Galveston Beach

Here I am playing catch-up again! We had a fun and busy summer, so I want to get pictures up of the fun things we did!

When my parents came we met them in Houston and drove down to Galveston for the day. We've never taken the kids to the beacn since we've lived here (lame, yes). It was so much fun. Galveston wasn't as bad as many people made it out to be. Definitely not white sand beaches and crystal blue water, but the water was warm and the kids got to build a sand castle. It was perfect for our little outing.

Discovering the ocean

Jumping over the waves

Lounging on the beach

Building sand castles

Mike and my Dad somehow convinced her to let them cover her in sand.

Erin took upon herself the task of keeping the mote on their sand castle filled with water. She'd go down to the water, fill up her bucket...

fill up the other bucket...

and pout it into the mote. The water was immediately soaked into the sand, so she'd head back for more water and continue this process over and over again. She didn't even seem bothered that the water kept disappearing; she took this job very seriously.

Another sand castle

The girls and my parents

Love those sunglasses. Love her!

We also got to tour an off shore drilling rig that is now a museum. My Dad is a petroleum geologist and so it was cool to have him with us, and have him explain things to us. He actually worked on one of these in the Canadian Maritimes before I was born. The one he was on actually sank a few months after he was on it.

Notice anything missing?!?

Elaina lost her first tooth!! The hysteria about losing teeth started last spring when I told her one night that if she didn't brush her teeth, then her teeth would all fall out!! Well I left out the part that no matter what, eventually her baby teeth really would all fall out. A few days later she was on the subject of teeth falling out with her primary teachers, and they informed her that in fact she would eventually lose all her baby teeth so that the adult teeth could come in. She was a little disturbed by this. Ok, she was hugely disturbed by this!

So in California, she asked Grandma one day why her tooth was moving. Terri asked me if she had a lose tooth, and I answered no...and then realize that it could be possible for her to have a lose tooth. Sure enough! Elaina cried a lot when she found out that it was lose and would fall out. She was hesitant to wiggle it...and hysterical at all the uncles who wanted to be the one to yank it out! After a couple weeks (remember she hardly wiggled it herself because she was so scared about it!) Daddy was finally able to convince her that he could tug on it a little and it would come right out. She let him to it, and we got a visit from the tooth fairy that night. Thank goodness for the tooth fairy! She turned this whole ordeal into a good experience in the end. Oh, and you're probably wondering what she spent her prized dollar on? Candy, of course!

Kindergarten!!

Elaina started her first day of kindergarten this morning. She was so cute about it. Her teacher is Mrs. Nelson and we got to meet her last Thursday at Meet The Teacher Night. We hear that she is a great teacher. Elaina picked out a cubby where she'll keep all her school supplies and got to see her classroom, the library, the art room, music room, and cafeteria. She's excited about starting off each morning with story time in the library with the school librarian. My Nana was an Elementary School Librarian, so I know she'll be excited that the school library was a big hit :)

I love that she's giving two thumbs up:

Showing off her backpack from Aunt Ashley & Uncle Steve last Christmas and a cute new outfit from Grandma:
I'm going to drive Elaina to school most days - today I got to drop her off, show her where to put her school supplies, and hang up her backpack. She found a seat at a table and started coloring at a table with other students. All the kids were playing it cool a bit. Elaina did too, but I saw through it knew how ecstatic she was! She let me take a picture of her at her desk and then said to me: "ok Mom, you can go now." And so it begins...I am no longer #1 in her life...or at least she will pretend that that is the case :) Oh well, I still walked over and kissed her on the cheek when I said goodbye...and yes, I did it in front of her new friends. At least she can't refuse me that yet :) One of the office staff saw my watery eyes as I was leaving the building and said to me, "oh, we've got a kindergartener?" Yup, I'm way too emotional, but at least I held it together until after I left! :)



I know this is going to have a big impact on Erin since the two girls are super close. Erin is such a sweetheart and has been SO excited for Elaina. She keeps encouraging Elaina and reminding her how many days until school starts, and hyping it up. But of course she has no idea what this means for her. I'm trying to make this week a special week for Erin - we'll be doing lots of bonding, lots of time with friends, and lots of activities to keep her distracted and feeling special herself. After Elaina had been gone just 15 minutes Erin asked me, "how long until Elaina comes home?" Made me so sad. She kept saying things today like, "I want to show Elaina that" and "I'm going to tell Elaina." I'm so grateful that they are so close. It'll be hard for Erin, but right now I'm just so grateful for how strong their friendship is and how well they treat each other. Here's Erin seeing her big sister off to her first day of school:
I got to meet Elaina for lunch as well. Many other kids had one or both of their parents there, so it was nice to meet some of the other parents, and especially to hear all about her day...or, well the first three hours since lunch is at 10:45 (weird, yes). Note to self: teach Elaina how most people open milk cartons - she tore the entire thing open, as you can tell. Doesn't she look cute/happy/grown up?:


In the afternoon she'll take the bus home. We're the second stop on the way home, so she's home in just 5 minutes after school, and I don't have to wait in the long line outside the school, which is great. She was so cute walking off the bus today, and Erin, Millie, and I were so so excited to hear all about her day. First thing she said after she got off the bus was "I want to go back tomorrow!!" OK, that's a good sign! :) I'm glad it was a great day.

