A Great Day!

Today was a very busy and great day!  Grace and Graham had their first ever time on an ice skating rink to celebrate one of their classmate's 4th birthdays.  Neither were very excited about the idea in the beginning.  After a few times falling down, they both begged to get off the ice.  As we were exiting, Graham turns to one his friend's moms and declares, "I am never going back on the ice."  I immediately pull off Graham's boots and as I start to pull off Grace's, she starts to cry.  My flip flop feet are bloody from the first round (what was I thinking…boots would have been a great thought) so my friend finds a Dad to take Grace out on the ice.  She loved it!  And he took her around 3 times.  Graham and I enjoyed watching from the bleachers!

While we were at the rink, Scott took Sam and Ben to Fort Worth to hang out with the TCU football team. It was hot, but they had a great time watching the players scrimmage.  Afterwards, the players and coaches ran plays with the kids.  Both boys are still raving about that experience!

This afternoon, Grace's got to attend a royal birthday party.  Cinderella was there to greet her at the door.  She barely said 2 words for the entire party because she was blown away and in awe of Cinderella.  I know Grace would say it was her favorite party ever.

Rockenbaugh's Meet the Teacher

This morning Sam and Ben (!!!!) had meet the teacher at Rockenbaugh.  They were equally excited and nervous as we headed off to school to see their classrooms, meet their teachers and see what friends would be joining them in class.

Ben will have Mrs. Stapp for kindergarten.  I love that she hugged Ben right away and looked right into his eyes as he spoke to her.  She seems like a kind spirit…exactly the kind of person I would hand pick for Ben's first year in "real" school.

Sam will have 2 main teachers for 3rd grade this year.  Mrs. Terry (pictured below) will be his homeroom teacher.  She assisted in his Quest class last year so he was excited to see her.  His class will travel to Mrs. Malloy's class for math and science.  This will be Rockenbaugh's first year to try-out a group teaching approach for 3rd grade.  I'm curious to see how it goes.

Graham and Grace tried to be on their best behavior during meet the teacher.  I know they will miss Sam and Ben desperately when they get on the bus and head to school Monday morning.  

Graham and Grace turn FOUR!

It's hard to type "Graham and Grace turn 4" because I just can't believe it.  It seems like just yesterday that they fit in a bassinet together. Fast forward four years and our tiny babies have turned into adorable, feisty and loyal twins.  

We wanted to make sure that both Graham and Grace got to do something special on their birthday.  After a breakfast of pancakes and bacon (both requested it), we headed to the fire station for a quick tour.  Graham was super excited and probably asked the sweet fireman 30 questions.

After the fire station, we headed to Chuy's (is anyone surprised) for a round of chicken fajitas and push pops.  Then Graham (and the rest of the boys) headed home to play with his toys while Grace and I got  a mani/pedi.  Grace chose a double layer of hot pink with sparkle on top.

We ate at home for dinner (hot dogs for Graham and nachos for Grace) and ended the day with a LARGE fire truck & Hello Kitty birthday cake.  

Happy, happy birthday to our favorite 4-year-olds.  You bring SO much joy to our lives.  

Medieval Times!

Ben has been asking for two years to go to Medieval Times every time we passed by it in Dallas.  In honor of his upcoming 6th birthday, we decided to take the plunge.  Surprisingly, we all had a great time.  The boys loved each & every fight scene, and Grace was in heaven the second our knight threw her a flower.  It was a great night. 

Dance and Soccer Begin!

We're trying hard to let Grace and Graham have their own activities.  Grace began dance and Graham soccer this past week.  Neither seemed particularly excited to be left out of the other's activity.  

Lou Gets Married!

Thanks to my amazing mother-in-law, I got to spend a few child-free days in Colorado (with my family) celebrating the wedding of my closest cousin, Louise.  I figured it had been 15+ years since it was just my parents, brother and I together on vacation.  While I deeply missed the kiddos (and Scott for the first few days), it was truly wonderful to be just the four us again.  In addition, I got to spend some much needed quality time with my lovely Louise before her wedding.  I miss her so much and I felt this deeply as I hugged her at her wedding knowing that we would (probably) never get this time again.  She was a truly stunning bride.  A generous bride.  Her groom a true catch.  I know they have a fairytale romance.  Cheers to Louise and Thomas!  I love you both so much.

Dog Days of Summer

We're doing our best to make it through the last few weeks of summer.  Many days (and nights) seem like pure insanity.  But it makes me happy to see how close the kids come during these long, end of summer days.  Ninjas…slumber parties…everything goes!

Water Park Insanity

Uncle Greg's TX Visit

We adore Greg, and everyone was BEYOND excited when he surprised 

the kids with a quick visit to Southlake.  Come back soon!