IT'S HEEERE...

It came today...

 It is very exciting...

The toys r us Christmas toy catalog.

We are VERY happy around here.  Makes for a good hour of entertainment---Many dreams and hopeful wishes have been taking place :)

TWO-thless

It was exactly 2 weeks later, same scenario, different day, different tooth.

I am not sure why it was so stressful this time around, he had just done it 2 weeks before, but apparently it was...

and then as soon as it was over....  nothing but grins

not sure if he is excited because he is now TWO-thless or because that fairy will come yet again and he is gonna be RICH ha ha

check out that hole!!!!   so fun!!!  Congrats Sam!

releasing of Kemp's ridley sea turtles

One of the things I had seen when i was looking for things to do in Corpus Christi was the release of the the sea turtles.  Here is the wiki  and the Padre Island info page.  Apparently there are not very many releases and only a few open to public viewing.  What are the odds that we just happened to be there when it was both a release and open to the public?  I was very excited.  I really wanted to go, Kirk was rather uninterested and the kids, well, they were not really aware of the whole event.

 It was early, very early, too early to be up and about while on vacation, so I was planning on going either by myself or with the kids. But what a good sport Kirk is... he was planning on coming all along :)  See the darkness in the picture above?

We got up, got dressed (in clothes and shoes other than white per the rules) and piled into the car for the 20 minute drive.  We were able to get an ok spot...  thankfully some older people allowed the kids to get in front of them so that they could see.  I could see ok, but not great.  Kirk was able to look over the heads of people...  so that meant it was then his job to take the pictures/video.  He had 1 job to do, and little did I know, he did his job VERY,  VERY well.  He filmed almost the whole time we were there...  Way to go Kirk!!!  so, I will give you a little of what we saw...

It was fun even though it was early.

We saw the sun come up, we felt the warm water splash up on our legs (a little more disturbing to the littles than for me...  but I guess it was going up higher on them than me) and we found sand crabs.

 It was Friday, we had been going long days all day long all week, so it was only natural to have a melt down or 5 before breakfast...  so we all went back home, took a short nap and were able to regroup in order to have a fantastic last day at the beach !!!

see---  check out those precious smiles

toothless

 We have been waiting, and waiting and waiting for this day.  Sam has been claiming that his teeth have been loose for months now, though it was not true ~~but if you believe, it WILL happen... just ask him!
You see, all of his friends have lost several teeth by now.  And Sam, well, not a wiggle, not a twitch... and then it happened...  Not just 1, not 2, but 4 teeth had a little give to them.  We were so excited and thought he was gonna lose them all right away.  But they just hung on and then 3 teeth had firmed back up again.  Sam had a trip to visit his grandparents for several days and I was sure he would lose that first special tooth there.  Everyone knew not to touch that puppy, and thankfully for me (I know, I am a little selfish)  it remained in his mouth, very loose.  and on Thursday June 21st all of the waiting came to an end.

It was ready.   It was practically wiggling all by itself.

 Kirk was "wiggling" it, and Sam got very, very nervous.  For it seemed the time had come, but had apparently grown fond of this tooth and had decided he wanted to keep it.  So while he was in a mild  panic, and trying to convince Kirk why he should not pull it, Kirk had pulled it and I was dabbing away the blood.  It took him a while to realize that the said tooth was out, gone, vamoosed.

 But he was pretty excited about it once he realized it.  We had to make the calls to the grandparents, he was all grins.

 Plus he couldn't wait for the special person who would sneak into his room and leave him money--  kind of creepy if you ask me, shouldn't this scare a child?  I mean really, a fairy comes in while you are sleeping ---  how do they not have nightmares over this?!

oh well, I guess it was worth it, he made cash and now has a cool hole in his mouth :)

corpus--2012

One thing I LOVE about summer... VACATION!!  It was one of my favorite things growing up (well, unless we had to go somewhere "educational--  it might have been a bit boring for me as a child)  We always had fun (and typically something unusual and eventful would always occur) Then as an adult and living on my own, my best friend and I traveled all over.  Once I got married, Kirk and I were able to go on a few awesome adventures as well.  Then the kids came and for some reason we have not gone on many vacations-- though we did go to the beach 2 years ago.  we went to Destin with my parents, I looked, but could not find any posts about it?!  not sure why?  It was a great trip (all except for the fact that Molly was not a big fan of the ocean, or the sand, or the sun etc...)  Molly is 2 years older (and a much happier little girl), Sam is growing up, so it was time to once again have a vacation...  at the beach... in the hot sun of Texas...

What an awesome week!  It came and went so fast and we had a lot of fun in between.  I will warn you now, I have tried my best to restrict the photos in this post, but it was a FUN weeks worth of camera snapping so here ya go....

 We saw cotton growing in several fields, it was so neat to see these little cotton buds.  We pulled over in a parking lot and took a closer look at the cotton field.  We did pick 2 pieces from a plant in the weeds.  It actually felt like a cotton ball that you buy.

 We were able to go to the Texas State Aquarium.  It was really neat.  Very hands on and interactive.  we tried and tried to touch these sting rays...  They had apparently been handled too much already that morning.  BUT if you try and try and go deep enough in the water you can actually get one!

