Go Texan Day

Such a fun time to live in Houston!  We had a Go Texan filled morning with a pony ride for Ella at her school and then we found the trail riders and we followed them through the neighborhood and they led us to Kolter and we got to see Addison.

 Here is Ella and some of her cowgirl friends at school, ready to ride the ponies!

Very excited cowgirl Ella who woke up early this morning, carrying around her stuffed pony here at home. 

Happy Birthday!

Fun times celebrating Grandma and Granddad's birthday!

Vegas!

The girls got to vacation at Granddad and Meme's and Michael and I got to vacation in Vegas.  Our trip can be summed pretty easily - eating, drinking, sleeping, Pawn Stars and Britney!

Kolter Rocks

The theme of this year's spring fundraiser was "Kolter Rocks" and the girls got some rocker girl hair coloring to go with the theme.  There were major objections to hair washing once this was in, so we let it ride for a couple of days and then there was mandatory washing.  Fortunately for the girls, their light hair ended up tinted a bit pink for a few more days.

Artic Winter of 2014

It has been COLD this winter.  We've had two ice and snow days when school closed, yet there was minimal ice and snow.  In the city at least, maybe one pro to living in the burbs is a greater chance of frozen precipitation.  Whole bunch of hoopla and this is all we got at our house

 

Our science experiment was a success, the water froze into a block of ice and our marbles were trapped.  

Icicles were exciting for a minute or two.  Not really all that impressive, yet not something that happens regularly here!

Newest Addition to the Family

Introducing the newest addition to our family that we have high hopes for...it is the first addition in a long time that should result in a cleaner, not dirtier house!  Our new Roomba robot vacuum.  It spent an hour and 15 minutes cleaning this morning, going under furniture and cleaning parts of the floor that would never see a cleaning from me, unless we were moving the furniture.  It found a ballet slipper under a cabinet that we never would have found ourselves. 

I am excited that it is helping pick up dust and pet hair, but the biggest + to this thing is that we have told the kids that anything Roomba picks up will get thrown away, so if something is special, it better not be on the floor.  Not sure Ella cares so much, but Addy took this to heart.  We didn't clarify that it would only be cleaning the hardwood floor part of the house, so she disappeared in her room and a bit later I walked in to see this...

She was afraid the vacuum would get into to her pile of junk art supplies and crafts so she barricade it in a corner.  Now that she knows it isn't going into her room, I'm sure this stuff will be all spread out on her floor again in no time, but I am going to enjoy it while I can!

Happy New Year

We concluded 2013 with another family New Year's Eve celebration at the beach.  Was a bit chilly, but fun. 

Since it was cold, there was a lot of playing around in the house.  Girls got a bit goofy and Ella put a pull-up on her head.  She didn't realize I was taking a picture here...she is definitely our little entertainer!

We did venture down to the water to let Star run around and we did some running around ourselves.   Actually got them to pause for a second for a picture. 

Ella didn't even venture outside once the fireworks started...this is her firework watching spot in the house. 

Addy and Michael and their ammo.  Things were a bit slow at the fireworks stand so the lady hooked them up with some extra free stuff - lots of noise and lights.  

Zoo Lights

Zoo marketing definitely worked this year and we made the venture to Zoo Lights.  The marketing worked on the rest of Houston too because it was crazy crowded, we even went on a Sunday night, after Christmas, thinking the hype would have died down.  We also seemed to pick the prime arrival time so we spent some quality time finding a parking spot, but it was fun once we got in.  LOTS of lights!!

Berhow Visit

Rewind yet again to Thanksgiving week - we were excited to have the whole Berhow clan in town this year.  The girls had fun hanging out with Heidi and it was nice to catchup with Susan and Jon.  Stories from the farm will never cease to be entertaining for us city folk!  We made a trip to the zoo so that Addison and Ella could show Heidi some big animals.  Who would have guessed that Manhattan, Kansas had a zoo, but it isn't quite the size and scale of the Houston Zoo.

Here is a cute pic of the cousins.  We took probably 50 more, but this one is the only one where they are remotely close to all looking at the camera. 

Thanksgiving

Rewind back to November - I failed to take single picture at Thanksgiving, so I had to ask for help from family so that there was something more to this post than my rambling.  This was a Thanksgiving for the record books - our new kitchen/living area, 21 people including all the aunts and uncles and cousins.  It was great!  Festivities started with dinner at Dad and Mary's with all of the Densons and Schroeders.  It was great fun to not be hosting and to be able to sit around and catch up and relax. 

Then Thursday was not not so relaxing, but was just as fun.  We didn't get pics of everyone, but here is the list of everyone who came 1) me, 2) Michael, 3) Addison, 4) Ella, 5) Helen, 6) Dick, 7) Susan, 8) Jon, 9) Heidi, 10) Mary, 11) Dottie, 12) Fred, 13) Michael, 14) Kristi, 15) Dave, 15) Vicki, 16) Will, 17) Ann, 18) Granny, 19) Jean, 20) Tom, and 21) Betsy.  Only person missing was Dad.  He was home sick with a 24 hour stomach bug that happen to fall right on the 24 hours surrounding Thanksgiving.  It was a bummer, but fortunately we had plenty of uncles to fill in the role of turkey fryer helper!

This may be my favorite pic, the two youngest girls on the iPhone with the beer bottle in the pic.  

Me and Michael at the Denson dinner the night before Thanksgiving.

 A sampling of the Denson crew on Thanksgiving

The girls playing in Addy's room

Me and Michael in the kitchen.  It kind of looks like he is about to stab me, but note the turkey carcass in the background.

