Freshman and Senior Year

This year has been almost as hard on me as their Kindergarten years. All summer I've tried to avoid the fact that this is Riley's LAST first day of school and my baby girls first day of high school!! I have been an emotional wreck and the kids think it's funny. Secretly, I know that they love that I get so emotional because they know how much I have loved being a stay-home mom and for having the time to be so involved in their life! They love how much I love them and they love that it sometimes shows through tears. As is our family tradition after school we went and got our first day of school ice cream. Riley had to work so he missed, but I made it up to him later and drove him to Wooley's for a Reese's peanut butter cup blizzard.

Fun with the Cheeks

Here we are at lunch with my good friend, Tomi. Her kids crack me up!! They are so full of life and energy! I'm sure at times they are a handful for her, but they're always super fun for us. Maverick just could not handle being cooped up in a highchair any longer, so we set him free and this is how he chose to entertain himself ;) Bailey is really good with kids and loves to babysit, so she asks all the time to babysit Maverick and Sterling. She's gotten her wish a few times, but not near as often as she'd like.

Senior Parking Spots

Our high school has a senior parking lot and to get one of the spots you pay a fee then get entered into a drawing. They randomly draw names until all of the spots are full. Because we have more Seniors than spots they had to make some extra senior spots in the Sophomore lot. Obviously they are not the choice spots because they're a lot farther and it's a more crowded lot. You pay your money first, so you get what you get with no backing out. Riley ended up being the last name drawn and was so bummed. He ended up paying a friend to trade spots. Over the summer you get to customize your spot. The kids had a lot of fun with it and I think they turned out great!

As Promised...More Faces with Rudy

El Campo

Right now Jesse is welding and his jobs take him all over Texas. They've been in El Campo for awhile, so we decided to go for a visit. They come here a lot, so I figured it was our turn to head out there. When they are on the road they live in a camper, but it's big so there was enough room for us too. The welders create a community for themselves when they're away from family and friends, so each night we all cooked and ate together. It was a lot of fun and everyone was super friendly. El Campo is only an hour from the beach so we spent one day there. Texas beaches aren't fabulous on a good day and we'd just returned from a week at Wrightsville Beach so it wasn't great, but it was nice to be outside in the sun and allowed Rudy to run around all day. We drove up and noticed that you could park on the beach and all of the cars were crowded together on one side. We decided to create a little space and started off in the other direction. Apparently, you can't park on the beach without getting stuck until the tractor packs the sand ;)