Logan backs up the truck

Logan backed up the truck!

Well, not really, he marshaled Shane back and lined up the hitch and the boat trailer.  He did an amazing job - so good that Shane came running in the house and told me, "You HAVE to come see this!"  The ball was right underneath the trailer...I think Logan did a better job than I would have done.

Then, Logan started hooking everything up.  He hooked up the chains (and of course, crossed them so they wouldn't drag the ground).

Then he tried to plug in the trailer lights to the back of the truck.

It was a little difficult, so Daddy helped.

Kayleigh, of course, was supervising from the back of the boat.  The little monkey climbed up there all by herself.

This is where Logan stopped the truck.  Pretty amazing, huh?!

Colorful dinner

The other day, we had black rice and a green bean stir fry.  The black rice ended up looking like a dark purple.  It was beautiful and super tasty - very tender and sticky.  I highly recommend it if you're looking for some interesting colors in your diet.  The stir fry wasn't bad, but it wasn't my fave - I used seitan in it instead of tofu.  Mistake.  But I guess you have to find out sometime.  The beans weren't bad - plus they were on sale for $1/1 lb.  One pound of beans is a LOT of beans!

Fun times on June 5

On June 5, we had some fun times on June 5.  But apparently, they were tiring times for little girls.  Kayleigh had woken up early, and was super cranky pants.  So Daddy looked at her and said, "Maybe you need to go to bed."  And she did!  On her floor, though.

Logan got to go fishing with Daddy, Mr Khris, and Mr Bert on Mr Bert's boat.  Mr Bert is not "allowed" to go fishing by himself, so Daddy and Mr Khris went to help out.  Logan told me later that on the way out into the bay, they were going up and down (going over swells), and he was saying "Wheee!  Wheee!"  I guess he didn't get seasick, because he enjoyed goldfish (how appropriate) on the way out.

Mr Khris and Logan reeled in a small black tip shark.

Trying to catch some more fish.  Shane said Khris was great with Logan - whenever he got a bite, he invited Logan to come help him reel it in.

 Logan and Daddy hold up another shark.

This one was a bonnethead - sort of like a hammerhead looking shark, but the eyes were not on the sides.  Of course, the boys did catch and release.

Logan did catch a fish, though!  He touched both the fish and the sharks (at Daddy's insistence).  Logan told me the sharks were sort of rough, but not slimy, and the fish was sort of slimy.

The boys left to go out at 2pm and didn't make it home until 11pm.  Long day for Little Man!  He fell asleep on the truck ride home until they stopped at Whataburger, where he got a milkshake (dinner of champions).  He was wide awake when he got home, excited to tell me about the sharks and the boat ride.  He had a good time, though he did get bored after a while.

While the boys were gone, Kayleigh and I had some girl time.  We went to the store and ran some other errands, just the two of us.  Then K decided that she was going to take her babies on a trip.  She brought them all out of the house and buckled them up in their seat belts.

Bitty Baby was sitting in K's carseat, so she told her to make sure her seatbelt was over her shoulder, not under her arm.  She was very insistent that Bitty Baby be safe.

It was fun to just get to hang out with Kayleigh for a while.  We colored (her favorite pastime), talked, watched Dora, and just generally hung out.  Good times!  And then, she got to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed - a treat in her book!

When he got home, Logan eventually joined K in our bed.  Both kids were sacked out!  What a day!

William GRADUATES!

Well, on June 3rd, it was official - William Chambers was a graduate of Clear Lake High School.  Congratulations, Will!  In the fall, he'll be joining big brother Robert at Texas A&M.  We plan to go down sometime and have lunch/dinner with him.  The kids would probably enjoy a trip to a real college campus, and enjoy going to the Dixie Chicken, a College Station landmark.  Besides, to them, anything with Will-um is fun.

Robert Chambers, Kayleigh, and Terry Frank wait for the graduates to start coming in.  Terry was super with the kids, and they LOVED her.  She took them down to the front to watch all the graduates file in, and even took Kayleigh to the bathroom.

All the graduates!  There were like 800 or so of them!  And this is only one of the five high schools in the Clear Creek district.  Crazy!  My graduating class in HS was 69 or something.  Wow.

Kayleigh decided she was going to sit with Ms Terry through the ceremony.

The color guard.  There were a surprising number of graduates going into the military.  My friend, Dawn Lamb's daughter is going into the Army directly after high school.  She'll take college level courses while she's enlisted.  Think she's going in as a medic / OT.

William receives his diploma.  YAY!  We are so very proud of you, Will!  Enjoy your graduation trip to Germany (I'm jealous!)!

Kayleigh's bed

Kayleigh didn't want to go to bed one night, so she got out most of her boxes and most of her pull-ups and dumped them all on her bed before finally going to sleep.  This is how she entertains herself - dumping.  There was hardly enough room for her on the bed!

Growing garden

Some pictures of my garden from the end of May.  I've been trimming back my tomatoes, cutting off what my Dad calls the "suckers" (branches that aren't producing fruit).  I've been getting a plethora of fruit, though I have had issues with some being eaten - by what, I'm not sure.  We have bird netting up, but maybe they're getting under the net?

