Alien Adventure

This is what happens when you visit a rest area in Roswell, NM

After we finished visiting Carlsbad Caverns we drove up to Albuquerque to visit my sister and her family.  Our route took us through the town of Roswell, NM.  Ever heard of it? Do aliens and UFO's ring a bell? We decided to stop and see if we could have any close encounters.  Lucky or unlucky for us the town was very crowded because it just happened to be the annual Alien Festival.  Lots of "unique" individuals roaming the streets that day - even a guy dressed up in tin foil to look like an alien - or maybe it actually was an alien?!?!?!?

Here are some photos from our very brief stop.



We tried not to be disturbed about a freezer full of aliens

Having lunch with new friends

Defying gravity

Ryder meets a new friend

Should I be worried?

RT phones home

Mel even got to perform some surgery

Now we can say, "Been there...done that."

Another School Year Comes To A Close

Mother's Day Party with Ryder
Don't you love the hat he made me?!?!



It's hard to believe that the 2010-2011 school year is already over.  It flew by so quickly!!!! The kids are excited for some time off to swim and travel.  I'm excited to have them home more, and to be done having 4 kids in 4 different schools!  Next year we will be down to 3 schools, because Melanie will be in HIGH SCHOOL next year which means both she and Nicole will be at PHS!

Here is a hodgepodge of pictures from the end of the school year.

Darren's Freshman seminary class that he taught enjoying
their last early morning together for the year

Nicole's Seminary class on their last day

Ryder getting his picture taken with his 2nd grade teacher,
Mrs. Eggelston, after the awards assembly

Here is a sweet card that Ryder and I made for his teacher.  He really enjoyed being in her class!

He also gave her a "Nothing Bundt Cake"  white chocolate raspberry mmmmm. . .

Every year we go to dinner after the last day of school to celebrate.  This year we went to the Blue Goose to enjoy mesquite grilled tex mex yumminess!!  Here's Harrison enjoying the evening:

I notice the chips are already gone and dinner hadn't arrived yet :)  They make some really good salsa!

And I'll sign off with a picture of Melanie and her friend Thi modeling the masks they made as part of their last English project. 

Looking good girls.  Enjoy your summer!!!



6 Day Weekend

Well the kids went to school exactly 1 day this week - 1 day out of 5!!!  Now I know what you're thinking, "Those Texans just don't know how to handle snow."  Unh uh.  We handle snow just fine.  It's sleet and ice that really slow us down.  Monday night ice started falling from the sky.  Trust me it was really loud on the windows. By Tuesday morning there was a nice thick layer of ice on everything, and no one wants to drive in that.

I didn't really take any pictures of the ice, because well, it was just roads with ice.  I do have a video of Ryder doing some skating on it though.



The temperatures stayed around 0 degrees (wind chill factored in here) so the ice wasn't able to melt.  So the kids got to stay home on Wednesday and Thursday as well.  We were able to enjoy lots of family time together - board games, puzzles, TV, Wii, baking and some crafts.  Harrison, Melanie, and Ryder put together these little wooden craft kits that I had picked up for $1 each the week before.  My thought at the time was that I'd just stash them away for a rainy day or next summer when the kids are bored.  As fortune would have it, we got to use them much earlier than that.

These little kits were awesome.  As I mentioned before only $1 each, and they included all the wood, paint, glue, paintbrush, sandpaper and rubberbands needed to complete the project!  I think the boys can get some scouting achievements signed off for this too :)

Then Thursday night and Friday we got SNOW.  Probably a good 4-6 inches.  And it stuck.  In fact it's still here.  Unheard of!

Here is a picture from early Friday morning.

And snow or not, poor little Blossom still had to go outside to, well, you know. . . She got icy in the process.

Blossom's mad because her paws are cold!

The fun part is that snow is waaaaaaay more fun than ice! You can go sledding.

Or eat the snow (only pure white fresh snow please).

Or if you're me, you can slip and fall.  I know, cool huh.

