Big Sister Reads to Little Sister

Ainsley is so proud of herself that she can read now. So, she's taken to reading to Addison, who cannot get enough of books. Mommy and Daddy are thrilled, because it relieves them from the hours of book duty we've been taking on since Miss Addison discovered books. Don't get me wrong, we read to her plenty, but this child is insatiable...seriously...

Ainsley Turns Five

Ainsley turned five this week. I still cannot believe she's already five years old. It seems like just yesterday I thought she'd never get to two!

We talked a lot about what she wanted to do for her party, and this was the first year I agreed to invite classmates...I just thought it was too much in the past. So, since school just started and didn't know all the kids yet, we decided to invite all the kids who had returned from the previous year. Don't kid yourself that I got off easy...this was still something like 12 kids not including family!

We decided to have her party at Clay Casa here in San Antonio. It's a really cute little art studio where you pick a piece of pottery and paint it with colors you pick yourself. You then give it back to them to be fired and come back to pick it up in a week or so when it's ready.

Here is the birthday girl in the car right before we went inside for her party. She was soooooo excited!

We started with pizza, but here are the kids getting into their painting...they were all so cute about choosing the item to paint. Each had their own particular reason for picking what they did.

Here in Ainsley painting her snail.

Here is little sister Addison with Pawpaw...her favorite person in the whole world.

Here are the girls with Gram. Ainsley LOVES her Gram!

Ainsley decided on a Hello Kitty party, so here is her adorable cake, made by Cathy Young here in San Antonio. She makes the BEST cakes!

Here is my super sweet sister, Lauren, and her awesome hubby, Don. They have come to EVERY birthday party my kids have had. How cool is that?!

The kids had a blast painting and didn't want to leave their stuff there at the end until I assured them I would get it to them! Then Clay Casa gave us a tile for everyone to sign at the party to give Ainsley as a keepsake. Too bad Mommy won't let her keep it in her room on account of fear that she'll break it by trying to keep it in her bed with her.

Ah, well...another year come and gone. And she's already planning Birthday #6. I think I heard something about ice sculptures...

They're Getting SO Big...

Nothing much to say today...just can't believe how big they're both getting. Ainsley started back to school today and is the "big kid" in class since she's one of the older students. She's very excited about getting to teach "the little kids" and help them learn the rules. And she said she knows Mrs. Hinson (her teacher) missed her very much over the summer. This kid definitely doesn't suffer from lack of confidence!

Ainsley Painting Pottery

Just a couple shots from the afternoon Ainsley and I spent at Clay Casa, where you pick a figurine and paint it. They then glaze and fire it for you. Ainsley had a ball, and we've decided to have her birthday party there next month!

Ainsley is just getting started on her fairy princess...

Here she is before the painting starts...

Just getting started on some pink paint. Shock...pink.

Now she's really getting into it and has painted the entire front. I reminded her that she needs to paint the back also...

Here is her project after she's done...she got really adventerous and started mixing colors...so much fun!

Pawpaw's Birthday

We celebrated Pawpaw's birthday on August 10 with the whole family. We gathered at Jeff's house to have pizza and birthday cake. The kids ran around like maniacs and the babies tried to keep up.

The kids decorated Pawpaw's birthday cake with Spider Man decorations and only ate a few of them.


They did a fabulous job decorating the cake!


Pawpaw with all his grandkids. From left to right: Ainsley, Carter, Addison, Pawpaw, Sawyer and Lorynn.


The kids watching old-school cartoons...while wearing their birthday party hats.

Addison with Uncle Jeff. So sweet.

Princess Addison

Ainsley won this little princess crown at the family reunion for winning the Golf Ball Toss. Ainsley and her cousin Lauren wore these on Saturday night to roaring applause. Since then Miss Addison has comandeered it for her own use.

Princess Addison makes her appearances for her adoring crowds a few times DAILY. Here are some (not so) hard to obtain photos of one of her recent appearances...


Princess Addison entertaining on the lawn...



Princess Addison posing for a rare paprazzi shot...we are never without our brush in case we have a hair emergency.

Family Reunion

Our family reunion was this weekend. Each year my mother's family gets together on the last weekend in July in Salado, Texas at a place called the Summers Mill Retreat and Conference Center. It's a neat little place with sleeping rooms for everyone as well as a "house" where we have a living room/TV, huge dining space, kitchen, etc. We all gather there to catch up on the year's activities, laugh, eat, drink and have fun.

We weren't able to make it last year, as both of the girls were sick, so I was really looking forward to this year's event to see family and friends I hadn't seen in two years. Plus, one of the cousins is almost exactly Ainsley's age (I think one month separates them), so I was looking forward to Ainsley seeing Lauren again.

Ainsley and Lauren became FAST friends...walking off holding hands within the first five minutes of our arrival. And, Addison had a BALL chasing after everyone and playing.



Addison's first bounce house. She LOVED it!



Then she decided to take a crack at hula hoops. She actually did pretty well considering these weigh almost as much as she does.



We always play games at the reunions, and this year Ainsley won the "Golf Ball Toss." She was very excited but a little overwhelmed when everyone was clapping and cheering for her.



My family tends to get a little "redneck" with one of our newer competitions - the "Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest" (or as most people say it when speaking quickly, the "Speed Sitting Contest"). This is my mother-in-law giving it her all. She was a great sport to go along with all this craziness.

My cousin, Matt, from Virigina giving seed spitting a try.

After the "Water Balloon Toss" everything went crazy and turned into a water balloon fight/mêlée. I'm totally shocked that my family would act like this (OK, not really).

My mom's good friend, Polly, brought a really fun game called "Redneck Golf." This is Matt climbing into the tree to retrieve one of the golf balls after he tossed it into the branches.

This is Matt getting it from the lower branch he tossed it into after retrieving it the first time. I never said my family was full of Rhodes Scholars.

Ainsley's sweet cousin Lauren blowing bubbles on Sunday morning.

Ainsley blowing bubbles for Addison to "catch."

More bubbles (can you tell we like bubbles?)

My mother-in-law giving the hula hoop a try. I was pretty impressed with how good she was...

Linda helping Addison with the hula hoop. It's so big that this picture is comical, but Addison REALLY wanted to be like the big kids!

Overall, the reunion was a huge success. We had a lot of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year. I still can't believe my in-laws came along. They seemed to have a good time, but I think I'm glad they didn't see this part of my family until we'd been married almost 10 years. This way maybe they won't encourage Derek to file for divorce and run as far away as possible.