Johnson Journal: April 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Dancing Queen (I mean Princess)

It's that time of year again! I have to admit, one of the main reasons I signed Lauren up for dance was getting to see her in these cute little outfits for the recital. What mom can resist? She is so girly to begin with- I knew she'd love it, too! Last year she did fantastic, but she was the youngest one in her class and a little shy about the whole thing. This year, she has really gotten into it! We had professional pictures taken last Thursday, so we hot-rolled her hair and put a little make-up on her. She was eating it up! She could hardly stand herself. She said, "I look like a real dancer!" I took some pictures with my own camera afterwards- I love how you can really see her personality in these pictures.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Great Outdoors

What a fun weekend!
Friday night we spent the night with Leslie in Austin. Then, Saturday morning, we headed to McKinney Falls State Park for "Fishapalooza" with Jar

ed's cub scout pack. The kids got to learn all about fishing! They practiced casting, learned about different kinds of tackle and how to set up a hook and bobber, fish identification, and safety rules for fishing. Then they got to try the real thing with worms and all! (It was not the first time the kids had been fishing, but it was a neat event, and I certainly learned some new things!) They earned a certificate and pin from Texas Parks and Wildlife- they are now official junior anglers!

Around 1 pm, we headed to Cabela's in Buda and got some lunch. The cub scouts had several activities to do in the store. We went on a scavenger hunt to answer 10 questions about things around the store. Then we got a tour of the place, got to feed the trout, and got some tokens for

the shooting gallery.

This was the perfect camping trip for me! Spend the night in a comfy one bedroom apartment, go to a pretty fishing hole to fish, eat lunch and see all the wildlife you could ever imagine in the air-conditioned comfort of Cabela's!

Who wants to sleep outside on the hard ground in a humid, bug infested place where you end up smelling like campfire? No thanks...this was about as rough as I like it! We ate dinner with Leslie, and the kids fell asleep on the way home. All that in a little over 24 hours! Now that's what I call family fun!

Oh, and we finally made reservations for The Great Wolf Lodge, so stay tuned for even more family fun (but no pictures of me in a bathing suit!)

Friday, April 18, 2008

The mouths of babes...

Don't you love it when your kids say something that just cracks you up? I wish I had written down everything mine said that was cute or funny when they were little. Lauren still comes out with something every once in awhile...

We went to Target last night for a few things (which turned into a lot of things as it always seems to do at Target and Wal-Mart for some reason). I needed some shaving gel, s

o I was over by the beauty stuff, and I decided to look for something new for Lauren's hair. I try to keep it out of her face with pony tails or barrettes, but I thought I'd try these elastic headwraps and see how they worked. She picked out her "colors" and was all excited and wanted to hold them, so I gave them to her and a few minutes later she says, "Look, Mom, sad people can't wear these!" Sure enough, there it was, right on the label...

What funny things do your kids come up with?

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Bluebonnets and Bubble Baths

Steve and I had a discussion on the way to the bluebonnet field today. We were wondering if Texas is the only state that makes a big deal out of taking pictures of your kids with the state flower? I suggested that maybe it was because they only came out once a year, for a limited time? Or perhaps Texans just enjoy torturing their children by making them trudge out into an open field, risking ant and snake bites, to pose for pictures every spring. In any case, I AM a Texan, so therefore I make my children trudge, risk, and pose...

I love to watch them laugh and have fun together! They have been wanting a bath in our jacuzzi tub since we moved in, but there was the little matter of fixing the leaky pfaucet first. (Hey...that's one of my favorite Pushmonkey songs! But, I digress...) So, tonight was the night! I didn't use any bubbles, just washed them with bodywash and shampoo and then turned on the jets. I didn't know this would happen, but I'm sure glad I didn't use bubble bath. It would have been like the scene from Freaky Friday! They had a blast making bubble beards and hats. My little goofballs!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

An Outdoor Day

What a gorgeous day it was today! If only we had more days like this!! I always say we get two weeks of great weather a year, and this day definitely counted. Lauren and I spent the morning at a birthday "garden tea party" that a friend from dance was having.

This family had the biggest, nicest backyard with tons of fun things to play on! She got to jump in the Princess bouncy, paint a flowerpot, plant some seeds, and decorate her own mini-cake. What a creative, brave mom...and a great party! Then, we met Steve and Jared at baseball practice. I am so loving his team this year. The coaches are friends of ours and are so positive and fun!! Jared is getting to be a good hitter!

His catching and throwing still need a little work (check out that form!), but I'm letting baseball be a father/son thing...I just watch and cheer. I'm glad this league does not put pressure on him and that it is just for FUN! Games start Monday and I think it will be a great season. Steve and I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening working in the yard while the kids played. We have sunburns to prove it!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Air Tractor Trip

We had a big outing this weekend to Olney, Texas! I'm sure you've heard of it...it's half-way to the middle of nowhere! But, it is home to Air Tractor- a company which produces ag airplanes (cropdusters). The founder of the company, Leland Snow (a fellow Aggie), was celebrating 50 years in the aircraft industry. Since my husband works in the industry, and with Air Tractor on some projects, we were invited to attend. Despite the fact that we got a later start than we anticipated, were in the car longer than we wanted to be, and missed the air-show altogether...it was a pretty impressive event.

The kids got to jump in the bounce-house, we toured the plants where they manufacture these planes, and we stayed for a presentation ceremony...it was pretty amazing to see what this man has accomplished in 50 years! I'm not that interested in all of the details, like my husband is, but it does amaze me that people are able to build these machines. When you look at the factory and the process of putting these things together, I wonder how people ever figure all of this stuff out. Good thing there are some smart engineers out there...like Steve?? Wait, who put those question marks there?!!

Anyway, we spent the rest of the weekend in Dallas with Aunt Laura and had a play date with Tiffany, Stephanie, Taylor, and Luke. Muy Chuy's, too...mmm!

Extra, Extra, Bead All About It...

So I was invited to this jewelry party last week...
Let's say I consider myself to be a pretty "low-maintenance" kind of girl. I usually wear the same three rings, watch, earrings, and maybe a necklace once in awhile. I usually dress for comfort and I'm sure if there were fashion police, I would have been locked up long ago. I have never had the desire to "accessorize", I'm not much of a "shoe person", and I would MUCH rather shop for my kids than myself. Somehow my sisters got the fashion gene, and I did not! BUT, I was inspired by how these necklaces added just the right touch and really dressed up even a shirt and jeans (my usual attire). So, I bought myself one necklace at the party, and then headed to Michael's to start up yet another short-lived hobby. I flipped through the pages of some "how-to" beading book, and saw this cute jump-ring bracelet. $10 later, ta-da!:

I'm still working on adding a few more strands to the necklace, and I was going to try to make a jump-ring necklace similar to the bracelets. They have tons of cute beads, and I'm sure I could quickly acquire a closet full of beading supplies to go with my closet full of scrapbooking supplies, my closet full of cake decorating supplies, and my closet full of knitting and crocheting supplies, but I will try to restrain myself. What do you think? Lauren is a fan (and my necklace model)!

Johnson Journal