Fun With Grandma and Grandpa Harvey

We have been counting down the days for Summer to start kindergarten because shortly after that we would get some of the best visitors.

Finally that day came, and we got to pick grandma and grandpa Harvey from the airport. Summer was so excited that she even made a big welcome sign. Unfortunately we got caught in bad construction traffic, and didn't make it there before their plane landed. So, it was more like we ran up to them with the sign instead of the other way around.

On Monday night Philip was lucky enough to score some super awesome Astro's tickets from work. These were not just any seats. They were on the 6th row right behind the catcher.
To top it off it was all inclusive with a southern BBQ dinner and anything else they wanted to eat or snack on. They had a lot of fun. Mary, and I found them on TV so that was fun. I think this was a huge highlight for Philip, and his dad.
Here Summer was showing grandma and grandpa all the swimming techniques she has been learning at swim lessons. What we didn't know is that grandpa Harvey is a fast swimmer.
Grandpa was so excited to go to school with Summer on Grandparents Day. I think he fits right in. He loved being there with her.
Grandma got to be one of the mystery readers that day. It was really fun so see her read to Summer's class.
Grandparents day was also the day of the school elections. It was really funny to hear all of the kids running for office make their speeches. I think this might be Summer's first school assembly.

Of course they had Grandparent Day photos in the courtyard of the school with onlookers from the window. This will be nice to have because we don't have many pictures with grandma, and grandpa Harvey.
Here we are eating school lunch. Yummy! Summer enjoyed having us there at school with her. Going to school with Summer was definitely the highlight for grandma and grandpa.

After school we went to the zoo. This was the first time I have watched the lions being fed. It was pretty interesting.

To finish up our visit with grandma, and grandpa we went to San Antonio, and also to San Marcus to go shopping at the largest outlet mall I have ever seen. While we were at a department store I found Philip giving Summer a make over. She was in heaven since she is always asking when she can wear makeup. I am surprised Philip let her have it on in public, but I guess it was almost bed time. He is really good to her, and loves doing fun things like this, and daddy daughter dates.

Grandma, and Grandpa Harvey in San Antonio

Summer knows that Grandma Harvey is a huge lover of chocolate. She even remembers that grandma has a stash hiding in the house. I think she even knows the spot it is located. Anyhow, Summer was talking to grandma on the phone about chocolate one day, and the conversation was quite long. The conversation went something like this:

Summer: "Grandma, do you like chocolate milk?"

Grandma: "No, I don't like it."

Summer (with a puzzled look on her face): "Well do you like milk?"

Grandma: "Oh I love milk."

Summer: "Well if you love milk, and you love chocolate they why don't you like chocolate milk?"

To this day she is still stumped about that. She just doesn't understand that if you like both milk, and chocolate why you would not like chocolate milk.

Well, since we knew that grandma loves chocolate we were thrilled to take her to the Chocolate Bar. I love the place and think it is a great place to go have a desert, or a piece of chocolate. We had fun, but I don't think grandma was impressed by the place. I guess when you have yummy chocolate all the time the American versions are just not quite as good. It was still fun, and we enjoyed being together.

It was so nice to have family here, and we are always sad when they leave. This was the first time that it really hit Summer. She cried for about 15 minutes after we dropped them off at the airport. It is just so hard living so far from family. However, it is nice to know that we have such great friends here that are like our family.

Kindergarten!

Summer started her first day of kindergarten on Monday the 23rd. She was so excited to go to school and stay long enough to eat lunch there. Here kindergarten is from 8:00 am-2:40 pm every day.

Being from a little town in Idaho I was not really use to this whole idea of them being gone all day. However, we really have no choice, and I am sure I will get use to being by myself all day long.

Her first day of school started out to my surprise with breakfast in bed made by her dad. I thought it was so sweet of him to think of that. I had a hard enough time getting myself out of bed that breakfast in bed was not on my mind.

After getting ready for school we went outside and took the classic first day of school pictures. She is showing off her princess back pack.

Here she is in her class. She sits in the red chair behind her, but she was heading to put her backpack away. While watching her I got a little teary eyed. I will admit I was a little emotional and sad to see her grown up to this stage of life so soon. Good thing I had to park far away from the school because it gave me a few extra minutes to compose myself.

After school I went straight to the car line up to pick her up. I was a little worried because we were not really given information or instruction on how to take/pick up our kids. It worked out just fine though.

After she got in the car I asked how her day went. She didn't really respond too much. When I asked her what she did at school she said nothing. I think she really must have been tired and in shock from being gone all day.

