Baseball, Weeds and Donuts with Dads

Spring time is here and baseball is in the air!  Jacob had his first two scrimmages after only one practice...his team is mainly first graders playing with 2nd and 1st graders so they have their work cut out for them.  It is already amazing how far they have come with just a few more practices...should be a fun season and I can't wait for Gwyn to start t-ball...if the tennis lessons (that she ran off the court crying after about 30 seconds) are any indication of how t-ball will go we are in for a LONG season with her...thank goodness those were free, ha!  Here is Jacob batting:

 I did get a video of his first hit of the year:


Jacob was a weed in his first grade play How Does Your Garden Grow.  It was SO sweet, and of course I teared up during the sweet song about how every kid is a seed and the parents help them to grow.  I have been up at his school helping with the play...teaching the dance routines, microphone mom and costumes...it was a very long 5 weeks of preparation, but the kids did so well.  Gwyn knows the entire play, word for word all the speaking parts and dance moves and songs.  Gwyn already knows she wants to be a flower and Annie, of course, wants to be a weed like Jacob.  Gwyn would put headphones on and walk around with Jacob's itouch reciting the entire play...the music was on my phone and his itouch and so we listened to it every single day...so glad it is over, ha!

Jacob had a little solo rap during the weeds song:

I took the kids to Academy this week.  Jacob needed another pair of tennis shoes, as I had to cut off a rubber part that was flapping with scissors.  Somehow he went directly to the $80 tennis shoes, which I said no.  Gwyn however was easily talked into the Academy brand of cheaper tball cleats because they had a pink stripe on them...that's my girl!  Gwyn is doing well in gymnastics...can't believe how fast she is doing cartwheels and handstands.  Annie is patiently waiting to start gymnastics/dance with Emerson in the Fall...I do have to remind her that she gets to do it in several months:)  I got a call from school this week, Jacob was in pain and pulling on his ear.  A trip to the Dr to confirm an ear infection and two doses of antibiotics later he was good to go!  

NEWSFLASH!! Jacob has learned to text from his itouch...he has to be connected to wifi, but be prepared to get texts from him.  It is actually really good for his reading because he's reading everything that he gets in return and spelling things out (although he does not like autocorrect, ha! welcome to the world buddy!).  He had texted everyone that I had put in his phone and he said "Daddy, you haven't texted me back."  Brian told him his phone was in another room, so Jacob quickly went and got it for Brian so he could sit right down beside him and they could text each other.  We got in the car to leave, and he said he really needed to get back home so he could get onto wifi, ha!  We've created a monster!

Gwyn and Annie had Donuts with Dads at their preschool.  This is a much anticipated day for the girls, and they had each made Brian a cardboard bow tie to wear...Brian's boss had called him that morning for a meeting and he said he couldn't be there until 9:30...Donuts with Dads was priority!

Love those smiles...you should see their faces when they get donuts with pink icing and sprinkles!!

Gwyn and Annie started swim lessons this week...we are going once/week until probably May.  I'm really hoping we can get Annie swimming and lifting her head at the beginning of the summer...would make my life MUCH easier this summer...I long to be one of the moms who gets to sit at the side of the pool and read a book, have a drink and WATCH the kids swim rather than participate:)  Gwyn is doing really well, she and Jacob are going to try the neighborhood swim team in June and are pretty excited about it.

Love this little face!

Neely sent Gwyn this precious little dress for her birthday...she just looked so darn cute in it!

Oh my little stubborn, troublemaker Annie.  She got in trouble for tearing down the clothes in her closet...about 4 days in a row...she loves picking out her clothes and then wants to change about 5 times/day...I can't keep up with laundry because she does usually dirty everything up.  So, her punishment for pulling down her clothes off the hangers was that I got to pick out her clothes for 3 days (and she isn't allowed in her closet)...you would have thought I had ran over her puppy...she looked cute but the fact that I picked it out was TORTURE!

I did take Annie to a birthday party for two boys in her class...she was a little shy at first but soon perked up and had a good time.

