It's only Wednesday...

Wow what a long week it has been and its only Wednesday! I feel like I need another vacation from our Washington Trip. We were nonstop the entire week, not a whole lot of down time and lots of walking. My feet were bruised by Saturday. I have been pooped all week on top of getting sick, not sure if it is allergies or something more.

Apparently me being out of town is no big deal around our house, kinda sad! I have never left town before without everyone for that long of a time. Between Carlos, Jagi and Aunt Brenda they kept the kids pretty busy! Although they were happy to see me on Friday when they came to pick us up at midnight! Poor things stayed up that late just to get their souvenirs.

We had no plans for Easter at all; actually the Easter Bunny had not bought one thing for the kids. Being out of town totally threw me, I mean the Easter Bunny, off! Saturday about 8pm Carlos and I took a trip to Target to get Easter basket stuff for the kids! Sunday we ended up waking up and driving to Seguin. That is where most of Carlos’ extended family lives. It ended up being a great day for the kids. We crashed an Easter party where his Aunt and Uncle were and the kids got to join in the Easter egg hunt and the piñata. We drove home pretty early and stopped at Grandma Sylvia’s for another Easter egg hunt and some food! We were pooped by the time we got home and Spring Break was officially over for the kids!

Jonathan had his official first baseball game on Monday. They won 17 to 6! It was a great game. Jonathan struck out on his first time up but got on base the second and third time and scored! He plays left centerfield and had 2 balls come his way, he tried hard to catch them but didn’t…oh well by the end of the season I have no doubt that he will be catching those balls! They have their second game on Saturday. It’s amazing how competitive some of the parents are. Mom and I were just sitting in the stands listening to some of the mom’s – they sure do know a lot…or at least think they do! I pretty much have the attitude of “it’s just a game and they are here to have fun”. Boy if I said that out loud I would probably get my rear kicked by certain mothers!

We are throwing Jaime a baby shower on Saturday. Very small and simple…at Guadalajara! Hopefully she gets lots of pink stuff for the new baby. Time fly’s, she is due in May so that gives her just a little over a month left!

I have no new pictures except the ones from Washington, I will be deleting those soon so I can take new ones!

Thank you...

I just wanted to thank everyone who had a part in Kaela going to Washington DC. She was amazed by all the people that sponsored her - she is truly thankful for each one of you.

She reached her goal for chores and got her iPod. Uncle Mike helped her download all of her favorite cd's on to it this past week and she is now ready to board the plane!

I am posting a picture of the chore sheet just so you can get a view of how hard she really had to work for the iPod. Also Bryanna and Jonathan saw what her "reward" was so they are now doing a chore chart as well...for what item we have no clue but they thought it was pretty cool to work towards a fantastic reward! Towards this last week Bryanna started to steel some of Kaela's chores which didnt sit well with Kaela. I had to tell Bryanna she had to wait until Kaela had completed her chart since she had a deadline! Bryanna may now resume her chores!

We will have lots of photos to share when we return and believe me...I will be sending them ALL out - we all know I am a photo fanatic!


Kaela's Chore Chart


Bryanna's Chore Chart


Jonathan's Chore Chart

I had to share these last few pictures. Bryanna is not a sports girl what so ever. She loves art and she loves to be in the kitchen. Grandpa has been trying out new receipes lately and lets Bryanna help in the kitchen. They are making Cioppino today. She picked a chef's hat out of the treat box at school so she was wearing it while cooking...too cute!





It will be a while until my next post since we leave Monday but for those of you who are on Spring Break...have a wonderful week off!

Bry's Art

We went by the mall today to see Bryanna's artwork - she was super excited to show us. There were some amazing pieces of artwork done by the highschool students, hopefully she keeps up with it! Enjoy the pictures:






We bought a cookie cake to celebrate!

Washington here we come...

