"S" is for

Silly Socks!

This week at Parkhills the kids studied the letter "S." To let the kiddos have a little fun with the letter they were allowed to wear their silliest socks to school Tuesday. K wanted to wear "pink" of course! and her favorite silly socks are either a dark pair of fuzzy chenille socks or a pair of fuzzy light pink ones.



Here's to having a sensational silly week!

...and you can be my Cowboy

We did it again! This time we spent our Sunday afternoon out on the rodeo grounds and experienced the carnival too. We had a wonderful family day except for some of the conversations occurring around us. Unfortunately we were privy to a little too much info, thanks! Wow people, grow up and find a more wholesome life. Anyway, that's another subject.





Sunday was family day at the rodeo which means we got in the gates for $3.00. This was an Awesome deal considering we used a tad more money than we planned in the carnival section. However, I was truly surprised to find all the barns and stalls completely empty of animals. We had a sad little girl but at least this was her second time out there and not the first one for this year.




This trip we peeked in all the barns just to make sure we didn't miss a stray animal then we journeyed through the animal petting barn again and took a quick stop by the SA Fire Dept firetruck (just for you dad!).




Next we headed to the HEB Buddy section again and checked out the Animal Follies show, another petting barn and to ride the ponies! I'm cracking up at the funny faces I caught in these pictures.








We also saw the amazing percheron horses. Those guys are HUGE, amazing and gorgeous! K was actually a little scared of them. I think she was scared because of their size. shock, shock. She was fine looking at them through their stall but as soon as they let two of them out while they cleaned out their stall she asked her daddy to hold her while we watched them. They were Huge, the pictures I took do not show how massive they actually were. For the horse inclined, they were all around 19 hands tall. http://www.priefertpercherons.com/index.php




We then headed to the carnival. This was the first time K has been to a carnival. She had fun! She entered the gates as a typical little energizer bunny with the attitude of "lets try it all" but that attitude quickly changed into nervousness. I do think she would have played or tried almost every game if we let her but...it costs too much dough kiddo! We did agree to let her try 3 games and then we started looking for a few rides. She surprised me with the rides though. She was scared of several of them. WHAT!!! Even after all the Disn*y rides and all the other parks we have been too??? She finally warmed up to riding a merry-go-round after a while and she drove a firetruck like a crazy woman. Next we found about 3 more rides that were not "too scary" before we traveled up the Ferris wheel as a family. By the way, notice the look on K's face in the bumper cars with Wade. I think it will give you an idea of how she felt about driving them with her daddy. She asked to ride on it with him but then something happened once they strapped her in and they turned on the breaker. Priceless picture though








Overall, it was another great family experience and I know we all are ready for next years show.

I wanna be a Cowgirl...

I love being a Texan for many reasons and I know some of my pride stems from the sweet memories I have growing up here in Tx.

Awe, the memories of chasing cows in the fields with my girlfriends, being scared to death of snakes in the hay in the horse barn or watching our pet catfish(s)swim in the horse trough. Now, the smells of it all...don't miss it so much or cleaning up the messes from the animals...not so much either or scared to death a coyote was going to get any of our animals at night...not so fun memory too but that is part of the life of living in the country. I doubt K will ever get to have any of these experiences that Wade and I both have had unless we visit my uncle Mark on his ranch for a few days. Yep! We are spoiled city folks now. Although, honey, I would still really LOVE to have some horses one day again. hint, hint I know a little girl that has been asking for one since she was three too.



For those of you who have not visited the SA rodeo yet, here is just a little bit of info I discovered about it. The San Ant*nio St*ck Show & R*deo is divided into three main sections. The stock grounds where everyone can enjoy all the animals, a few competitions and a dining and children's play section provided by HEB. Then they have the rodeo in the AT*T center which is rumored to be the 3rd richest rodeo in the nation with a total purse of 1 million dollars. They close the rodeo each evening with a nightly concert performance by top rock and country artists. On the opposite side of the AT*T center is a carnival/fair set up for all to enjoy throughout the day and evening. Yep. That's two weeks of non-stop activities for us to enjoy. It's not like the rodeos Wade and I grew up going to, that's for sure! I am not going to complain that we live here and get to experience this event every February with our lil cowgirl. A few other things I learned while researching the event was that nearly 2 million dollars of scholarships are donated from the Livestock and Horse exhibitors. Which I think is wonderful. Many people come from various places across the US to showcase their animals and compete in the nightly rodeo or other events. In 2009 they had a little over 1.3 million people attend the events over the two week period. If you are interested in learning more here is a link http://www.sarodeo.com/who/news_room/fun_facts_stats.html




Wade and I actually said while we were out at the rodeo that we felt like we were country club folks walking through all the barns past all the stalls and ranchers. Scary! I believe at one point in both of our lives we would have fit in very well. I do sincerely think some of the kindest, most genuine, hard working individuals I have ever met live out of the city either on a farm or remote countryside. I can only hope to instill some of those farm values into our child and that she will understand the importance of finding the beauty in Gods land, his animals and the bliss of some occasional solitude.



