Or something and stuff

It's late June. Vivien has attended two VBS programs now. She was meant to start another one today, but she is sick. I had to withdraw her for the week because I doubt she would be able to go tomorrow, plus she has a dentist appointment on Thursday morning. Here is a pic that I snatched from the last VBS' website. She was making a pasta necklace.

We went a goodbye party at the Addison Fountains for Vivien's friends, Alice and Mabel. They are moving to New York next week. I didn't get many pics, but here is one with the beautiful Kandice Ray playing Ring Around the Rosey with Vivien, Jordan, and Lucy. Alice, Yossarian, and another child had been in the group too, but by the time I came back with my camera they had scattered.

Saturday was our 6th wedding anniversary. Our friend, Courtney, came to stay with the kids so that we could have a night out alone. The last time we had a night out alone was April 2008 when I surprised Jim with the Bon Jovi concert for his birthday. And we weren't exactly alone since I was wearing Silas on the inside.
We went to PF Changs. They screwed up and made us wait an hour. We got free desserts out of it, but it ended up taking so long that we had to scrap our plans of seeing a movie afterward. Maybe next year we can see a movie together. Ha ha! We did sit at the table right next to former Cowboy, Randy White.

This dress is really cute, but this is a craptastic angle. Oh well. It was cute.

Jim pumping gas on the way home.

Jim was snuggling Silas this morning. I thought it was super sweet.

Like I mentioned, Vivien is sick. She has a runny nose, low grade fever, and says that everything hurts. At last count it was: head, forehead, nose, tummy, both feet, knees, back, and hands. Most of the day she was energetic, but had some puny moments too. Jim put Elmo Goes to the Doctor on and the kids snuggled on Vivien's red chair to watch it. They were so cute. Silas had his head on her and they were holding hands, but every time I came by with the camera they would both pose. Little turkeys.

Wyatt's Birthday and other June Stuff

It has been a busy week. We started out last weekend with a birthday party. Then Vivien had her first week of VBS. She is going to attend multiple VBS programs this summer. She had a total blast this first week. I'm so happy. The hours she goes are pretty much the time of Silas' morning nap, so I'm happy she doesn't have to just hang around here quietly waiting on him.

Last Saturday was Cousin Wyatt's first birthday. We went to his birthday party and had a fun time! Here is Jim, Vivien, and Alayna (our great niece....yes, great niece---we're old). Vivien refused to look at the camera.

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This is Vivien and her cousin Catherine. They love each other so much. Catherine is almost 12. She was Vivien's age when Jim and I first started dating. I can't believe how much she has grown up. She is such a sweet and beautiful girl.

Silas decided to help Wyatt open presents. When I say "help," I mean "eat."

Jim put together Wyatt's Cozy Coupe.

One of the other kids brought turtles, so Vivien was checking them out.

No party is a good party without a chicken fight.

Silas and Uncle Joel

Vivien played football with Sue, Wyatt's other grandmother, and his other cousins.

This was so funny...

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For some reason, we had a bad storm this week. This is our "safe" place. It's a tight squeeze and not much fun. Vivien was mad about having her picture taken, so she covered her face. This is not typical June weather. This is more like April weather.

The following night, we thought we were going to have another storm but it passed south of us. Nevertheless, it produced this eerie yellow sky. Our blinds were all drawn, but this weird yellow light filtered into the house. This was about 8:15 PM.

Vivien Rose's roses have a bunch of blooms right now.

Yesterday was the first day of this year's swimming lessons. As usual, when they called the kids to the pool, Vivien hid behind me. She does this on the first day of any new kind of lessons (gymnastics, ballet, etc...)

Once she got in the pool, she was fine. She was nervous about floating. It took a bit to convince her it was okay to put her arms back, but she still wouldn't put her head back. The rest of the swimming, she had no problem with until they had her jump in. The instructor didn't tell her she would let her dunk a bit under water. This really upset Vivien. She does not like to get her face wet, that is, except when her dad pours a gallon jug of water over her head in the bath every night.

She enjoyed this part...

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Addison Fountains

First off, I got a new carrier! Why do I need a new carrier? Well, all of my carriers do different things. This is a Kozy mei tai. It makes a good back carrier. I haven't really posted them here, but this is a standard pic that I take with all of my carriers. Ha ha.

I have to add this pic from yesterday. Vivien looked so cute. If you know our daughter, you know that she wears a bob for a reason. Well, she has decided to grow her hair out. Thus, I have warned her that I will have to start putting it up. Look at the cell phone in her pocket. Hee hee.

I had to also add this one. This is pants-less Silas getting ready to take a bite of dog food while Cantrell and Speedy look on.

Okay, now on to the real reason I posted. I took the kids to the Addison Fountains today. This was another thing that we have somehow never done. It's free and it's fun! The kids really enjoyed it, although, it is very difficult to handle two small children around water. I was on my toes the whole time. It's all very shallow, but Vivien can't swim and obviously I had to keep Silas right under my feet.

Vivien brought Filthy. For those who don't know, Filthy was my doll as a child. I took baths with her and also suggested that my mom give my baby sister the same name. She chose Rebecca, but whatever.

Beginning of the summer/DMA

So it's June. Seriously. We started the weekend with some baking and outdoor play. The baking was due to the fact that I got a great deal on blueberries only to have Vivien claim she no longer likes them. Par for the course. I don't really like raw blueberries, so I decided we should make muffins. I found a healthy banana blueberry muffin recipe. They were pretty good!

Jim inflated the pool. After about 5 minutes of leaning over the side holding Silas in (it was way too cold for either adult to want to get in there), Jim got the idea to put water in the empty sandbox. It was such a good idea! Silas had a blast in there. We had a good laugh because we used one of his diaper covers for a swim diaper. Those suckers hold so much water. When we took it off, about a cup of water fell out.

Silas has a new trick. We were a bit behind on teaching him this one, but it's cute nonetheless.

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We had a family trip to the library Sunday afternoon. We picked up Superfudge, a childhood favorite of mine. Jim usually reads to Vivien at bedtime, but I asked if I could take on the duty for this book. He happily obliged. The first night, she decided that she was not going to be very nice, so we didn't read anything. Monday night, she said she wanted her dad to read. I was feeling dejected. After all, my mom had read it to me and I wanted to read it to my children. As she was going to bed, she changed her mind and asked me if I would read it to her. We read the first chapter and she giggled along to the cute story.

This morning, we trekked down to downtown Dallas in the rain. Traffic was horrible. The Dallas Museum of Art has free admission and kid activities on the first Tuesday of each month. But parking is $10. One of the women from Dallas Area Moms said she would be taking the free trolley from the West Village. The parking there is free too. We decided to give it a shot. It was a fun adventure for both of the kids.

Vivien refused to look a the camera for this one...

We got to the DMA a little early, so we meandered with our group over to the Trammell Crow museum for a few minutes. I love this fountain.

Vivien made a music shaker.

Silas enjoyed the tasty stroller.

He also found the boxes to be quite interesting.

We had a lot of fun on our adventure. I'm glad I was able to catch up with the group instead of us trying to do the trolley alone on the way there. I would have been so lost. We did the trolley alone on the way back and luckily, we survived. It was a fun day!