Merry Christmas

Santa found our house again this year!  He kept it simple, but went big - Ella got a Barbie Dreamhouse Townhouse and Addy got a sewing machine.  I think that both were a pretty big hit.  It was a very Barbie Christmas for Ella, she got the house and then multiple Barbies or Barbie figurines.  The theme for Addy was crafts and reading.  There are not a lot of "needs" here at the Wolf house, but I think that the girls got most of their "wants" plus some things they didn't even know they wanted until they opened the package.  Only exception is maybe Ella, she wanted a mermaid princess fairy...Santa and the rest of us are still trying to figure out exactly what that is. 

After presents and breakfast at home, we had some time to play and then headed over to Jean and Tom's for a fiesta themed Christmas dinner.  Even had a pinata!  Here are Addy and Ella collecting the loot from the candy cane pinata. 

Granny and the girls!

 Cousin time!

Me and my Granny!

Me and my Dad!

 The family!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition continues.   Early kid-friendly church service and then dinner at the Wolfs.  I am really hoping that next year Ella can just sit and stand at the appropriate times as opposed to feeling the need to climb around the pew the entire service.  Maybe next year, or hopefully when she is five! 

After the service is over, it is mandatory that we go to the garden with the statue so that the girls can climb on the statue.  And it is a great place to take a pic!

We all had the same plan when we got together - get a picture early in the night before we forgot or people get cranky.  Well, we weren't fast enough because we were gearing up for a picture and Ella had already made it into dress up clothes.  Got this cute one at the end of the night.  I think there was some bribery involved, but we got it!

Holiday PJ Party at Kolter

Nothing like a PJ party to wrap up the end of the fall semester.  Crafts, waffles and the opportunity to wear PJs to school - not sure there is anything better!  Here is Addy with some of her friends eating some very unhealthy waffles covered with sprinkles and chocolate chips

2013 Book Character Parade

So cute that they do this.  No Halloween costumes at Addy's elementary school, but the week of Halloween they have a week focused on reading and it wraps up with a parade where the kids get to wear a costume that goes with a character in their favorite book. 

If you look closely there are a number of girls with fairy wings on - Rainbow Magic Fairy books are THE book to read if you are a 1st grader, so a number of the girls dressed up as their favorite Rainbow Magic fairy.  Here is Addy

Ella's Dentist Visit

I imported pics from my phone and found some that had been lost for a while - pics from Ella's first visit to the dentist earlier this year.  She did great, we got lucky and have 2 kids that seem to really like the dentist.  Based on comments from people at the dentist's office, that isn't always the case! 

Here is Ella posing with some dental equipment.  I wasn't thinking pictures while we were here and the lady cleaning Ella's teeth actually mentioned it, so she got her setup and posed for the official first dentist pic.  

I am not sure why, but Ella spent the whole visit with her arms above her head like this.  Not sure if it was more comfy or what, but definitely the preferred position.  It was pretty funny.  

Winter Beach Weekend

Mid November we went down to the beach for the night to get away and relax and prepare the house a bit for winter weather.  It was cold, not freezing, but I had on a jacket and jeans and was chilly down at the water.  Ella had insisted packing a swimsuit and then insisted on wearing it to the water.  It is just easier to let her do some of the crazy things she comes up with vs. fighting with a 3 year old.  Not always, but this was a case where there was really no harm.  Addy and I were finishing a card game at the house and when we go down to meet Michael and Ella at the water, we see this

Yeah, she went in the water just like it was the middle of July.

Just to prove there was no harm done and she was OK after having gone in I don't know how cold water, her is happy Ella playing in the sand in November.

College Station Reunion Weekend

Fun weekend with old friends. Sorry everyone couldn't make it this year, but it was a fun time still. Got to see the last game before the major Kyle Field renovation, likely Johnny's last home game, Aggie's 700th win, and as it turns out the last win of the season.

Who knew they would do fire works at Kyle Field!

Happy Halloween

The little witch and mermaid at Zoo Boo.  This year was a bit different in that we had a map and now that Addy can read, we spent less time looking at animals and more time having Addy find all of the candy stations on the map and we went around gathering candy.

 



 Another new thing - Addy loves playing with pumpkin goo.  She was the first to dig in and start scooping out the seeds.  Ella is still not a fan. 

 

Ella made sure that we all had costumes this year.  We were on the Halloween aisle and she found the mask and insisted that Daddy needed it for his costume.  Then she came up with the idea that I should be a cat.  Fortunately unfortunately we found the cat ears at Target one day.  So here we are in all our Halloween glory. 

 

 The kids had a BLAST trick-r-treating with our neighbors this year.  I didn't think that we'd gone to many houses, but I guess the kids got extras for being cute or something because they ended up with quite a haul!

 

 

Renaissance Festival

We made our first family visit to the Renaissance Festival.  I am not going to lie, I was a bit skeptical because of the long drive and I had never been so I didn't know what to expect, but was kind of expecting a bunch of drunk people in strange costumes.  But it turned out to be really fun.  We went with another family that have kids in both Addy and Ella's classes and we walked around the village.  Definitely something to add to the calendar on an annual basis now!

It was fairy weekend so there were people dressed up in very elaborate fairy costumes.  All of the fairies were by the entrance so we got to meet them all when we first got there.  The fairies that work at the festival all have some kind of thing that they give out, some give glass marble type things, we got a shell, a feather...just random things that the girls loved collecting.  Ella was skeptical at first and then finally warmed up to the fairies about the same time that Addy had made the rounds and we were all ready to move on.  O'well, we still walked away with plenty of treasures!

We didn't do many of the shows, did see the jousting, but it was fun just stumbling across the random musician or magician.  I have no clue what this instrument is called, but Addy got to give it a try.