Memorial Day Weekend

We celebrated Memorial Day weekend with many things we are thankful for... fun, friends, family, and the freedom to have enjoy these things because of the sacrifices so many soldiers have made.

Our great weekend started on Saturday with Cole's birthday party in Chappell Hill. His grandparents (our friend Bridget's parents) have a farm that is the best location for family gatherings. We're very happy to be included in their family for these events! The theme for Cole's party this year was cowboys, and Bridget left no detail untouched in staying with the theme. It was awesome! We got to the party a little early to do some fishing at the pond.

Hayden, who just turned 10, was our guide out to the fishing hole. This boy who was only 2 years old when we moved into our house has matured so much and was proud to drive us on the mule.

Cade's first lesson in casting!

While the patience that fishing requires was not appreciated by Cade, he did want to be just like Hayden the whole time and made sure to hold his pole however Hayden did.

After about 45 minutes, we had success! Cade and Chance caught a perch, and I'm really not sure who was more excited - dad or son.

It was touch and go for the fish for awhile after it swallowed the hook, but thankfully it sprang back to life and happily swam away.

Our next activity was horseback riding! Cole absolutely loves horses and was nice enough to share Shorty with his party guests.

We were really proud of Cade for riding by himself!

Happy 5th Birthday, Cole! We had lots of fun at your party!

On Monday morning, we got to spend some more time with horses at Zoe's horseback riding lesson. Zoe had a great lesson and Xavier sat on the horse too, but this Aunt-of-the-year failed to get any pictures of them :( The teacher was nice enough to let Cade have a turn too, even though they do not usually teach kids his age. To our amazement, Cade got right on and listened very well to Emily as she led him through a mini-lesson. She incorporated some stretching and balance activities, which Chance and I thought was great.

The family that owns the horses also owns the Museum of the American GI , so after the lesson, they opened their warehouse so we could see all the tanks and other equipment they have for the museum. It was pretty amazing, and especially nice to see all of this on Memorial Day. Most of their tanks are from World War II.

One more week until summer!!

Plaza Hotel Implosion

Yesterday morning we had what we hope was a once-in-a-lifetime experience... we watched the implosion of the Plaza Hotel! This hotel was built in the 1980s and served as a hotel, private dorm, meeting facility, and most recently, a vacant run-down building. The implosion was much-anticipated with both adults and kids (who doesn't like to see things blow up?), and was surprisingly well attended since it started at 6:30 am. Of course, this was an event that was no problem for us to attend with Cade's usual wake-up time!

We parked on campus and found a waiting spot with a good view of the building but far enough away from people that Cade could happily throw sticks he found and not hurt anyone.

The building went down really quickly and I'm glad we went!

Here's a video from the City of College Station:

Soccer Stories

Last night, Cade finished another season of Smart Start Soccer. We all really enjoyed the program and like that it is non-competitive and focuses on basic soccer skills and interacting with peers.

The first few practices usually started off well...

But sometimes ended with a "discussion" on the importance of listening and following instructions.

Last night, though, was a different story! Cade had a great time and listened very well. The practice usually starts with some free time for kids and parents to kick the ball around.

Then came the GAME. After 5 practices, Coaches Marty and Lindsey decided the kids were ready for a game. The Sharks (Cade's team) played against the Cheetahs. I'm really sure who won, but all the kids got to play and had fun. Organizing everybody took quite awhile, but eventually we had a huddle.

Go Sharks, Go!

Cade and Luke all sweaty after the game

Coach Marty and Coach Lindsey did a great job with the kids and we really appreciate all of their hard work and patience!

Birthdays Recap

In my break from blogging I somehow missed finishing Cade's birthday recap! Here are some pictures from his birthday morning at home.

First picture of Cade as a four year old! He is coming around the corner looking for his presents. He is coming out of our room, not his, as he started his birthday much earlier than he was supposed to and ended up in our bed around 5:00 am.

Opening his big present!

I like to include the clock in our photos so we can always remember how early we start our days

Cade and Chance had a great time playing with the big new remote control crane!

