We were waiting in line for Babe's Chicken, so we decided to entertain ourselves with family photos. I took my friends' family photo, and she shot mine. Now, out of 15, this one was the closest we got to all 4 of us even facing the camera. Sad. But Connor was not amused by the whole idea.



But you know Megan...she won't pass up a moment to pose (even if it's with her mean old mom).

Okay, so I'm a tad bit behind the times with this blog post, but I forgot about these pictures on my camera until, well, today.

Last weekend, Megan attended a very special Tea Party with her other partners in crime, I mean 4 year old friends, at Tia's house. She dressed up very fancy (see convo below), and was VERY excited to get to play with her "bestest friends". They hovered around the beautifully decorated table, just itching to eat (side bar: that's all these girls ever seem to want to do when they get together...). They had fancy mints, apples, PB&J sandwiches, almonds, sherbet punch, and tea cup cookies. The conversation was priceless!



The divas! Think we should warn the school district that we're all trying to get them into the same school next year or should we keep it our little secret???

Megan: Mommy, can we rub that wet dirt stuff on our faces and put pickles on our eyes?
Mommy: You mean a mud mask and cucumbers?
Megan: Yeah, that's what I said.
_______________________________________________________________

Mommy: You've been invited to a tea party with your friends. Do you want to go?
Megan: *pause* Well, um, will there be REAL tea there?
Mommy: Why?
Megan: Well, I don't think I'm old enough to have REAL tea yet.
Mommy: I bet it'll be juice...you know, like pretend tea.
Megan: Well then heck yeah!!! Is it now?
_______________________________________________________________

Megan: I want to wear a fancy-schmancy dress to the tea party.
Mommy: *holding up a dress* How about this one?
Megan: *holding up a different dress* Um, how about this one? Is it fancy-schmancy enough? Be honest, Mom.
Mommy: Yes, that one is fancy-schmancy enough.
Megan: *pause...looked me up and down* Maybe I'd better ask Dad and Connor.
_______________________________________________________________

Mommy: Did you have fun tonight playing with the boys?
Megan: *sigh* As much fun as I can have playing with boys.
_______________________________________________________________

This isn't exactly a conversation with her, but Megan sure has changed lately. For instance, she gets embarrassed now - something very new to us. Dad and I "do embarrassing things", such as hug her at school and hold her hand in a parking lot. Also, everything is a secret. She comes to me with her "secrets" (so-and-so did this at school, etc) and we have "girl talk" (her words). I'm sworn to secrecy, of course, and I find it quite amusing. If I wasn't so worried about the consequences, I'd share some of the cute "secrets". But she's reading quite a bit now, and with my luck she'd get on here and bust me.

Daddy took a day off the other day AND kept the kids with him. They went to the museum, and they had a blast! Megan got to dress herself AND do her own hair (fair warning before you view the next few pictures).

Wild children and a turtle


The girl who is deathly afraid of spiders is standing next to a tarantula - only because it's in a thick, glass case.


Connor "investigating".

Megan wanted to do my hair today, so why not? She combed it, blow dried it, straightened it (yeah, the straightener was off), and even put some curlers in it. It was great conversation and it was fun to watch her concentration face. Luckily for me, she got a little bored with it and asked me to finish it.

Well, we survived the first week of school - barely. We've got the routine down and the mornings go very smoothly, but the kids still need time to get adjusted to school. Both have suffered a series of meltdowns over the past 3 school days, but we're making adjustments to bedtimes, etc, to try to have a better second week.

The school is awesome and our kids have the BEST teachers. We are very excited about this school year and the opportunities the kids will have to learn and grow.

Connor got to skip the second half of the school day on Friday for his 18 month check up. It's true - he's 18 months, holy cow!!! He is a happy, healthy boy. He weighs 25.6 lbs (50th percentile) and is 34 1/4 in tall (90th percentile). He is VERY independent - does not want help unless he says "help"; loves to dance; is a trickster/prankster; is a great sleeper; is attached to his Pillow Pet "bee"; climbs the bookshelves, grabs a book, and climbs up to the chair; can make the sound of 20+ animals; says: book, movie, up, down, on, off, open, shut, please, no, thank you, sister, Megan, bee, the letters "a", "o", "e", eat, done, shower, outside, chimichanga, meat, cheese, help, dog, cat, Elmo, dinosaur, pizza, chicken, juice, drink, touchdown, truck, crash, baby, princess, play, sleep, trash, what's this?, phone, school, lunch, big boy, diaper, potty, music, tiki (one of his favorite songs), and several other words that I can't think of right now. He is such a fun little boy, and we are so lucky to have him in our family.

Well, it's here! The kids started school today at a Montessori school. Of course I was a tad bit nervous, okay darn near panic attack at some points through out the day, but all turned out okay.

Megan got up and got ready, carefully following her "get ready checklist". Then she practically ran to her classroom. Easy as pie.

Connor was a different story. He was not in a good mood from the minute he woke up this morning. He was cranky, and started out with a fit about shoes. Then he didn't want to hold hands in the parking lot = fit. He didn't want to wear his backpack OR = hold hands = fit. He wanted to play in the water fountain = fit. He didn't want to hold hands down the hallway to the classroom = fit. But once he got into the classroom, he was so excited and got right down to work.

They both had a great day. No tears, no whining, and requests to go back. Whoo hoo!

Well, all I can say is that it's over and that I can't wait until next year.

Many moons ago, we registered to run in the El Scorcho 25K at midnight. In translation, that's 15.5 in the heat and dark. I hurt my hip while running just a few weeks before the race, so I didn't even think I would be able to run. Out of shape and crazy, I decided to run it anyway. I finished 4 of the laps, so 12.54 miles. It was a personal record, and I'm so proud of myself. People keep asking, "Are you mad because you didn't just finish out the half marathon distance?" Heck no! People, I should've stopped after 9 miles, but I squeezed 3.5 more in before I absolutely had to stop. I couldn't even walk any further. The end results: 5 blisters, bruised toes, 2 huge chin bruises, sore knees, and a completely disfunctional hip - oh, and exhaustion. BUT, it was fun! Just look at some of the motivational signs we saw along the way!






Of course Daddy-o did awesome. He finished the race and came back to walk with me the rest of the way. That's love, baby!

Grandma and Grandpa took Megan, cousin Jayden, and cousin Karah to Brownsville to visit Granna and Double G. It was Megan's first overnight, consecutive days, trip. Megan had a blast, but we sure did miss her!

Riding on the golf cart.


At the pool with Granna.


McDonalds


Plenty of cousin playing time


"The fun pizza place!"


Does this even need an explanation?


Thank you: Grandma and Grandpa for including Megan. Granna and Double G for hosting the madness and the cute school clothes!

My very creative neighbor talked me into making a craft project with the kids. It's their tradition to make garden stepping stones with hand/foot prints. Sounds easy, right? Hehehehe. It wasn't easy, but it sure was fun! Jaxon and Megan dutifully participated, but they made it very clear that we were interrupting their play time.







Connor participated as well, but he kept grabbing a fist full of cement when we tried to get his hand print. We have 3 very cute stepping stones out back.

Okay, let's discuss the elephant in the room. I took a 3 week break from blogging. For some people, that might be fun. For me, it was pure torture. But I had agreed to and taken on too much at once. To give you a glimpse, I was: training for a race, teaching online summer school, working full time, mothering full time, taking pictures, and various other obligations from time to time. It was way too much! I had to put a few things on the back burner. Blogging was a sacrificial lamb.

So in the next few posts, I'll try to catch you up on life.