kylee costume

This year Kylee and Brayden's Piano recital was a few weeks before Halloween so their teacher said they could dress up for their recital.  Brayden's costume was easy because we found stuff at Goodwill to alter for a Luke Skywalker costume.  Kylee had visions of creating a Vampire costume and had even made a sketch.  Not thinking that she was really going to do it, we didn't ge the material until the night before the piano recital.  I had my doubts that it could be done, but Matt was good about just letting her try.  She started sewing at 10 p.m. and finished at 12:30.  I went to bed at 12 and was sure that she wasn't going to finish it.   Amazingly she did not use a pattern and just looked at the material, roughly measured and then cut and sewed. I thought for sure she wouldn't finish in time, and when she did I thought for sure she wouldn't fit in it when she was done. She tried it on and fit in it, even though there was no zipper.

Then again a few weeks later for the church halloween party she made a whole new costume in a couple of hours.  We are not sure where she gets her talent, but Kylee frequently amazes us.

October Activities

October 1- Grandpa Caldwell and Nana came to visit San Antonio.  We visited them at the RV park where they stayed and the kids did some exploring.  The "time-out pen" in the little dog park seemed like a pretty handy feature.

October 8 - We went to Sea World to do some of their "Howl-O-Scream" Halloween activities.  Knowing that Brayden gets scared walking into Party City during the month of October, we thought we should do the family friendly before dark haunted house.  It still made Brayden scream and jump even though he could see what was around him.  We also went in this cool optical illusion maze that was fun for all ages.  It was a fun way to celebrate Halloween.

October 11 - I celebrated my birthday by taking a special treat to my children during their lunch time.    Matt made me a Cricut machine for my cake

October 13 - I took Blake and Julia to the kindergarten family night at Bob Lewis Elementary.  They had fun with the Halloween themed crafts and games.

October 15 - Brayden and Kylee participated in an early piano recital because their teacher was due to have a baby later in the month and would be taking some time off.  They were excited about the  Halloween theme and the chance to wear costumes, but more excited about the two month break from piano lessons.  Brayden chose to be Luke Skywalker because one of his pieces was the Star Wars theme song and Kylee chose to be a vampire just because.  They did a great job.

Summer Stuff

At the beginning of the summer the kids discovered netflix instant streaming with the help of Matt.  During the first week of school out the kids made some TV watching goals.  They had been limited to only PBS with our basic cable, so Netflix opened them up to near limitless possibilities.  Throughout the summer they systematically worked through whole seasons of Fineas and Pherb, Pink Panther, Shaun the Sheep, H2O, and Garfield.  It didn't take long to figure out that they needed other activities to pass the summer.

Luckily the second week of summer Mamaquel and the Kenitzers came to visit San Antonio so that we could take a trip to the Texas beaches.

I had great plans to have the kids do chores and reading before any computer and TV were turned on.  Things went really well at the beginning of the summer.  They were getting things done early and  I enjoyed watching the older kids read to the younger ones.  Towards the end of the summer we were not as productive.

Kylee worked on her skills of making balloon animals.  

Matt had built a lego table for the kids.  It provided for lots of lego creativity.  I liked finding all the kids playing together at the lego table building lego mini figure factories, or creating cities. 

There is always lots of fun when there is play-doh.  

July 18th to the 23rd we took a short trip to Dallas to visit the Kenitzer's puppy factory

and to go to the newly opened Legoland Discovery Center.

Dallin and Brayden had fun being silly wearing their shirts for shorts around the neighborhood.

We said bye to the Resch family at the end of July.  We were sad to see their family move.  The kids did great playing together.

July 28, 2011 Chantelle made her first trip to San Antonio since getting married.  She came with her 2 boys and Mom. We took them to Sea World and all the kids enjoyed their time there. 

August 8, 2011 - At the end of the summer the kids and I finally made it out to Schlitterbahn when Katrina's family came into town.  Matt was on call, so he was not able to go. Schlitterbahn is huge and split into 2 areas.  We thought we had lost Brayden and couldn't find him for about an hour, until we found out that he had gone with part of the group to the other section.

September 18, 2011 Gaspar de Albas came back with their younger 3 children for another visit a month after school had been in, we went to the zoo to entertain the kids.

Kylee's birthday

Kylee's 11th birthday happened to land on a time that we had lots of family visiting.  Grandma Mindy was in town and so were Katrina and Joey with their youngest 3, Santiago, Andres, and Sofia.

Matt was able to take some time and come to the school for a birthday lunch with Kylee.  She asked for me to bring her a shake and flautas from Taco Cabana.  

Kylee had her birthday dinner with everyone at Red Robin.  

With Kylee's love for Oreo Matt decided to make her a cake that looked like him.  He even covered it in crushed oreos to make it black.

Some questions Kylee answered

What makes you happy?  -cats, friends, reading

What makes you sad?  -sad books

When do you laugh?  -with my friend Cara, funny books

What is something Mom always says?  -Did you do your home work and piano?

What is something Dad always says?  - ?

What is your favorite thing to eat?   -spaghetti without sauce, ice cream

What is your favorite thing to do?   -bike ride, swim, play with friends, play on the trampoline

What is your favorite TV show?   -Spongebob, Garfield, Pink Panther, Good Luck Charlie

What is your favorite story in the scriptures?   -casting stones at a woman, 

What are you really good at?   -drawing, playing the piano, origami, and sewing

What is your favorite movie?   -Rio

Who is your best friend?   -Cara and Paloma

What is your favorite place to go?  -Restaurant in Colorado - Casa Bonita, and to my friends house

What is your favorite book?   -The Maze Runner series

What do you want to be when you grow up?  -a teacher (motivated by summers off)

All in school

Having returned just two days prior from a week long beach trip with a crazy sleeping schedule I was worried about the kids starting school.  Sunday night they were anxious for school the next day and they all had a hard time going to sleep.  The kids were a little more nervous because we had missed "Meet the Teacher" during our trip.

On August 22, 2011 Kylee started 5th grade.  She said the day went quickly and that it was good.  She likes having recess before lunch.  When I went to pick her up after school she looked so grown up.  She definitely looked like one of the older kids in the school.

Brayden started 3rd grade. He was happy to have one of his friends in his class, and he got to see his two other good friends.  He loved his teacher last year because she was really nice.  He is still trying to figure out how he feels about his new teacher.

Julia started Kindergarten.  She was happy to get to play with play doh on the first day and she was especially excited that she got to keep it.  She said her teacher is nice.  Julia had a hard time adjusting to the full day of school.  For the first week she would break down and cry for anything, she did a lot of whinning, and generally acted like she was tired.  If you know Julia this is very out of character.  She has mellowed out as time has gone on.

Blake was sad he was not going to school with them, but he did better at home alone than I thought he would.  He hung out playing next to me while I tried to clean the house.  

In the afternoon on the 1st day of school they are smiling.  It must not have been that bad.

Blake had his first day of MDO (Mother's Day Out) on September 6th.  He had been recently asking about when he was going to go to school and was excited to start.  He is going two days a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the same place Brayden went 5 years before.  We went to an open house to met his teacher and he was a little shy.

They do a 20 minute rest time for which they take a blanket, towel, or sleep mat.  When Blake opened up his new spiderman backpack and saw his froggy blanket inside he took it out and did not want it in there.  I told him that there was a quiet time and he was going to lay down and rest.  He told me, "I am not going to sleep there.  There are no beds at school."  I snuck it back in before we left. When I received the report from his teacher at the end of the day.  He didn't want to be quiet during the rest time.  He did much better on his second day.  At the end of his first week he seems to be enjoying it.  I like that he goes from 9-2 twice a week so I can use that time to help out at the elementary school and go shopping with no extra helpers.  It is my first time in the past 11 years to not have a child continuously with me.

I was nervous to have him start with his current risk of a potty training accident.  He has been in training for the last two months.  At first he did very well until we went on vacation up to Dallas and put him in pull ups to travel.  He enjoyed returning to the freedom to be lazy and pee whenever he wanted as it is basically a diaper.  I let the teacher know that he doesn't volunteer the information that he needs to go potty and to just have him go every few hours.  I was not surprised when I went to go pick him up and he was in different clothes than what he was dropped off in.  The 2nd day was better because he stayed dry.

Blake's Chalk People

These are the first drawings of people that Blake drew.  He used blue chalk on our back porch.  He was pretty proud of them, and I thought they were pretty great too.

Blake identified his people with names of different members of our family.

Julia's people are a little more elaborate.

Florida Fun

We spent the last week of the summer in Florida, August 12th - 19th.  Matt had a conference in Destin and we got to tag along.  We left a little late on Friday so we took 2 days to drive the 14 hours.   We stopped half way there to stay the night in a hotel and we were setting up the arrangements for everyone to sleep.  Kylee did not appreciate the set up and was upset.  She let us know that she would be sleeping in the bathroom.  We thought she wasn't really serious and would give up and finally come get in bed.  We woke up during the night to find Kylee had made her bed of towels next to the toilet and had fallen asleep.

We got in to Destin Saturday afternoon and we were able to spend the late afternoon hours in the ocean. While hanging out on the beautiful white sand, clear water beach we saw 2 seperate weddings in the few hours that we were there.

We didn't have reservations for the hotel of the conference until Sunday, so we stayed somewhere else on Saturday night and then transferred to the other hotel after church. The hotel had a great room set up.  There were bunk beds just as you came in the door.  This where Kylee and Brayden slept.  There was a TV attached to the wall opposite the beds.  This made for a great place for all the kids to hang out and sneak in some TV watching.  The rest of the room included a king size bed and a queen pull out couch so that everyone had a bed without any kids in ours, a hotel rarity for our family.  The large and comfortable room had a great ocean view and was a fun place to hang out between our adventures.

Monday (designated a travel day) we got to enjoy Florida.  Matt rented a jet ski for a couple of hours and took turns taking the older 3 on a ride.

When the Conference started on Tuesday Matt had a pretty nice schedule each day, which meant plenty of family time. The kids and I slept in and then went to the pool to swim for a couple of hours while Matt was at his Conference.  A little past noon or 1 Matt would meet us and we would spend the rest of the day with him.  That meant a lot of beach time, swimming in the hotel pools, and exploring the Destin area.

Here are everyone's favorite memories for the week.

Kylee enjoyed all the swimming she got to do and meeting new friends (she is very good about introducing herself and finding people to play with). True to her love of critters she also enjoyed when Matt found "Jam" the jellyfish.

Brayden's favorite was riding on the jet ski.  A few weeks before our vacation he had a new interest in them and wanted to watch youtube videos about jet skis. 

Julia loved doing all the swimming at the beach and pool.  She got really good at swimming without her vest.  Her fantasies came true when Matt made Julia into a mermaid with a tail made out of sand.  Julia had fun going out in the ocean on the boogie board and going up and down on the waves.

 Blake's favorite was playing in the water. 

Mom - I enjoyed being on the beach in the evening hours, with most everyone cleared out and the sun going down with a beautiful sunset.

 Dad - the view from the balcony, relaxing on the beach as the sun went down, being able to take care of a TDY while enjoying time with my family at the same time

There was lots of swimming at the pool and hanging out at the beach.  So much that the kids, by the time we headed back on August 19th, were saying the beach and swimming were horrible.