Movies By Moonlight

Downtown San Antonio has great local events on Tuesday nights in the summer. Parking is free and there are a lot of free and low cost activities to help bring more locals out. Each Tuesday they'll show an older kid friendly movie outside against the Majik Theatre. We went down with our good friends Jeremy and Amberlynn to watch the Lion King. It was a total blast and the view was great. Our bottoms were parked smack dab in the middle of a meadow type area in downtown. As night fell we were surrounded by all the tall buildings lit up for the night. It had a great feel to it. It's an activity we'll definitely repeat next year!

The before-show entertainment:

Snow cones were only a $1... woo hoo!

Lillie's 8th Birthday!

Well, it's about time that I finally get around to posting Lillie's 8th birthday... there have been so many things to post lately that I'm doing it in stages : )

So, Lillie's current favorite show is Cake Boss. She loves the idea of decorating cakes and wanted to decorate her own birthday cakes. Here she is with the cupcakes that she decorated for her family party on her actual birthday:

Presents from Grandma and Grandpa, the MN Doolittle's, and the Barnes's

Thanks everyone!

Here she is decorating her own cake for her friend birthday:

I put the cake together and frosted it. She did all of the piping and sprinkles. 

Tim and I were super impressed and she was very proud of her work : )

Starting at Lillie and going clockwise:

Lillie, Abby, Saihke, Emmaleigh, Samuel, Becca, Lumina, Lizzy, Grant, Ruth, Delylah

Playing games in the backyard:

Make-a-mummy

and some kind of forehead and balloon race. 

We played hot potato but with baby food! When it landed on you not only were you out but you had to eat a bite of baby food. I was nice and bought banana apple puree. Lillie was still not too keen on it ; )

Already crafting before the guests have even left : )

Happy Birthday Lillie! I can't believe that I have already been blessed to have you for eight years! It's even harder for me to believe that you will soon be baptized!
Your father and I are so proud of you. You are a constant source of joy and blessings in our lives.
Lillie at Eight:
Favorites:
Food - Lemon chicken, Sloppy Joe's, Porcupine meatballs, Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Oreo Yogurts,  minty gum, PICKLES!!!! especially the big sour movie theatre kind, and Hershey's plain chocolate bars
Restaurants - Pei Wei, Subway, Chick-fil-A, Spoon It, and Jamba Juice
Books - The Ramona series, the Little House on the Prairie series, Junie B. Jones series, Katie Kazoo series, and the Superfudge series. She loves to read. She reads at night before bed then tricks us and tries to sneak staying up late and reading by a night light.
TV Shows - Phineas and Ferb, America's Funniest Home Videos, Cake Boss, Pawn Stars, Pair of Kings
Classes & Teachers at School - Ms. Pena (2nd grade), Mr. Rodriguez (Art), Mrs. Rodriguez (his wife - the came to school once dressed as the same super hero (storm) and have had a special connection ever since), and Ms. Hale (GT)
Activities & Strengths - Anything crafty, she love to crochet hats on a loom, make jewelry, draw and color, sculpt, and make friendship bracelets. She also loves to bake and to decorate cakes. She received an ez-bake oven for christmas a year and a half ago and still uses it all the time. She spend all afternoon making 5 little cakes for each person in the family to have a dessert in the evening : ) Lillie is also very active. She is always jumping on the trampoline and teaching herself new flips and tricks. She is also an active member of girl scouts and says that it is the BEST PART OF HER WEEK! Lillie is an excellent swimmer and really enjoys her time in the pool. Though she finally had a set of swimming lessons this summer she has taught herself to swim over the course of the past few years. I can finally send her to the deep end without worrying about her. Lillie also really enjoys ice-skating. Unfortunately the only rink is pretty far across town but she begs to go all the time and will jump at any chance to get there!
Lillie is a super big sister. She has really grown up and started taking on a lot more responsibility lately (by her own choice!). It is often that she will create games for S and G to play and take care of them for an entire afternoon. She will do chores without being asked and offer to cook different parts of the dinner. Though I was leery at first she really wanted to learn to use the stove and now makes her own scrambled eggs with zero help from beginning to end. I often catch her reading her scriptures at night and she loves to prepare and teach Family Home Evening. Lillie loves adults, and she loves to be in charge!
Dislikes:
Going to bed
Cleaning her room and keeping it clean
Doing Homework (me too! I think homework is lame if your child is already getting great grades. At home projects = awesome, at home busy work = lame-o)

Lillie we are so proud of you and we love you so much! You have so much to look forward to: baptism, 3rd grade, activity days. Have a fabulous 9th year!

