Pittsburgh Part 2

We managed to go on quite a few outings. I love love love Moon Park and we took the kids there a couple of times. It is shaped like a big bowl with a bunch of different play areas and it is great because my kids can run free and I can just stay at the top of the bowl and keep an eye on all of them. I wish I could bring it back to Texas with us. Oh and the cool weather as well. Here is a pic of my dad and Conrad hanging at the park. 

EZ was very proud of how high he climbed and wanted me to take this picture. Funny what we think is "so high" when we are little. 

We were also able to take the kids to play mini golf. EZ and Netta got really into it. 

King tried, but basically just dropped his ball into each hole. 

And Conrad was just along for the ride. 

The best part about this golf course was all of the water features. There is a little creek that runs through it that you have to putt over a couple times and then this one hole had a small fountain in the middle of it. It was hard to get the kids to move on from that one. (The other child is my sister Katie's son Noah. They were in Pittsburgh the whole time we were there).

There is this program that allows kids to bowl free in the summer. Who can turn down free bowling? So we hit up the lanes. EZ was very insistent on bowling like a man and not like a little kid. It was very loud when he chucked that ball and it hit the lane. I was scared he was going to break something. 

Netta had no problem using the ramp and had a very laid back approach, which meant it took forever for her ball to make it's way down the lane. 

When we have gone bowling before, King hasn't been very interested, but he was all over it this time. 

Of course Conrad was yet again along for the ride in his stroller. They let you bowl up to 2 games per kid, but between all the potty breaks and snack breaks, one game took plenty long enough. 

Stay tuned for Pittsburgh Part 3

Pittsburgh Part 1

In June, the kids and I made our annual trip to Pittsburgh. We were there for basically the whole month. We left the day after EZ got out of school, which wasn't ideal, but it was the most affordable so we made it work. I was a bit concerned about flying with all 4 kids by myself. EZ had at one point told me that there was not way he was going to sit by himself, but then once we got on the plane he and Netta kept fighting over who got to sit by themselves. The second flight was empty so I let them each sit in their own row. They both had a great time chatting up anyone who would talk to them. EZ made friends with some college age kid who taught him all about the game Minecraft and helped EZ come up with some experiment ideas. EZ was so geared up about doing an experiment that he made my dad and brother-in-law Brad help him build this "earthquake detection kit." 

Both my parents work and it kept raining, so we got our fair share of tv time in. I love this pic of King and EZ bonding.

My friend Erin came over to visit with her little boy Luxton. He was so cute and it was funny to compare him and Conrad. Conrad is 3 months older, but not really that much bigger. That's our little runt.

My sister Sarah was in town as well for the first week we were there, so we grabbed this shot of her and Erin and I. It was like high school all over again, but with babies in the mix. Erin also brought her camera on a whim and got some great pics of the kids, but that will have to be it's own post. 

We keep leaving John at home by himself for Father's Day each year, which is kind of a gift in itself, but I wanted to make sure I also did something special for him from the kids. For some reason, John and his team at work are obsessed with cat shirts, so I secretly got each of the kids a cat shirt and had a little photo shoot that we then made into a card. 

As you can see above, it was a bit difficult to get a good group shot, so in the end I used these individual pics for the front of the card. Then on the inside included a quote about John from each kid: 

"My dad is caterrific." - EZ Brown, "My dad is pretty like a cat and handsome like a dog." - Netta Brown, "My dad is one cool cat." - King Brown, "My dad is the cat's meow." - Conrad Brown

I may have helped out with the last two, but EZ and Netta came up with those gems all by themselves. 

Like I said, it rained a lot and it seemed like every time we decided to get in the car it would start raining and if we would abandon our plans it would immediately stop, but if we decided to go ahead it would rain harder. We just couldn't win. One of the days when it kept threatening to rain we decided to stay home and take some fun pictures in the backyard. My nieces Carol and Ellie were there to help us. I think we came up with some pretty good ones. I like this first one, because it looks like Carol's head is exploding. 

This one with Ellie was by far the best "vadering" shot.

EZ wanted some pics of him and Netta pretending to fight. 

Here comes of bunch of giants head eating little people. 

Mmmm, tasty!

I am going to squish you like a bug. 

If you enlarge this one you can see that Netta was really into her roll of playing scared. 

EZ came up with this sling shot idea all by himself. 

Stay tuned for Pittsburgh Part 2. 

The Sports of Baseball and Cup Stacking

EZ played baseball again this year, but this time it was coach pitch instead of t-ball. I was kind of nervous for him, because it seems like a big jump to me. That may stem from the fact that I never played softball and I am almost afraid to try, because I think I would be horrible and look like an idiot. Luckily, EZ did great and adjusted pretty easily. In fact, he almost adjusted too well, because the few times he wasn't able to hit and they brought out the tee for him, he got a bit upset. The only bummer about this season is that it rained a lot, which is something we desperately needed, but it meant they missed out on quite a few practices. EZ still learned a lot though and had a blast. Here are some shots of one of the dads trying to help EZ work on his still somewhat lacking speed.