Just one plant's tomatoes.

The tomato garden - the bell pepper plants are on the other side, along with a few "volunteer" tomatoes and "volunteer" basil.

Some of my first crop.  I put the keys there to give some perspective in the picture.  This was a big green pepper and big tomato!  Both were super tasty!

Ice day at the Zoo

The Houston Zoo has a "Chill Out Zone" during the summer, and May 31 (a Thursday) was ice block day for the Andean bears.  We decided to take a trip down and check it out.

The bears didn't seem to terribly interested in the ice blocks, and were more interested in their sliced up fruit.  Oh well.

The elephant, however, was very interested in the hay.  He'd grab and trunk-full, pull it out of the box, and munch down.  It was pretty amazing to watch how dexterous he was with his trunk.

We then walked to the elephant barn to see the elephants get a bath.  K had brought her stuffed elephant, Doughnut, to meet the elephants.  However, the big hit with the kids was not the elephants, but the barn dog, Max.  They got to pet him through the sliding windows.

This baby elephant was super thirsty.  He'd grab some water and squirt it in his mouth!  The kids were super thirsty, too, so we didn't stay too long at the Zoo - another reason to have season passes - you don't feel bad leaving after less than 2 hours!

The Last Day of School

The Last Day of School at First Years was "Rainbow Day".  So both kids wore their rainbow shirts.  Of course, I think it was changed from Rainbow Day, but they still looked cute.  And Kayleigh even let me put her hair up in pigtails.  Wow!

Some pictures from the End of Year program.  Here the kids sing "I have rainbows in my bubbles", the song Kayleigh was belting out through the Nashville airport.  Glad she could actually perform it on a real stage...

Logan was so excited when he finally saw us.

The kids actually sing!  They sang "Every Move I Make".  That seemed to be one of the kids' favorites.

Doing the hokey pokey.  Kayleigh was super good at the Chicken Dance (I don't wanna be a duck.  I don't wanna be a chicken.  I just wanna shake my tail.)  She can really shake her tail!

We enjoyed our first year at First Years and are looking forward to a great new year in September!

Around the house

Here are some pictures from May 27.

Here the kids watch a little Super Why? over breakfast.  "Hands in..."  My kids do the cheer and everything.  They love the interactive shows.  Funny to see them yell at the TV or do something along with the characters on the screen.

What would bed time be if you didn't have the Daddy-monster chasing you all over the house??  Yes, this is part of Daddy's de-revving program for bed.  This is a favorite game at our house.  It's sort of become tag, but everyone likes it best when Daddy is the IT.

"Screech!"  Kayleigh screams as the Daddy-monster-IT turns his sights on her.  Runaway!  Runaway!  It is amazing how fast kids can run as they laugh!  They wear poor Daddy out - he's ready for bed before they are!

Going out on the boat

We finally took the boat out of the garage and went out on the bayou.  On May 22, we picked the kids up from school with the boat in tow, and then drove the 1 block to the boat dock.

Shane has decided that the kids need to get in an try tubing or wakeskating at least once each time we go out.  Here, Kayleigh wakeskates with Shane.  She holds on by wrapping her arms around his legs.

Kayleigh and Daddy kick back to the boat.  She was more scared of being in the water than being on the wakeskate.  But she did great!

Look!  Mommy gets in on all the action - by herself!

 The boys are ready to go on the tub.

 Logan enjoyed the tube (he was on it for a long time!), until he fell off when we had to turn around.  I showed him this picture of him grinning after he said he didn't have fun on the tube.  Then he said, "Maybe I did have fun."

Kayleigh and Daddy get on the tube.  She didn't hold on to the handles, but held onto Daddy's hands on the handles.

 Kayleigh slowly rides the tube by herself.  She did a great job!

After everyone had gotten to ride behind the boat, we stopped off at the shell beach to let the kids jump off the swim platform and goof off in the water.  They have a great time just playing at the "beach".

Because both Logan and Kayleigh did such a good job on the boat, and we were hot and tired and hungry, we stopped at Dairy Queen for some dips.  Yummy!  Of course, ice cream was all over faces...

Great job, crazy kids!

Prayers

Our kids have some great prayers:

Logan - "Help Daddy to not spank."  Maybe Daddy will forget how to overnight?

Kayleigh - "Help Mommy watch where she's walking."  Mommy walked into the toybox that had been moved out to the hallway for the carpet guys.  Right on the shin!  Ouch!

New carpet

Before we went to the Zoo the other day, we went to Carpet Giant and picked out new carpet for the kids' rooms.  In Kayleigh's room, Zoe had torn up a section in the corner - you could see the mesh the carpet is sewn to.  Plus, the carpet was about 9 years old.  It was time!

Kayleigh's room - pre-new carpet.

 Logan's room - pre-new carpet.

The two men who came to change the carpet sectioned off each of the rooms.  This is Kayleigh's room sectioned off to be cut out.

Since the kids were not allowed in their rooms, we put on "Rio" for them to watch.  Kayleigh thought it was riveting!

The new, somewhat darker, carpet.  It is much plusher than the old carpet, so nice to play toys on!