Couples Bunco... the Halloween Edition

Last night we had couples Bunco at our house!

It felt like it was about time to have a group over for some Bunco fun. Everyone came in costume and brought some goodies to share! There was some awesome food and lots of visiting before we got down to dice-rollin' business.

Here are the players:

The Cowboy (Tyler Hurd) & his Indian (Liz Hurd)

Little Red Riding Hood (Tristen Seal) & The Big Bad Wolf (James Seal)

The Doctor (Tania Harden) and her Nurse (Brian Harden)

The Convict (Char Stewart) & Napoleon Dynamite (Brian Stewart)

Lady in Pink (Cindy Graves) and The Hippy Love Guru (Mark Graves)

Wayne Campbell (Rick) and The Tooth Fairy

And here they are playin':

the boys are tallying up one of their rounds of bunco... notice the looks of concentration there?
"1,2,3... carry the 6... add 9..."

Red, the Doc and the Convict chatting before another round starts...

Oh... wait... um... we seem to be missing one of our pups... has anyone seen spot? Anyone???

Ah, yes, well, there he is! Thanks Cindy!

So, we ate and we rolled... we rolled and we ate. In the end, Bunco awards were given out to a select few (and you know who you are). We also gave out an award for the Best Costume.

Here is the lovely award:

awarded to Woody, aka Tyler! Way to go!

Thanks for dressing up everyone! It was fun to see all of the costumes. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! And Bunco is one of my favorite games. Combining the two made for a great evening!

Finally... the last leg of our summer vacation!

I have been putting this off long enough! Here are pictures from the Seattle portion of our vacation!

It has been hard picking pictures for this entry... I took so many. This is where I grew up and I took all kinds of crazy pictures... where I used to work, where I used to live, etc. I've tried to pick photos that won't bore you, hopefully I've succeeded.

Last time we were in Seattle was in December and it snowed like crazy! We were pretty much house bound (except for the trip to the Dr's for Haylee's strep throat). This trip there were so many things I wanted to do with the girls... and the first was to take them to the DUCK SHACK!!

A few pics from that outing....

the famous "duck shack"! L-O-V-E this place, lots of great memories.

the view from the hill... jealous, aren't ya?

taken on the boardwalk... to get down to the river you take a dirt path down the hill to the boardwalk. the boardwalk then winds around the front of the hill and down to more cabins.

Mooma and her great-grands!

Mooma, Hannah, Hunter and Haylee heading down to the riverbank to play in the mud!

Everyone got together for some food and relaxation. Other than the fact that the only toilet there is in an outhouse, the girls loved it. Do I have princesses or what? However, they would have played in the mud on the riverbank forever!

More pictures tomorrow... it's late and tomorrow is a big day! Stay tuned....

First Day of School...

A bit late, but here it goes...

The girls first day of school was August 25th. Hannah is a big 2nd grader and Haylee is starting kindergarten!

Those who know them know that Hannah is not shy at all and Haylee can be extremely shy. I spent most of Monday night worrying about how Haylee would handle her first day of school. Even when she was at the preschool where I worked, she had a hard time going into class in the mornings. She would just rather be with mommy!

Hannah with her new teacher, Mrs. Lewis

Haylee and her new teacher, Ms. Strange (and mommy, of course)

The BackPack Fairy came Monday night leaving the girls a few goodies to start their school year off right. Haylee was very excited about that and even excited while she got ready for school. But walking into school itself was a whole different matter. She was super clingy and when we got to her class she wouldn't let go of me. In the end, her teacher had to physically pull her off of me so I could leave. It broke my heart and I was worried she wouldn't want to go back the next day so I set about making plans to make sure the day ended on a fun note for both girls.

After school I picked them up and told them I had a surprise for them. We went to the Nestle Tollhouse store and got their favorite ice cream.... BUBBLE GUM ICE CREAM!

Haylee with a mouthful of ice cream and her little gum ball cup filling up quickly...

Hannah enjoying her ice cream and gum balls...

We ate our treats and talked about the fun things they both did at school today. Haylee was upbeat and talked about her friends and the songs they sang, etc.

After wards I drove them to another part of the shopping area (The Shops of Highland Village) and parked. I told them I had brought their swimsuits so they could change into them and run through the fountain (there is regular fountain and one that is just water jetting out of different holes in the ground for kids to play in). They were so excited! It was hotter than heck so they loved cooling off in the fountains. I, however, couldn't even keep cool in the shade!

the girls standing over the holes so the water couldn't come out

Haylee running wild in the water...

"So girls, what did you think of your first day at school?"

