Beach Trip

We started our summer off with a weekend trip to Padre Island with a bunch of friends and we had a blast! The kids did great the entire time and nobody ended up too crispy. Here are some pics:

The kids sporting their new shades

At the hotel pool - Time: 4:30pm

Lillie is our little fish. Never had a swimming lesson but can paddle all over the deep end

with no trouble. She was all about doing things with the big kids on this trip.

Samuel and Grant with the big girls Ashley and Kirsten. These girls were good mommies to them

Still in the pool at 9:30 pm. Yeah, we were a tad wrinkly.

Lillie and Samuel flying their new kites

Our man-made tidal pool. Surprisingly this lasted about 2 hours before it washed away. It was good for Grant who spent the 1st part of the day afraid to get in the ocean.

Big Helper. Grant spent many hours with the shovel and sand on this day.

Yea! A picture of Tim and I together. The 2nd one on this post. These are rare occurrences.

Samuel and Grant loved hanging out with the Big Boys. And the guys were

really patient with Grant who kept putting sand back into the hole.

Tim and the very tip top of Lillie's head. He took her out pretty deep

and she almost flipped a couple of times. She is a little dare-devil.

From here you can't tell but only about an inch of Grant's head was visible from the top of this hole when you looked at him from far away. I had to build those steps so

he could get in and out on his own. He spent much of his day in here digging away.

It was built well away from the tide to prevent his drowning in it.

Our entire group minus the Baldwin's who had to leave early.

Fun times! We love living close the beach and are hoping that we'll find the time to go back once more before the summer is over.

Samuel's Pre-K Graduation

Samuel had his Pre-K graduation on May 14th. We are so proud of him! I cried which is probably silly but still, I can't believe my Samuel is going to Kindergarten! We have loved this school that both Lillie and Samuel have attended. We'll miss it for a year as I'm not ready to send Grant quite yet. Anyway, it was a wonderful graduation program complete with lots of performances from the kids, an awesome music video that the 4 and 5 year old class made, and of course the commencement exercises. Samuel looked so handsome and he was very well behaved this time around!

Here he is with 2 of his BFF's, Sage Hardman (who has designs on Samuel ;) ) and Payton Billingsley. They're reading their Children's Bibles that they receive as a gift for graduating.
The BIG RUSH! We're Done!!!
Samuel with his other BFF Ethan. Ethan's mom told me that Ethan makes his mom and dad call him Samuel when he's at home. Too funny! Samuel is apparently the class clown. The kids really dig his potty humor.

All the kiddos with Mr. David the Children's Pastor. The kids all loved him and even though Grant was never his student he couldn't drop off Samuel without a high five from Mr. David.
We're so proud of you Buddy!

Soccer - Spring 20011

Lillie and Samuel participated in Spring soccer this year and it was a lot of fun! Originally only Samuel was going to do it but when we went to sign ups Lillie said she wanted to play too. We let her but only on the promise that if she complained she wouldn't be allowed to start gymnastics in the Fall. Well, Samuel loved every minute of it. He got out there, ran as fast as he could, kept constant score, and did everything his coach told him to do. Lillie....went to every practice and game and didn't complain once. Needless to say, Samuel misses soccer now that it's over and can't wait to start again in the Fall. Lillie will be doing gymnastics since she passed her test.

We had a lot of fun going to practices on Wednesday nights and games on Saturday mornings. Here are some of my favorite memories:

~ Lillie was on an all boys team and said she hated it but really I think she had a lot of fun. She did use that as yet another reason than she needs a sister though. Apparently she is the only girl a lot and life is not fair.

~ Samuel's team singing their Tiny Titan song at every practice and game

~ This was a non-competitive league. However, in the first game Samuel's team was doing really well. Each time they scored a goal he'd run across the entire length of the field holding up the score on both his hands and yelling "NINE!!!!! WE HAVE NIIIIIIINNNNNNNEEEEEEE!!!!!" or whatever the score was. His coaches had to talk to him. ;) That's my competitive boy!

Lillie is in the blue jersey in the back getting prepped to play goalie. That was her favorite position.
Cutie Pie!
Lillie calling the coin toss to start the game. She won.
The Little Titans: Frankie, Jenna, Gabby, Kylie, Eden, and Samuel


The Titans with their end of game gift from the coaches. He really lucked out and got some great coaches this season. We're hoping they'll still be there in the Fall.
Lillie and Samuel with their trophies. You guys did great and we are way proud of you!

Grandma came to TX!

We had a fabulous visit with Grandma this last week. She flew in to Austin so when we went to pick her up we thought we'd make an afternoon of it. I had read about the Austin Nature and Science Center and it seemed...awesome. And awesomely free. So we hung out there for a couple of hours. It totally met my expectations and more. If it had been a little cooler and a little closer to dinner I think we would have stayed even longer.

Here are Grant and Grandma checking out their miniature zoo.

By the way Grant now adores his Grandma.

I suppose he has finally succumbed to her grandmotherly wiles!

Here are Samuel and Lillie checking our some cool artifacts

They had a fossil digging pit which was way sweet and would have kept the kids occupied all afternoon if we scroogy adults hadn't ruined their plans!

The kids kept Grandma on a strict nightly reading schedule. Seriously, I'm surprised she didn't lose her voice. They picked some long books!

Grant and Samuel kept Grandma entertained with their silly costumes!

"Enjoying" dinner at Willie's.

I think we were enjoying San Antonio's dining a little too much and it got

to the point where none of us were ever actually feeling hungry.

I believe we were just eating because the clock said it was time to eat.

At Lulu's Cafe breakfasting on the over-sized Cinnamon Roll. As Seen on Man vs. Food.

Now that I think about it this was my first time purposefully visiting a place that I had seen on TV. The roll was good but to much bread that dried out once it cooled off. I guess there's only so much you can do with a roll that size. However, it was cool to go there and experience it.

On Friday Lillie got to skip school and we went to the Zoo.

This crocodile/alligator (I never know which is which) was freakin' awesome! It swam right up to Samuel looked at him and swam to me and stared me down. This is the first time I've ever seen one active at the zoo. They have always been my least favorite creature as they are so freakishly still. I hate that element of surprise they posses. But I decided I like them when they are moving. As long as it's not moving at me.

The train ride as always. I tried to make the zoo trip and hide from Grant the fact that we were near the train. However while in the zoo Grant heard the whistle and went crazy. So Grandma sprung for a ride. Thanks G-Ma!

On Sunday Lillie wanted her hair curled "just like Grandma's"

And lastly: I couldn't let Dianne leave without putting her to work!

I've been planning to make curtains for the kids rooms for a while. But when I found out a master seamstress was coming to visit I decided to put the project in to her hands! Thank you Dianne for doing such a beautiful job, they turned our great and I couldn't be more pleased!

Here's Tim trying to study for his final amidst all the crafting and estrogen in the kitchen.

Here are the curtains!

Thanks for coming to visit Grandma! We all had a wonderful time and we can't wait to see you again! TX Doolittle's love you!