Fiesta Float Parade and Author's Day

Fiesta Float Parade

Each year in April for nine days the city of San Antonio has a Fiesta celebration. Something about taking over the city from Mexico. Mostly it's like a mini Mardi Gras and people come from all over the country and get drunk. However, there are some really cool parades and fun historical stuff too. We don't go to any of it. We've tried a couple of times and the events are way to packed to be any fun. I think Tim and the kids got stuck a the Battle of Flowers Parade for about 7 hours last year. After that we swore off Fiesta events forever. Fortunately, the kids school makes a very big deal of it. So much so that Samuel is convinced that "Fiesta" is what happens at his school. They did a big float parade where the kids make a float with whatever theme that they choose. Then they have a big carnival for the rest of the day. Last year we did shoe box floats. That's what the flier that was sent home said to make. But when we got to the school we saw that people really go above and beyond. So this year, we did too.

Here is Samuel with his Hot Wheels Monster Jam float. We mounted it onto a little ride on toy. 

 And here is Lillie with her Fiesta Princess float mounted onto our wagon. I showed her how to make the paper flowers then she took the rest of the project into her hands and I didn't have to do a thing. I thought she did a great job on it!

 Viva Fiesta!

Author's Day

This is one of our favorite days of the school year. All week long the kids celebrate reading and do different fun activities on different days. Unfortunately this year we got the flier about it the day before Lillie and I went out of town to Ohio. We were scheduled to fly back in the day before author's day. "How on earth am I going to get these costumes together?" I thought. Fortunately things worked out. Lillie's current favorite books are the Little House on the Prairie series and she wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. Sweet. I called up my mom and she dug out the old pioneer day costumes. This was our best, (and easiest) costume yet! 

 Here is Samuel as a Power Ranger. Now, normally I do not allow these kinds of characters for authors day. We were going to do something cooler (author's day cooler I mean) like "Put Me in the Zoo" by Robert Lopshire, or "Rude Giants" by Audrey Wood. But when it got to be 8pm the night before and we were just settling in from a week away from home I decided that the stress wasn't worth it and I let him go as what he wanted to be in the first place. He did look super awesome!

I love that my kids love books and they are both excellent readers. What with their mom, and Grandma Dianne, and Grammy, and all those Whaley sisters that love to read it's not really that big of a surprise I guess. They are each the top reader in their class and before the end of Kinder Samuel has passed almost all the reading levels that are required to graduate 1st grade. They've got great reading genes!

Samuel's Done With The Thumb!

Samuel and his thumb have been very good friends from birth. We were happy and content to let him stop the sucking on his own. However, we were well into his Kindergarten year and the sucking was not decreasing at all. Tim decided to give him a little push that he could take at his own pace. Samuel and Tim went to Target one Saturday morning and Samuel was allowed to pick out anything that he wanted. He chose Hot Wheels Wall Tracks. The toy went to the top of the fridge where he could see it all the time. Tim made his a happy face chart. He was allowed to be caught sucking his thumb a certain amount of times a day with that number of times decreasing as he made improvements. Once he had been 2 weeks without sucking his thumb once he would be able to get his tracks.

Well, he made it through the chart with flying colors! It took about 5 weeks to make it through all of the levels, but after the first week and a half he never sucked his thumb again!

Here he is with his prize for his accomplishment:

 He loves these tracks but I think what he loved the most was that he didn't have to share them ;)

You did a great job Samuel, we are so proud of you! What a huge and awesome accomplishment!

Easter Season 2012

This Easter sort of crept up on us. I don't like to do all the egg coloring and hunting on Easter because frankly I don't see how any of that ties to the holiday whatsoever. 

Here, we made Resurrection Rolls the night before Easter. They were pretty cool. You wrap a marshmallow dipped in melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar them wrap it in a crescent roll. You leave a small opening in the roll and them bake them. When their done the roll has melted and you have an empty tomb. We used it as our FHE lesson to teach the kids about the real meaning of Easter. They thought it was pretty cool and those rolls were dang tasty!

 Here we are coloring eggs the day after Easter I believe. I think we might have eaten them right away. Boiled eggs taste so much better when they are warm; why wait?

 The Easter Bunny decided not to leave too much candy this year. He's noticed that the Doolittle children have much better behavior when their sugar level is seriously decreased. So here are the boys playing with their Easter basket bubbles. I think the baskets full of toys were the enjoyed more and for a longer time than the candy baskets ever were. 

 The monday following Easter we had an FHE egg hunt. Grammy and Grandad came to hide the eggs and hide them they did! It took the kids about 15 minutes to hunt down all the eggs and they had a blast!

Happy Easter Activities!

The Latest On Lillie

Career Day

In March the kid's elementary school had a career day. Samuel was sick. He had a fireman suit which he wore the next day. I could swear that we got a picture of him in it but I can't find it anywhere. Here's Lillie though:

 She decided to be a veterinarian. I did my best to turn a white t-shirt into a lab coat.

 Lillie's Art Shows

This Spring Lillie was invited to be in 2 different art shows. One was called "Los Leones Art Festival". The selected children could put a price on their art work and try to earn money. Lillie selected not to sell the original but to sell prints for $5 a copy. She came out with $18 (there was a 10% fee to the host of the art show) and was pretty excited to realize that her art could earn money. Here she is next to her piece entitled "This is Life"

 Two weekends ago (in May) Lillie was invited to the Northside ISD art show. Her piece which was a rattlesnake head won a teacher award. These were the only awards given. Out of the hundreds of pieces in the show including everything from elementary grades through High School only about 30 awards were handed out. We are very proud of our budding artist! Here she is below with her art teacher Mr. Rodriguez.

 And here is her rattlesnake:

 I think she chose to draw a rattlesnake because she has been doing a research paper on desert life lately. 

City Wide Bike Rodeo

In February Lillie placed 1st in her school's bike rodeo so she was invited to the City Wide Bike Rodeo. We went downtown this past Saturday (5/26) and she competed with kids from all over the city. They had the participants stagger their arrival throughout the day which was very nice. We walked in, registered her, she went right through the course and we were done! 

 She was not nervous at all and rode through the course like a champ. 

 Here she is getting her participants ribbon. We don't know yet if she placed. They did the awards at the end and you could come back to hear them but we went to a water park with friends instead. If she happened to win then her school will let us know. 

You did a great job Lil'Star!

Butterfly Garden March 2012

Well, Uncle Jason, Aunt Becca, and cousin Dallin sent the TX Doolittle kids a Butterfly Garden for Christmas. Lillie and Samuel love anything Science-y and were super excited about it. It was also great because it was a Christmas gift we had to put away for awhile until the weather was warm enough for the butterflies to survive. When we pulled it out in March it was like Christmas all over again! We pulled out the larvae coupon and sent in our order. Five days later we received four beautiful and very tiny caterpillars. 

 We watched them grow in the cup and once they attached to the top of the lid and made their chrysalis we transferred then to the net enclosure. Then came the fun part.... We were so excited when we saw the first one hatching! However after a few hours it was clear that it was not going to emerge all the way. If you look closely you can see it on the top left of the paper sort of halfway out of it's chrysalis. Everyone was very sad about the little girl. What's interesting about her story though is that after all the butterflies had hatched about a week had past. We just left her alone assuming she was dead. But she started shaking around a lot. So I pulled her out of the net and pulled the rest of the cocoon off of her. It was the saddest thing. You could see that her wings hadn't formed all the way but it was amazing that after that long she was still alive! Lillie took her in as her special pet. She would put nectar in her hand then hold the butterfly and help her drink. It was sweet to see how tenderhearted Lillie was with her. It was a good lesson as well for them to see that things don't always work out in nature.

                                           

 On a happier note the other 3 butterflies developed beautifully and the kids had a lot of fun with them. We let them stay in the net for 4 days. Each day the kids would gather new flowers from our yard for them and then sprinkle them with sugar water.

 They also loved to reach in the net and let them fly onto their fingers.

 They each got to let one of the go. They were initially sad but then thought it was pretty cool. Now anytime we see a painted lady butterfly in our yard the kids are certain that it is one of their butterflies. I of course encourage this.

Thank you so much MN Doolittles for the wonderful Christmas present!

One Reason I Will Miss Our House Very Much When We Move...

This Texas Mountain Laurel that grows in our front yard is one of my favorite things about this house. Each spring (TX spring in February that is) for two to three weeks it is full of beautiful and fragrant purple blossoms. It is such a treat to walk out of the house and have that beautiful smell hit you every time. I wish I could dig it up and bring it with me when we move.

Grant Turns Three!

Grant turned 3 on 2/18/12. Thank you to everyone who helped him celebrate. Each time he got a card in the mail he was so excited and felt very special! Got got two special days to celebrate his birthday. On the 18th my family came over to celebrate with a little family party. A few weeks ago the boys discovered Power Rangers on Netflix and have fallen in love with it. So, Grant requested a Power Rangers party. Why do my kids keep requesting parties from characters long ago? I had no idea what I was going to do about decorations. Luckily, when we went to the store to pick them out Grant saw Star Wars stuff and decided that's how he wanted to decorate. Then he picked out Cars themed wrapping paper. For the cake though, it was still Power Rangers. Lucky for me Google Images was stockpiled with power rangers photos.

Here are G and I making his cake together:

Initially it was hard for me to "let go" and have G help me make the cake. I always want things to be as perfect as they can. But I knew that "helping" me is G's favorite thing to do and it was his birthday after all. So when I saw all the cake crumbs being picked up by the spatula and mixing in the frosting I took a deep breath and told myself that time spent with our children is infinitely more important than cake perfection. I'm glad that I did. We had a really good time together and G felt very grown up.

The finished product:

He loved everything!

G got a spider-man baseball and bat for his birthday. He is great at hitting and throwing! So far we have been pretty impressed by his sports abilities. Both he and S want to do T-ball this spring.