Brian was out of town one night last week and surprisingly we didn't have anything after school, so I took the kids over to Jason's and we had an urban camp out in his backyard complete with roasted hot dogs and smores.  The kids loved it!

Loved this artwork the girls made the other day...so sweet!

Gwyn is getting really good with the scissors and coloring inside the lines:)

This was too funny...I had seen these hanging up in Jacob's classroom, the other kids had colored patterns on their mittens and Jacob covered a wild animal that he said was dying (see the blood).  Nice. I blame Papa:)

How cute is this water color cowboy Jacob made...LOVE this!

This was the paper doll that Jacob had cut out and then used as an example in the other two first grade classes...he is a perfectionist...not sure where he gets that, ha (BRIAN!)!

Funny things the kids said this week:

Annie:  Daddy, you have lots of hair on your skin.
Jacob:  There is this place called Jason's Deli.  Does Jason own that?
Jacob (after passing California Pizza Kitchen):  Wait!!  Did we drive all the way to California??
Jacob (pointing to an oil spot on Jason's garage floor):  That is worth a lot of money.  If you have that on your land, people pay you a lot of money for it.
Gwyn (while shopping at Academy):  That costs a lot of money...you have to be rich to get that.
Jacob:  That is not rich, that is only $100, I have $32 so even I'd have $100 in another year or so.  To be rich, you'd have to buy something that costs $1,000.  Seriously.
Jacob:  There are 5,280 feet in a mile.

Proud to be TEXANS!

We had Go Texan Day down here, celebrating the start of the Rodeo in Houston...a 3 week long huge production.  The kids enjoyed getting dressed up, although having Jacob tuck in his shirt almost killed him...then when I showed up to his square dancing he had it untucked!  Here he is with his square dance partner (who we LOVE)...Anna Lee:

Me and my cowboy...you can tell he is really into getting his picture taken with his mom in front of all his friends:

 Jacob and one of his best buddies:

 I just love that face!

 Jacob and another one of his little buddies:

Here is Jacob square dancing with his class:

I know the blog has been very "Jacob" heavy, as he seems to be doing so much with basketball, which is over, cub scouts, and now the start of baseball...two scrimmages this weekend and we've already had 2 practices this week!  Don't worry...the girls are having fun and getting involved in some things as well.  Gwyn and Annie both start swim lessons next week...looking forward to Annie being able to swim at the beginning of summer!

 Sweet Gwyn is still very into her American Girl doll, and wears these pajamas about 3-4 times a week or as often as they are clean...which considering I do laundry about 6 out of 7 days...she gets to wear them quite a bit!  I took her to American Girl to spend a gift card she had gotten from a friend, she was super excited to get matching clothes like her doll.  She dresses her up in a different outfit everyday, it is so sweet:

 I took this on the day that Oklahoma was getting snow...shorts, skirts and short sleeves for us in Houston...yes, we do LOVE being Texans!

 Annie at Gwyn's gymnastics in an outfit she picked herself, and had to wear her duck hat she made at school upside down...nice!

Gwyn has still got the moves when it comes to Hula Hoopin'...and she has the high score by about 40 spins on the Wii Hula Hoop game that Jason got her for her birthday.  I think I'm second highest at 40 spins and she has 85!!

Jacob had his Tiger Cub banquet...poor guy had not earned a badge all year and he got two at the banquet...the kids had fun, they had a band of cub scouts open up with some rock and roll music, the kids loved it.

 Jacob and Brian drove down to Corpus Christie to stay over night on the battleship USS Lexington.  It was amazing, Jacob had so much fun...they were 3 or 4 bunks high with about 2 ft between each bunk, not air conditioned where they were sleeping and had to share the bathroom with about 70 people.  Jacob LOVED it!  Brian, not so much!

Jacob received his first love note:

 When I asked him who he thought it was from, he quickly said Isabelle because she had told him she liked his singing and even wrote about it in her journal in class...then he said, "or it could be Daylan."  Ha!

