Mystery Trip

In our family, we have adopted an old Boyd tradition...the mystery trip. This is an event planned by the parents, with the children having no knowledge, and the kids simply getting in the car and driving to an undisclosed location. When we arrive the kids are surprised and it's really fun to see their reaction. This particular trip was to the Zoo in Gainesville, TX. It's a small and very kid friendly zoo that's close to home, but far enough away to say you did something. Here are a few photos to document our day!


Little cute Amelia loving the Big Brown Bear!

My pride and joy!

Mr. Handsome

They were acting like a crazed owl or something here

This is my LEAST favorite part of the zoo...the unsanitary petting zoo! It is so nasty in there. The goats were emaciated and practically biting the hands of my kids off...they could care less and loved every minute of it! Here they are doing a "group pet" of this particular goat.

The love of my life!
Toward the end of our trip, we stopped in a grassy knoll to chill for a minute...then we discovered these great trees! We were all taking turns being the human bridge! We had a great day!

Happy Birthday to me!

Today was my 29th birthday and I had a wonderful day! I think that "good" birthdays are hard to have; especially when you're a Mom. I mean, who is going to make the cake?(Obviously my Mom doesn't live near me!) Who will clean that day, or do the laundry? I don't think Mommys really get a day off, but this year was different! I woke up and I had a card and flowers and...strawberry cream cheese toaster strudel waiting for me on the table! ( I had made a comment on how good they looked on a commercial and my husband made a mental note!) We went to the King Tut Exhibit at the Dallas Art Museum and to dinner in Highland Park at Houstons. We had a great night! Happy Birthday to me!
Wally and I befor we went to the Muesum


They wouldn't allow photos to be taken inside...so I had to use my imagination!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We had a lot of fun this year! It was really the first year that all of the kids could walk and we could go out door to door. We had a friend and their kids over and my Sister and nephews for some delish Mexican food. The Daddy's took the kids out, and the Mommys stayed in and ate! I really wanted to do "themed" costumes for our family this year, but obviously the kids had other ideas!

Here are the booshies

Ethan was Anakin Skywalker...I guess Star Wars is STILL making money from even this generation! I made his costume.

Lauren would settle for nothing less than a princess, she was Sleeping Beauty!

Poor Amelia had no say in what she was this year...I saw it...it was on sale...taa daahh!

A whole lot has been going on in the past 2 months!!!

We went to the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound and it was a beautiful day in Texas. Wally came home early today so we were able to get there in the afternoon. We had so much fun!

So cute..I wonder where he'll be next year!

Here is Amelia Grace sporting the overalls I made!


The girls were dying to get in this wagon, not to ride in around the pumpkin patch, but to have their picture taken in...already posing...I'm in trouble!!

These two characters are the best of friends and the worst enemies, today they were liking eachother!

They offer a hayride for free and the kids loved it! Here is Ethan having a great time!

Here is Lo looking as darling as ever!

The kids wanted so badly to stand by this pumpkin and open and close the doors and windows!



Auntie Jessie bought these pumpkins for the kids and together they decorated these pumpkins.

Mr. Pumpkin!

Lauren's feminine pumpkin. She told Auntie just what she wanted and where she wanted it. So Cute!!





What a great day today was! My little Amelia is two years old! She is such a little dream and I feel nothing short of blessed to have her as my daughter. She brings so much joy into my life! I thank the Lord every day for her! We randomly went out taking pictures today and this is one I love.
My 3 angels
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Another cute shot of the kids

We had a ghetto party for Amelia...she wanted to go to McDonalds, so here we are!

This is my favorite picture...I guess she liked the cake!

Ethan started Red Tiger Karate a few weeks ago and he is loving every minute of it! Today they practiced sparring. Here he is in his gear waiting for his turn...

Here he is literally kicking some kids booty!! That's my boy!

A princess party...or wedding shower

Lauren, Amelia, and their friend Alivia

Lauren in her second outfit of the day

Sweet sisters sharing a royal kiss

Friends
Char, Melissa, Shellee, Karen and Me

A royally huge meltdown!!


