Mothers day

Today has been broken down into segments really, first of all I had family time with breakfast in bed, some lovely presents and cards and cuddles from my kids, then we went off for brunch with Diana and her troops, then just the girls went off to see Cinderella at the Long Centre, then back for a barbecue to diana with all the menfolk as well.

So here are some photo's from today.


The end of the day at Diana's

At the ballet, car is modeling Sammy's new ballerina skirt!!

Just before we went in to the ballet we walked around down at Zilker and watched the kids in the fountain. This is Diana and I, and then some of us all.

We had Brunch first so here are some picture for you from that part of the day.




So there was mothers day...very hectic in one way but actually relaxing and very enjoyable. It was lovely to have the children all around be with friends and not be rushing places. Allan being absent was sad, but will make his return all the more enjoyable.

Ben's field and track day

This Alex watching a karate demonstration put on for the older children, who his class is 'buddied' with, so they watched as well. While I was watching Alex did not notice me, he was watching intently as he was shown how to take an opponent down, hold him down and fight off any attempt to hurt him!! I will let you know how well Ben's fairs with this information Alex now has!!!! ER might be seeeing more of us soon.....

Ben loving the slide



Alex did this yesterday and loved it, no different with ben and his class...a water spray bottle and a blind fold..so simple but such fun.

A sack race with a difference, it was called finding Nemo....

This was called Hunting for treasure...at least it did not involve water, they had time to dry off a bit..noit that they cared.
back getting wet again!! the way the kids like it.

A fun day was had by kinder and 1st grade, the fun of changing them afterward then followed. never easy when they are excited and damp, clothes just do not come of easily when wet and dry ones do not go on well to damp skin...hey ho, lots of laughing happened, so all was well.

Track and field day for Alex

This track and field day for Alex..more of a sports day for UK, with a lot more fun!!! As you can see Ben is out and about as well, the Kinder classes went around and watched their 'buddies' do Track and field, so they knew what to expect today, I am off to watch ben any minute!!



This is Alex relaxing!! after doing half a circuit of activities, the got a 20 minute break out of the sun on the basketball court, where refreshments and snacks were served. this is also the place Alex lost his water bottle...must see if I can find it today.

This si the missing water bottle....Alex after the slide, having a drink, although it looks overcast, the temperature was in the 90's and the humidity was up in the high 80's, so it was very hot, the UV rating was 'extreme'

One of the activities, you had to stop your team mates from getting you on the legs!! fun



This activities you did with a partner, they wore a blindfold and you directed them, as you can see they have a bottle full of water to squirt!! soooo much noise came from the kids with this activity. I can see this being palyed at home, not good for spectating parents...water was going everywhere.

well I must dash to Bens event now..more photo's later.

we are still here!!!

I thought since I had not updated the blog for a while, I would start with the weather, as it is sooooo nice to be warm/hot all the time. we are not bored of it yet. This is for this week, and I will have to confess to turning the aircon on now, we try and keep the house cool with blinds, fans and not leaving doors open, but the time has come when the AirCon unit is needed.

The children and i went to breakfast at IHOP on Sunday which was fun, I would not want to go often but they do so love it. IHOP (Internation House Of Pancakes) is open 24 hours a day all year round, it never closes!!!, we then went of to Zilker park to throw sticks for Tex in to Town Lake and let Alex and Ben swim in Barton Creek, the rest of us were happy to paddle/or wade.

I have promised we will go down next saturday and go out on the kayaks, we will see if Tex is steady to boats!!! we are going to take apicnic and spend the day down there.

Sunday is Mothering Sunday car and I are off to see Cinderella at the Austin Ballet with Diana and her two little princesses, which will be fun, we are at the matinee performence, i will update you after we have been.

Jack turns 15 tomorrow so we are gearing up for that at the moment as well.... it will involve a lot of steak i can assure you. We are off to a steak house for tea with Jo and Alan, John, Diana and the princesses, so tomorrow night jack will get his 20oz steak he enjoys, followed by birthday cake galore.

School is nearly over for this year, so we are having all the end of term things happening, field and track event is on Thursday, they are creating T-shirts this week, I will try and keep you updated on there activities as well.

allan took the boys to camp mabry a few weeks ago, where they had Apache helo landing and taking off, live reinactments of the war, so Alex and ben are now into digging trenches and trying to make Shell craters in the back yard...so much fun..it is good we are short of rain and the ground is rock hard.

well i must get on with the day, more update will flow now

friends at the barbecue

I am not sure where Cara is about to deposit said child, maybe lucky we don't have a pool yet.
Boys and their toys... Nerf gun assembly line!!!!
Mother and daughter decorating cookies
The greatest cookie makers of all time... today it was red and white cookies with Alex name on, as he requested, same as his cake actually, which he helpped ice.
Our neighbours do come to our parties... This lets us make more noise!!
Our egg hunt hosts of the morning.... Thank you
"Ahh a Nerf gun, we will help you Alex, let us look" dad's so predictable !!!!

