Kamikaze Bird

Last week, Michael came home to this scene - a window in the garage door had been broken.

 

Seemed pretty strange because if someone was trying to break into the garage to steal our brooms, this would not be the window to break.  So, after looking around and noticing that nothing was missing, Michael noticed something new in the garage...feathers scattered all around and a dead bird.  Below is a very artistic photograph of the dead bird.  Note the distance from the garage door.  We aren't real sure how this happened or how the bird came to lay to rest at nearly the back of the garage.   Quite a mystery, but clearly this poor bird had a really bad day.

And normally I wouldn't put a pic of a dead bird in the blog, and the story would generally not be  blog-worthy, although it is kind of fascinating, but Addy's fascination in it all makes it worth documenting.  She immediately came inside and began drawing a picture to depict the scene.  You might think that she'd be upset by the dead bird, but I guess we talk enough about Michael's hunting and shooting birds that she was relatively unphased by the bird aspect of things.  I think that she was more concerned with the glass all over the garage floor.  This might be one of her best pics to date

And one of my favorite things is the writing at the bottom.  Sure, it is backwards, but she spelled out "ded brd"  (a.k.a. dead bird).  She did this all by herself and she wrote the words based on the sounds.  I'm pretty proud!  Oh and I also like that she drew our car to look more like a tractor.  It is an impressively accurate depiction of the scene of the crime (minus the fact that we don't drive a tractor). 

13.1

On October 23rd, Michael ran in the  Houston 1/2 Marathon.  13.1 miles before 10:00 am is pretty darn impressive (I rarely drive that far much less walk or run that far!)  He had a great run, and all the training that he did definitely seemed to have paid off.  Here are his stats...

Chip time first half: 58:50.18
First half pace: 8:59 / mile
Chip time second half: 57:57.30
Second half pace: 8:51 / mile
Overall time: 1:56:47.48
Overall pace: 8:55 / mile
Overall rank: 756th of 2733
35 - 40 Age Group rank: 94th of 224

Dad, Mary, Helen and Dick all set up chairs along Memorial and were there to cheer him on at the 5 and 10 mile marks.  Then the girls and I met him at the finish line.  It was lots of fun and we are all super proud.  He claims that 13.1 is as far as he is going to go...but before you know it he is going to be preparing for a marathon!

Here are the girls anxiously awaiting Daddy's arrival!

All the runners got a finisher medal, but it might as well be a first prize medal, Addy is quite enamored by it.  I must say it is a pretty snazzy medal, but it is also a bottle opener which is probably the coolest feature!  Here is Addy's rendition of Daddy's medal and I scanned the medal itself so you can see the real deal too! 

Aggieland Weekend

I'm not sure we could have asked for a more perfect weekend in College Station.
Amazing time catching up with old friends.
Great to meet some of the hubbies for the first time.
Fabulous game with the Aggies beating Baylor  55 - 28.
2 nights of staying up WAY past our normal bedtime and being able to sleep in the next morning.
6 cute girls in matching t-shirts that we wore all day and all night on Saturday.
Can't wait to do it again soon! 

Couldn't miss an opportunity for the sorority pose.

I think that we all bought cute clothes to wear out on Saturday, but nope, we went out after the game and never went home and changed. 

Happy 5th Birthday Addy!!!

Can you believe it - our little girl is 5 years old?!  We had 20 of her friends join us at the Little Gym for a birthday celebration the Sunday before her birthday.  Then that evening we had the family over for a smaller get-together.  And finally, on her actual birthday, the four of us celebrated with presents and dinner at Chick-Fil-A.  She certainly felt celebrated by the end of it all!! 

Here are some pics from the big birthday bash

Family pic with us all looking in different directions!

The Girls

 Addy got a new leotard for an early birthday present. 

Addy and Ethan.  

Ethan may not be in on the plan, but according to Addy she is going to marry Ethan and they are going to live in Austin.   

Action shot of Addy jumping down the tumble track.

All the kiddos riding the tumble track down as it deflates.

Who doesn't love bubbles?!

Addy's friends posing for a birthday pic.

top: Tyler, Addison, Ethan (aka Addy and her boys)

standing: Moriah, Alex, Daphne, Kyle S., William

front row: Grayson, Nora, Ella, Sam, Emily, Sarah, Quinn, James, Shira, Benjamin, Joshua

One very excited birthday girl!

 Snack and cupcake time.

 It is the year of Strawberry Shortcake

Mommy and Ella

Our house is really busting at the seams with all the new toys!  Her friends know her well - lots of fun craft projects and sticker projects. 

Help!

"I'm stuck in my laundry basket!" - Ella

note: I got her out and then 30 seconds later she had crawled back in and got stuck again

BYM Family Picnic

Michael was at his boy's hunting weekend, so I decided to take the girls to the picnic that my mom's group hosts each year.  There isn't much to it, but there was a face painter and balloon "artist", food...I had signed up, not actually talking to any friends to see if we'd even know anyone, but ended up having a number of friends there.  I was very proud of Addy, she waited FOREVER for the face painter.  Not even sure I would have been that patient.  Also good to have friend there so that they could hang out with Addy in line while I chased Ella around.  Ella was not so patient!

