Insta-Friday

Our first week of summer vacation is now complete.  Only eleven more weeks to go.

Cruising over to the pool for a swim wearing our summer best.

Savannah and her crazy cousins playing outside at Didad's house before we left for SD.

More swimming.

Then Uncle Ry Ry arrived to make the drive back to SD with us.

Arizona... and more swimming.

They are fascinated with my grandparents' house phone.  Sav thinks it's the coolest thing ever.  This (now unplugged) phone has occupied them for several hours.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Sweet summer time is here!  Finally!  The summer is absolutely the most wonderful time of the year.  Eric would beg to differ... he is a fall/winter guy... me, not so much.  I want bathing suits and sundresses and lots and lots of water play!  Savannah and I could live at the beach or in the pool... we both see no need to ever get out.  The verdict is still out on Ryder... sometimes he likes the water, sometimes he wants nothing to do with it.  Hopefully as the water warms up and as he gets a little older he will spend more time playing with me and Savannah in the pool.

Insta-Friday

The weather around here is just plain frustrating lately.  One day it is booty cold and the next day I am getting the tank tops back out for Savannah to wear to school.  Ugh.  Savannah was so excited the one day that it was cold enough for her to get to wear her purple sweater boots and one of her fun sweaters. She had been begging me to let her wear them for over a month now, but it seriously has been in the 80's... so that's a no.  She got a one day "yes" before it went right back to a "no".  Hopefully it cools down soon.

Chuck-e-Cheese for her cousin Weaver's birthday party.  Savannah loves that boy so much.  I'm not sure how she is going to cope when her days of playing soccer with him are done.

Sooooo, I cute Ryder's hair.  Not sure how I feel about the job I did... kinda dorky looking.  He had this one long strand bang looking thing that hung in his face all day long.  I finally got fed up and grabbed some scissors and just cut all the way across his forehead.  Perhaps not the right move.  Next hair cut will be done by a professional, for sure.

Trick-or-treating with my mister mister.

She is obsessed with these fangs she got while trick-or-treating.  Obsessed.

1st Birthday, Rangers Style

This past weekend we had Ryder's 1st birthday party... Rangers themed, of course.  Talk about one of the easiest themes I have ever worked with.  Baseball itself has a thousand and one party options, but when you add in the fact that the Texas Rangers' colors are red and blue... OMG, so easy and inexpensive.  And since I pretty much threw this whole thing together in one week, I was loving how easily everything came together.  The food for this party was also so easy... hot dogs, nachos, and popcorn.  No prep and hardly and clean-up.  Awesome!  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves... the adult, the kids, and most importantly, the birthday boy!  He was passed from person to person, enjoyed watching his cousins run around like crazy people, and walked (or should I say crawled) away with some pretty fun gifts.  A pretty successful party for our mister mister.

Since Ryder does have so many cousins and little friends, I had some games planned to keep the kids busy for a portion of the party... first up, pin the bubble gum on the baseball player.  Savannah came up with this game.  Pretty creative.  I always love watching kids play any sort of "pin the ______ on the ______" game.  It's funny watching their dizzy little bodies try to get it right.

Next up, the pinata.  Always a hit... kids love whacking things... kids love candy... end of story.

Each kids got some sweet Rangers shades to wear while outside waiting their turn to hit the pinata.

The last game/activity I had planned was a bubble gum blowing contest.  Turns out that the gun I bought for the kids to chew for this (Big League Chew) is kind of difficult to blow bubbles with.  So it came down to two of the adults at the party competing against each other.  She won, he didn't.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ryder, happy birthday to you!  Cake time... which he had NO interest in.  All he wanted was his bottle (have I mentioned lately how awful it is going to be to kick that habit).

A party is always better with kids... Ryder had a decent turn out... between cousins and friends, we had kids running all over the place.

Time for presents!!  This is where things got crazy.  Every kid there wanted to help.  Ryder just sat in front of me looking at everything as it was pulled out of the bags.  His big sis and older cousins were way more into the gifts than he was.  It was all a tad overwhelming at that moment for him.  Once we got everything home and opened it up for him, he was good to go.  He has been playing with all his goods all week long.  Boy made out pretty well.

Daddy and his one year old (ahhhh!!! and the bottle.  Seriously, the dang bottle is in just about every picture!!!!)

Ryder and his cousin, Tex.  The family now has two crazy one year olds to contend with.  Watch out!

Easter Hangover

It's Tuesday and I still have yet to recover from Easter Sunday. Our living room, kitchen, and Savannah's room are littered with Easter basket goodies. It seems like everywhere I look there is Easter basket grass, or a piece of candy, or some sort of new Easter toy that I am tripping over. I really need to get it all put away. It was a good Easter though... family basket time in the morning and then we headed over to Eric's cousin's house for food and an egg hunt. Savannah was way more into the egg hunt this year. She filled two baskets plus an additional two plastic bags full of eggs. In her words, she "totally won".

Savannah and her cousin JJ... the founding members of the "Best Friends Club". There is even a secret handshake and password. These girls crack me up.

Louisiana

The weekend following Spring Break we headed to Louisiana to see one of Eric's cousins get married. I always get excited when we get to go down that way for a few ways. I love that side of Eric's family... they are always a good time. Plus, there is guaranteed to be good food... always.

Friday night we went to the rehearsal dinner, which just so happened to be my favorite, a crawfish boil! Savannah wouldn't touch them, Ryder made a silly face when I let him have a bite, Eric and I handled a box or two. I already can't wait to go back.

Misc. pictures from the weekend... Savannah swimming with her cousin Hazel, Ryder playing with Eric's cousin Tiffany and her husband, the beautiful bride walking down the isle, Ryder with his cousin Madison and Cole.

Savannah and Hazel spent most of the reception tearing up the dance floor. The two of them were so funny out there... twirling and dipping each other and then politely clapping when the song would end. Silly little girls.