Fun on the Frio

We spent the beginning of last week hanging out at the Frio.   The Arroyos had never floated the Frio so we thought it was time for them to try it out.

It takes us only 2 1/2 hours to make it to Concan.   

We found a swimming hole with a rope swing to plant ourselves on during the day.  We floated one day and it took forever, it was fun but we only could do one day.  

We stayed up late and slept in the next morning.   I was the first adult up every morning and the kids were the first young ones to rise after staying up until 2 o'clock or later.     We made and ate lots of s'mores and had lots of junk food.  

Until we see you again, Frio, it was a FUN!

VBS 2014

We had to get back to Seguin on Saturday because the kids had to help lead worship on Sunday morning.  The girls were asleep by the time we got over the bridge to Port Isabel on the way home.  

I gave them my phone and they took advantage of taking pictures and pinning on Pinterest.

Sunday morning came very early for all of us.  They did great in opening up worship for the congregation.  Everyone was napping by noon.

Before school was out the kids were complaining about having to go to VBS this summer.  After spending a week at Lutherhill, they were so ready for Monday morning.

Does that smile look like she doesn't want to be there?  They loved VBS!

I helped with the pre-k portion of VBS, which was almost 50 kids under 5.  I got to see the older kids during songs and lunch during the week.   

This picture explains our afternoons-  tired and thirsty kids and one happy DOG!

The kids skipped out of VBS on Friday because they went to Cuero for the weekend.  When I was in Cuero on Thursday, Daddy had a visit from a neighbor boy that will be in 6th grade next year.  He asked Wade if we could take him to VBS because his parents were working and he didn't have a ride on Friday.  He told Wade, "I really want to go!"   We had over 150 kids turn out for VBS during the week, I had 6 of my students that participated in the Junior Leadership during the week.  One of my former students that was always in the office or in A school, was a shining star during day camp.  When I watched him lead songs during sing along, help out my pre-k kids during lunch and come up to me to "share the peace" during worship- it really made my heart happy.   What an awesome week!

Nana had a full house for the weekend!

4th of July 2014- South Padre

We headed to South Padre for a little fun in the sun and to celebrate the 4th this year.   We went to the beach on Thursday and it was packed with people.    It didn't stop the kiddos from making themselves at home for the afternoon.  

Hadlee is not much of a saltwater girl so she worked on making a castle.  

Hays tried to get a crab.  

Louie's had a pre 4th fireworks show on Thursday night.  

We stayed at the condo on the 4th for a fishing contest and swimming.   Harper and AJ were pretty competitive with each other.   Harper claims she won for the day.  

The kids checking out the catches from a guy at the condo.  

We had the pool to ourselves on the 4th. The kids would alternate between fishing and playing in the pool.  I had just brought down popsicles for the kids to enjoy in this picture.

The girls wanted a picture with the fireworks in the background.   It was an awesome show.  

Hays opted to stay in the pool for show.  

The girls had their suits on but stayed out of the water to enjoy the show.  Hadlee and Daddy sitting together at the end.  

This year the kids spent numerous hours net fishing on the pier.  I'm not sure how many ink fish or crabs were caught but on our first evening a little girl caught a baby flounder so it was game on for the Wilson and Arroyo kids. 

June 2014

At one of the school book fairs the kids got an experiment candy book.  I made a deal with them that if they had a cavity free checkup, we would do some experiments.   Nothing like buying candy after going to the dentist.

We did the Mentos/Diet Coke experiment, that lasted 10 seconds.

We made two trips to Victoria in June.  Haidyn loves HAYS!   

We made a day trip to Port A.

Harper and Hannah and Hays in the background.  We battled lots and lots of seaweed.

Mema took all the girls to the theater for the afternoon.   All the girls loved "Hair Spray".

Harper and Hadlee 

Papa promised Hays a night at the Victoria General's baseball game.  We ended up all tagging along for the evening.  The girls were asked when we walked in if they would like to participate in a between the inning game.

They went on the field for the "Wendy's wiggle"  frosty game.  I didn't get a picture of Hays playing a game between the 5th inning.  The game was a blast for the kids- they ran around, played and maybe watched a little of the game.   The next day, Debbie asked Mema if the kids had been in town Saturday night.   She said that the girls had made the ten o'clock news- jumping and shaking at the General's game.

Monday night, Hadlee won the ticket drawing of the week for reading and helping out around the home.  She chose a date with her daddy- they went to Olive Garden and Target.  Talk about a happy girl!

Happy 9th Birthday

Your 9th birthday was very low key.   You wanted to stay up late to celebrate turning 9 at midnight so everyone agreed that the house didn't need to be decorated this year.   I went to the donut shop and got three apple fritters for your breakfast treat. 

 Singing to Hays.

We had a helium tank outside that had more helium than I thought left in it.   The kids had woke up and saw me outside blowing up balloons.   They patiently waited to be "surprised" with balloons and their breakfast.

As you can see by the clock, they woke up a lot earlier than expected on their birthday morning.  They wanted to celebrate again at their actual birthday times- 8:52 for Hadlee, 8:53 for Hays and 8:54 for Harper.

A little popper fun for the morning.

Posing with balloons 

We had pizza and icecream cake for lunch.  The majority of their time was spent helping their daddy get ready to host a softball and baseball tournament and work in the concession stand.  

On Saturday, Mema and Papa came to Seguin to celebrate birthdays with the three.  All three were up early to go work in the concession stand.   In the afternoon Harper and I joined Mema and Papa for the Heart of Texas show at the Texas theater.  It was our first time in the Texas theater and it was beautiful inside.   Harper was definitely the youngest in the crowd and poor thing was tired from all the work she had done that morning. 

We had a birthday/ anniversary dinner at Blakes that evening.   Harper took this picture right outside of the restaurant before we went in to eat.

On Sunday the kids spent another day of concession stand working.   They worked hard the entire weekend and daddy was proud that they worked as a team to always have someone selling food. (and there was someone at home or playing)  We had plenty of muddy bikes and shoes after a weekend of going back and forth to field.

Schlitterbahn season passes for their birthday have been a big hit!   If we are in Seguin, we will be in a one of the parks in NB.   

Birthday Fish

The girls found an aquarium in the storage room of my classroom.   Mrs. U purchased it 15 years ago and never used it so she graciously told them that they could have it.  While the kids were at camp, I set the aquarium up so they could go pick out a fish for their birthday.  Daddy and I went to the pet store and picked out live plants and the upside heart rock.

Hadlee got the white one, Harper got the orange one and Hays' fish was black.   Two days after we got them, Harper's fish had 20+ babies.   We captured 12 that day and when we woke up the next morning only 3 remained in the net.  The white fish was really mean and kept on eating the babies and then started picking on the other two fish.  

After three days of Hadlee's fish chasing the other two fish and making Hays' fish a nervous wreck, we decided to say goodbye to Hadlee's fish.  We let Hadlee make the final decision to flush her fish down the toilet.  It was sad for all of the kids and we thought we were doing the right thing.   The next day the black was looking worse and two of our babies had died.   We even purchased a baby net for the babies to live in.  The following morning before we left to Victoria, we said goodbye to our final baby in the net, the orange fish looked like it was going to die and we found two new babies swimming around.   We went back to the pet store and it seems that our fish had contracted "fish fungus", caused by a stress and it was contagious.   When Daddy returned from his fishing trip, we no longer had any fish left.   I promised the kids that we might try getting ONE fish in August but for now we are giving up on fish.