 Gwyn and Annie brought home some very TEXAN artwork this week:

Funny things the kids said this week:
Jacob:  Sam Houston is the father of Texas.  His last words were "Texas, Texas, Margaret."  He liked Texas and his wife."
Gwyn:  My belly is soft.
Gwyn:  I get sad when Annie gets hurt.
Jacob (after coming home from watching a movie about Michael Jordan):  This kid wears these shoes that Michael Jordan wore, and Michael Jordan was I guess good at basketball, and then this kid gets to play in the NBA even though he is a kid, as long as he wears those shoes.  (I love it that he is telling us about Michael Jordan while wearing some Air Jordans himself, clueless!)
Annie (to Gwyn):  You hurt my feelings.
Gwyn:  How did I do that?
Annie:  I don't know.  But you did.

Valentine's Day for My Loves

What a fun week we have had!  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, and yes, we wear shorts, flip flops and sleeveless shirts in Houston in February!  I was able to go to all 3 Valentine's Day parties at school.  Here is Gwyn with her chicken nugget (I call her my chicken nugget:):

 I just love her writing:

 It was "jammie" day at her school since they are covering "J" this week, on the same day as her Valentine's party...so she picked out her skull and cross bone pajamas to wear:

 My mom went to Annie's party first, and I came about 20 minutes late, but this was the face that my Mom got from Annie...apparently she was devastated that Nana showed up and not me, ha!

 Mommy to the rescue, she started to be happier:

 Then they broke out the cupcakes and she could have cared less about me, ha!

 I was doing the craft table at Jacob's party and totally forgot to take any pictures, but I did think his valentine's bag with this mustache was quite cute:

The kids and I made some chocolate covered strawberries...the kids loved them, except maybe Annie who doesn't like her food to mix and ate ever drop of chocolate off and then ate the strawberry...she is definitely Brian's kid:)

 I thought we did pretty good!

 Jacob has a little friend who lives around the corner and his birthday is on Valentine's Day, so several of us went over to his house after school for a play date and we somehow ended up with mardi  gras beads and a black eye:

 The eye, from a metal bat, and self inflicted on accident by Jacob himself:

 Basketball season wrapped up with a big win!  We were all smiles as the kids got donuts and trophies, until about 2 minutes after this picture was taken Jacob was using his trophy to dribble his basketball and somehow dropped it on the tile.  The trophy basically exploded into about 11 pieces and you would have thought Jacob's arm had been cut off.  It was a bit embarrassing, but thankfully Jason helped recover all the pieces and super glue and an awesome Daddy fixed it up as good as new...well, not really new, Jacob will be more than happy to point out every where that you can see it has a crack:)

 These boy birthday parties are fun, this one was a combo party for two of Jacob's friends who have birthdays a few days apart.  30 first grade boys, red team and blue team, camo, masks, forts, sling shots with rubber balls, and a park...what is not to love.  They had so much fun, it was called Yard Battle and it may be in the running for Jacob's party...every party we go to he ends up leaving saying, "that is what I want my party to be!"  Unfortunately, with a birthday in July in Houston, I somehow doubt it would be as fun as 70 weather like it was for this one in February:

 Look at this little sassy thing.  She dressed herself, her shirt HAS to be tucked into her skirt, and she added this headband, complete with tag sticking up in the front (she would not let me fix it):

And a video of my crazy girl with crazy legs:


 I'm loving Gwyn's little homework sheets with her writing the words that she knows, so cute!

Funny things the kids said this week:
Annie:  Don't sing Mommy.  Don't sing that song.
Gwyn:  How old do I have to be to use a sharpie?  (Unfortunately, after Jacob wrote on my cabinets with a black sharpie when he was 3 those have been banned from the kids ever since...poor responsible Gwyn has to suffer the consequences)
Jacob (when I asked him if he wanted to go to the middle school vs faculty basketball game with a friend):  Definitely Mommy, you don't even need to ask me.
Annie:  I heard the TV say a bad word.
Me:  What was it.
Annie (she hesitates and whispers):  poop