Water-park in the backyard

The last few days in Dallas have been bea.ti.ful and warm. I set up Caroline's splash pad and water table for her to play in. Friday afternoon she spent about 3 hours playing in the backyard (which is a lifetime in toddler years!)

Having fun!

Little baby model!

Splashing in the mud

Playing in the dirt

Her set-up: splash pad, water table, pink car and mini-playground. I'm waiting for her to use her slide as an entrance to the splash pad!

Sweetness

Claire's Race

I meant to mention this along with the post about Colleen's farm. April 30th 8:30am at Old Celina Park in Celina is the 2nd Annual Claire McColloch Race Against the Odds 5k benefiting The Cure Starts Now. Claire is Colleen's beautiful daughter. I'll also be posting something about this on Facebook but not everyone has a Facebook account so I'm posting here too.

"Register and come out and run. Or register and come out and don't run. And if you know any one who would be interested in sponsoring they can get their name on a really fabulous t-shirt and lots of other fabulous benefits besides helping out a very deserving cause." ~Colleen

If you'd like to learn more about Claire and the race or register click on the link below.

http://csn.convio.net/site/TR/Events/General?pg=informational&fr_id=1090&type=fr_informational&sid=1021

Claire

Katie's Competition and Ft. Worth Stockyards

Saturday Sarah's oldest daughter, Katie, competed with her winter guard team outside of Ft. Worth. Let me take a minute to brag on my talented niece. Last year on a whim she signed up for color guard without any experience. She took dance classes when she was a pre-school but nothing since. This year she is the only freshman on the varsity team! The team performed great and made it to the finals. Good job girls!

After the competition Sarah, Caroline, Valiree and I headed to the Ft. Worth Stockyards. The Stockyards is a quintessential Texas area in Ft Worth that has shops, restaurants and tourist attractions. We had a lot of fun hanging out, shopping and people watching.

Lined up waiting to take the floor. Katie is the blonde 4th from the left.

Right hand side second from the top

On her way down from a hand stand

This looks easy but we attempt a similar position in yoga and it is intense! Katie makes the back bend look easy!

Spinning the flag

The girls watching the show. Sarah said C was cheering the team on during their performance!

Mom and daughter

Couple performing on the street. We were pretty sure the woman had a case of "Weekend at Bernies" She didn't move an inch the whole time we watched and was in the same position as we were leaving about an hour later.

Sisters!

Cowboy Cadillac. Only in Texas!

Pretty Val

Riding the horse

The passenger train

We found a cool bead shop! I've already made one necklace with my findings.

Leaving the Stockyards

We had a big milestone that day too. We turned C's car seat around so she facing frontward

Sunday morning before the Morris family left Val gave C a lesson on spinning the flag

In the 5 years we've lived in this house our Wisteria vine has produced only one flower. This year it's covered in flowers!

Friday was Little Chris's (both my sisters have sons named Christopher. Big Chris is 29 and Little Chris is 12 as of last Friday) birthday. Little Chris has a big personality and LOVES being in the center of attention. He loved getting all the phone calls and Facebook notes from friends and family wishing him a happy b-day. Every time our home phone rang he'd yell, "is it for me?" We never answer our home phone and I don't think anyone even has the number! Below are pictures of his b-day celebration. Later that night Rick (his Dad) took only him to see a movie. They ended up making it a double feature and Chris loved getting only time with his Pops. All in all he had a great birthday even though he didn't have a party with his friends.

Sarah and I (with minimal help from Ben) made him a cake

He asked for a specific dollar amount on a gift card to get a particular game he wanted. Since he knew what he was getting Sarah made it fun and sent him on a scavenger hunt to find his gift. The first clue sent him to our back bathroom.

Second clue took him to our backyard where a box was hidden in the tree

Everyone followed him to the front to find the 4th clue in our mailbox

C, Val and Rick (my wonderful BIL who graciously watched Caroline while Sarah, Val and I went on a couple errands for stuff for Chris' bday celebration.)

Ben and Chris opening the 4th clue that sent them to C's bedroom. (Notice how tall Ben has gotten all the sudden!)

And finally, opening his present!

Caroline wanted to be in the middle of the action so she sat on the birthday boy's lap!

Sarah sang Happy Birthday to Ben instead of Chris. Chris couldn't believe his own mother would mess up on his birthday song!

We put candles that don't blow out on his cake (Hehehe ;-)!

The rainbow cake we made. It came out pretty cool with all the different colors.

Chowing down!

Sitting with Val

The birthday boy! (I think Chris is very photogenic)

Patiently waiting for someone to leave their cake unattended

Ice cream face

My cutie pie!