Later that evening she told me she didn't want to go back to school the next day. If any of you know how attached she can be you would know that I was a little worried when she said this. I thought oh no, am I going to have to drag her in while she is holding on to my leg not willing to let go? I quickly responded and encouraged her that school is fun, and that she has to learn to get use to it because she will be going for a long time.

Luckily she was excited to go back the next morning. I think she just needed some sleep. She is now enjoying school and tells me at least two things she did during the day. Hopefully she will start telling me a lot.

She has been asking me if she could have hot lunch all week long. I kept telling her that on Friday's I will let her have hot lunch. Finally last night after reviewing the menu I realized that every Friday they have fish of some sort. She is a very picky eater, and I know that fish will not go over well. So, I need to let her pick which day going forward. It is funny to me that she is so anxious to have hot lunch. I remember as a kid we always had hot lunch, and only got a cold packed lunch on a field trip, field day, or a party day where it was required. It was such a special thing for us to bring a cold lunch, and I always looked forward to the few days I had one. I guess we all look forward to the things we get the least even if it is sick hot lunch from a school cafeteria. So, today is her hot lunch day and luckily besides fish sticks they are serving chili and cornbread which she does like.

Well, I am over the fact that she is no longer at home with me all day. So, I look forward to this new school year, and the fun events/memories that will take place along the way.

Lemonade! Get Your Lemonade!

A few months ago I made this table cover for Summer to do a lemonade stand. Unfortunately it rained for the next two weeks here, and then I just kept putting it off. Finally we went ahead and set up her stand for business on Thursday. We went out around 4:50 just when people started coming home from work. Since we still live in a complex we went near the mail boxes and set up there.

Summer was so excited to finally get a chance to sell some lemonade.
Here she is in action. She held up the sign and waved it around. She also sold cookies that were pretty much melting in the heat.
After about 10 minutes of being out there she decided it was pretty hot. So she had some lemonade and said that helped to cool her down.

People were so generous and nice to such a cute little girl. Several people bought a cup of lemonade and left her and extra .50 cents to $1.00 for her hard work. The only person who had a problem with it was the guard who said that I should get permission from the HOA. I didn't realize that it would be a problem for little kids to have a little lemonade stand.

She had a lot of fun, and that is what matters. She is learning to work, earn, and have fun. The only big problem about having a lemonade stand in Houston is the location of the stand. I guess I didn't look hard enough, because I set our chairs up right over a bunch of fire ants. We both got attacked, and that is when we hauled everything in and went home. She did sell all of her lemonade and most of the cookies.

I would say it was a successful day of lemonade drinking and selling.

Blue Bell Ice Cream! YUM!

Since Summer is going to start kindergarten on the 23rd I thought we should go on a field trip to get in the school spirit. Actually, we have been wanting to visit the Blue Bell factory for some time now. We were hoping to go in April when the Blue Bonnets were in bloom because I hear it is quite a sight.

We ended up going on a super hot day which is normal for us here in Houston. That just made the ice cream that much more yummy.

It was interesting to see how they make the ice cream, and to see all the workers packing it up ready for shipment. The only husband who did come actually use to work for Dryers in high school. So it was interesting to hear his experiences working with ice cream and of course eating a lot of it too.

The kids were very happy to get a scoop of their choice. Summer had to have the same as Kate and Sawyer of course. They chose Krazy Kookie Dough which hot pink and blue colored sugar cookie dough. It sure was sugary just what Summer loves. I had to try the Blackberry Cobbler thanks to a friends facebook comment about how good it was. She was right. It was so good that I came back home and bought some to give to Phil since he didn't get to come with us.

They actually had an affordable souvenir in the country store which was perfect. Straight from my childhood were these ice cream cone poppers. The kids had so much fun asking each other if they wanted a lick of ice cream followed by a pop in the nose by the foam ice cream. So Fun!
If you don't live in on of the lucky 17 states that carry Blue Bell you are missing out. They serve vanilla at any Outback Steakhouse, but that will not do it justice. It really is pretty good.

It was a fun road trip, and we look forward to coming up with another one soon.

Chixie the Froggie

About two months ago Summer got to pick out a couple tadpoles at the local garden center. We brought them home, and followed the instructions for taking care of them. She named one Squirt because it was small, and one Chixie because she made it up and felt it would be a good name I guess. Unfortunately Squirt only made it a couple of days before it died.

Over time we watched the tadpole eat a lot of lettuce, and slowly get bigger. One week I noticed that its appearance was changing a bit. Summer and I kept watching for legs to grow. They finally did, and within a few days it popped out front legs too, or are they arms? Anyhow, it was almost a little frog. The next morning it lost its tail, and would not stay in the water, so we decided that now it must be a frog. It was about the size of Summer's fingernail.