Sharing an "after school snack," and Elaina colored a picture for Erin at school today. Erin was so excited! Ignore the fake smiles, they were super excited to see each other :)

At dinner Elaina taught us the "Thumbkin" song that she thinks she learned at kindergarten. She really learned it when she was probably around 2 or so, and used to LOVE this song. We haven't sung it with her in so long that she's completely forgotten it over the years, but at dinner tonight Mike and I were remembering when she used to sing:

where's a pumpkin?
where's a pumpkin
he yum yum
he yum yum....

Wow she's grown up since then! Yay for a great day at kindergarten and I'm glad that this lame emotional Mom survived the day too :)

There is a monster living under Erin's bed

A monster has moved into our house. It happened while we were in California. I have yet to see this monster, but Erin is POSITIVE that it lives in her bedroom. A pink monster in fact. And she also told me that "the monster eats girls. He doesn't eat boys...but he eats girls."


We got back from California last night and the girls crashed that night without any problem. Today when I went to put Erin down for her nap she was hysterical about it! She clung to my neck for dear life and was shaking because she was so scared. She insisted that he was living under her bed. So while Erin waited safely outside the bedroom, I went in and looked under the bed - I even moved the storage tubs out to do a thorough check. No monster. I brought Erin in and we looked together under the bed. No monster. Just to be on the safe side, we also checked behind the chair, under the dresser, in the closet, and under Elaina's bed. Definitely No monster. But Erin was still certain that there was a monster under her bed. So she slept in my room and felt absolutely fine in there.

Tonight she still insists that there is a monster in her room. I checked all the hiding spots again and still found no monster. It is now 10:43pm and for the past 2 1/2 hours Erin has been coming in and out of her room insisting that there is a monster in her room. She genuinely believes in these monsters (it is not just a stalling tactic). She has been shaking, crying, and clinging to us tonight trying to avoid them. It makes me so sad to see her so terrified.

Whenever we kill one another one seems to appear. At one point in the night it apparently came out and Erin hit it in the nose and he bit her foot. Later she asked Daddy to go in and kill the monster, and so he took a foam nerf sword and attacked the monster...and won. We heard the entire fight from the living room (Mike put on a great show!). He came out and announced that the monster was dead. But two minutes later Erin was back out again to say that another one had come. Erin described this one like this: "he looks like the guy in Enchanted who says "I'm supposed to eat you!" She asked me: "Mommy, while I hide on this chair (in the living room) can you fight him Mommy? Can you?" So I went in to fight the monster, checked to make sure there were no more, and assured her that the room was monster-free.


Friday Morning Update: Erin finally crashed in her bed (still insisting that there was a monster, but exhausted) at 11:30. Sometime in the middle of the night she woke up to go to the bathroom and came in to tell me that there was still a monster in her room and she was scared. I managed to get her back in bed and quickly fell back asleep myself. Later in the night I kept waking up, wondering why my bathroom light was on, but was to lazy/tired to get up and turn it off. So I ignored it and went back to sleep. This morning I woke up and found this in my bathroom:
I suppose she felt that my bathroom, with the light on, was the only safe place in the house to sleep!

Are chick flicks predictable?

Elaina and Erin are watching "Anastasia" for the first time. It's right at the beginning of the movie, and I was asking them about it...

Me (pointing to the bad guy, Rasputin): Is he bad?
Elaina: Ohhhhhh, yes
Me: How do you know?
Elaina: Because he has a glow stick that makes him look bad. And he made bugs that were bad

Then I pointed to Dmitry (who becomes Anastasia's love interest):
Me: Is he bad?
Elaina: No, he's the boy that she's going to marry.
Me: Really? Why is she going to marry him? It looks like she doesn't like him
Elaina: Oh, ya, she doesn't like him right now. But she will like him at the end.

Pretty funny since she's never seen this movie (or if she has it was years ago and she doesn't remember it). I guess chick flicks are predictable, but we love them anyway!

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For....

ICE CREAM!

Blueberry Picking

One great memory I have from my childhood is going to visit my Grandma in northwestern Ontario and going blueberry picking. Of course we just picked from wild blueberry bushes, and I remember running through hills in a forest (although my Dad would call it "the bush") with buckets. Then we'd come home and eat a bowl of blueberries with cream and sugar, and freeze the rest for pies, muffins, and other treats. I knew it was blueberry season here in Texas while my parents were here and thought it would be fun to do with them since I remember doing it with my Grandma. We picked 16 lbs of blueberries, so we'll be eating plenty of blueberry muffins over the next few months, which will keep Mike happy for a while! :)

Erin didn't need a bucket - all the blueberries she picked went straight into her mouth (thank goodness at this place you can eat as you pick!), and the ones she occasionally put in a bucket, she eventually took back out and put in her mouth. For the most part, she just carried around an empty bucket and a well-fed tummy. I don't even want to know how many pounds of blueberries she ate on her own!

And when hers was empty, she went picking in someone else's bucket!

Erin is mastering the duck face

This is to prove that Mike really was there too...he just seemed to spend most of the time poking me with a stick. Who knew that blueberry picking wasn't his thing!??

And of course, eating them is the best part....





Sharing snow cones at the end of the day: