The weather forecast according to Chase

Chase: "Mama, we had to go into the hallway and curl up in a ball and put our hands on our heads today."

Me: "You had to do what????"

Chase: Repeats himself, then adds: "We had a Potato Drill"

Me: Laughing, "You mean you had a Tornado Drill"

Chase: "Oh yeah, that's what I meant"

I had visions of swirling potatoes in the air! Maybe that's what they do in Idaho!

p.s. If you looked out my window right now, that "Potato Drill" may come in handy soon, we are having strong storms as I write this.

Where in the world is...

Caroline has a really neat project going on at school. They are learning about geography and where places are. Back in mid February the kids sent out letters/valentines to a few select family members in different parts of the country and asked them to send back small tokens to pass out to their classmates representing where they live. When the packages come in, they put a little flag on their map indicating where it is from. For the past month or so, Caroline has been coming home with all kinds of trinkets from her classmates families; she's gotten shells from Florida, beads from Mardi Gras, silly sunglasses from Las Vegas, postcards from Belgium and tons of other things. Caroline has been asking when she will get her packages and she finally got hers today. Her Toycha Gail in Chicago sent the cutest little teddy bears with Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls hoodies on! Caroline was so excited to get her package and I went up to the school and took pics of her passing them out to her class. The kids loved them!

And a big shout out to Toycha Gail... Thank you!!!!




Of course an extra one was sent to Chase as well!

Spring Break

I feel like we have been on the Texas tour of Theme Parks for the past few weeks. It started out with our birthday trip to San Antonio to see Shamu which included a great surprise when Caroline and Chase's Toycha Gail flew in to help us celebrate! We had so much fun and the kids had a blast too. We got to sip margarita's by the pool while the kids played, ate great Mexican food and just kicked back and relaxed.




That trip was followed by a week of school and then Spring Break. Since we didn't make plans to go out of town for the week (I know, bad mama, should have planned ahead!) we were stuck here and decided to make another trip to Sea World to see some of the sights that we didn't get to the first time. We followed that up with a day spent at the Austin Rodeo and then to top it all off as if we didn't get our fill of thrill rides, we went to Six Flags on Friday. I am theme parked out! I've had my fill of crowds, long lines, fast food and what not! Put a fork in me, I am done!! The kids had a blast, Chase has decided he wants to be "Mr. Six Flags" when he grows up, you know, the old bald man with the big glasses who dances, Chase thinks he is "da bomb"! I'm sure that will be right after he finishes his apprentice with Jose the yard guy, his other career aspiration. Some pics from our week:

 

 

And you know what the number one best thing about spring break is for me???

Not having to make lunches for an entire week! Yeah!!!

The Birthday Girl

Yesterday, Caroline turned seven years old. As soon as she got out of bed, she instructed Chase and I to only refer to her as "the birthday girl". And she in turn only referred to herself as "the birthday girl". The entire day we got to hear her say "the birthday girl would like to eat sausage and eggs for breakfast", "the birthday girl has decided she does not have to make her bed on her birthday", "the birthday girl would like to wear her birthday tiara to school please" and my favorite; "the birthday girl has to go potty"! Caroline had a great day, she did wear her tiara to school, she received lots of presents and birthday wishes and she got her favorite cake amoung many other things. Everything a seven year old could want. This morning she woke up and told me she needs to "go back to normal, she wasn't the birthday girl anymore".

Since tomorrow is my birthday, I think I will only refer to myself as "the birthday girl" and I wonder if Caroline will let me borrow her tiara?

"My Last Day of Being 6 Years Old" by: Caroline

Me: "Caroline, this is the last day of your 6th year."

Caroline: "Mommy, this has been the best year ever!"

Me: "Well, why do you say that?"

Caroline: "I never had a birthday at the Detsky Dom, and now I have a BIG family who loves me and I love them. I have 3 doggies who love me and I get to eat a lot of sausage; oh and I know I will get lots of presents!"

This girl just oozes sweetness. She is simply delicious!

Here is Caroline's referral picture, I have no idea how old she was in it, I am guessing about 3 years old:

And her recent school picture:


Tomorrow I will have a seven year old! That is just so hard for me believe. She is so excited about her birthday, that is all she can talk about. She gave me strict instructions on what kind of cupcakes to bring to her class tomorrow, as well as what kind of cake she wants. She planned the menu for her birthday dinner, and no she didn't ask for sausage! She wants filet mignon, baked sweet potatoes and caprese salad! This girl has developed into quite the foodie.

Since this is a big birthday week for our family, mine is on Thursday, we decided to celebrate this coming weekend with a trip to San Antonio to see Shamu! We'll be staying at a beautiful resort and spending Saturday at Sea World with reservations to have lunch with Shamu! Hopefully he won't have us for lunch! We are so excited. Stayed tuned for more birthday bash pictures from tomorrow.