Back To School

It was back to school today.

It was a very good morning. Both kids woke up in good moods, both did their morning duties of making their beds, getting dressed, putting their pajamas away and putting their breakfast dishes away without any issues.

It wouldn't have been right not to have Emily close her eyes in a picture!

Both came home and said they had a good day.

Ethan said, "Actually, I had a pretty good day.".

That makes this momma pretty happy.

Ethan's teacher seems very nice. He actually will have 3 different teachers. One of them worked with him last year and knows him well. I am so happy about that.

Emily's teacher is in her second year of teaching. She has a nose ring. And will be having a baby before the year is out. This will be interesting.

Galveston, Oh Galveston

My husband has FINALLY finished his last assignment for his master's degree. I thought this day would never come!

We decided to celebrate by taking a little trip to the coast on Friday.

We woke up early, packed a few things and hit the road.

Our first stop was Hruska's Bakery in Ellinger, Tx.

Oh my goodness. This place was amazing. And it was a packed house for a Friday morning. This place probably had about eleventy hundred kinds of kolaches!

Seriously, how can one choose?

Emily loved her choice.

Ethan said he didn't like kolaches.

We sat outside and ate our breakfast.

Then we made it through Houston's traffic. Man, that traffic was hell-a-cious! But, we finally made it to Galveston.

Our first stop was the IHOP on the seawall.

This was our view from our table. You can't really see it, but the beach is across the street.

Then we went next door to the Rainforest Cafe, took a few pics and then rode their safari river ride.

Next, was on to Murdoch's, the souvenir shop on the beach, which by the way didn't have air conditioning. OMG! Let me tell you! Mark was drenched!

Sweatin' and smilin'!

Next, we went downtown Galveston, to The Strand and looked around at all the little shops.

This is where Emily found her boyfriend, and insisted on a picture with him.


And again...

And again...

Then, we finally hit the beach. Ethan was more than glad to hop in the water, while Emily collected seashells.

Finding seashells.

Me. The only picture of me the whole trip.

After the beach, we proceeded to spend the night at the worst motel. Ever.

The room we had was down a dark hallway. Scary. We walk in and the room is H.O.T.!!!

We find out the heat is coming from a vent in the bathroom. We shut the door, turn the air conditioner on high, and go to dinner.

When we come back, the first half of the room is freezing and the second half is hot. We go and get a new room, and the new room's t.v. doesn't work and neither does the phone. We couldn't figure out how to turn the shower head off, so both kids had to take a shower.

The next morning, we hit the Burger King for breakfast and then it was time to go home.

But all and all, it was a good trip. One last attempt at soaking up our summer and celebrating a wonderful achievement! Congratulations, Mark! You did it! I'm so proud of you.

Emily Turns 6!

So as mentioned in my last post, Emily turned 6.

Her birthday was on a Wednesday and her party was the Saturday after.

So, the day of her birthday Mark brought her and Ethan up to my work and we took them to lunch. Mark said he was going to make Emily a special birthday dinner for her.

I came home and found this...

Mark made Shrimp Alfredo, grilled tilapia, asparagus with hollandaise sauce and eggs with the hollandaise sauce. Now, this doesn't sound like a dinner for a six year old little girl. But let me tell you, Emily loved it. She ate seconds on everything.

Mark also bought a carrot cake for her. So that evening, we cut up the cake and served it up. Emily wanted a candle in her cake. I searched and searched for some birthday candles and for the life of me I could only find one candle in the house and it wasn't a birthday candle. We even sang happy birthday.

Ignore King of the Hill on in the background.

Blowing out her "birthday" candle.

Ethan trying carrot cake for the first time.

Saturday was her big day. Her party this year was Ice Cream themed.

Ice Cream Cake Pops

Chocolate covered pretzels, ice cream marshmallows & ice cream toppings

Cupcakes & cupcake cones

We played games.

Musical Chairs.

We ate.

We sang happy birthday and ate cake.

She opened gifts.

She got her first DS!

We had a lot of family and friends come. It was really overwhelming to see everyone and come out of love for our daughter.

Ethan even ate a hot dog, which he says he doesn't like.

A big thank you to my sweet sister-in-law Kayla, who helped out with the craft and the games and to my mom, who took care of the food so I could do the games, pictures and other stuff at the party.

It was a wonderful day! So, Happy 6th Birthday Miss Emily Claire!