June

June brought an end to the boys 1st and 4th grade years.  They were happy to be out of school and we were all excited to kick off summer break!  Look out pools, here we come!

Rain slowed down our pool visits quite a bit in June.   It rains A LOT here in Houston.  Great for the grass, not so much for the hair.  It's like a tropical rain forest.  The rain didn't stop us from donning our swimsuits though.  We waited for the storms to pass and took to the streets to dance in the puddles!

When you have 3 kids, you really learn to embrace the idea of "family date night" when you want to go out.  A babysitter is only for once in a while or special occasions so on a regular Saturday night, you dress up the kids and date your whole family!   

And the waterway is picture perfect for daddy daughter photos!  She is mostly a mommy's girl but daddy gets to jump in every now and then!  

We had a fab pizza, salad and wine (mommy) at Grimaldis on the waterway. Only had one meltdown on the way to the car as Lillian cut her foot on the door and proceeded to bleed ALL OVER my white shirt.  A bandaid and some late night laundry and everyone was in bed before 10.  Family date night WIN!

A summer play date should probably involve the water hose.   I heard you get double mommy points if it's also SUPER messy.  I probably got mom of the day this day and I handed each boy a can of shaving cream and told them to have fun.  They filled the blow up pool, sprayed each other then washed it off.  

What could be more fun for boys than this terrific mess?

Yeah, I'd call this a mom win, at least until tomorrow when I'll probably be the worst mom ever when I make them clean all this up!

Little miss had to get in on the action when she woke up from nap!  I've always wanted my toddler to smell like a 1970's mens barber shop!

We finally started our pools tour for 2016.  The kids all love this wide slide pool and it was Lillian's first time on the slide!  She loved it and had the boys take her again and again and again!

The second full week of summer we had VBS at church.  I try to always volunteer.  I sometimes wonder WHY I did but these sweet kids on my arms and 1000 others just like them are all the reason I need to spend my mornings helping with this epic week!  I still remember VBS and how I loved it.  I hope they have the same memories someday!

We made a trip to the Houston Zoo!  Lil likes the zoo more all the time.  She seems to like the snakes the best.  Wonder where she gets that from?!?  (BOYS!)

During shark week, I made these super awesome shark cups!  Blue Rasberry Jello with gummi sharks for another jewel in my mommy crown.  (yeah, yeah, it's getting heavy these days!  haha!)

A trip to the Houston Aquarium was fun and HOT!  The rides outside are fun, especially for the boys.  We had to get in early and get out to beat the heat AND the crowds!  We met Lillians bestie, Chloe and her family there.  We rode the train, the carousel and the ferris wheel all a few times before calling it quits to go inside. 

Chloe didn't take too well to this bouncy ride.  I think she needs another year or so as she clung on for dear life!

The aquarium is always cool!  As in air conditioned AND pretty neat.  While the fish are cool, everyone also loves the white tigers!

The Woodlands Children's Museum is another place that "it's cool inside".  Really, it's pretty neat place to play for a while and its fully air conditioned which is so necessary this time of year in Texas.  We all had fun, the boys stacked foam blocks while Lillian pretended groceries and pushed her baby around.  Looks like both boys are getting a feel for being fire fighters!

Miss Hollywood had a fun morning at the museum!

And mama had a fun afternoon rocking the baby to sleep for a nap!

These are the best days of my life!