Ella The Soccer Star

Today we introduced Houston to the cutest soccer player in town!  In true Ella style, she did the complete opposite of what I expected.  Her team color is light green, but the uniforms are not in yet, so they said to just wear the closest you had - this is about the only light green shirt we have and Ella put it on with no fuss.  I had zero expectations of her wearing shorts, but the biker shorts came to mind and she put them on again with no fuss.  Then there were the shin guards and shoes.  Our past attempts at putting these on did not go well, so I expected screaming.  Nope, she put them on like she had been wearing them for years.  The shin guards did come off mid practice, but she doesn't have the right socks yet, so they were scratchy - I was just amazed she wore them as long as she did!  I asked her if she wanted her hair in a pony tail, yep, no problem. 

Here is Ella with a sign that Addison made for her. Addison really got into getting Ella ready and was helping at practice until she found one of her friends, then they ran off together!

So, when we got to the field, I expected her to cling to my leg.  There were periods of that, but she did awesome otherwise.  We started out with a "practice", so there was some kicking into the goal, attempts to kick to other team members.  Basically a lots of kids, parents and soccer balls running around on the field.  Ella was a huge fan of setting the ball up by the goal and kicking it in.  Then we had a "game" with another team.  Pretty much the same as practice, except there was only one ball and parents were at least trying to not be on the field as much.  It was minutes of chaos mixed with minutes of what looked like proper soccer.  The kids are obviously not use to playing ball only with their feet, so we'd be yelling to go get the ball and they would run over and pick it up.  When Ella was engaged she definitely showed potential, she is a fan of trying to get the ball and kicking the ball, but not really a fan when she didn't get the ball, so that typically resulted in her running over to me.  Overall week 1 was a huge success I'd say.  Not going to lie, I was dreading it a bit, but it was a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to the weeks to come!

San Antonio Vacation

We had a fun time in San Antonio last weekend.  HISD was closed on Friday, so we took advantage of the long weekend to get a quick family vacation in.  It was a bit of an adventure.  Our first stop was the River Walk.  When we went back when Addy was 3ish, it was raining when we were at the river so we didn't get to go on the boat ride, so we made sure to do that 1st thing.  Then we walked around for a bit and had dinner.  At the end of the day I would have said it was torture for the girls, all they really cared about was getting to the hotel and maybe every 5 minutes one of them asked "when are we going to the hotel".  But then on Saturday Addison asked to go back to the Riverwalk, so I guess it wasn't too bad.  I had fun! 

Here is a picture of Michael and the girls on one of the bridges.  We learned on our boat tour that this bridge was also in some movie (totally don't remember the name of the movie), but it is a famous bridge!

Saturday was a SeaWorld filled day.  I think we got there around 10:20 and left right before the park closed at 6.  The sea lion show was our first stop and for some reason Ella FREAKED out and cried through most of the show.  We are not sure what exactly set her off, maybe it was the animals and people together??  It seemed to start when the pre-show entertainer "fell" in the water - she totally did not appreciate his humor!  After that show she was ready to go back to the hotel.  Obviously that didn't happen and fortunately the rest of the day was less dramatic.  Not drama free though!  We saw Shamu, the dolphins (although you can't walk up and feed them anymore, appointment only, oops, we didn't research that and Addy was a bit disappointed), saw the penguins and fishes galore, there was a super cute Pet show with dogs and cats that was probably the highlight for Ella.  It was very fun.  Hot, but fun!

At the end of the day the girls played on the big climbing thing and I was certain Ella would get up there and get stuck and we'd have to go rescue her, but she ran around up there like a champ.  I thought that they would stick together, but they both went on their merry way...made them stop for 2 seconds to capture this pic. 

I think the highlight for me was Sunday.  We got up and went to the Natural Bridge Caverns Wildlife Park.  It is like a safari in Texas.  No lions and tigers, but the ostrich and zebra were an adventure enough.  Things started off tame, a lot of deer like animals that would stroll along the car and we'd throw food out to them (food the park provided - not goldfish!)  Everyone was happy.  Here is Ella smiling with a little deer in the background.  And they totally were not deer, but some crazy African name, so I'm going with deer. 

Then we get to a section and see this zebra picture.  I may frame this and hang it in the house.  it is hilarious.  But makes you a little leery about the zebra.  Little did we know, the zebra were nothing compared to the ostrich. 

Here is a picture of our friend.  Also the reason Ella will forever been traumatized when she sees a picture of an ostrich.  This guy is cute and innocent in this picture, but a second after I snapped the pic, this guy stuck his head in the car window and tried to grab the bag of food off of Addison's seat right there.  Fortunately the bag was too heavy so he dropped it and didn't run off with it, but unfortunately he dropped it in my car and there were food pellets all over the place.  Addison picked most of it up, problem solved, we were OK.  Ella was ready to head home though.  Birds in the car are not her idea of a fun time.  Rest of us thought it was hilarious.  Hadn't seen any zebra at this point.  

Then we see the zebra.  Most are just hanging out on the side of the road like this guy, but we'd been talking about the zebra biting sign, the ostrich stuck his head in the window, Ella is on the floor of the car in the front screaming she wants to go home.  Next thing we know, a zebra is walking up to my window and proceeds to stick his head in the car.  I'm laughing  and trying to not get any closer than I am, Ella is on the floor at my feet screaming louder because the zebra is now right above her head.  I wish I'd had my camera out to get a close up of our friendly zebra.  It was an adventure and totally hilarious. 

Needless to say, that was enough adventure for the day.  The park lets you drive through the safari multiple times, but the girls were done.  So, we went to the petting zoo there on the facility and  as usual, the girls LOVED the goats.  Nice and peaceful end to the adventure! 

Little Jumper

All I have to say is that she wouldn't even get in the water at the beginning of the summer and now she is doing this...

Last Beach Weekend of Summer

We had a super fun Labor Day weekend at the beach.  We spoiled ourselves by taking the pop up canopy, so we were made in the shade which meant we spent 3X as long down by the water, which was great.  Even ate lunch down there.  There was plenty of sand play, but the water was the big hit this weekend.  The water wasn't too rough, and the girls discovered the 2nd sandbar and loved that they could stand out there and just jump the "swells".  Not sure when we'll make it down again...craziness of fall has started!