Ready . . .

Set . . . 

Go!

The kids also picked up the sport of cup stacking for some unknown reason. I guess it's because I had bought a huge bag of cups from Sam's and it just seemed like the natural thing to do. It was so natural that the first time they got them out John went to the bathroom and came out to find that Netta had built a tower taller then herself, all by herself. She was very proud and we were very happy that the kids could entertain themselves so well. 

She also built an awesome throne that King demolished before I could get a picture, so John helped her with this one. 

Finally, this has nothing to do with sports or the rest of the post, but I just had to throw in this picture of Conrad. This was taken at his friend Jacob's first birthday party. Conrad is seriously the cutest and sweetest baby ever. 

So Long School

Netta graduated from preschool in May. I got a little choked up when EZ graduated, but unfortunately this time I didn't have a chance to get teary-eyed because John was stuck at work and I had to wrangle King and Conrad by myself. I think King flipped himself off the back of the pew two or three times. In the program they list what the kids want to be when they grow up and apparently Netta wants to be a "fossil scientist." 

They have the graduation ceremony in the chapel and the lighting was horrible. I couldn't get a decent picture to save my life, but here is one of Netta with the 2 directors. She is holding her "Confident Character" award. That is an understatement. While all the other kids timidly walked down the aisle Netta proudly strutted down it doing her best Miss America wave. 

 School didn't technically end for EZ till Tuesday June 4th, which I thought was so stupid, but anyway they did his award ceremony on May 31st. His teacher said he had to dress nice and this was the studly outfit he came up with. He is such a cutie even with only 1 shoe on.

EZ won an award for "Best Writing with a Voice." I wouldn't even have known what that meant, but EZ had just written a short story in Spanish about him and John playing basketball and his teacher had commented on how impressed she was with the voice he used and I totally got it when I read his story. She was also very impressed with a book report that he wrote in Spanish as well. He is reading and writing above grade level in Spanish, which is very exciting. He also had the highest scores for 1st grade on the math assessments. The transition from Kindergarten to 1st grade was a little rough, but you can't tell now!

Non-Birthday/School May Happenings

May is such a busy month with all the birthdays and wrapping up the school year. And then for some reason we had a ton of other stuff going on as well. The kids were also particularly cute this month. One day EZ and Netta decided they wanted to make a surprise for me and they turned the back patio into a "beach". They dumped cups of water on the ground for the ocean and then set up "beach chairs" and got each person a drink so we could all relax and dip our feet in the water. This is what makes having kids so awesome. 

Conrad hit a new milestone in May. He started sitting by himself in highchairs at restaurants and kind of feeding himself. He was so excited to be sitting in one and I was so excited that he could keep himself entertained while I ate. 

We decided to take a trip to SeaWorld and John wanted to surprise the kids so he wrote them this awesome letter saying they had won a trip to SeaWorld for being great kids. They were so excited and made sure to tell everyone about it. 

It was hot and it was muggy, but the kids had a blast and EZ surpised us all by asking to go on this really big roller coaster. He has ridden some before, but none this big and we were just impressed that he wanted to do it. He also wanted to get a fanny pack as a souvenir, but luckily we were able to talk him out of that. 

Netta also had her dance recital in May. She did a tap dance to "On the Good Ship Lollipop". The costumes were so cute and Netta was in her element on stage. All year long she asks me when she gets to wear makeup and when she gets to go on stage. It was really hard to get a picture of her, because I couldn't get her to sit still, but finally we were able to snap this one. 

For our birthdays, John and I bought passes to go on a zipline tour of Lake Travis and we finally got to use them in May. You got to do 5 different ziplines and it was awesome! I have been waiting literally years, since John went ziplining with his family on a cruise while I watched 1 year old EZ, to get my turn. 

 

This is just a pic of King who randomly decided that he had to wear this Scooby Doo costume out and about all day. He kills me. 

Netta and I got to go on a Mommy Daughter date to get pedicures. She has been dying to go with my for quite some time. She thought it was the greatest thing ever and now she says she wants to go with me every time I get one. 

All 4 of my kids had well checks with the doctor this month and by some miracle none of them needed shots.  Also, unbeknownst to be, Netta swiped a copy of InStyle magazine from the waiting room and went through and marked everything that she wants for her birthday next year. Then just in case the check marks weren't enough, she went through and took a picture of each page. This was my favorite thing she marked. She said she wants this gold outfit so she can dress up like Sandy from Rise of the Guardians.