TX/OU weekend

TX/OU weekend was a lot of fun. My brother and his family came and even though we lost the game, it was a good game and one that Texas actually showed up for. The kids played and played and then we headed to Rudy's for dinner for some great BBQ. The rest of the weekend including heading to a pumpkin patch near our home to capture pictures, ride the hay ride, go through the maze, jump in the bounce house and play games. We also celebrated David's 37th birthday with a cupcake ice cream cake and the kids (including Dakota) helped him blow out the candles. We got him a framed Top Gun movie poster and a new book by his favorite character on television, Ron Swanson (Parks and Rec). David bought his own handgun as his main bday gift. :)

Student council Rep

Drew chose to run for student council representative for his class this year. Nichols Elementary takes fourth and fifth grade reps from each class. Drew made a poster and gave a speech. He had to talk about leadership qualities and the changes he wanted to make. He came up with being helpful as the most important quality and gave examples of how he likes to help others. Then, Drew spoke about the changes he wanted such as teachers only giving one test per day, longer recess, and to spend mornings in homeroom instead of switching early to another classroom. When I asked Drew if he was okay with making the speech, he told me that he had given many talks in primary before so he was used to it. He had such a great attitude about it all. I was more nervous of whether he would win than he was. When I picked him up from school on Friday after the elections, his teacher, Ms. Vanderplas, came up to the car congratulating him and that is how I found out he even won! He was very humble about it and yet he was also excited. It should be a great year in student council!

Nichols Dash 2014

Drew and Dilan enjoyed running the Nichols Dash this year. It was Dilan's first time and you can see the excitement on her face. Drew ran nonstop and completed 37 laps which was over 3 miles. (12 laps=1mile). Dilan ran 20 laps which was almost 2 miles. The funniest part was that the fourth graders took off so fast and most of them stopped running after two laps. Drew just kept going the entire time. And the kindergarteners ran much farther than the 4th graders! They just kept running and running. It was fun to watch. After Dilan's run, we were at the water table and Dakota put on a show with her dancing. She loved it :)

Mother-Son Date Night 2014

It's September and that means it was our annual Mother-Son Date Night at Main Event with 30 of our friends. It was so much fun and once again, Drew was the perfect date. He is so sweet and really just enjoys being with me. He likes to be with his friends too but after dinner, he waited for me to play the arcade games with him instead of going off with the rest of the boys. We started off with a game of laser tag where Drew was #15 and I was #23 (our bdays). I tagged Drew 7 times and he tagged me 5 times. We ate pizza for dinner and then we played our favorite game of Fruit Ninja scoring a record-breaking 50 points during one game. We also drove race cars, motorcycles, did the photo booth, air hockey and then he picked out a Wolf stuffed animal named Coal for his prize that night. We headed to Kroger and bought ice cream to enjoy at home. We ate the ice cream and told David all about our night. We love doing this every year.

Drake starts Preschool

Drake could not wait to start pre-school. Ever since Drew and Dilan started school, he would ask me every single day when it was his turn to go to school. It was finally meet the teacher night and he was thrilled. He met Ms. Kristi and found his desk. He ate his snack at his desk, tried on his jungle mask, and could not wait to start his first day.
The first day he had his backpack on and ready to go almost an hour beforehand. His friend from church, Luke, is in his class and in the car Drake was asking me if Luke was in front of us or behind us. He wanted to know if Luke was at school yet. Once we got there, Drake had no problem going right in and coloring his picture of a school bus. He waved by to me and Dakota and that was it. This kid is so easy and happy and he loves school. :)

My new niece

Lorelei Kinsey was born on Sunday, August 31st over Labor Day Weekend. Keely went into the hospital to get monitored on Saturday because of a concern and some blood work indicated that she could have a small placenta tear. Due to that, she was induced Saturday night. I got the call and immediately packed three kids and me up and got in my car. I was ready in 30 minutes and out the door. We drove straight to Damon's house in Pearland and made it just after midnight. I put the kids down and Dakota would not sleep in the pack 'n play so I had to lay down on the couch with her until she fell asleep a few hours later. About 5 am I got a text from my mom asking if I could come to the hospital. She indicated that Keely was in a lot of pain and she needed me.