The neighbor kids had been begging me to sled the ditch with them.  We all know how that would've turned out.  I kindly declined, and so today I can still say I have never broken a bone!

It's also quite beautiful to see our lake almost completely frozen over.

So as we enter our 5th day of isolation in our home, we are grateful for this little window of time where we could just relax and spend time together.  We are also grateful for food storage, and that I had just purchased milk, eggs, and fresh produce on Monday night!

Thanks for a wonderful break Mother Nature!



UPDATE:  Of course all good things must come to an end. . .

Guys and Gals

Here are a couple more photos from our recent family photo shoot.  It was almost November and still an absolutely gorgeous day.  I LOVE Texas :)

Dear Grandma . . .

A picture's worth a thousand words - and the tears of joy you will shed when you see this picture!

Love,
Heidi

Your amazing and adorable grandchildren

P.S.  You're welcome :)

P.S.2  I have many more to share :)  :)

P.S.3  Click on the picture to bring up the full size image - then copy and save to your computer - well, if you want a copy that is :)  :)  :)

Thanks For Not Raining On Our Parade!

Melanie and her volleyball friends

Homecoming Day is always a wonderful time in Prosper.  And yesterday was no exception.  We had a blast with all of the festivities.  Not to mention the kids are always happy to get out of school early!! Gotta love small town Texas where the whole community comes home to participate in the celebration.

First here are the kids' mums and garters.  A Texas tradition that I think is totally cool and fun to get into. By the way, the ones my kids are wearing are very modest in size (well Nicole's is pretty dang big - but there are definitely bigger mums out there - worn mostly by the senior high school girls).

Nicole started off the day with a 6:00 am pep rally at the high school.  Our Homecoming football game was the high school game of the week here in Texas, so the news teams were there to cover the excitement.  Then the kiddos all headed off to school for a half day of "learning" before they were released for the parade.  This years theme was "Wild About Our Eagles" thus all the zebra print and safari themed floats. The 3 younger kids were on floats:

Melanie on one of the 8th grade volleyball jeeps

The tail end of Harrison's float.  It went by too fast :)

Ryder on his pirate float pre-parade

Pirate float cool parrot

Full view of pirate float

Now this meant that Darren and I watched the parade by ourselves (Nicole had to stay at the school so she didn't get all worn out before her 4:30 volleyball match).  Thunderstorms were predicted for the day, and it had been sprinkling off and on, so we decided to take an umbrella just in case.  Well, it didn't rain, but Darren had the great idea of opening up the umbrella and turning it upside down to catch all the candy that was being thrown at us from the floats.  The kids on the float thought it was super fun to try and make a basket, so we ended up with quite a bit of candy!!

After the parade we headed back over to the high school for the pep rally followed by Nicole's first district volleyball match against Farmersville (which they won).  Then home for pizza dinner and a break. Nicole headed back over to the high school in the evening for the football game (DON'T ASK about details of the actual football game - this year we will have to revel more in the festivities of the day - and who selected that we play ARGYLE of all teams for Homecoming?)

What a super fun day.  And the whole time Kenny Chesney was visiting our neighboring town of Celina which he featured in one of his recent music videos.  He really should have used his time more wisely and spent the day in Prosper!

Homecoming Fun

OK, so there has been a lot of this walking out my door this week . . .

Nicole and Emily - Twin Day

Melanie Mix-n-Match Day

Harrison Crazy Sock Day (or is he just plain crazy?)

Ryder Crazy Day - what you can't see is the wristband on his ankle (I know, CRAZY) and he is wearing his shorts backwards (you'd never know, except he tells you)

And I'm so very excited for tomorrow - Homecoming.  Everyone gets out of school early, and the 3 youngest kids get to ride on Homecoming Floats!!!  And throw candy (better that collecting tons of it!). And they will get to wear their mums/garters that I have been working on.

Harrison's Garter

Ryder's Garter

Melanie's Mum

3 Garters Completed

I don't have a picture of Nicole's mum yet, but it is a truly blinged out over the top Texas mum, and I promise to post pictures once I have them.

Go Eagles!!