I think it put a good spin on a day that didn't start so well...

*since this was written weeks after the event, I'll tell you that Haylee had a rough go of it the rest of that week. However, last week and continuing on, she has done great! I drop her and Hannah off and they both walk into their classes with no problems!

Labor Day

We topped off our Labor Day weekend at the Seal's home...

We went over to BBQ and hang out while the girls played in some form of water... it ended up being the kiddie pool, which they loved! James grilled up some monster hamburgers which we ate with tons of chips and dips, delicious potato salad and sweet corn on the cob.

It was a nice end to a long weekend. Here are a few snapshots of our evening:

Hannah, Kaiya and Haylee posing in some CRAZY hats!

A new little "friend" Hannah found!

Pool Time! (It looks like the girls are listening intently to Kaiya...)

Dads supervising the pool time (while the moms were inside eating their weight in chips and dip!)

The 3 Princesses!

*I have been a complete slacker with the whole blogging thing! I still have one last part of our summer trip to blog, our mini vacation to OKC, the first day of school, etc. I'll be getting to that ASAP!

Enjoy your week!

The Backpack Fairy...

I love traditions!

We have a few traditions in our little family... hanging out the brass "Santa" key on Christmas eve, waking up to a decorated table on your birthday, etc.

For the beginning of a school year, we have a visit from the Backpack Fairy!

The girls set out their backpacks before they go to bed. During the night the Backpack Fairy comes and leaves an item or two in said backpack...this year she brought the girls a new lunch box and shirt for the first day of school!

Hannah's super cute lunch box and striped polo shirt

Haylee's equally cute froggy lunch box and cute polo with a ruffle

I can hardly believe Haylee is starting kindergarten tomorrow... well, actually today... I am having a rough time sleeping, stressed about how she is going to handle tomorrow. But I guess I'd better finish this post and get to bed so that I can be ready for whatever the morning throws my way!

Good luck my girls! Learn all you can! I'll be waiting in the car pick-up line! LOVE YOU!

Introducing the Class of 2022!

Here they are!

(Bryce, Ella, Megan, Haylee, Justyn, Auston & Auston's little sister, Ella)

The end of the summer has come to a close and last week Haylee hosted a swim party for her friends from Pre-K. We thought it would be fun to get them together for one last time before everyone started Kindergarten. There are a few friends who couldn't make it and they were definitely missed. We've enjoyed their friendship the past few years at preschool and hope we will still get to have play dates from time to time!

Enjoy school guys, it goes by so fast! It's hard to believe that Haylee will be graduating high school in 13 short years. =}

4th leg of the trip...the Bay area

Next we were off to see Uncle Rob, Uncle Tracy and cousin Joey in Los Altos (just outside of San Francisco).

Rick, the girls and I drove up (all I can say is bless the person who invented the in-car DVD player!) and Grandma and Grandpa Churchwell flew up. The girls couldn't wait to see Joey!
There was plenty of eating out on the back patio (unheard of in Texas during the summer), seeing the sights, playing at the park, walking the dogs, swimming in the pool, sleeping in the "clubhouse"...the room that we slept in was the converted garage and it's huge! We made a very large pallet on the floor and the cousins would have a slumber party in there. It was dubbed the "clubhouse" and all it would take was for one adult to mention the clubhouse and the kids would scamper off to play. I also gave them a new "secret" password every so often and told them if the adults didn't know the password they weren't allowed in. They loved it!

One day we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was awesome! So many things to see...

the kids all ready for the trip to the aquarium

Hannah, Joey, Haylee and Uncle Rob at the touch tank

cousins posing in a giant shell

this school of fish swimming around was pretty awesome

the girls were captivated by the jellyfish...how could they not be?

We also took a trip out to Capitola to see the new beach house Rob and Tracy were building. It is finished as I type but not quite while we visited. They are just a few minutes walk from the beach and all the excitement.

We spent quite a bit of time playing on the beach...building sandcastles, running in and out of the waves, having lunch, more playing in the waves. Uncle Tracy was a trooper, down in the sand with the kids the whole time. I can't wait until next summer and hopefully spending more time at the beach house!

I took a ton of shots at the beach but this is one of my favorites...we had just arrived and the girls were checking out the enormity of the water with Joey

At the end of our time there we had to say goodbye to Rick. He was driving his parents back down to Fullerton and then flying home to Texas.

"we love you daddy!"

The girls and I flew out to Seattle and the last part of our trip...THANK YOU Rob, Tracy, and Grandma and Grandpa Churchwell for your hospitality. We loved spending time with you all!...more to come...