If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again....

If I had my child to raise over again, I'd finger paint more, and point the finger less.
I'd do less correcting, and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less, and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I'd run through more fields, and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging, and less tugging.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd teach less about the love of power,
And more about the power of love.
- Diana Loomans

Blastball Pictures

Blastball is over but here are our pics! I highly recommend Blastball if you can find a team. It is a great first organized sports experience for 3 year olds!

Ben

Kate

Our Team- Go Rangers!

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.  

~Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (introduction), 1982

Summer Brings.....

Summer brings....

SWIM LESSONS

Ben & Kate completed their second year of swim lessons with Mrs. Linda. They were already pretty good swimmers since she taught them so much last summer. This summer they learned to swim a little farther and dive deeper for rings.

FUN OUTINGS WITH FRIENDS

I worried we wouldn't have enough to do but it seems the summer is busier than the school year. I had to cancel a few activities so we would have a few days to lay low and decompress!

With our buds at Chuck E Cheese

RETURN OF THE AFTERNOON NAP

All these fun outings + staying up later a night = tired kids who have been taking afternoon naps more and more! These pictures were taken one afternoon when they fell asleep before I could get them in their beds. Kate likes to build "a widdle house" out of pillows on the couch. Notice she is also sporting her Ariel costume... but she looks like a little Sleeping Beauty to me!

Ben actually fell asleep in the recliner holding A BAG OF CHIPS. You know he was tired! Check out his tattoo and silly bandz- two of his favorites!

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.  ~Sam Keen

A Fun 4th of July!

We had a busy 4th of July weekend! Saturday morning Mark ran his first ever 10K. We were there to cheer him at the finish line! That is quite a feat- we are very proud of him.

Later that day we went to a pool party at the Kerpers complete with balloon animals and face painting!

 Kate, Adam & Ben

 We said Kate was a Patriotic Princess

All the kiddos!

Later that night we went to a pool party at the Keenens and had all the neighbors over to our backyard for fireworks, poppers and glow in the dark necklaces! Regrettably I did not take any pictures.

Sunday we went with Bubbie & Zayde to Coppell. We watched the fireworks in a field and Ben & Kate had a blast running around.

Monday we swam at Bubbie & Zayde's and after dinner we raced back to our neighborhood where we sat in a parking lot nearby and were able to see 5 different foreworks shows around DFW going on simultaneously. So needless to say we got our fill of fun and fireworks on the 4th! Happy 235th birthday America!

From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.
~Samuel F. Smith, "America"

Life's a Beach!

This past weekend we had a great time on our third annual trip to Crystal Beach (near Galveston) with Grammy & Gran. We always rent a beach cabin and this year we had a really cute one! The weather was also really good. It was hot but the breeze made it feel great. We had dinner on the patio every night it was so nice!

Notice Kate showing you a few of the rooms- can you tell she was excited?!?

This was Ben & Kate's room!

All ready to hit the beach! (Kate struck a ballerina pose in several of the pictures I took this weekend- ha!)

This year Ben & Kate had even more fun on the beach. Kate was a very hard worker building many sandcastles and enlisting Grammy's help! She used the plentiful seaweed as a "garden" for her sandcastles.

Grammy & Kate holding hermit crabs

Mark had a great time too! My kids are seriously lucky to have him as their Daddy.

Ben rode in this boat some but got a little traumatized when he fell out once. After that, he liked laying and sitting in the shallow water and having the waves hit him where he felt safe! He also had fun flying a kite with Gran and using a sifter to try to catch fish.

On the way home we rode the ferry from Crystal Beach to Galveston and participated in the rite of passage for preschoolers- feeding the sea gulls!

Thanks Grammy & Gran for another fun filled weekend at the beach! We're already looking forward to next year!

“I am you; you are ME. You are the waves; I am the ocean. Know this and be free, be divine.”

--Sri Sathya Sai Baba