Having a BALL at Sports Class

To keep busy this summer I enrolled Ben & Kate in a few classes. One is a Little Tykes Sports class at a nearby rec center for 2.5-3.5 year olds.

Here they are with Coach Pat- he is a tennis fanatic and teaches tennis to preschoolers for a living and has the patience of Job I tell you!

 And yes...that is a train engineer hat Ben is wearing- his choice of course. I pick my battles!

In the class they've mainly learned about soccer and tennis. They've learned all the parts of a tennis racket and how to hold it. Here they are kicking their "soccer" balls, trying to stop the ball with their feet and not use their hands!

GOOOOAAALLLLLL!

Coach Pat has a drill where the kids pretend they are different birds then stop quickly and be a "flamingo" balancing on one foot. Here they are being humming birds.

 High Fives for Coach after class!

It is not how big you are, it's how big you play!  ~Author Unknown

Sea World 2

Since we bought season passes to Sea World last time we were there in March we decided we would try to get our money's worth and  go back a few times this year. So we drove down to San Antonio to stay with Bubbie & Zayde for the weekend which worked out nicely since it was Father's day weekend.

After feeding the dolphins and seeing the sharks again we ventured over to the water park area which was great because it was H-O-T!

They had a great kiddie area with a shallow pool and lots of fun things to play on!

For a snack we let Ben & Kate pick out an ice cream bar. They both picked a chocolate covered treat and in the June San Antonio heat it melted FAST and made a big mess. It was too funny and so cute! I could laugh since they were in their swimsuits!

I think we'll make it back to Sea World one more time- preferably in the Fall once it cools off a bit!

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." ~ Dory, Finding Nemo

Trying to Stay Cool!

Looks like it will be a hotter than average summer in DFW! It has been about 100 degrees every day for the past week and it's not even July yet- YIKES! With busy little ones, we have been trying various ways to cool off in the Texas heat.

We have weekly swims at the pool with neighbors...

Taking a snack break with Shawn & Reese

 We also play quite a bit in the backyard and we have to get creative sometimes....

At our house we have a million uses for wine corks and one is for floating in baby pools! We also have a little hopscotch pad turned slip & slide that is lots of fun.

Hope you are staying cool wherever you are!

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.  ~Russel Baker

Fire Station Tour

Last week our multiples club had an outing to the Coppell Fire Station #3.After a quick tour of the kitchen and living area we got the see the firetrucks and all the firemen's gear.

Here is a fireman slowly putting his gear on....

And here he is all dressed up! They wanted the children to learn he wasn't scary and to go to him if they saw him in an emergency situation.

Afterwards the kids got to play with their equipment and sit in the fire truck. The first fire truck we were seeing had to leave right away to answer a 911 call so that was neat to see.

Here are Ben & Kate posing for a picture. Kate was a little nervous during the whole experience, notice how she is holding her face.

Here are most of the twins & a set of triplets from MPOM. Thanks Amy for planning such a fun outing. After the tour was over, we all drove down the street to Kid Country Park for some play time and a picnic!

The firemen were very friendly and we left with an open invitation to come back for some more!

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”~ Arthur Ashe

At the Car Wash.....

...the Cozy Coupe Car Wash that is!

Come summer the work gets kind a hard
This ain't no place to be if ya planned on being a star.
Let me tell you it's always cool
And the boss don't mind sometimes if ya act a fool.

At the car wash
Talkin' about the car wash yeah!
Come on and sing it for me car wash.
Car wash yeah!

Maui!

Mark and I celebrated our 5th anniversary with a trip to Maui! It was a wondeful trip but wouldn't have been possible without Bubbie, Zayde, Grammy & Gran who split the kid watching duties- thanks again! And thanks to Roz, Aunt Nan, Nana/Aunt Lynda and Memaw for helping out during the week too!

On the way there we flew first class which I LOVED- we had our own little pod and the seats practically laid down like beds. And we drank champagne! I could get used to this!

Maui is my new favorite Hawaiian island. For our honeymoon we went to Kauai and Honolulu but Maui is the best of both worlds- a great combo of lots of beautiful stuff to see plus great resorts and restaurants so there is stuff to do that is adventurous and relaxing which is a great combination for Mark & I, since he likes to be active and I like to relax!

We stayed at the Hyatt which was a 5 star hotel on Kaanapli Beach (a strip with a bunch of other huge resorts) so we loved our hotel- it had flamingos, penguins and parrots walking around in the garden! It also had a really great pool with waterfalls and waterslides and the view of the beach was beautiful. It also had big hammocks on the lawn we sat in a bunch. So we had lots of pool time.

Tropical Penguins at the Hyatt

Flamingos in the courtyard

Mark at the Grotto Bar at the pool

For adventurous stuff, we did a lot of snorkeling- I swam for about 20 minutes right next to a huge sea turtle and saw a ton of fish- even a whole school of thousands of them which I'd never seen. Mark took these with his great new underwater camera!

Also we had a convertible and we drove all over the island. We drove to the top of the extinct volcano and saw inside the crater which was really cool and we drove the "Road to Hana" this windy tiny one lane road up a mountain that is 34 miles and takes 2.5 hours bc it's so winding! Along the way there were lots of waterfalls and black sand beaches and all these natural freshwater pools we swam in.

At the top of Haleakala- an extinct volcano

Swimming in a fresh water pool on the road to Hana

Mark on a black sand beach

Another day of the trip, I had a really great massage ocean side and it was so relaxing I fell asleep for part of it! The spa was right on the beach so I read my book in my robe overlooking the ocean. Mark took surf lessons earlier that day and that was fun to watch- he actually did pretty good!

Mark and his teacher

The food was AWESOME- so many good meals it's hard to describe but we had some of the best sushi ever, a cheeseburger at Cheeseburger in Paradise which is the actual place Jimmy Buffet wrote the song, a ton of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, white chocolate chip macadamia nut panckes and a ton of really great seafood. Plus we drank of ton of pina coladas and lava flows!

Black pearl dessert at Mama's Fish House

My white chocolate chip mac nut pancakes and Mark's fried rice at The Gazebo

If you like Pina Coladas.....

Cheeseburger in Paradise at Cheeseburger in Paradise!

Ben &Kate did great- we heard they hardly asked about us at all and I think they had more fun since they were constantly being entertained and spoiled by the grandparents!

 It was a great trip thanks to Mark and all his planning. I'm a lucky lady to have spent the last 5 years as his wife- I love you Mark! I'm already looking forward to our next trip to Hawaii for our 10th anniversary!

Our wedding was many years ago.  The celebration continues to this day.  ~Gene Perret