Trip To Corpus Christi

We made the journey to visit Lito and Lita and Lolo and Lala (new residents!) in Corpus Christi for Memorial Day Weekend. It was a great trip!

Allia is joined in her piano piece for a duet with Lee Gwodtz, Austin's former choir director, and a very accomplished musician


Time for a dip in the pool!








Will he jump? Sort of...he bent down and requested a hand first.


Monkeys!


A picnic at Lolo and Lala's house


Looking at wedding photos with Mr. Trevor (soon to be Uncle Trevor)


Beach Time!
My two little wave jumpers...they jumped waves for almost 2 hours straight!


My sand players











Snack Buddies


Venturing out with Daddy...they cried. A lot. But the got used to it eventually!


Walking down to Lolo and Lala's


Playing Wii...this was our family's first experience with one of these!


Big Kids' turn


#1 Boxer...look at that serious face. She beat the pants off that game!!!


Sweet!

More popsicles

Boy it's hot out there! 'Tis the season for popsicles.




Got his own this time. :)

Bed Rotation

Gloria has been napping in the big bed for a few weeks now, and last night we made the real transition of beds. Mariana is now in the "secret" bed (aka trundle). Gloria said, "I am SO excited. This is MY bed now!"

The Car

Austin was out on errands Saturday morning before the recital and found this car on the clearance rack. Stephen LOVES it! It has several buttons that rev the engine, make it rumble and drive it forward and in reverse. He played with it for two straight days and is still enjoying his "boy toy." This was a very uncharacteristic move for my hubby, but he insisted that Stephen just really needed more boy toys.

Costume fun

The other girls are having so much fun wearing Allia's costumes. There won't be many pictures, though, since they are not so modest without the nude leotard underneath!

DANCE RECITAL!

What a beautiful, enjoyable experience. The dance studio we chose this year for Allia's first real dance class is a Christian studio run by a very sweet lady from a town very near my own hometown. Allia really enjoyed the class. And I thought this fancy recital thing would feel like a bunch of fluff. But honestly, I loved it! (And so did Austin!) It was short and very sweet (they divide the recitals into one for older girls and two short ones for little kids which makes a huge difference!). Allia danced beautifully, in fact her whole class did a really great job!

Rehearsal


Allia found her buddy, Peyton


Recital time! The butterflies are ready in the dressing room


Allia and Elizabeth, one of her buddies in the class


I wish I could have captured Allia's face as Austin presented her with these flowers, but I wasn't quite quick enough. It was priceless!!!


A little windy outside!


Allia and Kendyl, another buddy...they make some cute little monkeys!


(forgot to zoom on this one, so it is a little tough to see)


(at the rehearsal)




Allia wants to try soccer in the fall, so we will have dance camp this summer and maybe pick back up with dance in the spring. We will see! She loved it, but she also misses soccer. I am proud of her for wanting to try something new. Mariana is convinced that she will just do both. :)

Last of the Isms

Gloria is so grown up these days. Her baby speech has all but disappeared. Her one remaining Gloria-ism is "Drink, drink, drink." This is how she describes needing to drink the last few sips in her cup with the sippy lid off. So cute. I wonder how much longer it will last...

Tooth treats

We tried to go to our traditional Maggie Moos to celebrate Mariana's first lost tooth, but they have temporarily closed. :( Thankfully there are several other ice cream shops in town! Here is the celebration...

Mariana had her own and picked orange dreamsicle with white chocolate chips


Allia and Gloria shared Candy cane and Cotton candy with marshmellows


This guy just mooched off the rest of us. Don't worry though...he got his fair share!

First Lost Tooth!

Mariana asked me to pull her first loose tooth this morning. What a brave girl! I think she would have waited longer to loose her first tooth, but she bumped this one a few weeks ago, and it has gradually loosened since then. Yay, Mariana!

Piano favorite

We have really enjoyed this piano piece Allia has been working on. She enjoys playing it...you can tell. And she usually practices right after Austin leaves for work in the morning. It just seems to help bring a peaceful start to the day!

Popsicle Sharing

Cleaning up the leftovers

Rain!

much needed, much appreciated...even from the window inside! These were thunderstorms, so no playing in the rain this time, but I did let the girls open the front door to examine the quarter size hailstones, and before I could stop them all three of them ate one! :-0

Stephen kisses

This boy gives such cute kisses. It is tough to get him kissing a person because heads/hair, etc get in the way...so here he is in an especially kissy mood just giving kisses to almost anything!

First Pool Trip!

Well, I pulled the "Mother's Day" card yesterday and gently coerced Austin into making our first family trip to the pool. The water was still frigid although our highs have been in the 90's (youch!). Gloria and Stephen are definitely going to take time to "warm up" to the pool, but we had a nice time and even got some good exercise (well, those of us that actually swam).

All ready