Spring Break 2015 Wrap-up

We didn't have anything grand planned for C's last day of Spring Break, but it ended up being a pretty good day.  Baby has been needing new shoes for a bit, so after church on Sunday we headed to the mall.  When hubby pulled out $5 for one of those ridiculous fire truck strollers I was like "What are you doing?"  Um, the best thing ever.  Seriously, that thing was such a hit and it made our trip to the mall with our kids (something we generally avoid like the plague) actually enjoyable!  That husband of mine, he's a keeper.

We grabbed lunch at the food court and spent some time cruising in the fire truck while we waited for the shoe store to open.  They were loving it!

Just because we had the fire truck doesn't mean there wasn't some babywearing going on. :)

And preschooler wearing. ;)  This carrier was a gift for baby's 1st birthday and he is just now fitting into it nicely.  It's a toddler version so the weight limit is 50lbs (not that your back would appreciate you carrying 50lbs of child around for any length of time) but the option to carry lil' peanut has been nice.  He asks every once in awhile just for fun, or when he's having a rough time and just wants to be the baby again.  So, I'll put him up in it around the house.  These past few weeks as our move gets closer he's been in need of more snuggles so we've even used it a bit while out and about.  I asked him mid-meltdown if he wanted to go up and he immediately stopped crying.  After a 10 minute ride his love tank was all filled up and he was ready to get down and go again. :)

Seriously hubs, good call on that firetruck!

After nap time we set up the bouncer in the living room.  We split the cost of this with Grandma and Grandpa for C's 3rd birthday party.  I'd say we've definitely gotten our money's worth out of it.  I can't believe it hasn't gotten a hole yet!

Baby was not amused. 

Not. Amused.

We made an after dinner trip to Menchie's for some ice cream and Spring Break 2015 was a wrap!

Spring Break: Rodeo!

Apparently hubby has been wanting to go to the rodeo every year since we've been here (who knew he was such a cowboy at heart?!) and he decided on Friday to seize our last chance to check it out.  As we were driving up, I lamented the fact that I didn't have a pair of cowgirl boots to wear!  If ever there was a perfect occasion to sport a pair of Texas boots, it would've been to the rodeo.  The children in the family who HAD boots didn't even want to wear them!  For shame!  Ah well, we did alright with our sandals and tennis shoes.

The rodeo had never really been on my radar so I may not have had my happy face on when after our first fifteen minutes there we were dripping with sweat, had experienced one bloodied nose and multiple meltdowns...and we hadn't even made it from the parking lot to the entrance yet!  After getting our tickets and making our way to the giant Agriculture building our day took a 180 (the blue slushies may have helped) and hubby was able to take all the credit for a great adventure by the time we left. :)

They had a ton of animals to see ranging from your standard cows and goats to bees!  The boys all enjoyed that.  Lil' peanut was beside himself when we discovered the John Deere exhibit.  After a bit of a rocky start we really had a great time.  Baby was super chill being carried or cruising in his car and the big kids were both well behaved and just a lot of fun to be around.  

I uploaded the pictures from my phone so they're in random order...

Big brothers had the best time teaching this little guy the old "see food" trick.  All three of them were cracking up at each other!

Excited about their free tractor supply company gear!

Can you tell by his face he was in heaven?!

Petting rabbits.

We'll see if we can keep our sunflowers alive at least long enough to see them sprout. :)

Showing off their blue slushie tongues.

We for sure had the coolest mode of transportation there.  Kids kept trying to drive off with the car if we left it unoccupied for a minute.

What a great addition to our Spring Break agenda!  Houston Rodeo...check!

Spring Break Continued...Kemah Boardwalk!

The last time we went to the boardwalk we let the kids each pick one ride to go on.  And lil' peanut has been begging to go back ever since.  We knew it had to be on our bucket list of things to do before we move. The kids were pretty thrilled when we told them they could ride all the rides this time.  Those all day ride passes made for a pricey adventure, but it was definitely worth it seeing how much fun they had.

We picked something we could all go on for our first ride...the ferris wheel.  Ferris wheels freak me out a little bit and apparently that's something pumpkin baby and I have in common.  He was NOT happy.  The picture is right before it started moving.  After that, he was a sad, scared little baby.  He was quite content to be snuggled up in the carrier on my back for the rest of the day after that traumatic start.  The only other ride he got on was the train and he fell asleep on it.  Ha!

His post-train snooze.

Lil' peanut loving the carousel.

The splash pad was a huge hit (with all three of them!)  We waited until they were all done with rides before we went there because we knew they'd get soaking wet and we didn't have extra clothes.  Baby stayed pretty dry after his initial bravery got him squirted in the face.  He stuck to the perimeter after that.  But, the big kids rode home in their undies. :)

C's selfie with the shark.

Another box checked!  Now we need this rain to go away so we can keep working on our list and hit the beach!

