Day by Day

Monday, May 20, 2013

Filling In

I am so ready for summer! No rushing to pack lunches in the morning, no strict schedules, only one activity to get to each day, and time to play at the pool. Although I left my week last week clear of photo shoots, it was still busy with all of Preston's birthday celebrations, the taylor swift concert, appointments and tomorrow I host the joy school graduation. We have Ella's piano recital and Addie's graduation this week and next week there are 8 shoots coming up...ahhh! Today Preston and I had a recovery day and I am feeling so ready for our month in the RV where we are all forced to disconnect from the world a bit. Of course, being busy is fun in it's own way and definitely keeps thing interesting. Here are a few May happenings that I only captured with the phone.

On a Sam's Club shopping trip with Ian and Preston

More fun writing from Addie :-)
"I would put them in a cage. And then I would put them in jail. And when they are in jail they will have no food and water and they will die."

The first Saturday of May Katy Aquatics hosted a Splash into Summer event with free swim lessons, lots of food vendors, goody bags and more. It was Preston's first swim lesson and he was freaking out. Luckily he had three helpers all to himself and I think by the end they had convinced him to blow some bubbles in the water :-).

(the bottom right picture is Ella being interviewed by a newspaper reporter)

Enjoying the backyard before the heat set in...and obliging dad's crazy ideas

this is the bug that hits my neck and then ends up on my shoulder...hence the freak out

Cute girls before school (Wednesday the 8th)

Gorgeous flowers from my mom's yard

We had a crazy Thursday morning, getting dressed, drinking our green smoothies, picking up some donuts and making it to location for a 7:30am photo shoot. Then it was off to school, where the girls made it on time! Preston and I headed to the gym, Emily came and picked him up for me and I went to the school for the girls' talent shows. I felt like I could do anything that day after accomplishing so much so early!

And although I did take this note seriously, it still made me laugh. "outlawing" "discovering" "intervention"...they are all words that seem hysterical when relating to a club made by a kindergartner :-). Addie does have a leader-type personality and I worry about the importance of us needing to make sure she understands the importance of being kind to EVERYONE and including EVERYONE in the things she does. I had previously had conversations about this "Cat Club" with her because I knew people were getting kicked out (which I told her was NOT ok) and that some of the kids were taking it very seriously (her friend Daniel's mom told me that although he had always wanted a dog, he didn't anymore because he didn't want to get kicked out of the cat club), so I do think it is for the best that it has been "outlawed".

Summer Swim Team!

The girls started summer swim team practices again on May 1st and are having a blast...well, I don't if Addie would call it a blast, but she likes it most of the time :-). Ella on the other hand LOVES it! Swimming and hanging with her buddies are two of her favorite things, so having them combined is a dream come true. I finally brought my camera to practice a couple times to capture the cuties. Addie is in the lane right by where I sit so it's easier to get pictures of her in the water. They both are doing so much better than last year and can't wait to start earning ribbons in the meets.

Ella loves coming and hanging out with Carly while Addie and Carly's brother are practicing.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Fielder Follies 2013 and a crazy Friday

Each spring at the elementary school they have a little talent show in their music classes called "Fielder Follies". I love that it is done on a small scale so that the kids aren't so intimidated and anyone that wants to perform has the chance. I only wish the school didn't have such weird rules about using cameras during the performances...SO annoying! Once all the performances are over we are taken to a separate for this awesome photo op though :-)!

Both the girls participated this year and did such a great job.

Ella played one of her recital songs on the piano and since it was in the back of the room it was impossible for me to secretly record it, but her recital is this week so we will get video at that.

Addie recited a little poem she wrote about cats and it was adorable. I was able to record her without anyone noticing but since I wasn't looking through the camera it is a little blurry. I'm still SO happy I have this...it would be so sad to not have record of it!

The next day was Friday (the 10th) and rain was in the forecast all day long. That morning I took Preston to his friend Adam's house and went and read to Addie's class and then stayed to help with Ella's science lab. When I left the school it was 10:30 and as I walked to the car I remember thinking I was glad it wasn't pouring yet even though it was raining. Then I went to pull out of the school parking lot to pick up Preston and Adam so his mom could help at the school. The street in front of the school was completely flooded. It was up over the curb and covering the sidewalk and cars parked along the road had almost all of their tires covered with water. So, I freaked out! I drove slowly and got as close to Adam's house as I thought was safe to go. We see cars on the news during these storms all the time that are stuck and I always think what idiots these people are to try to drive through the deep water...and I did NOT want to be one of those idiots :-). I took off my shoes and walked to get Preston and Adam and Juliann tested out the water to see if she could make it to the school. She decided to try and as I started driving out with the boys, with the rain still steadily coming down I decided to go pull the girls out of school. Not knowing if the rain would keep going and seeing how flooded it already was I was scared that it would get worse and that it would be a disaster getting the girls from school, if I even could. There were a couple other moms taking their kids out so I felt a little better about my decision and the girls thought it was great (although Ella was initially freaked out when they came and told her I was here to take her out of school. I had just seen her and hadn't mentioned and she thought something bad had happened to a relative). So, we hung out at home and after a couple hours the sun was out and it was gorgeous...and I felt very stupid :-). Oh well, better safe than sorry! During the afternoon the girls were playing so quietly and Preston and his buddies were being crazy boys having fun :-).

I stole this picture from a friend's facebook page to show how deep the water was and to show why I was so scared driving in it (if you read this, thanks Lori :-)!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A Monday with Preston

Mondays get a little busy around here because we try to get all our errands run. Last week (the 6th) we stopped by a little mommy-n-me activity at the outdoor mall near us. Preston had absolutely no interest in participating in the songs, but luckily his friend Ryan was there and they had fun throwing a ball around instead. Later that day he was being so quiet that I got nervous (I had outlawed the iPad for the day) and was pleasantly surprised to find him reading in Addie's room.