Cousin Fun of Summer Part 2

My nephew Fletcher came back into town for another week of cousin fun.  This was a busy week because Daniel started back to school and I was teaching the new teachers.

However, Daniel got to go out with his umpire buddies to the Rangers game one night, and another night we took the kiddos to Medieval Times.

 PawPaw and the older grandkids.

 Vivian liked the horses.

 Each got a 'weapon' of sorts.

 They got to meet the king!

 Paper crowns look good on me, said no one ever.

 MiMi, PawPaw, and the kiddos.

 Using their weapons in 'slow motion' as they called it.

 We finally got to sit down for dinner.  We were cheering for the yellow knight.

 Dinner time selfies.

 This boy cheered like this the whole time!

 Then Grant and Vivian joined in.  We were a loud section.

 Eating with no utensils can be fun!

 Our knight threw her a carnation.  Two seconds later it broke.

 Later in the week, Daniel and I took the boys to see "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".  

 Then Grant got to put his own ninja skills to work.  He tested for yellow stripe belt in Tae Kwon Do and did wonderful!

 I was one proud Mama!  That was a great end to a great week.

Last Week of Summer for the Family

Dinner Plans:  Smoked sausage, sweet peas and macaroni and cheese.  The meat was frozen so I put it outside in the 102 degree heat and it was thawed in about 45 min.  

Listen In:  Daniel working in the attic, playing with TV wires and Grant trying to convince both of us he needs to go up and help because he is the fastest.

View from the Kitchen Window: heat and more heat.  August has showed its ugly face.

This is our last week of freedom for the summer as a family.  Daniel starts in his new district on Monday. 

Reagan would rather have Grant push her in her swing than us.  Look at those smiles!

Early in the week, Daniel and I finally got to celebrate our 7th Anniversary (which was in June). 

We first ate at P.F. Changs.  I have been wanting good Chinese food for a while, and Daniel had never been.

Spicy tuna roll.

The famous lettuce wraps.

Our hotel surprised us with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.

We cut our outing short so my Mom and I could decorate his classroom.  The next day Daniel actually got to put some of his touch in the room as well.

Friday, we headed back to Urban Air with some church friends of ours.

Dodgeball was Grant's game of choice this time.

The girls we went with do competitive gymnastics, so it was fun to watch them.

Quality Time

It is awesome seeing Grant and Reagan loving on each other.  She thinks he is the funniest thing and he is always so concerned about her...until he starts swinging her around!

I caught Reagan and Grant cuddling on his bed, watching "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood".

 We can never have a popsicle alone now...watch out germs!!

Funny hair after playing with the water hose.

It has been a week since we gave up the pacifier.  Reagan whines a bit more when its time for bed, but she eventually gives in.  We just hope we found them all.  Those things are bouncy and can disappear and reappear quickly!

She will be 20 months soon.  She is limited in her speech but is as busy as they come.  Hopefully her speech will blossom soon.  Her new word is "Hi!" and she says it over and over with the most wonderful smile and passion behind it.  She is my little fruit bat and could live on that alone.  Since the bottle is gone, she has no interest in milk.  We make sure she eats plenty of other dairy to counter act that.

Back to the week...

Grant and I attended VBS in the church I grew up in early in the week.  It was a secret agent theme.

Grant 'training' for Agency D3.

 I put my mad puppet skills to work.

 We've been teaching Grant the fine art of card games this week.  

SkipBo, UNO, and Coke floats were on the to-do list.

Thursday evening, we celebrated Daniel graduating with his Masters degree in biology.

I thought this was an appropriate bag for the occasion!

 I gave him these random Cokes with his name on them and a new lab coat. Grant gave him this Lego pencil holder kit for his classroom

 We picked it out at LegoLand about 2 months ago.

 I made fajitas and we dove into this awesome ice cream cake I found.  Daniel is a huge Oreo cookie fan.

This week has been unseasonably cool.  What a blessing!  I could seriously get used it to!

Usually it is 100 degrees or more this time of the year in Texas.  So the Friday we decided to spend the morning outdoors, enjoying it. 

We took our bikes to the park.

Poor baby girl got bit by one of the geese.  It barely phased her.

 Her little leg rolls are starting to fade!  She's gotten tall this summer.

We had a nice drawing session with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, the followed by a water hose fight.

Friday night we went to Texas de Brazil, a Brazilian steakhouse for a night out to celebrate Daniel's graduation.  Ours friends Amber and Casy joined for a great, kid free, dinner.  

Death by meat and desserts...it's a good thing.

Saturday we hit the local farmer's market since the weather proved to be nice again.  

My 'strawberry shortcake' had a fit when she saw the strawberries.  I didn't really get to look around too much because she had to eat them right THEN!  She left covered in strawberry juice (and not happy that I cut her off!).

 So these are the clothes I had to stain treat within 2 hours time.  Watermelon from breakfast and strawberries from second breakfast.  I told you she was my fruit bat!