November 2018

Hannah participated in a piano competition at the beginning of the month.  This was a unique contest in that everyone who entered in her division played the exact same piece.  Hannah worked really hard, learned a lot, and ended up winning 4th place.  So proud of all her hard work.

I also got to go on another field trip with Hannah's class.  There is a retired electric train car in the middle of downtown Plano.  They give tours of the car and there is a small museum behind it as well.  3rd grade has been studying life in early America so it fit in with their curriculum nicely.  This train car and museum are located at a park our family has visited several times, but we've never gone inside.  It was fun to get the tour and kids also got to picnic lunch and play at the park for a few minutes.  It was a really fun field trip!

One of the girls good friends from school got a part in a play at a local theater.  The play was Phantom Toll Booth which was one of Nathan's favorite books as a kid so he joined us for the show. It was so fun to see sweet Ava perform.  She did a great job and clearly LOVES the stage.

LOVE having the entire week of Thanksgiving off of school.  We typically stay in town, but we always try to squeeze in some family fun.  Monday we went to the Heard Museum.  Daddy technically still have to work (from home) that day, but we was able take a break a join us.  Dinosaurs Live was the featured exhibit.  It was chilly outside, but sunny.  We had lots of fun!

Friday we headed to the Perot Museum.  We went back in January and only saw about half the exhibits.  It did not disappoint we had lots of fun!  I think our favorite parts were the human body and the engineering section.

At the end of the summer Nathan and I had the privilege of praying with both girls as they put their trust in Jesus!!  When children make this decision our church has them go through a little class and then meet with the children's minister to make sure they fully understand the decision they have made.  Once those things are done you can then get baptized.  It was such and awesome morning watching BOTH Hannah and Abigail proclaim their faith in front of the church.  And I LOVE LOVE that they got to do it together!  I posted the videos to FB so I'll just share a few photos here. (photo credit Jack Hess)

October 2018

We have several new staff members at our school this year so that means a few new activities.  We had some fun dress up theme days for book fair week and Red Ribbon week.

 Decades Day

 Tacky Tourist Day

 Twin Day

Super Hero Day

We also did Field Day in October (instead of May).  It definitely wasn't hot this year, but we did have some rain.  We only had to wrap thing up about an hour early so most of the kids got to play all the games.  All in all a fun day!

We wanted to do family themed Halloween costumes again this year.  So my mom and I started hunting on Pinterest at the end of the summer.  We decided on bee keeper and honey bees.  Thanks to my mom for all her hard work making costumes and for taking our pictures as well.  We were lucky to get any pictures with all the rain we've had, we took advantage of a 30 minute break in the rain to do a mini photo shoot. The ground was squishy and we had to avoid mud....yuck!

September 2018

The girls were super excited to spend the night with Grammy and G-pa over Labor Day weekend.  They had fun swimming, baking cookies, going out for ice cream, and watching movies.  Nathan and I enjoyed some time alone too. We did a little shopping, ate some yummy food, and watched a series on Netflix.  Nothing fancy...but definitely enjoyed!!

The weather has either been super hot for pouring rain so we haven't gotten to enjoy any time outside.  Hopefully cooler fall temperatures will be here soon.  We've had lots of indoor fun with legos, puzzles, Wii games, and visits to the library.

Hannah's class already had their first field trip.  We went to the outdoor science center that they visit every year.  3rd grade is there for a little longer than previous grades.  We started with a picnic lunch (brunch...it was 10:30), then did an hour hike in the woods (SUPER HOT) and finished with the indoor animal room.  The kids were finding evidence to make conclusions.  All in all a fun day!

We finally had one morning that was cool enough to ride bikes to the park, but it started raining shortly after we arrived so we left.  Thankfully it wasn't pouring so we were just damp and not soaked on the way home.  Looking forward to some cooler weather.

August 2018

Our summer was so full of other activities that we didn't fit in swim lessons until the summer was almost over.  We did plenty of swimming at Grammy's but wanted to do one more set of official lessons.  I am so amazed at the girls progress.  Abigail had mostly taught herself by watching Hannah, but during lessons she picked up some new skills and gained TONS of confidence.

Another school year has started....can't believe we have a 1st and 3rd grader!  Both girls love school, so they were super excited to start.  They adore their teachers and are off to a great school year!

I am subbing again at the girls school this year and have already worked several days.  I've gotten lots of sweet hugs from kids I worked with last year.  We love our campus and all our teachers!! It's always a pleasure to go work up there.