Spring Break 2015

We kicked off C's spring break with a quick trip to Kansas.  When I say quick, I mean it.  We spent twice as much time in the car as we did out of it!  We left on Friday afternoon and stayed the night in Dallas with Dr. Lou and Miss Laura, former professor of mine and dear friends.  We had breakfast together and visited a bit Saturday morning before getting back on the road.

We spent our one non-travelling day, Sunday, hanging out with my brother's family and my in-laws.  I went to church by myself.  I love going back to visit because it's the church I grew up in and there are some very special people there that I'm able to catch up with.  One of them being my oldest niece.  And boy did we have some catching up to do!  Ha!  She ran right up to me and started chattering away.  She had much to share.  Even more with C.  Hubby brought the boys up after church was over and we all drove to lunch. When my niece got out of the car she started talking a mile a minute to C.  He put both his hands up and started shaking his head "Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Too much information too fast.  Slow down."  My father in law got a kick out of that and told C he better get used to it. :)

We had lunch at Fritz's, the train restaurant.  It's been big on our list of fun things to do in Kansas that we keep going over with lil' peanut as he's been less than thrilled with the move at times.  He was pretty stoked to eat there and hopefully it eased a bit of his anxiety about the move.  After lunch we went to Science City, which I haven't been to since high school!  It was a lot of fun.  The kids all had a great time.

This was one of my favorite exhibits, the fossil dig.  All the little people stayed in one place for a good amount of time so the adults were able to have a seat and relax a bit.  This is me showing off how stylish baby wearing can be without the actual baby. ;)

Monday morning we went to Ft. Leavenworth to meet with the housing office.  To my surprise, she gave us the key and we got to go check out the house they have available for us by ourselves.  That was awesome. If you have never seen kids in a completely empty house, you may not know this, but it's like...the best thing ever.  I can't imagine it would have been as fun had we needed them to "behave" because someone was there watching us.  They ran crazy all over that place!  They played hide and seek, raced around claiming their new bedrooms, and slid across the floors in their socks.  I think the stairs were pumpkin baby's favorite thing about the whole house.  We don't have them at home, so he was quite intrigued.   We decided that, yes, we would accept the house.  I don't know why we would have said no since we totally lucked out and they have no vacant housing right now for hubby's actual rank so we are getting a nice little upgrade. :)  The house is very nice.  It's single family, which is wonderful.  Our home at Ft. Meade was great, but we never liked not having our own yard (it was a four-plex).  This one has a yard AND it's already fenced in.  Yay for being able to boot the boys outside to run off steam.  

After we looked at the new house we went back to the housing office so hubby could sign all the paperwork.  They have a cute little playground right out back so the kids and I were able to play while he did that.  When housing was all set, we drove around the base for a bit.  We found the reserve center hubby will be working at and then we made one last stop before heading back home.  I'm on a Ft. Leavenworth spouses fb page and a few weeks ago everyone was all excited that the Price Chopper in town was now carrying Shatto Milk.  It's from a local dairy farm and they do different flavored milks.  According to the fb chatter their root beer flavor is amazing.  We weren't that adventurous this time around but I'm sure we'll try them all once we're settled in.  Hubby and C picked chocolate, I had strawberry and lil' peanut chose cotton candy.  He likes some weird stuff (hello watermelon frozen yogurt topped with sour gummy worms, chocolate syrup, and m&m's!) so I knew he would love it, but I was skeptical.  You guys, that cotton candy milk was so good!  Shatto Milk Company, our first fun find at our new location.  It's no Dutch Country Farmer's Market or Georgetown Cupcakes (man, I'd get on a plane to Baltimore just for one of those!) but we were excited. 

We decided to push on through and got home about 1:30 in the morning.  We were tired the next day but it was great to have a whole day with hubby off.  We used it to check a box on our Texas To-dos before we move and we took the kids to Kemah Boardwalk.  Pictures to come!

Field Trip: Family Style

When we found out C had a field trip to the zoo coming up I asked hubby if he would take the day off so one of us could go with C (the other stay home with the littles)  Then he, in all his wisdom, said that if he was taking the day off anyway why wouldn't we ALL go to the zoo?  So, we let C pick who he wanted his official chaperone to be (ME!  I was so surprised because these boys are all about their Daddy most days). C rode the bus up there with his friends and we followed in our van.  It was such a fun day.  The best of both worlds really.  I was able to experience the whole field trip with C and watch him interacting with his friends, but also had times where our whole family was together.  Hubby was officially in charge of the littles so they did their own thing, but several times throughout the day I'd hear "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy"  And lil' peanut would be racing toward me, followed by his baby brother. :)

After meeting back up with his class, I was able to sign C out and we enjoyed some family time, finally riding the train that's just outside the zoo.  Lil' peanut has been asking to ride the train here for a long time.  All three of them loved the train ride!

Picture this.  A group of six 8 year old boys exploring an exhibit titled "The Scoop on Poop!"  I got to experience that.  It was something special indeed.  Lol.

The group.

Super Daddy working that stroller. :)

I'm so glad hubby suggested making this a family field trip.  We hadn't been to the zoo in what seemed like forever.  It was a great day!