I immediately got up and wrote a note to Damon that I was leaving for the hospital. Damon and Amy took care of the kids once they woke up and I was able to be at the hospital for my niece's birth. When I arrived at the hospital, Keely was in a lot of pain. She was going through so much with a placenta tear and petocin and she wasn't progressing very fast. Seeing her go through labor was like watching myself doing it because we are so similar with everything we go through. About 10 am it was time to go. I was literally standing on the couch to see and capture the moments with the camera. It was so special to see my niece come into this world especially because she has my name as her middle name. I was the first one to hold her after her parents too. She is so loved. :)

 

David and Drew flew in and got to the hospital around 1 p.m. The whole family was able to hold Lorelei after she was born. It was such a special day. The next day, David took care of the kids while I got to be with Keely at the hospital and see her twin boys meet their sister.

Rice vs Notre Dame

My Dad invited Drew and David to the Rice vs Notre Dame game over Labor Day Weekend. They flew to Chicago on Friday and the game was on Saturday. PawDee got Drew a new Rice shirt and hat to wear to the game. Drew and David got stuck in Kansas City for about 5 hours and arrived just in time Friday night to eat some Chicago deep-dish pizza. But they had a great time walking around the campus, attending the game, and eating steak on Saturday night. Go OWLS!

First Day of School 2014

Drew and Dilan on the first day of school. Excitement was in the air as we went to Dilan's kindergarten class first. She hung up her backpack and sat at her desk without any problem. We left and walked Drew to his class. Drew sat down and immediately began working on the questions on the board such as what were his goals this year in fourth grade. David asked for a hug but only half-joking as Drew chose to high-five him instead. On our way out we walked by Dilan's class again to check on her. Her seat is with her back facing the door so we saw her coloring and thought she was fine. As we left, they had donuts for kindergarten parents in the library so we stopped by to get Drake a donut. He ate it on his way back to the car.

After school, Dilan told me she started to cry after we left because she missed me. But when I asked her if her teacher noticed, she said no because she stopped crying pretty quickly. She said she realized that she had met the teacher before and this was really her second day there so she would be okay. :)

When Drew got in the car that afternoon, I asked him how his first day went and he said, "I loved it!"

Meet the Teacher 2014

Dilan has Ms. Cornatzer for Kindergarten this year. She was so excited to meet her teacher and see her classroom. She found her cubby easily (#17) and one of her classmates said their teacher looked like a Disney Princess.

 Drew has Ms. Vanderplas this year and Mrs. Bell. He was very excited to get school started. He knew just what to do when he walked through the door and sorted his supplies.

 My kindergartener and 4th grader

Best week of Summer 2014

Our last and best week of summer included hair cuts for the boys by me and a new haircut place for Dilan. As you can see from her face, she didn't enjoy the experience.

 We went to Little Elm beach with the E. family. The kids had so much fun and Drew and C. made their annual mote in the sand. Dakota did great learning how to dig up sand and put it in the bucket.

 We were able to go to the Perot Museum for the first time. Saw the dinosaur exhibit, were able to race a dinosaur, gymnast, and a football player, spent time playing in the children's museum, made birds and flew like them, and saw a lot of fossils. The kids loved it!

We capped off our week with an FC Dallas game against Real Salt Lake. Drew invited his bf, Matthew, and it was Dilan and Drake's first game. We got a babysitter for Dakota. We had so much fun cheering and eating pretzels and popcorn. Drake had a lot of energy and was just trying to stay awake for the late game. Dilan said she liked playing soccer a lot more than watching it. :)

Cousin visit

The Saenz Family came to visit us one of the last weekends of the summer. We had so much fun swimming, having a dance party, and ending our time together with a trip to the zoo. This also kicked off our last week of summer. Wendy and I had great late night talks and I loved talking to Eli about how I joined the church when I was 19 years old. We love when our cousins come to visit!

Safety Town

On Thursday of the last week of summer, I took the kids to Safety Town. We had never been but Drew had gone on a field trip with his 3rd grade class last year. We had a introduction to bike safety by one of the firefighters where he swore the kids in as safety kids. Then, the kids picked bikes out and rode them around a pretend city. They absolutely loved it and their only complaint was that it wasn't longer enough. Drake impressed me by riding the smallest bike they had which was pretty big by his standards. He learned the right way to go on the streets and obeyed the traffic signals. It was really fun to watch them ride around and around.

