Reading boy

Sebastian has been really interested in books lately. We gathered to watch a show together, and he made himself comfortable reading this book. So cute.

Surprise Visit!

Tia Nana and Julian came for a day trip this morning and surprised us by bringing Lito with them! We were all so excited to see all 3 of them!

 Lito with all of his grandkids (minus in utero Chea baby!)

 A little cousin snack of raspberries before lunch

 

Cousin play time

 

Lito gave everyone a nice treat by taking us to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch!
Waiting and watching the dancing mouse and videos...

Game time after lunch! The little guys liked driving!

And Sebastian loved this game, although I must confess we never even put a token in it. ;)

What a week!

Austin had to leave town for a week, including the weekend. Here is how we kept busy in his absence...

All weekend sports were cancelled due to the 9" of rain we were receiving. So we went on several rainy walks which ended in wet play at the park.

A Saturday morning trip to Shipleys...in the rain. They loved watching them make kolaches in the window!

And when the sun finally came out, we chased many butterflies all through the neighbors' yards. Sebastian is really intrigued by butterflies right now. But he just calls them "flies."

We also spent time with Pawpaw and Manah, who treated us to a meal out and let us watch the Aggie game at their house.

Thankfully, Daddy is back now! We were all really starting to miss him!

Park Time

I took the little ones to the park after lunch while we waited for the big girls to return from piano. Stephen got this Transformers Optimus Prime action figure and has been really enjoying it. He brought it to the park and asked me to take pictures of them playing together. ;) Sebastian played in the rocks with Anastasia and looks like he has a black eye or something. Annie always comes home from the park with this black suit all over her, even if we are only there for 15 minutes!

 On a side note, we decided to eliminate TMNT from our household. They have a lot of bad language and other things we don't like. Austin has been watching some Transformer videos on Netflix with the kids. They have a lot of really good messages and themes. So we made a deal with Stephen that we would buy a few of these figures to replace the Turtles we were getting rid of. He was more than happy to comply!

Dewberry Farm Trip

We took a homeschooler field trip to Dewberry Farm yesterday. We had a great group and a great time! I don't have many photos of my older children because we split into groups of older and younger kids. Austin and I ended up with the younger kid group.

Jumping

 The big slides are so fun!

 

 

 

 

The Dads who came saw this Tug of War and couldn't resist a quick competition!

 

Anastasia and Magdalene were good buddies! Here they are on the wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch.

Picking pumpkins...one of Sebastian's greatest joys!

Anastasia and Magdalene both picked "baby" pumpkins. So sweet.

 

 Lots of comparing and searching for this guy.

We all met up for a picnic lunch. We brought two friends along with us for the day in addition to all the rest of the families in our group. :)

 The bigger kids outside the animal barn. We went there all together after lunch since it was close to our picnic spot. Anastasia was the very last one out and complained about having to leave because she was so enamored by the animals. It was so sweet to watch her in awe.

The Dads had almost as much fun pushing these as the children did riding them!

Hopefully we will make it back in a few years. It was so much fun!

*And some big kid pics that our sweet friends sent us. Thanks, Mary!

Fall Piano Recital

We had the girls' recital yesterday where they were able to dress up to match their pieces. It was Gloria's first recital, and Miss Amy played with her. So sweet!

Allia "Ocean"


Mariana "Queen's Royal Entrance"


Gloria "Swan Lake"


We were a little rusty on performances after summer break! :p

Fun Across the Street

Pawpaw had a shed built in his backyard, and these guys thoroughly enjoyed it while it was still empty!

This little fellow loves climbing into Manah's van and putting on the headphones just like he sees the older kids do. Little copycat!

Little Guy

This cute guy sat here reading for about 15 minutes with his little ankles crossed. He looked so grown up! It was so cute to see and hear him doing all the things I do when I read these books to him, including calling Elmo in Grover's voice. We were trying so hard not to laugh. So precious! Of course, shortly after I started videoing him, he noticed and came to me to read. Then Allia grabbed the camera and did a video of us reading together.

Soccer time

We had another soccer game Saturday, and the team played so well. They really improved this week. They won the game 5-0 with Allia nearly scoring a goal. She had some great passes.

 The younger siblings found a dirt pile in the shade. Anastasia played here the entire hour.

A "great job, keep it up" talk from coach Lee.