Unfortunately, in my blogging delay, the crane has already met its demise. Cade figured out that the hook could attach to a ball, which made a wrecking ball. When he was using the wrecking ball to knock over his dinosaurs, the entire crane came crashing down and broke. Oops.

Chance and I were so happy that both of us could go to Cade's school on his birthday to take his special snack to his friends. We brought vanilla ice cream, orange spoons, and a #4 candle... all you really need for a party with your friends! Cade had such a great time celebrating with the Sunshine class!

Cade chose Freebirds for his birthday dinner and then we played with his new sports equipment in the backyard. It was a great day to celebrate!

The weekend after Cade's party we went to another fabulous four year old's birthday party... Natalie's Princess Tea Party! This was a fancy party, which obviously Cade was excited about.

Chance ended up being the official water for the ladies!

Cade is full of joy at the boys' table

We are so happy that Natalie is part of our lives! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Mother's Day and More

A belated Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms that read this! We had a great, relaxing day yesterday. Before blogging about that, I'll catch up on what we've been doing the past few weeks, which apparently is not much! After all of the excitement of Easter and Cade's birthday last month, we've been taking it easy. Last week in lieu of cooking one night, we had the buffet at DoubleDave's. Delicious! Cade and Chance played the "shooting game" that Cade always begs to play while we are there. I'm not sure who had more fun!

This past weekend, we celebrated Chance's sister Lindsay graduating from A&M! We are so proud of the beautiful and successful young woman she has become! Lindsay is headed off for Teach for America this summer. Friday night I pretended to be young again and went to her ring dunking. It was the most well-orchestrated ring dunking I have ever attended and it was really fun to hang with the college crowd for a bit :) I did see several of my former students, which made it a little strange. Lindsay dunked her ring like a champ... but in Crystal Light!

The next day we went to Hayden's 10th birthday party. It is hard to believe our "little" neighbor boy is 10 years old! Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of Hayden or his brother Cole, who Cade had a great time playing with in the pool. But check out my cute guys in their first swim of the summer!

Cade's class focused on moms all week in preparation for Mother's Day. Cade brought me a bracelet he made and lots of pictures. One day, they answered some questions about their moms. Here is the result:

A couple of notes about his answers:

1. The "chicken" that he likes me to cook is actually Rotisserie chicken that I buy at HEB, so no actual cooking is involved. Hmmm.
2. I like enchiladas, but was surprised that he said that was my favorite food. So when I asked him about the answer, he said "You really like ice cream the best, but I didn't say that". Thanks, I guess?
3. I am really good at eating??? Is there nothing else??? When asked about this answer, Cade just laughed.

Mother's Day was really great yesterday. Chance and Cade cooked pancakes for breakfast and then we went to church. While there, a nice man at our table gave us his baseball tickets! So we hurried home to change clothes and then headed to the wonderful new Olson Field. Cade loved the playground again and we had a great time. And this is the only picture we took on Mother's Day!

Then we stopped at Best Buy to buy something I told myself we would never get... a Wii! I kind of make fun of people at work for playing video games, but now I will be eating my words. We honestly didn't want Cade to fall behind his peers in learning about things like this, so that is the main reason we got it. Now that we have it, I admit that my Super Mario Brother's skills have severely waned, and I am somewhat addicted to improving them. Just wait until I buy a dancing game! Chance and Cade enjoy the We Fish game.

I am so thankful for our little family and the opportunity to be a Mama!

Family Pictures 2012

About a month ago we had our family pictures taken for Cade's 4th birthday. We went to one of our favorite family spots, Research Park, and tried a few new things for our photos this year. In addition to some of the standard poses, I tried to incorporate some of Cade's current favorite things. So, we played Candy Land, ate fruit snacks, and had some M&Ms. Enjoy the results!

We learned at the end of the photo shoot that M&Ms do, in fact, melt in your hands! It was probably a good thing that the M&Ms were the last part of our morning, because we had quite a mess afterwards!