Discovery Tech Center 2014

Part of our last week of summer included a massive playgroup swim party on Tuesday and then we went to the Discovery Center on Wednesday with friends. It had changed a bit since last summer's visit but it was still fun and the kids stayed for hours. They loved riding the centripetal force merry go round, even Dakota got in on it. :)

Meeting Mickey

Southwest brought Mickey Mouse into Headquarters to advertise Disney's Hawaiian Hotel, Mulani. The big kids were at Grandma Camp with my mom so I brought Dakota down to meet Mickey all by herself. She was clearly excited when she saw him but when it was time to get close to take a picture, she started to arch her back and get anxious. We quickly grabbed her Mickey Mouse rice krispie treat and headed to lunch with David.

Kinsey's 20th High School Reunion

We left on the last flight out on a Friday night to head to Houston for my 20th hs reuion. The kids are such great travelers that they just knew what to do and did it well. The devices helped!

 Something about nighttime flying is so beautiful

 Waiting for grandparents to pick us up, the kids were getting tired and delirious

 Keely and I headed out to our reunion. Keely was 9 months pregnant with Lorelei. :)

We got our hair and makeup done and enjoyed spending the day together. There were about 100 classmates that gathered at Pappasittos for dinner and then to a bar afterwards. It was so much fun catching up with people and getting to renew old relationships. Some people sill can't tell Keely and I apart!

Summing up July!

I took Dilan shopping in the mall for our monthly date. She requested a cinnamon pretzel and enjoyed exploring the Disney store with me. She also picked out a new dress at the Children's Place that she loved. :) Dilan helped me try on shoes and some jeans, and we stopped by Justice where she tried on some trendy clothes which was so much fun. Love having my girl to shop with!

 We took the kids to eat their free Sonic ice cream cones that they got from the summer reading program at the library. Little did we know how big these ice cream cones are!

 

 

 Drew gave his cone to Dakota and ordered an oreo shake instead :)

Of course we had to have some fries and tater tots too - yum....

Our Best Friends from Maryland

One of our biggest highlights this summer was having our best friends from Maryland come visit. They were our neighbors for a year when we lived in MD and it had been 3 years since we had seen them last. It was so much fun having the "K" family here in Texas and just hanging out. Not often do you meet such awesome, genuine, down-to-earth people to be around. We just picked up right where we left off and didn't skip a beat. From In-and-Out Burger, to swimming, to the Heritage Museum, to fishing, to the G.W. Bush library, to the Cowboys Stadium, and learning how to cook an authentic Asian dish of Ginger Chicken, it was a total blast. Missing them already!

Summer Zoo trip 2014

I took the kids to the zoo and we were able to see the cheetahs, feed the giraffes, ride the pony, ride the carousel, make a souvenir penny for Dilan which then she lost during the day, eat a picnic lunch, and play in the water at the kids' park. It was great the first two hours but pretty hot and tiring the last hour we were there. All the kids were asleep by the time we got home!

FC Dallas vs NE Revolution 2014

Drew completed the summer reading program at the local library and we can get a few free tickets to some FC Dallas games. David has already taken Drew once before and this time, it was my turn to go. I was really looking forward to it. Right when we got there, the excitement began as the smells of the food and the sounds of the stadium were so familiar. We loved going to the game - we saw a 90 minute goal by FC Dallas which led them to win the game 2-0.

 Drew only wanted a pretzel, no salt

 

Our view of the game - anywhere in the stadium is a great view

 After the game, I took Drew to the fan store and bought him an FC Dallas shirt. On our way out, we went by the area where the players leave and we met Walker Zimmerman. He is a defender on the team and we got his autograph and picture. It was so fun to meet one of the players. That same week, we went to playgroup at a pool in an apartment complex and this guy got into the pool. As I swam with Dakota closer to him, I recognized him as Walker Zimmerman! It was crazy so my friend asked him if he played soccer for FC Dallas and when he confirmed it, I told him we were at the game and we met him Saturday night. We had a fun conversation about soccer, Georgia which is where he's from, and I wished him luck on his next game.

Gone Fishin' 2014

The weather last weekend was rainy and cloudy for three days straight. We got a lot done inside the house but we were excited when our next-door neighbors invited us to go fishing in the evening. It was a nice night and we headed over to Lonestar Ranch. We used live worms and caught fish immediately. It was so fun to see the kids cast their lines and get a fish so fast. Drew caught 5 fish including 4 perch and 1 bass. He enjoyed holding them by the mouth and throwing them back in the water. Drake had so much fun as he giggled with delight each time he caught one. Dilan loved it too and she was brave to touch the fish she caught. 

 Our whole family fishing

 Me and Dakota. I was on Dakota duty watching her, making sure she was safe, and taking the pictures of our experience.