July 2018

We continued our 4th of July tradition by attending the Plano Lions Club parade.  Can't beat arriving 10 minutes early and not fighting traffic to leave. 😁

I found these ADORABLE dresses at my favorite consignment store.  They aren't made by the same company but I thought they matched really well.  So I insisted my mom take pictures.  😋

Another 4th of July tradition....staying up late to watch the fireworks from a nearby parking lot (again no crowd or need to arrive early).  Since we had to stay up late we watched a family movie, this year was 1982 Annie.  The girls LOVED it.

Speaking of traditions....we started a new one this year:  Christmas in July.  Summer in TX is HOT and we all love Christmas so why not squeeze in some extra fun.  In reality we wanted an excuse to make gingerbread cookies again when we weren't so busy.  In true "go big or go home" fashion we dressed in holiday colors, listened to Christmas music, and wore Santa hats.  We had so much fun and the cookies were yummy!!

We took a trip up to Arkansas to visit Daddy's family.  The girls always love hanging out with Paw Paw.  Their favorite part is playing with all his beanie babies.  And we always appreciate Tommy letting us stay with him.  This year his blueberry bush was blooming so the girls got to pick (and eat) blueberries right off the bush. FUN!  And we got to take some home too. 

One of the local school districts got out really late this year, so it pushed some church activities back later in the summer.  Music camp is usually in June, but this year it was in July. Our theme this year was Danny and the Shacks.  We learned all about Daniel and his friends and how they trusted God.  Abigail was super excited to be an official participant this year and not just my helper.

We ended the month by checking out one of the museums that is part of our membership.  This museum was in Ft Worth about an hour away.  They had lots of neat hands-on exhibits.  It was a fun day.

June 2018

Nathan and I decided that the girls were finally big enough to take a real vacation where we don't just go visit family.  We didn't want to go anywhere too far away or too expensive so we chose San Antonio (about 6 hours away).  It's HOT in Texas so we planned early June so we didn't completely melt.  We had a fabulous time and made so many great memories!!!

We left on a Monday morning and arrived that afternoon.  We made a potty stop at Bucee's and the girls wanted their picture taken with the beaver statue.  Once we checked into our hotel we headed downtown.  We walked along the Riverwalk and then went to the Alamo.

We spent ALL day at Sea World Tuesday.  I have always enjoyed the animal shows, but it was really fun to see the girls get so excited and listen to their squeals of joy!  We even got to see a baby sea lion that had been born early that morning.  SOOO cute!

 The girls have been saving their allowance money so they could buy a toy to remember our trip.  Abigail began talking about seeing orca whales weeks before we left.  Not surprised that's what she picked.

Wednesday we decided to take in easier and not spend all day outside.  We found a REALLY cool park to play at in the morning while it was still shady.  Then we had some lunch and watched a movie in our hotel.  My college roommate lives in San Antonio so we were excited to hook up with her and her kiddos that night.  They had tons going on that week and we were glad we were able to connect.  We met them at their neighborhood pool for swimming and pizza. 

 Hannah and Amelia are only a year apart so they became fast friends.  Abigail and Corrine had fun playing together in the shallow end despite their age difference.  Luke is 9 and he was happy playing with other boys in the pool instead of the girls.

Thursday we headed to the zoo.  I think this was the day the heat affected us the most.  Even though we were outside longer at Sea World the day was broken up by 30 minutes of sitting in the shade to watch shows.  The zoo was ALL walking.  However we had lots of fun and enjoyed seeing some different animals.  We bought tickets for the zoo experience which included a train ride and admission to the butterfly house.

The Japanese Tea Gardens were across the street from the zoo.  We went in for a few minutes but not long because we were really hot and tired from walking around the zoo all day.  They were amazing and I loved seeing all God's beauty!  But I think we would have enjoyed them more if we had visited on a different day.

The week after we got back was VBS at church.  Our theme this year was Amazed Beyond Belief (emoji's).  It was a super busy week but we had lots of fun.  And we learned that God can do anything!  The girls got to come help me decorate the room I was working in which they thought was super cool!  We also drove a friend back and forth.  Her mamma agreed to drive one more friend than she had seats in her car. The girls loved getting to play with Ellie while waiting for her mom to get back.

Abigail was so excited that she FINALLY gets to start piano lessons!  She is doing really well so far and already knows 4 different notes. So far she's pretty cooperative during practice too which is nice.  I'm sure we'll have plenty of arguments before long though.  HA!

I decided to take the girls to the Heard Museum one morning before it got too hot.  It's only about 15 minutes away.  We had a great time looking at the rescue animals and walking on one of the trails.