Trip to the Beach with Friends 2012

In July we took our (what has become) annual trip to the beach with friends. It was of course organized by the Watson's... thanks so much guys! We always have a blast!

The trip did start out on a bit of a sour note however. We packed up the van, got about 5 minutes out and the brakes started to act funny. All grindy and growly. It didn't feel safe at all. I'm glad it happened only 5 minutes out though! So we drove back home, repacked into the Tim's much smaller vehicle, squished our 3 very unhappy-to-be-squished-together children into the back and set out for the 2 1/2 hour drive. They complained a lot in the beginning but we said it's either this or no beach. They quieted pretty quickly after that. Then we proceeded to have a pretty nice drive! Surprisingly the kids had a lot of fun coming up with all sorts of loud games to irritate Mr. Driver ; )

Here we are at the hotel pool on Friday night....

This is personally my second favorite part of the trip

 The kids had a ton of fun with daddy making them "fly"

So, on the road that leads to the beach is a surf shop that has a huge shark mouth for the entrance. The kids have ALWAYS wanted to stop at it to take pictures. We always say "maybe we'll stop on the way back"  This time we realized that we had been seriously kidding ourselves. Really, when were we ever going to stop on the way back after 6 hours on the hot, sunny, and sandy beach, and 1 hour cleaning everybody and everything up? Never. So we got smart and stopped before we went to the beach. It completely lived up to the kid's years of expectations. The shark store in their opinion was "totally awesome".

Here they are smooshed in the back playing one of their "loud" games. I believe after this picture Mr. Dad made them play the quiet game until we got there.

Ah, finally, the beach!

S and G with G's friend Kaleb

L with her girlie's Rachel, Kirsten, and Ashley

Digging their hole to the other side of the world. It surprises me that no one has fallen into one of these yet. Knock on wood...

G and Kaleb playing soccer. They kept kicking the ball super far down the beach from our camp and I had to keep chasing them. I suppose all that running was good. Helped me work off all of the swiss cake rolls I had been eating. Gross I know. And a blatant misuse of perfectly good calories. 

The Boys:

Dean, Steve, Tim

 Grant, Kaleb, Brandon, Karson,

Samuel, Jacob, Michael, Sei, Rei

The Girls:

Mie, Audrey, Lynn, Brooke, Denise,

Ashley, Braden, Kirsten, Rachel, Lillie, Ashley

Oh my Goodness, this thing was insane. It's called the Island and it holds 9. They had to anchor it to the bottom of the ocean floor with sandbags. I didn't go out there but of course Lillie my little dare devil and Tim did. There was no way she was letting all the big kids go out there without her. 

They had a blast!

The boys playing Bocce Ball

This is my absolute favorite part of the trip:

On our way back from the beach we always stop at Rudy's BBQ to eat. 

Here are G and Kaleb again. They were super excited because they both got the same kind of popsicle. Those rainbow bomb pops I think they were. 

They opened them. Took one lick. Then proceeded to play swords with them. 

Boys, ya gotta love 'em! 

Lillie's Baptism Photo Shoot

While in Utah this summer Lillie's Aunt Jennifer, a photographer by trade, did a little photo shoot for Lillie. She did a fabulous job! And seriously, I can't believe that this girl is old enough to be baptized!

I know it shouldn't be, but this one is my absolute favorite! It's so Lillie...

BBQ with the Eastons!

Yay!!!! Kris and Michelle Easton, some of our best friends, came back to visit from California in July and we all got together at the Holland's house for a BBQ. It was awesome to them and their beautiful girls again. We had a great time catching up and eating waaaaaay to much food (especially jalabangoes). It was also great to see the kids play. Thanks Shawn for putting this night together and thank you to the Hollands for hosting. Oh yeah, it's September.... I should probably pick up those folding chairs from your house. Sorry about that. 

Aren't bike trailers supposed to fit 5 kids? This looks perfect to me!

The girls back together again. I don't think any of us were able to eat anything for a few days afterwards. Way too stuffed!

A lot of the kids from the party. Fun for them, it started to rain at the end.