Alex had no trouble blowing out the candles, I had to light them again so everybody (well children) could them blow them out as well!!
Chief Griller ( looking very posed) and his adoring wife ( looking very stern!!)
boy can they talk!!! What a great time we had, fantastic weather, children all playing in and out on Alex's new toys, wine flowing and food a plenty. a very nice way to spend the afternoon.
A huge thank you needs to go to Cara and Jack who tidied it all up after wards. I think Jack was particularly impressed with the confetti eggs Diana bought, real egg shells, dyed and filled with confetti that you smashed over peoples heads, so the shell and confetti went every where. He swept it all up...... took him a very long time. Jack the kids loved them and at the time... that was all that mattered. It was your brothers party!!!!

What a day, my red head turns 8

These are the Peeps that turn up at every occasion possible, marshmallow covered in a sugar coating, the kids love them!!!
Instead of decorating loads of cookies, what I did was put out the cookies and icing and let the kids decorate as and when they wanted to eat them. I think it is safe to say more icing was put on than if I had iced them!!! some hyper children in our neighbour hood tonight.
Birthday boy just before he launched inand opened his presents, the calm before the storm with out a doubt

The Easter egg hunt, Diana had hidden them and we took all the kids up to there house, it is only 5 doors away, although Cara and Jack managed to restrain themselves and did not hunt for the eggs, but did help when asked by eager youngsters.

I can't believe it, but I was awake before Alex's this morning, waiting for him to come running in. He has had a busy weekend as he had a birthday sleep over on Friday night into Saturday because his birthday fell on Easter Sunday. He was at a friends house sleeping over on Thursday as there was no school on Friday- not known as Good Friday here and there is school tomorrow!! No Easter Monday for us( well actually ARM does close for the British holiday weekend, so Allan is off!!!)
Then today we started early opening presents, Alex had requested breakfast In bed, so dually did that, followed by an Easter egg hunt at Diana and John's abode, then back home to get ready for a barbecue with friends popping in from 3pm until 6pm.

An update

I seem to be very busy at the moment, and have not been up dating as often as I should, so though I would quickly bring you up to date.

Alison got off OK at Houston , the journey there no problem, although Texas cried to see her go, then a mean police officer stopped me on the way home and gave me a violation for not having the number plate on the front of the car-Allan has duly sorted that for me. Would be fair to say I was stressed and maybe communicated that to my husband very clearly.

Cara got knocked off her bike while we were cycling to Jazzercise last week, not a great moment, i now know a lot more about the medical services etc in Texas. I can call an ambulance even if I have no wallet or insurance details on me- who would have known. The things you don't know seem to come at you in troubled times far too fast. Cara is fine, the car and following one did not stop, but after that so many people did stop it was gratify to see. Diana was the hero of the day and sorted out getting us to a doctor and x-ray etc, and her daughter Sammy, only 5 was the angle of the day. Not a murmur out of her, she came along, sat in the waiting room and just played with the toys, watched the TV( by the way they had a children's TV and an adult one- so simple an idea but it worked!) Cara with leg all strapped up came home and had to rest it it for 48hours, she has bruised her bone. her first words when i reached her was " I will have to wear a long dress for your party mum"- that my girl, who cares about the blood!!!
Anyway, all is well, in fact Cara is in UK now, to celebrate her birthday with friends in Southampton, another story there, as her passport only came back from Washington DC on Wednesday, so she booked that day and flew the next- lets hope her leg lets her play!!! Can any of you believe my daughter is 19, it makes me feel OLD.

Ben decided to not miss out on the limelight, and he head butted the chair and put a wonderful gash in his forehead, this was at 0635 on a school morning so, lots more blood and tears for our household- got to love children.

Ben had a cowboys breakfast yesterday, I will post a separate article on that, it was so great, am hoping to post a video of it for you all, will be sweet talking Jo into helping me next week hopefully.

Allan and I went around to Alan and Jo's for a wonderful home cooked curry on Tuesday night.. it was our first curry since we have been in Texas, so loved it. great company, great food and what a fun night-although i might have spent a lot of it complaining about my children!!! Why do i have four?

Cara and I dashed to Houston yesterday to catch her flight to Toronto and then Heathrow, Cara managed to find an Air Canada flight for $517 return, including all taxes in each country etc, so a good price for a poor student. I can see she is going to need to be babysitting a lot when she gets back to top up her account!!!!

I think you are up to date, my party is already on the blog, and on the Sunday we had a leftover party and invited some of our guests back to finish up food and drink.

Oh I had forgotten about getting our nails done on the Friday, my actual birthday. Diana, Cara and i went to get our nails, man and ped done for the party. had to go in Diana car due to Cara's leg, had to park out side, and Diana and I help the hobbling one in to her seat, then Diana went and bought Champagne and we drank whist we had our nails done. I have pictures on my Iphone, so will try and learn how to take them of and put them on my blog-Jo i might need you for that as well!!!?? pretty please. Mind you Cara gave me for my birthday, the Dummies guide to iphones', obviously thought I needed it- how right she is