Loads of Fun

I hadn't taken the kids lunch in a while due to work and being tied up on my off days...mostly at the dentist.....part 1 and 2 of a root canal, being fitted for a crown, and having the crown put on.  Fun, fun and not a way I wanted to spend $800!  So, I took them lunch on Friday.  2 hours later and 2 frantic trips to Chickfila, the kids were super happy and their tummies were full.  They love when we bring them lunch, although it hasn't been as often with our work schedules.  That Friday night we had Family Bingo Night at their school.  We didn't win any of the 8 games, much to Landon's disappointment, but fun was had.  Emerson was not interested after about 1 or 2 games and then proceeded to chase boys (Lord help us!) or color.  Landon was really into it the game as was his buddy Nate.  The kids loved seeing their friends and teachers and stuffing their face with pizza, chips, soda, chicken from Raising Canes, and tons of delicious sweets from the 5th grade bake shop.  This is a fun tradition that raises a lot of money for their school.  Saturday morning was our usual horse lessons where Emerson practiced again to continue trotting through smaller turns and the barrels.  Dok just needs to be popped by the crop often to get moving.  He has the slowest walk of any horse I've ever seen!  I need to ask if we can go back to Cash.  She's still doing great though.  After lessons the kids played most of the day inside (Emerson of course played with her horses) and outside until we went to dinner with my parents. 

Lunch with Mom

Cutie pie!  I totally forgot until I left school to take pictures of Landon.

Bingo Night

Emerson  just loves playing with her horses and their accessories, My Little Ponies, and her Disney Princesses all together!

On Sunday Emerson sang for her last time (sniff, sniff!) at the Palm Sunday performance at church with all of the preschoolers and kindergartners.  They sang two songs (her favorite part was using a kazoo in one of them) and she did SO well!  She sang along, did all of the motions, and was so enthusiastic and darn cute.  I teared up because it was so precious and I was so proud of her.  No fear or shyness this time at all!  Although right before they started she was interested in the choir and music director while they were waiting for the hymn to be over and for them to begin.  At the end of the performance while waiting to walk off the stage she was hamming it up too....and had several people in the congregation chuckling.  She was giving me the thumbs up, blowing kisses, and then started doing all kinds of hand motions to us with a huge smile, moving her head side to side, and an animated face.  We have no idea what she was saying but it was funny as she went on and on.  Wish we got it on camera!  After church we hung around for a quick little service for the kids and then an Easter egg hunt.  They had to find a golden egg that had a dog tag necklace in it and also eggs spelling out E-A-S-T-E-R.  Then they turned those in for a bag of candy.  It started to drizzle but luckily the weather held out.  After that we went to lunch with Nana and Grandpa.
 

So grown up looking!  :(

Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago I needed to take a picture for Emerson's 6th birthday (how did that happen???) party invitation that the place, Pout in Pink, needed.  We were short on time but I got a cute one for her invitation.  Can't believe how grown up she is now!  :(  Where did my baby go?  The thought of having a 1st and 3rd grader next year freaks me out.  When they were babies it seemed like that would never come and it was so far off in the distant future.  Now I want to go back to the baby years, please.  And no, we are NOT having another baby even though Landon for some reason has been asking everyday for a brother or sister for the past few weeks.  He also wants to know, "How does it all happen?  How are babies made?".  We are dodging that topic for right now!  Emerson has also informed me that she doesn't want to grow up because loosing teeth will hurt and she doesn't want to be a mom because, "It will hurt when they cut the baby out of my stomach" all while using her best whining voice.  If only she knew half of it.  ;)

A Spring Weekend

Spring is here!  And the kids are outside playing pretty much 24/7 on the weekends unless it's raining or we aren't home.  So glad the cold and pollen is gone.  Thank goodness we live on a street with great kids and parents.  We have a lot of fun!  We started off our Saturday as usual with Emerson's dang early horse lessons at 8:30am...yawn!  She is doing so well and blowing me away.  She's a natural.  Now they are working on having her do turns, but continuing to trot as she goes into the turn, like in barrels.  No slowing down!  On this Saturday it was bigger circles and today it was sharp circles, like what she will need to do in barrels.  Dok is so lazy so we have been using the crop each time now.  He almost always requires a pop with the crop.  Kicking with legs and making kissing noises isn't cutting it with him and he has an attitude.  After her lesson we got to see the 1 month old foal (born February 23rd).  So cute!  She was sleeping but we woke her up with noises and she got up and came over to the stall door for some lovin'.  She was so soft and so sweet and Emerson was smitten with her.  The foal is an orphan as her mom died during labor :( so they have been feeding her formula from a bottle.  Of course Emerson wants a baby horse now too.  We might end up with a zoo one of these days, if it was up to her!  After lessons we came home and Emerson helped me make some chocolate chip cookies.  By help I mean licking the batter!  She went nuts and loved it just like her momma.  She was in heaven.  The kids played outside the rest of the day until we had a crawfish boil on our street with our whole crew, plus some more neighbors and other neighbor's friends.  The guys spent most of the time cleaning and boiling the disgusting insects (only Jason eats them in our house) while the ladies visited, munched on all kinds of appetizers, and the kids played.  It was a great time, never a dull moment.  We finally went inside to bed after 11pm since we had church the next morning but most of them stayed out until 1am.  On Sunday we had church and then two back to back birthday parties.  First we headed to Laser X for Evan's 8th birthday party where the kids played laser tag (not Emerson), arcade games, and had pizza and cake.  While Jason was finishing up that party with Landon, Emerson and I headed to good ole' Chuck E. Cheese (or as my friend calls it Chuck E. Disease!) for her sweet friend Anna's 6th birthday party.  Emerson had a ball running around playing games with Anna and Jack Henry while I got to catch up with my friends.  She had no fear, played games on her own, and couldn't wait to see Chuck E. Cheese.  When he came out she gave him multiple hugs and stalked him around the area.  She was rather disappointed with her whopping prize that she earned with her tickets. HA!

Hanging out with Ricki.  The owner is Emerson's old instructor that went to college.  Ricki always has his head hanging out of the stall waiting for Madison to come visit.   This time he was nudging and nibbling too. 

Sweet baby!

Just like her momma!

Look at the size of this sucker!

Arcade games at Laser X.  She was very good at this race car game.  Notice she uses ONLY the gas (no brakes, Lord help me when she is 16 years old!) and can barely reach, hence her pose.  She got 1st place each time.  Even Jason couldn't get 1st place!

Landon always loves the motorcycle racing games

At Chuck E. Cheese with Anna