Slip and Slide with Natalie's Friends

Natalie enjoyed some outdoor water play time yesterday with her friends Kamryn and Bella.

Lunch with Grandma Lou

 

We enjoyed a nice lunch with Grandma Lou yesterday. Natalie got a couple of new sundresses from her and wore one out.

First Scrapbook Page

 

Natalie made her first scrapbook page on Saturday. She picked the colors and I helped her choose the accessories.

Flag of America

Natalie singing a favorite song from pre-K: Flag of America.

Birthday Party

 

There's nothing Natalie loves more than birthday parties! Today she went to Chloe's Playdough party and had a good time. Her big accomplishment today was hitting the pinata so hard that she actually made a dent in it and caused a package of M&M's fall out. She was concerned, however, that the already filled goody bag that she was supposed to collect the candy in was filled too high and it wouldn't be able to hold much candy. So she smartly emptied the goody bag contents into Mark's pockets in order to leave sufficient space for her candy. She really thought that one through.

Her next favorite event at birthday parties is the cake/cupcakes. She strategically aligns herself close to the cake so she's sure to get her choice of pieces. Today was no exception.

At gift time she makes sure to be in the front row because she loves watching presents being opened. Speaking of gifts, we were out of tissue paper for Chloe's gift so we actually had to wrap the present in paper instead of putting it in a bag. Our choices were baby paper or leopard print, so we had to go wild and pick the leopard print. It was a wild looking gift, but at least it got wrapped.

Splash Day

Natalie's school had splash day today and was so excited about it! She got to wear her swimsuit to school. Some of the activities included getting in the wading pools, drawing with sidewalk chalk, or blowing bubbles. She said she even took a nap today because she was so worn out. That's an amazing feat in itself!

Ballerina Girls

 

Natalie and Kamryn's dance recital costumes arrived today, so they tried them on for size. They fit in perfectly with the song they're dancing to.

New Hat

 

Natalie showing off her new UT hat.

Jousting

Mark's company had a party after work hours yesterday for its employees and families. Natalie had a great time in the bouncy house, obstacle course, and riding tricycles. We were surprised that she wanted to try jousting too! The cylinder shaped objects were pretty heavy so it was amazing she and the other girl could even swing them. She had a great time yesterday!

Amen and Thank You, Tommy Lee Jones!

It's about time someone well known made an ad like this!

The state of Texas is taking billions of dollars away from schoolchildren this coming school year. On top of that they are increasing class sizes and implementing a new state test which will be more rigorous than TAKS (called STAAR). My district is on a hiring freeze, a salary freeze, the district wants to furlough our holidays, and we're losing all of our specialists (which includes math and reading specialists.)

Texas is pretty much shooting the middle finger at all students and the future of our state and we're all supposed to be okay with it because they're saving a few dollars right at this moment. What they're not thinking about is how their decisions today affect the future. They can either fund education today or the prison system in the future. Looks like they've made their choice.

Tooth #2

 

Natalie was so excited to lose tooth #2 yesterday while she was brushing her teeth! She left it in a baggie in the bathroom again because she's such a light sleeper. We heard her get up out of bed around 9:30 pm last night. She was up just to check on the tooth. Mark says she was awake again around 1:00 am in her bathroom looking at her tooth. I didn't hear anything that time though. This morning she was up early and in our room around 5:30 am to show us what the tooth fairy left her. Needless to say she's tired today!

Fruit Arrangement

 

I received this lovely Edible Arrangements gift today from one of my student's parents at school for teacher appreciation week. It was so beautiful that I didn't want to eat it! Luckily I had Natalie around to help make the decision easier. She loved the flower and star fruit shapes and had fun eating the fruit from their skewers.

Poor Sad Fish Tank

Let the mourning begin...Mark's fish tank, his pride and joy, is officially dunzo. One day the corals started turning white and dying for no apparent reason. The fish are still alive and kicking which makes me happy, but the coral is shot. It's a mystery why they're dead, and while we've theorized how it happened, we'll probably never know for sure. RIP once beautiful corals.

Brrrr!

What a chilly day in May we're having! It was about 55 degrees with wind the entire day, which is really unusual this part of Texas in May! Not surprisingly Natalie's field day was postponed until Wednesday due to the weather. We went out to recess today at school and the wind just about blew us over. Plus there were slight water droplets in the air which only made it colder. But it's supposed to be up in the high 90s within the next several days. Only in Texas!

Sweat or Unsweat?

 

 

Yet another reason why the Texas legislature cannot afford to make the drastic budget cuts in education that they're making. These pictures were taken at a local Mexican restaurant close to our house. Do you like your tea with sweat or without?!

Natalie's Weekend

On Saturday we started out the weekend by driving next to the parade route for a small neighboring town's weekend celebration on the way to dance class. Natalie and her friend Bella, who was riding with us, really wanted to get out of the car and watch the parade, but I think we saw most of it driving by! We didn't take that route on the way home!

Natalie enjoyed some time with her grandparents while Mark and I dealt with a dresser situation at Babies R Us. We had ordered some furniture for "Pancake's" room and everything was great except for the four drawer dresser. The second drawer from the top was difficult to roll in and out and just never closed correctly. After a conversation with the manager, another dresser was ordered. We had them unwrap the box at the store to check it out before we brought it home. This time the top drawer was not rolling in correctly. After switching out drawers with the previous dresser it worked, however. The good news is that we got a percentage taken off the dresser for our inconvenience. It's in the room now and looks good.

Today we went to Peyton's baptism at church. Her cousin, Brayden, was baptized too. Afterwards we joined their families and extended families at Macaroni Grill.

Natalie and Kamryn had their first trip to the swimming pool this afternoon. It seemed a little bit on the chilly side to attempt the water, but I'm sure it wasn't cold for them. Luckily the daddies took them. Natalie came home shivering and complained of being cold until she took her shower. It was really overcast and the wind was blowing, so it wasn't the best weather for the pool, but they didn't care.

We're supposed to be getting a "cold front" coming through tomorrow and Natalie's school is having field day. We'll see how that pans out!