he would just scoot himself along on his tricycle and scrape up all of the fronts of his shoes ).   He even rode in his school Trike-a-thon and was so proud of himself.  He had a big smile on his face as he rode through the "Chug Wash" and must have gone around the "track"at least 10-15 times!  Then, low and behold Abbey asked to have us take her training wheels off this weekend and she rode her bike all by herself for the first time! 

We also threw in a soccer game and the Fiesta Flambeaux Parade while we were at it.   After all of that, we had to rest up today for another busy week..........

Tooth Fairy Visits

Abbey lost her first tooth last week and the tooth fairy visited. She left a cute note asking the tooth fairy is she was related to Santa Clause and also telling her that she would be splitting half of her money with her daddy! The tooth fairy left her $2 and a note that she was related to Santa Clause after all!

The Move to Misty Peak

Done!!

In Frame

The Beginning

It was a long time coming, but we moved into our new house the day before Thanksgiving and settled in quickly. We got a tree up for Christmas and the kids have enjoyed having their own rooms again.

Fall Fun

We've been trying to keep busy as we anxiously await the completion of our new house.....I think we succeeded! We went to a Missions baseball game...the kids loved Henry's Puffy Taco and Ballapeno! We made an impromptu visit into the hill country to see Thomas the Train which the kids loved. We went "camping" with the Hendrix family at Canyon Lake which was great though Nick claims that it wasn't camping since we had a trailer with beds, TV, and full kitchen. I'm not sure I'm cut out for real camping but that was great! We are lucky to have such great friends...the kids had a ball on the playground outside our trailers....I think they felt truly free to roam around out there.

We carved pumpkins, went to a Halloween carnival, and trick or treated of course! In the midst of it all, we celebrated Jude's 3rd birthday at the Oakwell Farms park at Jude's request. It was the most relaxing and stress-free party that I've done to date and there might be more parties like this in the future (I do tend to go a little overboard at times). Jude helped pick out his Cars cake, plates, and party favors. We had a Mater pinata and I recruited Nick to run a few games with the kids. It was a georgeous day and Jude felt very special I think! He announced "Here comes the birthday boy!"

Abbey has been teaching me all about Egypt and her sarcophagus project even got displayed in the first grade Egypt case in the front of the school. I helped her class make mummies and she told me all about the details of mummification (she's very confortable with the topic of death...I guess that good??)! We also made a Hello Kitty pumpkin that turned out super cute. Nick helped Jude make a Smurf pumpkin (Jude lost interest after about 5 minutes).

Our house is basically ready and we at set to close on it Nov. 16th! We can't wait to get settled in to our new house and neighborhood. We'll see if I get organized enough to throw a few Christmas decorations up....looking forward to making lots of new memories there!

Staycation

We really didn't have time to go on a vacation this summer as the majority of our summer was taken up by the big move out of our first house and the building of our future house. We survived the move (barely) and have temporarily move in with Mom and Dad until the new house is built. They are pouring the foundation today for the new house which is exciting. I'm going to go over there tonight to look at it when I take Abbey to "Meet the Teacher" night at her new school.

Since we didn't get a real vacation, I convinced Nick to take a day off before the kids start school so we could do something fun. We braved the heat and went to the Fiesta Texas waterpark and had a great time! Abbey is reading this post as I write it and wanted to make sure I noted that we went down the "lazy river" four times and its so cool because the river actually pulls you along! We ran into a lady at the lockers who was getting out money for her teenagers and said "Enjoy it because in a few years they won't want to be seen with you..just want you to pay for it." (a little sinical I'd say....surely our children will want to hang out with us forever, right?!). Anyway, it made us glad that we decided to take a little time off to hang out as a family and a reminder that we need to do this often even if life seems to be too busy sometimes.

The Dog Days of Summer

Sizzling hot is an understatement in San Antonio this summer so its a little challenging to find ways to fill up the time without burning up. I'm so happy Abbey chose a swimming party for her birthday and we've been at the pool quite a bit so far. Today Kristen arranged a Krispy Kreme tour which the kids loved and then we swung by the zoo just to ride the train (Jude's request). Tomorrow we plan to go to Build a Bear and Funtastic Playland to celebrate Abbey's birthday again with her BFF Elizabeth and then Friday the kids both have Little Gym class. Much of this planning is honestly an attempt to avoid packing for our move in a few weeks. I've been pretty successful at avoiding it so far! Also, there is a lot less whining and fighting if we break up the day with an activity. Hope we all survive the summer!

The Wilkens are Moving!

So school has ended and what was meant to be a Sunday drive turned into finding our new neighborhood and home. We signed the papers on May 31 and now we start the tedious process of "staging" our home for sale (ie. getting rid of the massive clutter and toys). I don't think Jude knows what's going on but Abbey has been very open to the whole idea even though she said she will miss Longs Creek Elementary. I realized that I will miss it a little too along with other things but am really excited to start a new chapter in our lives. Though we are going to "depersonalize" our house sale, the house was not just a house to us but a real home full of love and memories...our first house and the place that we brought both of our babies home to.