 And then we realized there was another place to touch them, it was shallower and they came closer to the edge...so much nicer and easier--- all 4 of us got to feel them.  The kids got to feel small sharks as well.

  The dolphins were so cool to see.  We were able to watch their show.  Then we went down below and were able to watch them "play"  they would come right up to the glass.  I like how this one looks like he is smiling at Sam.

 And what kind of place would it be without a giant dolphin mascot? 

 Then there was the ocean.  It was fun.  The kids loved the waves, the water, the sounds, smells and the sand.  (which made me love it all the more)  Molly was not a huge fan of the "salty water" smacking her in the face, but took it anyway.  Then there is Sam who LOVED when the waves would crash on him and get all in his face (odd child, I know---  he was like that in Destin 2 years ago as well)

 

For one who did not like to be splashed in the face, Molly loved laying down in the sand and having the waves roll right over her. (I know, did not make much sense to me either)

 We were fortunate to be in Corpus when they had a turtle hatch-ling release.  (I will write another post about that)  On our way out Kirk and Sam were able to spot some sand crabs---  so of course we had to hold them :)

And then last but certainly least (yes, I said least) was the "world's largest whataburger)  I had read about it when looking up "things to do in Corpus"  It was a "must see" on my list...  and well, I gotta say, it was 2 floors, but sis not seem all that big, the 2nd floor had a nice view to the beach, but well, let's be honest, it was still just a whataburger...  oh well, at least we can say "we went, we saw, we ate, but we did not buy the t-shirt"
Come to think of it, we did not buy 1 single thing on this trip (aside from food)  not a single thing... how did that happen? 

Awesome God- Amazing Power VBS

 July is in full swing and we had our VBS at church last week.  The kids were really so very excited about VBS this year.  Molly especially was looking forward to seeing her friend Nikki who was coming in from out of town like last year.  Molly remembered her from last year and was ecstatic to find out that she would be coming back again.  So cute how a friendship from  1 week at VBS has continued.  I can not wait to see is she continues to have lasting friendships with people as she grows older.
Since Sam just completed Kindergarten he was able to be with all of the 'big kids' again this year and he loved that.  Molly is still in with the little kids, and yet again, Sam loved that ha!
The theme was Awesome God, Amazing Power.  Sam really got into it more this year than years past,  It was neat to see how much he learned (and actually soaked in)  Unlike Sam, Molly usually always knows her stories etc. 
Sam was an active participant too.  Our Associate Pastor (Jody) spoke to the kids each day. Together we sang, said out pledges (to US flag, the Bible and the Christian flag) etc. Jody would then enforce the theme etc.  He would say " I say awesome, you say God..."  I could hear Sam yell God and Power clear across the church!!  It is so fun to see the kids chatter about the events of the day.  I was also corrected several times by Molly as I would accidentally say something like "when we go to church tomorrow..."  I would then hear (ever so sweetly) "No mommy, we are not going to church... we are going to cation Bible school."  Funny how she was able to differentiate the two even though she was in the same room that she is always in for Sunday school and M and M's.

I did not go all crazy with the pictures this year... in fact, I only took a few.  Crazy, I know!

 some video:  I did not go down to Molly's class at all this week (sorry Molly)  These are the songs Sam sang in church on Sunday:


and yet again, gotta have a blast from the past.  I love looking at the same event several years in a row.  I have been teaching VBS a this church since Sam was 1, I took the next year off since Molly was going to be just a couple of weeks old and I was recovering from a c-section.  I do not have any pictures from my first year.  I was sure I had blogged about each of these years, but could only find one from 2011.

2011  here and here

2010

 2009

frenemy's

I know I have mentioned many times about how Sam and Molly have a love/hate relationship.  They LOVE to pester, touch, pinch, pull, tug, push etc each other.  They HATE it when they get in to trouble where they can not touch one another.

And then there are moments like these:

sure makes my heart happy...  this was one day after VBS they were watching a cartoon while I made us lunch.  (you would have thought they looked like they wanted to actually take a nap huh?!)  fooled me too...

my little 'baby'

I was making lunch, I heard:  "look at me mommy"

she was all snuggled up in her baby doll pack n play.  ---  and she claims she is NOT my baby...

mishap at the petting zoo

Since  school is out and our Bible study is over for the summer, I have set up weekly events/play dates for all of our friends like I did last year.

One of the play dates was at a local farm/petting zoo.  

It is always fun to feed the goats, they love to eat that is for sure!  So hungry in fact, that one took Sam's cup right out of his hand...  poor kid, this occurred minutes after the horse event (see below)  Needless to say, this was just another day in the life of poor Sam.

Molly got a kick out of feeding the goats

But my sweet boy continues to smile even through all of the mishaps (oh, and getting to use my cup of feed doesn't hurt)

The kittens were another grand attraction for all of the kiddos

(Now if only we can convince Kirk to let them have a sweet little kitty)

And now for the event you have all been waiting for---  We had just arrived, our first stop was to see the cute bunnies.  There was a fun, nosy horse who decided to join in on the action.  He was tickling the kids with his wet nose, it was all fun until....

Out of no where, for whatever reason he decides to have a little snack--- and munch on Sam's little arm.  It took me a minute to realize that his screams changed from-- "oh how fun, he is tickling me" to "Ouch, he thinks I am his lunch!"