Easter 2011

Tate waiting with his class before the easter egg hunt began

Tate totally being beaten by the girls heading towards the eggs

Tate and all of his buddies after their bags were full

Ms.Pompa made sure that Lexie had her very own egg

...or two

(they even match her dress)

decorating scratch eggs

bunny sugar cookies, yum!

two of my favorite guys! there is nothing better than daddy at a class party!

I guess she found the treats inside her eggs

the jelly beans were making her hands all sticky so someone was thoughtful enough to provide Lex with a cup

treats and her cozy, what a great party

new location, same thing happening

Ms. Q and her kangaroo's

it was a little dark inside on Easter Eve but it looks like the Easter Bunny made his delivery just fine

One extra deluxe easter delivery, but this one was for DADDY! Justin was a huge fan of the clear bowl that was part of a special edition Kitchen Aid so the Easter Bunny took note...even though mommy does all of the cooking and baking.

the kids were up before dawn to see what they had been left

Lexie was in candy heaven

she must have stole one of her sibling's Reese's carrots and I doubt they ever got it back, the phrase"taking candy from a baby" is very misleading, Lexie can hold her own

Tate admiring his newly-acquired light saber and video game

(notice the drying rack behind him and another basket, those are the things the Easter Bunny brought to me. There must be a very domestic Easter Bunny in Austin)

Bracken loved the frog and duck shaped eggs, he named them and kept them around for a few weeks

Lexie must not have gotten to Tate's basket

this girl is amazing at striking poses

headless peeps make me a little concerned about the psychological well-being of my baby

Bracken can't make it one mile in the car without taking off his shoes and socks, it drives me crazy. These pictures were taken after church.

Bracken looking extra relaxed, everyone else having the retina's burned out

picture taking...over it

cute little girls with opposite coloring

wait for it...

...there it is, troll picture.

Bracken and Abbie were in the same Sunday school class that day because Abbie's teacher was out of town but I think that it is interesting that they both thought to do rainbows around the exterior but then did such different self-portraits on the inside. I especially love Bracken's cow-lick curl in the middle of his forehead.

Mooster Cow comes to visit

The beginning of April meant the end of soccer season and the beginning of some freedom for our saturdays once again. We loved basketball and soccer but I spent three nights a week at practices with all five kids for six months and I was ready for a break, not to mention three games each saturday. Each of our kids teams made it to the playoffs but the final games were held on Sunday so our kids were unable to participate. Tate's team ended-up having their best game of the year that day and won for their age group, go team LA! Bracken's team lost in the final minutes, which was sad for the kids, but even worse was that they had a coach who was a very poor sport and told the kids to just go throw their trophies in the trash. I felt sad for team Las Vegas but realize I will be very careful in allowing my kids to be around certain kinds of coaches in the future. Abbie's team also lost but I'm not sure if she ever even asked me how her team had done, clearly soccer had not become her life.

What Abbie was excited about, however, was the fact that after waiting the entire school year it was finally her turn to be student of the week and take home the class mascot, Mooster Cow. Personally, I think the cow is hideous but Abbie loved him and was so excited to have him after months of anticipation so we were sure to take Mooster on several family outings.

The following are photos of the end of soccer season and also of our escapades with Mooster Cow.

hair bows and soccer totally mix

why is the parent bridge always such a crowd pleaser? i don't get it but Abbie LOVES it!

my weird son with the weird mascot

more weirdness

movies with Mooster

if you look really closely you can see two dirty foot prints on this kitchen table chair from my littlest girl who had been outside without shoes, someday I will miss finding traces of my little ones around

I pulled this out of Bracken's school folder. The captions really speak for themselves (cool--super kid, hot--corn dog, hotter--woman in bikini, hottest--girl underwear). I died laughing. Obviously he was thinking true temperature when it came to amount of clothing necessary for various temps. Super inappropriate and super hilarious.

even cows love the park.

doesn't Abbie look like a total babe in this picture? hard to believe she is in kindergarten.

Happy Friday night!

McDonald's for dinner while Dad's out of town.

there he goes! there he goes!

SCORE!!!

Tate's victory swing from Coach Pham right after he scored a goal

what a player

we ran into Reagan and Molly one field over, these girls are so happy to see each other

Ruby, Tate, Molly, Reagan, Abbie, and Mooster

time to put Mooster cow down and get in the game

Abbie and Tyler (both in Mrs. Berger's kindergarten class) with their mascot Mooster Cow

shooting practice with Dad at half time

the whole Munich team

backyard baseball with Mooster Cow

an unusual talent, cap-to-cap water bottle stacking

Mooster cow goes to church

family home evening

(look how many curls Lexie had before Ruby cut them all off)

evening dress-up with Mooster Cow

I know this is all sort of disjointed but I just really want to get my blog all caught up. Thanks for baring with me.

Dear daughters,

Thank you for putting up with your mother's need to have matching little girls. I know you are individuals but you will only be little once and I am loving every minute of it.

Love,

Mom

Every single Sunday my girls wear identical outfits, I just can't help myself. Next year Abbie will surely be too tall to fit in the matching outfits so I am living it up while I still can. The following are pictures taken on various Sundays from the end of March thru the beginning of June:

before church...and before they had their hair done

these dresses were my favorites from the Dallas sale, my girls wore them all summer long

the gang

happy sisters

blue dresses

pink dresses

typical ruby

loves

post-Ruby-self-inflicted-hair-cut

yellow dresses for the weddin'

and, done...

I guess I couldn't wrangle the crew for photos in the lime green dresses, the melon-colored dresses, or the lavender dresses...perhaps I will eventually get those shots, after all, it's still over 105 in Austin.

(I plan to actually catch up now that three kids are back in school, keep your fingers crossed)

the novice videographer

I sat down at my computer to upload some photos and begin to catch up on my blog again. This video is what I found, along with literally 50 other photos and videos that are equally amusing. The kids must have learned how to hack into my computer (which requires a password) over the weekend because these are the outfits they were wearing on Saturday. I have no idea how to make videos like this myself or how to take pictures creating crazy backgrounds (there are some green-screen shots with roller coaster backgrounds, etc.) but somehow Bracken figured it all out and entertained himself for quite some time. I will post some of the other gems later but this is the exact video that appeared when I logged in to my account and it was too random and hilarious not to share.