All aboard the crazy train to Brazos Bend for an overnight camping trip! 5 kids, 2 parents. Only one child was our own :) Thank God these were all good kids. It's what made the trip work so well and actually made it fun!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Anna's first tent camping trip
Paul gives the girls a lesson on how to start a fire. We got to Brazos Bend after dark but everyone was in great spirits and so we made s'mores!
Anna's first tent camping trip
Getting ready for first night sleeping in a tent! Brazos Bend with her friends.
Anna's first tent camping trip
Getting ready for bed. Yes we brought the DVD player. With 5 kids of different ages, it beat the arguement between Go Fish and poker!
Anna's first overnight tent camping trip
She's always super happy when we sleep together on travel. She was all smiles following her night of camping in the tent! She was surrounded by her buddies and mom and dad! She did great overnight. No issues at all. In fact, other than the need for someone to have to potty every hour, they all did really great sleeping in the tent. No one got scared or even wanted their mommy or daddy. There were 5 kids total: Ommom's 2, Anna, and my neice Kaitlyn (also her first time in a tent) and her friend. They were all great kids and we had a blast!
Anna's first overnight in a tent
Got to touch an alligator at Brazos Bend during their overnight camp trip following the morning of her birthday party.
Anna's dance prep
Took this picture last week before Anna's dance class. Thought it was blog-worthy ;)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Is the week over yet?
We pulled off one big happy 3rd year birthday party for Anna, an overnight camping trip with 5 kids, kept Ommom’s kids alive through the weekend and on to school today, and got happy birthday cupcakes to Anna’s class (that I remembered when I woke at 2:30am this morning and ran to Kroger for in my PJ’s). The logistics would require paragraphs. Paul and I make a good team! One exhausted team, but dang we pulled THAT off.
Thank goodness all of the kids, including Anna, are such darned well-behaved kids. It’s how you really pull this off, or how you care to pull it off in the first place.
I even fit Bible Study in there, where I learned that the only way to have a relationship with God is through Christ and if you choose not to, it’s just that you’ll go to Hell. But it’s OK, Hell is apparently not the fire and brimstone metaphor we’ve all heard about…
And this morning the Congressional visit went well. Heck, they were running so late, there was no time for them to grill me over science details so I’m glad I didn’t have time to obsess about it all weekend, and instead just enjoyed the beautiful weather and the noisy kids.
By the way, today’s Anna’s real birthday. At 3:23pm, to be exact.
Stories and pictures to follow.
Friday, March 5, 2010
I'm sorry, you want me to talk to WHO?
Tomorrow I will be serving Yo Gabba Gabba cake to about 14 kids and their parents.
On Monday I will apparently be talking to members of Congress about ISS Science during their visit here at JSC. Julie is in Tokyo then, and this last minute item popped up. I'm the go-to.
Somewhere between serving cake, making s'mores, prepping for Mon night’s lecture, and bible study (did I not mention I'm doing that now? Oh. That's another post I keep forgetting), I should have time to study what I should say so Congress doesn’t send ISS into the ocean.
Giddyup!
On Monday I will apparently be talking to members of Congress about ISS Science during their visit here at JSC. Julie is in Tokyo then, and this last minute item popped up. I'm the go-to.
Somewhere between serving cake, making s'mores, prepping for Mon night’s lecture, and bible study (did I not mention I'm doing that now? Oh. That's another post I keep forgetting), I should have time to study what I should say so Congress doesn’t send ISS into the ocean.
Giddyup!
When Anna stages a coup
When I picked Anna up from school on Wednesday she was on her way to Time Out. Her teacher Miss Romy proceeded to tell me, in her Chilean accent, that it was because Anna didn't want to come inside from the playground, and she "used her influence on the rest" to encourage them to resist holding on to the walking rope to come inside. (Not sure if they all ran away or what they actually did to resist...)
Did you just say "her influence on them?" Don't you mean "used her leadership skills"? LMAO!! Actually, it's her other co-teacher, Miss Dawn, the ex-psychologist (who used the word "recalcitrant" to explain Anna's previous bad behavior) who would have put it that way...
Trying to look mortified for her behavior (again) I agreed with Miss Romy that Anna needed to serve her Time Out before we left. Because I was there, Anna was on her way to a bigger fit than necessary so I ended up in Time Out with her while she clutched my hand and we both stared at the two-minute hour glass timer.
Frankly I could use a Time Out more often.
Did you just say "her influence on them?" Don't you mean "used her leadership skills"? LMAO!! Actually, it's her other co-teacher, Miss Dawn, the ex-psychologist (who used the word "recalcitrant" to explain Anna's previous bad behavior) who would have put it that way...
Trying to look mortified for her behavior (again) I agreed with Miss Romy that Anna needed to serve her Time Out before we left. Because I was there, Anna was on her way to a bigger fit than necessary so I ended up in Time Out with her while she clutched my hand and we both stared at the two-minute hour glass timer.
Frankly I could use a Time Out more often.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Our last week of TWO
This is the last week that our baby is TWO. Is she still a toddler when she turns THREE, or will she be an official pre-schooler?
Moms of other Marchies Anna's age have lamented each and every birthday starting with #1. They'd get depressed that their sweet little baby is growing up and moving on, feeling less and less needed. They loved the cuddly sweet baby moments. They loved being needed and all the other great stuff that comes along with the baby years.
