Monday, August 27, 2007

First day of school








Off go my 4th and 2nd graders. I'm not sure if I should throw a party or go crawl under the covers. :) :( They go to Heritage Elementary School - a great school with even better teachers. Madison got Mrs. Shivers (who lives down the street from us) and Rylee Mrs. Lee. The girls are always so excited to go back to school, secretly, they think I'm quite boring. Equally as exciting as the first day is the cookies and milk when they get home!

Friday, August 24, 2007

Girls get their ears pierced!





Wahoo! The day finally arrives! Madison and Rylee have been counting down the days, hours and minutes until they get their ears pierced. They have acquired quite the collection of earrings and we have spent more hours in Claires than I care to admit. The deal was if they could go the whole summer without sugar, they could have them pierced early. We agreed to give them each 3 'sugar passes' and were a little more lax on our vacation to Portland and Maui. I am a firm believer that bribery can be a positive thing! I love the picture with them holding hands before the earring gun gets em'!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Activity Days



I love these girls! I was called to serve in Activity Days a few months after we moved here so I guess you could call this our 3rd annual Swim Party at the Malagas. I couldn't think of a better calling, and I love that Madison is in there with me.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Austin, Texas










We have lived in Texas now for 2 1/2 years and have only driven through Austin a few times. Needless to say, it was time to check it out. Austin is totally different than the rest of the state - it has hills. :) Actually, it's a lot like Portland, very green, tree hugging wierdos, tons of organized outside activities, lots of different bodies of water, etc.
We brought Maddie & Rylee's great friends along, Megan and Emily Sonneborn.
Our first stop was the Congress street bridge which has the largest bat colony in North America lurking underneath. Supposedly, if you are there between 8:30-9:30pm, you will see hundreds of bats leaving for their nighttime activities. We tried to get a picture of the lone bat we saw, but it was too dark, hmm. Must be some kind of tourist marketing ploy :}
We had an awesome time at the state capitol; seriously. The girls were very entertained by the enormous stars everywhere, and were excited to go to Govenor Perrys office and tell him what they thought about the TAKS (a state issued test no kid likes) test! We didn't get to see Govenor Perry, but they did make him aware of their displeasure in his guestbook. We spent the next day at the movie theater and holed up in the hotel (swimming, pillow fights and the like!) because of torrential rains.
We had a wonderful time and thank the Sonneborns for letting their girls come along.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Maui, Hawaii...






Steve's brother Joe and his wife Susan invited us to come stay with them at their place in Maui again this year, which is a very good sign that we didn't mess things up too bad last time! We had such an amazing time, Maui seems so surreal to me. Joe & Susan live right on a beautiful snorkeling beach and next to that a beautiful beach perfect for 'shelling' - for us Howlees (SP?), that's collecting sea shells.:) Our schedule was pretty much dictated by these two activities and we came home with an extra (extra special smelling, too) suitcase full of seashells. With a blog spot in mind, I took lots of pictures, but apparently Zowee didn't like the idea and ate the camera chip. :( I'm currently looking for a camera chip restoration store...

Sunday, August 5, 2007

My first blog

I can't believe I'm doing it. A blogspot. I think the guilt has set in and won't leave me alone. Season and Sage have been dilligently journaling their families lives and have the cutest, most exciting blogspots. I'm not nearly as creative or punctual as they are, but I'll give it a shot!