Last week my good friend Melissa Smith came into town for a very brief visit. As she passed through she had a wedding shower at "Let's Pretend Tea Parties" in downtown Grapevine. It was sooo cute in there! If you've never been and you have a little girl...it's a must! We had a room adorned with shabby chic, girly, cuteness at every corner. The one corner that was an absolute hit, though, was the double decker racks of dress up attire! Naturally all of the little girls there went crazy and the shower sort of turned into a dress up extravaganza for the princesses instead of a shower for Melissa. Luckily she has a daughter who dressed up too, but even though it was a short visit, we had a great time! Congrats Melissa and Brian!

Super Student

I had a VERY proud parent moment this week! Ethan was nominated as the 1st student of the week for his Kindergarten class! He came home on Monday wearing a large grin and he showed me something he had hidden in a special place of his backpack. It was a "student of the week" pencil! "Are YOU student of the week?" I asked. He responed with a resounding "YES, because I'm really good at school!" In celebration of this accomplishment, we headed to McDonalds (at Ethan's request) for dinner! We had a great time! Each day of the week he gets to share a little about himself. He brought in objects and photos of him and his family so the class can get to know him better.

His class had to do a scrapbook page reflecting their likes and to tell the teacher and parents about themselves. Ethan chose some particular items and one thing he HAD to have was a picture of Jesus on the page! I guess it's moments like these that make parenting all worth it!!

Delerious Amelia

Amelia had a really late nap one afternoon, so naturally she didn't go to bed at her normally schelduled 8pm bedtime. After I put Ethan and Lauren down to bed, I cleaned the upstairs, put some clothes away, and came down to my little girl doing this on the chair. (I have no idea where she learned or ever heard this song, she's never seen Madagasgar!!)

First Day of School

Today has been a landmark day for our little family; Ethan started Kindergarten! And it was, naturally, a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. If you can imagine, ME, running late because of 15 minute train on the first day of school. I was trying to keep my cool so Ethan wouldn't be upset, but that all changed when we were, LITERALLY, almost hit by a car pulling out of a parking space in the parking lot. I had Amelia in the stroller, school supplies in both hands, and Ethan and Lauren each had a side of the stroller. The car would NOT stop and I had to physically drag Lauren out of the way and superwoman the stroller to avoid being hit! I slammed my hand on the car and the woman was unappologetic and oblivious to what had almost happened! Anyway...we survived! Only a few tears on Mommys end! Ethan had a great day and he is excited for tomorrow!!

Blast from the past!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jQAQ0lbAcw&NR=1

While I've been here in MI reminiscing with my siblings, we remembered a special tidbit that I wanted to share. The year was 1991, our hair was big, and our clothes, stone washed and tye dyed. We decided as a family that we wanted to take part in our stake talent show. After much practice of music and dance moves, we were ready to take the stage. Our family, because there were 9 of us, had enough people to perform "Voices that care." Watch the video and ponder the retartedness of this! The video isn't even about the troops,it's about celebrities...I guess not too much has changed in 17 years!!!

Anything for a free meal!

The other day I received an email from Chick-fil-a reminding me of "Cow Appreciation Day." If you dress up like a cow, you get free food! So of course I jumped at the chance to get myself some free chicken! The kids had been counting the days until we could go, they were so excited. We had a blast getting the costumes ready and making the signs too! It was a really fun and free way to spend the afternoon! The management took pictures of the kids to display at the Lewisville location!

Here we are dressed up as, our rendition of, cows!!


These are the signs I made to wear around our necks!

Let Freedom Ring

Over the 4th of July weekend we had so much fun!! We were invited to a friend's lake house and let's just say...it was the bomb! It was absolutely beautiful. It was right on the water and the weather was just perfect for boating, tubing, jet-skiing, swimming, bar-b-que-ing, and hanging out! We ate a ton and the kids had a blast! Thanks so much Kathy and John!!

Kiddos in their new lifejackts and bathing suits (compliments of Kathy and John)



Captain EC driving the boat!



Sweet Sisters!



The "red bridge" built in 1921 (this was in the community)



Kiddos on the bridge



We saw some deer in the morning!! (About 10 with little babies)