We have been trying to feed it food, but it refuses to eat what we give him. Since it wasn't eating it also wasn't growing. We decided it was time to release Chixie the froggie at the park so that hopefully it would find food that was more appealing.

Summer finally got brave and held her little froggie before we let it go live in the lilly pads at the park. Look how small it is.

It really was super interesting for us to watch the transformation from tadpole to frog. If you haven't ever tried it you should because it is entertaining.

Whenever we go to this park we are sure to find other animals. This time it was a bunny.

The good old tire swings. I remember playing on these every day as a kid. Ours was a really tire, and we would flip it upside down and through the chains to make it higher off the ground, and more dangerous.
She is natural at swinging on bars. I really need to get her in gymnastics again. She is like a little monkey.

One last goodbye to our little frog Chixie. I hope it survives, but at least we will never really know for sure. We will just assume the it thrives, and if we ever see a larger frog at the same park we will pretend it is Chixie.

Oh No We Have a Shopper on Our Hands!

Summer is going to start school here on August 23rd. I can't believe she will be in kindergarten. I still don't know who her teacher will be, or what school supplies she needs.

We decided to go school clothes shopping, or at least looking since we may go on the no sales tax day coming up. She has always loved trying on clothes in the dressing room and insists on doing a dance and singing a song in the mirror before she will take the outfit off and try another one on.

This time when we went she was just so excited about it all. She found this shirt with a scarf on it that you can wear as a scarf, a belt, or a headband. She was begging me to let her have it. Since it was on clearance for $5 I went ahead and got it for her.

I saw this one on the rack and asked her if she wanted to try it on. She said I am not a boy and I don't want to wear a tie like a boy. Then I explained that this is made for a girl and that is why there is a matching skirt and a little bit of pink in it. After trying it on she decided she wanted it too. I did not get it yet because I was not sure what Phil would think of these 80's/90's style clothes. That is why we took pictures of all the clothes we tried on. She keeps asking me when we are getting her the tie.
Ok, so most of the stuff I tried on there was pretty normal, but there really were a ton of 80's clothes. They are actually cute for little kids.
She did a bunch of twirls in these outfits, but my junky camera of course can't really capture that.
This was by far the most 80's of all the ones we tried on. I sure do love the 80's, but I never thought I would be dressing my kids in 80's clothing for normal day attire. It was also her absolute favorite because of the fake necklaces that are printed on and embellished with rhinestones. She is such a girl.
It really was fun spending a few hours shopping around and trying on clothes with Summer. She makes it very entertaining when she pretends to be a rock star in the mirror. I sure do love it.

She is so excited to start school. She asks me everyday when school starts, and if she gets to go tomorrow. Today I caught her trying on the new clothes that I did get for her. She can't wait to join the big kids in the big school. On the other hand I am kind of sad. In fact I was watching some videos that I posted a long time ago on my facebook page. I got a little emotional when I saw how little she was then and how she spoke like a baby. She really has just grown up right before my eyes, and I wonder where I have been. She thought it was so funny to her herself talk like a baby and pronounce things wrong. She just kept laughing at it.

Anyhow, we will really be shopping again soon. Maybe I will find some really rad 80's looks to blog about.

****Independence Day Celebrations****

We sure are grateful to live in a country that provides us with so much freedom. We love celebrating our country's Independence Day's. For Canada day which is July 1st we had a yummy dinner with a Canadian table decorations. Usually I like to do something special Canada Day too.

Since July 4th fell on a Sunday we actually started our celebrations on Saturday the 3rd. We were all worried that everything was going to be canceled because of the rain we were getting from a hurricane South of us. We actually didn't plan on doing anything because everything was flooded and the rain was not letting up.

Luckily we woke up on Saturday with the sun peaking through the clouds. We then headed to the parade and carnival. One thing about rain storms in Houston is that afterwards it is not cool and fresh feeling like in the North. Instead it gets super duper humid. I think every person at the carnival had there clothes sticking to them, and it was super uncomfortable. However, I am so happy that the rain did stop and we were still able to enjoy the fun.

You will notice a blurry spot on the upper left of these pictures. That is some of the humidity on my lens. Good thing I have a cheapy camera.

This year Summer was not timid about running after the candy they throw. She got way too much, but she sure had fun.

Anyone want a Delorean? There must be a club here because there were five Deloreans grouped together with their doors up.


On Sunday we went to the Stake Center in Lexington to join in a Star Spangled Sing-along. Afterwards we stayed in the church parking lot for viewing fireworks. That was really fun too. It is nice being with friends and waiting for a fun event to start.

I hope you all had a fun weekend with Indpendence Day festivities. I really am proud to be an American and I love being patriotic. I think if I ever move to Canada someday that I will still insist on driving to the US for the 4th of July. It is a must.