The Friday after G turned 3 he had his first friend party ever. He invited his best buds: Gordon, Austin, Kelton, and Kaleb. These are all the boys he hangs out with during the week .

G with his homemade Power Rangers pinata. I'm really digging this whole homemade pinata thing. They are way cheaper and super fun to do. And the kids always feel cool to have one made "just for them"

G was the best pinata whacker at the party

Candy Candy CANDY!!!!

"nom, nom, nom, this candy is good"

G definitely understands about presents now and he felt super special that all of these were for him. Happy Birthday Buddy! We love you!

Grant at 3:

Height - 35 1/2 inches

Weight - 26lbs

Favorites -

ACTIVITES: G loves anything that his older brother Samuel does - they do a lot of wrestling, sword fighting, "karate", gun fighting. He also loves:

Jumping on the trampoline, cuddling Gracie the cat, riding bikes (especially in the school or church parking lot), playing "you are a robot" with mom, playing hotwheels and trains, playing baseball in the backyard, going to the "tree" park and the "un-tree" park, going to the YMCA to play with his little friends each day, grocery shopping with mom at HEB and getting a racecar cart - he likes it so much because he gets to put a quarter in the Brach's candy box and pick out 3 pieces of candy, playing the HE-Buddy buck game, every week spending a day with his friend Gordon and getting to ride in his mom's car with him (he always says "I go with Ms. Kethy today?" and he has such a proud look on his face as he rides away and I'm not with his in the van), washing the car with dad, taking baths

BOOKS:

any of the Clifford the Big Red Dog books, Where the Wild Things Are, any of the Franklin books, Put Me In the Zoo, and HotWheels Dino Racing

TOYS:

hot wheels, trains, trampoline, baseball and bats, i-pod for music at night, golf set, and play-doh

SHOWS:

Power Rangers!, Thomas and the Misty Island Rescue, Richard Scary's Busytown Mysteries, Phineas and Ferb, Cars and Cars 2, and Bob the Builder

FOOD:

in the past year G has finally increased his diet to include a lot more healthy foods! (not that they are listed here though...) His favs are chicken strips, chocolate milk, bananas, Fiber One granola bars, organic cinnamon toast crunch in a ziploc, juice boxes, breyers yogurt with oreo or m&m mix-ins, cheese pizza, Cheez-its, pancakes, cheese sticks, chips, and lollipops

PLACES:

Chuck-e-cheese, the Bowling Alley, Barnes and Noble, Gordon's house, Chick-fil-A, Grammy's house, and the pool

Dislikes:

taking naps, not being the "winner", not getting the black i-pod at night (him and S have 2 hand-me-down i-pods and they switch each night between the silver one and the black one. The black one is way better), not being able to ride in a big boy booster seat yet, having to eat all of his dinner especially his vegetables,

***Special Things About Grant:

Grant has grown by leaps and bounds with his speech this year. He began speech therapy after he turned two with a great speech therapist. Her name was Ms. Debbie and she came to our house each Tuesday for an hour. He loved playing with her and he would always make her special things. When he turned 3 he no longer qualified for the program. When he turned 2 he had around a 12 word vocabulary and now it is huge! Debbie said that he would have come along in his speech anyway, however, it was nice to have the therapy and have a plan of what to work on each week. Besides he loved having Ms. Debbie to play with. He asks for her all the time now and it's so sad to have to keep telling him that she won't be back. Anyway, he says lots of things now and it's really fun to have real conversations with him now. Thank you Ms. Debbie for being a big part of our family's like this past year!

G still follows his brother S around and does exactly what he does. It's sweet to watch that big brother-ly love grow.

When the kids are gone at school all day G gets a lot of cuddle time with Gracie the cat. She'll be sleeping somewhere and he'll come and lay down next to her and pet her and coo at her in his high little 3 year old voice.

Grant wants to keep up with his big brother and sister more than anything. He has no fear. He will jump from high heights, climb tall things, go under the water, whatever it is that L and S are doing, you better believe that G will be trying it too!

G is very into his hair. Almost every day he asks for "piky hair" (that's spiky hair). Tim or I do it up with gel and hairspray. Throughout the day he'll all of a sudden stop and ask "my piky hair mess up?" and we have to say no, it looks good Grant. But he'll still go check it anyway, get a comb and then lightly go over his hair. This is a little Tim in the making.

G still climbs in bed with us every morning and I still love it. He's usually there pretty early now (5am!) and for awhile I was discouraging it. But not anymore. I am grateful for this time in my life when I occupy so much of his consciousness. In just a few more years when he's a real big boy and he doesn't need me quite as much... and a few more years after that when he doesn't share as much of his life with me and there start to be other girls in his life...I can remember back how he needed to cuddle next to me every morning in order to start his day off right and I will be so grateful for that memory. I love you Grant. I can't believe that it's already been 3 years. You are such a joy to me and to all that are blessed enough to know you! Happy Birthday!