Here was the end result of a long time in line.  It was actually a bit fancier than it looks in this pic, it had faded a bit by the time I took the pic (in case you are thinking to yourself - they waited in line for this?!  Because that is a legit question.)

Once Addy was off and running, playing with her friend Brooke on the playground, Ella spent some time in the swing.  This kid could swing for days I think.  She LOVES it!

Butterfly Museum

Addy had been requesting to go to the Butterfly Museum for weeks and it is quite tricky to figure out a good time to go, with her in school 5 days a week.  Even on the short days, she gets home and then we have lunch and Ella naps, then it just seems tricky to get back out in the afternoon.  Not sure why though.  But thanks to a slew of Jewish holidays this month and the school being closed, a couple of Fridays ago we actually made it to the museum.  I was too chicken to take both kids alone, so I recruited Dad to go with me.  A fun time was had by all.  The butterflies were super active, we'd never seen them flying around so much and Addy actually wanted to spend a decent amount of time in the butterfly part.  Usually it feels like we zoom through it. 

Here are the pics to commemorate the trip...

 Addy couldn't wait to climb into the honeycomb.  Ella, not real sure about it.

 Granddad and Ella checkin' out the bugs.

 I asked Addy if she wanted to turn her bed into a caterpillar bed since she looks so comfy here.  She wasn't real excited about that idea.

Really Ella?

Yes, that is my baby kneeling on the dining room table.  I know it was maybe not the best to snap a pic when she was clearly doing something she shouldn't be, but for the sake of the blog I had to do it!  Addy was totally not a climber, and I always felt sorry for my friends that would talk about their kids climbing onto everything.  And now I am that mom telling the stories about my climber.

She has been climbing from the couch to the end table for a while, we'll look over and she is standing straight up on the end table.  Then tonight she grabbed the stool (which was purchased to help Addy reach things, not for Ella) and hopped up on the chair and proceeded to climb onto the dining room table.  This was actually the 2nd time I caught her up there. Then after dinner she used her chair at the table in the family room and was crawling onto that table before we knew it.  Ugh!

Ella the Bike Rider

 Ella is having a blast riding the tricycle these days.  She doesn't really put her feet on the pedals yet, still not quite tall enough (although close!) but she loves to ride around the neighborhood.  And by ride I mean that she likes to sit on it and be pushed around the neighborhood.  Not sure which is her favorite at the moment, the tricycle might be giving the wagon a run for its money! 

Remembering Rain

When it finally rained a few weeks ago, it was quite exciting.  Sadly, at one point it thundered and Addison asked "what is that noise?"  Not sure if she was just being a 4 year old, or if it had really been that long since she'd heard thunder and she forgot what it sounded like! 

Anyway, took a pic of the girls watching it rain to commemorate the event. 

I Love This Kid

This picture was taken at 9:00 this morning.  Still sound asleep! 

I love the big kid just as much, but she woke up at 7:45.  Fortunately she is content watching TV shows while I continue to snooze on the couch!

Fun with Swanns

The Swann family that is!  Had a great time hanging out and catching up last Sunday afternoon.  It was funny to see the boys vs. girls.  And I think that Tyler really needs a little sister!  He did a great job watching over Ella.  There was no chance of getting a good pic of all 4 kids looking at the camera and smiling, but here is what I got. 

 Kiddie dinnertime!  I think that Tyler is helping feed Ella her mac 'n cheese. 

 This is a cute one! 

End of the night, tired kids vegging out on the couch watching TV. 

Small Garden Success

Not having rain for months on end this summer has taken its toll on the garden.  Keeping fingers crossed for some rain and maybe more garden success this fall!  We did end up with an edible carrot the other day though.  The expert gardener I am planted too many carrot seeds, too close together, so we've mainly had skinny, scrappy carrots because they had no where to grow.  Addy thoroughly enjoyed this one for dinner the other day

Photo Day

First Aggie game of the season, new Aggie skirts for the girls = photo day!

 I had to bribe Addy to come outside and take pictures, but this one makes it all worth it! 

 Miss Ella will not stand still!  

 Michael and his girls watching the game.

Last year I started a family photo day tradition, with the goal being to take a family photo each month.  And apparently I remembered to do it for a few months at the end of 2010 and then in 2011 completely forgot about it.   So here is the 1st official one for 2011 - let the funny family pics begin. 

 This was supposed to be a family pic, but the timer went off before Michael made it to the couch.  I had no idea there was a teddy bear sitting on me through all of these. 

For the Memory Book

And for the record book - it was hot the summer of 2011.  End of August, 5:00 in the afternoon it was 104 degrees.  AND this thermometer is in the shade!

Queso

Our whole family is fan of queso, it is pretty much all Addy wants when we go eat Mexican (which is pretty much weekly).  But Ella is getting into it - in a BIG way.  She has to dip her own chips now.  And not only was she dipping chips, but also chicken and her fingers.  If she had been closer, she would have been taking handfulls of the stuff.  These aren't the best pics since they were taken on a phone, but they show the madness that was our dinner table tonight. 

Big girl dipping her own chips!

"See my cheesy fingers" (and face and shirt!)