Kim Party

For literature, Hunter's 8th grade class read Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. To celebrate the completion of this book, Ms. Pfannenschmidt suggested a Kim party. We hosted it at our house and it was such a neat experience. The book is set in India so we had Indian food, Indian saris and henna tattoos for the girls. Plus we planned a few other activities that were inspired by the book.

Here is a portion of Hunter's classmates. Not all were able to make it to the party. The fabulous Ms. Pf is on the front row, far right.

Hunter and I in our Indian attire.

We recruited Ms. Seymour to be our henna artist.

My friend Shana Parker, and fellow 8th grade mom, taught us all a Hindi worship song. 

The whole group singing in Hindi.

Hunter narrated some rousing games of Mafia with Kim characters and creative ways to die.

Hostesses: Ana, Bronwyn, Shana, Sherry and Freya.

And more...

A bike ride a day makes Collins a very happy girl!

Holden loves his big sister and he wants to do whatever she does. So one day when Collins decided to take her doll in the car, Holden insisted that he take a doll too! He was showing me baby Alexis as we drove away.

Holden and the baby doll enjoyed their ride together. 

Oh what fun we had when we spent the day in Galveston with the Clarke family! They had just purchased a 15-passenger van and so we squeezed both our families into the van and filled every seat. We visited the ice sculptures at Moody Gardens. It was so very cold. 

Connor and Collins.

Carter and Rebecca Clarke - both in 5th grade at TCS.

We had fun in the gift shop after the ice sculptures. Connor was attaching stuffed animals to his velcro hat.

And Connor was photobombing this picture of Cooper Clarke and Colton - both 3rd graders at TCS.

After the ice sculptures, we had a delicious lunch and then found the cutest ice cream/ candy shop in downtown Galveston. Collins was delighted with her lollipop.

Collins started gymnastics and it is her favorite activity of the week.

Doing a little shopping with mom at World Market.

Sibling love!

Holden thinks Sissy is fantastic!

Happy Birthday Colton! January 11th marked Colton's 9th birthday. We took him Smashburger to school for his birthday lunch.

Chocolate chip bundt cake for his birthday dinner.

Colton got a fishing pole for his birthday and he was trying to teach Collins and Holden the basics.

Oh, this is a great story! Holden refused to eat his peas one night at dinner and Todd and I were headed out for a late date night. So Connor and Carter stayed with him at the table until he finally ate his four peas. They were there a little over an hour. Whoa!

Holden decided to eat his Mini Wheats at a ninja one morning.

More to remember

Holden really knows how to relax in the bathtub. 

I was testing the timer on my phone to see if we could take a picture. It worked.

Amy Engram gave this candy cane headband to Collins and she wore it lots during Christmas.

Holden loves it when mom, dad or brothers read to him.

He really loves it!

This boy loves the Texas Longhorns and so he was delighted when he got this new jersey for Christmas.

We kept the Kennedy kids one day while Kat was in Israel. Such a fun bunch!

Our first attempt at sponge rollers. And I just can't get over this pose of hers!

Happy New Year 2016. 

We gathered on New Years Eve with Jean, Kelly, Jean, Emily, Tyler, Kat and Abby. 

Now back to Christmas in Fort Worth. Preparing for Christmas dinner.

Granddad and Todd slicing the turkey.

December/ January and part of February

I am determined to get back at this blogging thing, so I will do a quick catch up from the past few months.

Colton drew and submitted an owl drawing for the 2015-2016 TCS yearbook. He created a football player owl.

Connor, always the comedian, decided that our milkshake blender looked a lot like the Super Bowl trophy that was being presented to Peyton Manning. He had his own little trophy presentation.

We hosted a Kim party for Hunter's 8th grade class. The book is set in India so the whole party was Indian inspired. 

Hunter went to go-karting with Ben Barnes and his family. 

Such good buddies - Colton and Holden.

I hosted a Christmas Tea for friends from TCS. Yep, this is us outside on December 19th!

We had a combined football party for Carter and Colton to celebrate their January birthdays. It was a beautiful to play games at the park. 

The football game turned into shirts vs. skins. 

Recent

Reading books at the Park's house.

Dressing up as a ninja!

Second time to see Star Wars this weekend. This time with more friends!

Please Lord, let me remember!

I do hope the Lord allows me to remember many of the funny and wonderful things that my kids said and did when they were little. Here are some recent funny stories. We were eating breakfast this weekend at a hotel in Shreveport, LA. There was a "tip jar" on the breakfast buffet. Connor walked over to the jar, tipped it to one side and said, "Nothing happened." His mind works in such a clever way. This morning before the boys left for school we were reading Proverbs 10 from a Children's Living Bible. I had read from verse 1 to verse 6. As I began to read verse 7, Holden came running into the room yelling, "I'm poo poo!" The next verse, (verse 7) says, "We all have happy memories of good men gone to their reward, but the names of the wicked men stink after them." The boys burst out laughing. Such perfect timing. Collins and Holden share a room. At night Collins often complains that Holden won't be quiet and he won't stay on his own bed. So Monday night when I put them to bed, I told Holden, "Now Holden you need to stay on your own bed and no talking." About 20 minutes later after he got home from the church, Todd went in to say goodnight. He spoke to each of the kids, but there was just silence. Todd asked Holden if he was OK and he said, "Mom said no talking." He was being very obedient!

Collins and Connor

These two share a special friendship and really enjoy one another. Connor will stop just about anything he is doing to listen to Collins or participate in some imaginary game that she wants to play. I'm thankful for both of them!