I, for one, have never lamented the previous two birthdays. On year 1 and year 2 I thought: BRING IT ON! If you know me well, you know I'm not a fan of the baby period. Anna started amazing me for real right around the age of 14 months old and it's blasted off from there, getting better and better.
Birthday # 1 taught me that progress can be made on helping to develop a little life.
Birthday #2 taught me that the progress starts to develop a little person.
Birthday #3 I am lamenting for the first time.
Two years old was fun. No lie, you can look through the last year of this blog and clearly see the frustrations associated with gaining independence, cognitive leaps, my having to pull out every strand of patience I never thought I even had, and the famous car seat screaming episodes in May and October (see I can recite the months: I am scarred for life on those). But TWO was outrageously cool. She wasn't a baby, she was our little growing person. Today we use the word "big girl". She is now capable of being proud and embarrassed, scared, and brave.
She told me last April she'd stay TWO forever. But she has not. On Monday she will be THREE.
Birthday #3 is teaching me about her soul. This little person has a soul and she is here to share it with us, and for us to help grow it so that she can become the best soul that she can be.
When I get frustrated or impatient, it's hard to remember in the moment that she chose us as parents. There's something her soul liked about us in the first place. So when the chaos is over and I get a chance to think about how to be the best mom I can be, I realize she loves Paul and me for who we are in the first place. And if we show her the best of our souls, she will thrive. After all, Paul and I are really cool people! :)
I will miss TWO. So many amazing things happened developmentally that floored us, excited us as parents, and made us nuts.
But I do look forward to THREE for different reasons. She is getting closer to being the beautiful, soulful woman I have high hopes she becomes. Even if she ends up a Taco Bell manager somewhere.
Is that too much pressure for THREE? Oh well, at least she'll enjoy the Yo Gabba Gabba cake!
Moms of other Marchies Anna's age have lamented each and every birthday starting with #1. They'd get depressed that their sweet little baby is growing up and moving on, feeling less and less needed. They loved the cuddly sweet baby moments. They loved being needed and all the other great stuff that comes along with the baby years.
I, for one, have never lamented the previous two birthdays. On year 1 and year 2 I thought: BRING IT ON! If you know me well, you know I'm not a fan of the baby period. Anna started amazing me for real right around the age of 14 months old and it's blasted off from there, getting better and better.
Birthday # 1 taught me that progress can be made on helping to develop a little life.
Birthday #2 taught me that the progress starts to develop a little person.
Birthday #3 I am lamenting for the first time.
Two years old was fun. No lie, you can look through the last year of this blog and clearly see the frustrations associated with gaining independence, cognitive leaps, my having to pull out every strand of patience I never thought I even had, and the famous car seat screaming episodes in May and October (see I can recite the months: I am scarred for life on those). But TWO was outrageously cool. She wasn't a baby, she was our little growing person. Today we use the word "big girl". She is now capable of being proud and embarrassed, scared, and brave.
She told me last April she'd stay TWO forever. But she has not. On Monday she will be THREE.
Birthday #3 is teaching me about her soul. This little person has a soul and she is here to share it with us, and for us to help grow it so that she can become the best soul that she can be.
When I get frustrated or impatient, it's hard to remember in the moment that she chose us as parents. There's something her soul liked about us in the first place. So when the chaos is over and I get a chance to think about how to be the best mom I can be, I realize she loves Paul and me for who we are in the first place. And if we show her the best of our souls, she will thrive. After all, Paul and I are really cool people! :)
I will miss TWO. So many amazing things happened developmentally that floored us, excited us as parents, and made us nuts.
But I do look forward to THREE for different reasons. She is getting closer to being the beautiful, soulful woman I have high hopes she becomes. Even if she ends up a Taco Bell manager somewhere.
Is that too much pressure for THREE? Oh well, at least she'll enjoy the Yo Gabba Gabba cake!
Monday, March 1, 2010
My Life is Now Complete
Actual Twitter exchange today:
@ThisIsRobThomas: Sometimes, when I'm tweeting from my blackberry, which is a lot, I can't SEE who I'm tweeting. So I don't always know who I'm answering.
@Spacemama: Forget the blackberry and go Iphone. So much easier to do everything, including Twitter. Friendlier interfaces.
@ThisIsRobThomas: @Spacemama, I'm a blackberry man.
For those of you who do not use Twitter, I follow Rob Thomas on Twitter and today I actually replied to his tweet to tell him to go iPhone. Never figure he'd answer, he's got like a gazillion fans. HE ANSWERED ME with three simple words (I'm a blackberry man).
Even though he's wrong, drrrroooooooooooooooooooooollll.
@ThisIsRobThomas: Sometimes, when I'm tweeting from my blackberry, which is a lot, I can't SEE who I'm tweeting. So I don't always know who I'm answering.
@Spacemama: Forget the blackberry and go Iphone. So much easier to do everything, including Twitter. Friendlier interfaces.
@ThisIsRobThomas: @Spacemama, I'm a blackberry man.
For those of you who do not use Twitter, I follow Rob Thomas on Twitter and today I actually replied to his tweet to tell him to go iPhone. Never figure he'd answer, he's got like a gazillion fans. HE ANSWERED ME with three simple words (I'm a blackberry man).
Even though he's wrong, drrrroooooooooooooooooooooollll.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