We have 10 days left and we had our last official Washington meeting last night, filled out medical forms and behavioral forms (ok so the parents didn’t have to fill them out but the kids did) and we got our ITINERARY! Kaela and I went home VERY excited and we want to share with you what we will be seeing:

Monday
• We are going to Jamestown on Monday and staying the night there.
• Jamestown Island Glassblowing
• Jamestown Settlement Tour
• College of William and Mary
• Dance Diversions – Meeting at the Colonial Capital

Tuesday
• Colonial Williamsburg Scavenger Hunt (Powder Magazine)
• Shields Tavern – Duke of Gloucester Street
Depart back to Washington DC
• Kennedy Center
• Jefferson Memorial
• FDR Memorial
• World War II Memorial

Wednesday
• Mt. Vernon (home of George Washington)
• Drive through Alexandria
• Washington Monument
• Capitol Hill, Library of Congress, Supreme Court
• Einstein Statue
• Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial and Vietnam Memorial

Thursday
• White House
• International Spy Museum
• Ford’s Theater (it’s actually closed for renovation so we are only doing the exterior only)
• Petersen House
• Embassy Row
• National Cathedral Tour
• National Zoo
• Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament Theater

Friday
• Arlington National Cemetery (4 of our students get to lay a wreath at an unknown soldier), Changing of the Guard and Kennedy Gravesites
• Holocaust Museum
• Smithsonian Complex (Museum of National History, National Gallery of Art, Air & Space Museum)
• National Archives

It honestly doesn’t seem like there are enough hours in the day to see all of those wonderful places but they do it every year. We eat and sleep sometime during this trip too! I can't wait to share all of our pictures. I am actually afraid we are going to run out of memory space and that is because we are taking 2 cameras!

Chore update: Kaela has less the 25 chores to do before she gets her iPod. She is gonna have to hussle this weekend! I want to be able to download songs next week!

Art Work

For those of you who live in Houston, Bryanna had a piece of art work chosen for an exhibit at Memorial City Mall in the Dillards wing. I am assuming it’s by school, Valley Oaks is our school and she is in 1st grade. It will be up the entire month of March if you have a chance, go by and see it. I have not made it over there yet but I will be going this weekend to see it and of course take pictures. Her Aunt Callie in Michigan will be so proud!

Pictures I promised

I promised pictures this week so I have a few. There are a lot of Jonathan just because he has had so much going on, busy little boy.

Jonthans Basketball Pictures

Bryanna sipping on her milk shake at Jonathan's basketball party

The undefeated team!

Jonathan in his full baseball uniform - he looks so cute!

He thought it was super cool that his name is on the back!

Bryanna loves to walk the dog right now...well he walks her a lot of the time!

I had to throw this one in. I walked into my moms room and found Sadie, our German Shepard laying with our cat Dixie - it was so cute. They are actually really good friends, they play well together BUT it was super cute to see them resting together too. Later on she was actually licking her head, cleaning the cats ears!

Weekly Update...

We had another jam packed weekend! Friday Kaela was supposed to have her 2 BFF’s over to spend the night unfortunately they both had sports early Saturday morning so they decided not to stay over. I ended up making it a night for Kaela…sort of. The rodeo is back in town so Carlos was off to the BBQ Cook-off and the kids and I headed out for some Washington shopping! We got Kaela tennis shoes, a suite case and all of our toiletries. I think we both wanted to go home and start packing! Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn for Jonathan’s last basketball game. THEY WON! They had an awesome season, undefeated, 7-0! He learned a lot this season and he is truly going to miss it. After that we were off to the party where they received their trophies…another highlight of Jonathan’s day! Then we had a birthday party to attend. The party was a gymnastics’ party which the kids loved! By 4 we were exhausted and headed home. We all laid down for a nice afternoon nap! Their cousins Myranda and Mason came to spend the night with us so the kids had a fun late night. Sunday was a slow day, the kids kept telling me how bored they were as if we always have to be on the go! Carlos went off to his softball games Sunday afternoon and me and the kids heading to Jonathan’s baseball practice then straight to Brownies. Again we were all ready for bed!