We had a blast and came home EXHAUSTED! Actually K fell asleep in the car on the way home without dinner and I think Wade and I were in bed by 10:30 that night. I could have gone to sleep in the car too truth be told. If you asked K what her favorite part of the day was she would possibly say either watching the pig shows, (kids showing/selling off their pigs) petting All the animals, or the Team pinning. Uncle Mark, you would have been very proud of her. K was yelling like crazy during the team pinning show..."number 6, no. 6, to the left, to the left...get her, get her...focus, focus. You can do it! YEAH!!! WAY TO GO!!!" She was toooo cute! I even had to ask her to sit down and be just a tad quieter about 4 times. She would get so excited for each team. I seriously think she will one day be a great cheerleader. If she wants to of course. As soon as a new team would enter the arena she would pick out her favorite rider and horse and give them nick names. I think I recall one white horse being "sparkles" and two different brown horses with dark manes being "Doc and Boogie" (Thanks to uncle Mark, his horses). There was also the mystical horse "princess." Princess is K's favorite imaginary horse that she rides all the time. She enjoyed herself and we giggled a lot watching her and rooting for the teams. We must have enjoyed watching it all because I looked at my watch when K said her lil tummy was hungry and we had been there for an hour.

Reflecting back on our day, I think she may have even enjoyed watching the demonstration on how a cow is milked and seeing it all happen in real time. She and Wade experienced the demonstration close up as she asked a ton of questions. I wish I had taken a picture. (but mommy forgot her camera) Great learning opportunity though. I love that!

These pics were taken with Wade's phone camera b/c I forgot my camera.

After we finished seeing all the animals and competitions around the stock grounds we headed over to let our spirited cowgirl run out some of her energy in the HEB Buddy center. She was thrilled to be able to ride on the ponies this year. The last two years we went to the rodeo the lines were terribly long and we somehow convinced her to not wait for the popular rides. Not this time! The wait was short and so we waited. She picked the horse named "Twinkie." and around and around they rode. We also waited in line for some of the bounce houses they had. One of them was a slide bouncer. Wade and I both were concerned if she would climb up to the top and come down on her own (all the other kids were in pairs) but she climbed the rope all the way up to the top, slide down smiling all the way and so she did it again.



We didn't stay for the concerts this year because the last 2 years we tried with K she had a fit over the loudness. Yeah, it was Lyn*rd Skyner...Who can blame her for that one? And, who takes their kid to see Lyn*rd? Guess if I really want to go see someone in concert I either need headphones to cover her ears or a baby sitter. Wade and I both can't believed we missed Tim McGr...on my birthday this year. Woulda been fun. Maybe next year!

I think we are planning on going back next weekend to enjoy a little more of the rodeo grounds and actually spend some time over in the carnival section. I'll post pics soon because I will be taking my camera.

Valentines Party

K had her Valentines party at Parkhills today. 15 bags of treats to hand out to her friends and LOADS MORE to bring home. Happy Valentines Day!



I love All holidays but I think I am becoming overwhelmed with all the candy in this house. This year K and I went to T*rget and I let her pick out what she wanted to give everyone. I was surprised she picked out the exact same valentine princess cards as last year but then again she loves her princess toys and movies so I should have known. She has been working on her writing skills so we used the opportunity to practice writing her name on all 15 cards and she did a great job even though we lost one man (card) due to her name running off the card. WOW! Those were really large letters. I think the only letters that made it on the card were Karl. Not quite her name. We also stashed princess stickers, a princess pencil, a lollipop and a few chocolates into each bag (I am sure the boys in her class just loved all the princess stuff) and we tied them up or as K said we, "tied them with a kiss." It was a fun afternoon project for us to go buy the stuff and then get them ready together for school. The girl is perfecting her art of shopping though. Too many times she would run up and down an isle and say "mommy can we get this for my friends? It says it is, 9 . 9 9 ($9.99). Didn't you say you wanted to stay under that amount?"

I am sure like all kiddos as soon as she walked in the door from school she was ready to check out all the goodies she got from the day. I may not like all the candy but I do enjoy watching her spread her loot out on the floor and opening each bag or card only to ooddle and awe with excitement over what she got from whom. She loves her friends and the relationship she has with each of them.

Hope you all enjoy the weekend with loved ones. Happy Valentines! Spread some love. Show someone you care.

37 and counting

My Birthday was on Saturday and I think it's really odd that this year I did not feel a day older! Except for the early mornings we have been having lately...I could really do without them. Last year, I dreaded my birthday for some reason and truth be known, I have never been one to worry about age. I do not care for all the wrinkles I am starting to notice on my face or neck or the dark hairs that are popping up here and there and I certainly don't like dealing with the grey hairs on my head but hey - I will continue to try not to focus on how old I am getting and enjoy the little things. So, here's to another year and trying to age gracefully.



I had a wonderful weekend! Thanks to my honey, K, my parents, our family for all the sweet birthday cards and all my friends (especially all the faceb*ok messages). Mom and Dad came in Friday and we all had a casual dinner out together that evening. Very nice, thank you! My birthday on Saturday started off with getting to sleep in late-awesome. Wade got Kr*spy Kreme donuts for breakfast for all of us - yum! and he and K picked out my favorite flowers as a surprise - Stargazer lilies - gorgeous and I can still smell them now! We all laid around very casually and played the Wii together for the better part of the day. It was a Great day with just good ole family fun! Mom and dad stayed with K for the evening while Wade and I headed out to share our favorite meal - sushi! I posted on faceb*ok a question for everyone earlier in the day..."new restaurant or favorite oldie?" and it was unanimous. Go for the old favorite. We headed for sushi and tried some new rolls...Heaven! If you have not tried the cosimo roll, it's amazing! Just saying, give it a try. We came home to have birthday cake that Wade and K also picked up earlier in the day and snuggled up to watch a love story movie. To top off the weekend my honey gave me some new jewels which made me feel even more loved and blessed. It was a great weekend all around, thanks for making it special. I Love you all.

Pajama Day!

Today at Parkhills was Pajama day. Each week the school kids work on learning about a letter from the alphabet. They learn how to sign that specific letter and then they learn how to sign a specific word that starts with the letter of the week, they work on writing it in upper and lower case forms and then they are given homework that includes finding things at home that start with the letter of the week and gluing or attaching them to the assigned homework sheet. This week they were studying the letter "P." In our house, "P" is for princess so we colored our homework page Purple and put princess stickers all over the purple colored homework page. I know there are plenty of other fun things that start with a "P" like pretzel, popcorn, peanuts, etc but our girl HAD to have nothing less than princesses on her homework. She was quite adamant about it when I offered other suggestions. hehe



She knew pajama day was coming and she was excited as usual about going to school. I must admit, I loved it too! How awesome was it that I did not have to dress her at all. Brush those teeth and the hair, put on some shoes and off we went. As soon as we got in the car, K and I started to sing the Sandr@ Boynt0n Pajama Time book. We sang that song the whole way to preschool this morning and it is still ringing in my head. Pajamay to the left pajamay to the right... jamma jamma jamma jamma P! J! It's pajamma time!!! It definitely was at Parkhills, the halls and classrooms were full of kiddos and teachers wearing their comfys. It was quite funny seeing all the teachers in their pjs too.



K had a great day and talked about it all the way home including getting to see a bit of the Peter Pan movie and having Popcorn with all her preschool friends during down time. And yes, I decided on which pj's I thought she should wear this time...a little sugar & spice. That's our girl just as the saying goes...sugar and spice and everything nice. That's what little girls are made of!

Rodeo Day

February is one of those months for us...plenty to do with lots of fun. Thank goodness for January because it gives us time to rest and relax after the holidays and all of the end of the year madness and time to get geared up again for the new year. 2010 started off a little differently for us this time because of Wades grandmothers death on New Years Eve but we did enjoy our time with our family and K got to play with lots of her cousins even meeting a few that we had not met before. Even with the snow storm and the passing of Virginia, we did get some rest over the holidays due to being gone so long and those wonderful grandparents who would watch her in the morning and let us sleep in. Thanks Mimi and Papa and Nanna and Papaw...we always appreciate your help and love!



Tuesday was Rodeo Day at Parkhills and K has been looking forward to this event. She gets so excited for Rodeo time here in SA. She loves to dress up in her "cowgirl" attire. Wearing her boots and taking her cowgirl hat to school is "the best ever" according to her. She picked out what she wanted to wear the night before, she had to look "cuter than cute" she said. She even came down to our room at 7:30 to get me up so she would have plenty of time to get ready for the day and so she "would not miss anything." If you know our girl then you know 8am is an early morning in our house and the only time I can think of her waking at 7:30 are those days when we are visting her grandparents and she can't wait to get up and spend the day with them. It's like she knows without us telling her that her time is precious and limited so she better get up and get going and home is the place where she can catch up on her sleep.



There will be many more posts the next week or so... we have pajamma day Thursday at school, my birthday soon, the SA Rodeo, Valentines...you get the message. So stay tuned. I hope to catch some cute pics here and there and post them. Have a great February everyone.