An Out of This World Party

For once being lazy paid off! Last month when I started thinking about Spence's birthday, I could not muster any desire to plan a party, buy decorations, send out invitations, get my house ready, or any of the stuff that comes with throwing a party. I was able to talk Spence into going to Space Center Houston for his birthday, even though I told him he could only invite two friends. I thought I was pretty awesome talking a five year old out of a birthday party with lots of friends and presents.
So today the five of us, the boys' friend Matt, Nana and Poppa, and Candice and Paul David headed south to see what NASA had to offer. It was great!

On the tram tour

Learning all about Mission Control

Where astronauts train

That little blue spot on the steps is Allie!

Allie says, "Whoa, big."

Paul David, Spence, Coleman, and Matt

The boys let Allie (and her crazy hair) in the picture

Spence learning to maneuver in space

I don't think your hands are supposed to go in the helmet, Spence.

Paul David would make a great astronaut!

Allie would have on those space shoes if they weren't behind glass!

AWESOME kids' play area!

Happy birthday Spence!

Space brownies (because you don't bake and decorate a cake for a lazy party!)

Five!

Yesterday was Spence's 5th birthday! Since we're going to Space Center Houston on Saturday instead of having a birthday party, we let him open all his presents first thing.

The night before his birthday, he could hardly wait to figure out if this was what he thought it was!

I'm five!

The big one is the Super Bat Cave from Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Brent, and Aunt Dre. Grandma also gave him the Joker van. Nana and Poppa gave him the Penguin and Clay Face. We got him the Green Lantern house. He is a little obsessed with Bat Man at the moment! With Coleman at school and Allie at Nana's house, he played with his toys until 1:00 when I finally made him get dressed so we could meet some friends at Stomping Grounds (an indoor play area).

Spence and his friends at Stomping Grounds

His friends were so sweet to bring him a present! It happened to be a Bat Man toy he already had, so we went to Target so he could pick out something else. He and Coleman teamed up with their money and chose a big toy! I even let them take it into Double Dave's to play while we waited on Daddy.

Samurai Castle

Who needs a birthday cake when you've got CHOCOLATE CHIP PIZZA?!?!

And you know I had to go back and reminisce about all the previous birthdays...

November 7, 2006

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

My messy 5 year old!

I love you to the moon and back Spence! You are my sweet, loving, funny, unique, handsome little guy. Happy birthday!

Camping Weekend

So I have to admit, after the night we had Friday, going back to being a house wife was a tad on the boring side! The boys left to go camping Saturday morning, and Nana took Allie home with her. (I couldn't have planned that better if I'd tried. Two year olds just don't grasp the concept of "falling back" an hour.) I sent Brian a text telling him that I was thinking of going sky diving or something. I needed an adrenaline fix! I did not jump out of an airplane, instead I went shoe shopping! Just as exhilarating!

Saturday afternoon Brian called to tell me that he'd just gotten a call from the wife of the guy who had his car. Here's basically what she had to say:

"You know who this is. Why'd you have to break into my aunt's garage and steal the car like a common thief? You almost gave my aunt a heart attack! You know what kind of people we are and that we were going to pay. My husband was in a really bad accident and is in a cast from head to toe. As soon as we got the money we were going to pay."

I'm pretty sure you could add in a few "blankity-blanks" here and there. We haven't heard anything else from them though, thankfully. And just in case you forgot, the garage door was open. The only garage door in the whole complex that was open. That's a God thing.

Enough of that! Here are some pictures from the guys' camping trip at Lake Livingston!

Guys' weekend! (Keller is behind Spence!)

The trip didn't start off so well for Spence, but after a few naps he felt better.

Cool tower

Daddy and the boys

Camping Buddies

Mixed Up With the Gypsies

In all my 36 years, I've never experienced a birthday quite like today. But before I can tell you about that, you need to know the back story. None of what you are about to read is made up or embellished. It's all the truth, crazy as it might sound.

Last Spring Brian put his BMW on Craigslist after he bought his truck. After several people looked but didn't end up buying, he was getting really anxious to sell it. A young guy came by to look at it. He didn't have the cash, but sat down with Brian to work out a down payment and payment plan. Brian wrote up a contract and went over everything with him.

After the down payment, he came up with all these stories about why he couldn't pay. Someone in his family was always sick or dying. He left town for a month to stay with some of his wife's family in Dallas. All the stories were very convincing. But finally enough was enough, and Brian told him he was going to have to repossess the car. Soon after that conversation, we couldn't get in touch with them at all. They moved and didn't tell us where they were and also changed their cell numbers. Finally he called Brian to set up a meeting, but gave Brian a fake address of their new place.

Last week we found out that their former land lord lives around the corner from us. Brian walked over there tonight but she wouldn't talk to him. So he went to the house where the guy used to live to see if he left a forwarding address. The new tenants said no, but they called the land lord and explained the situation. She gladly gave the forwarding address of the guy's uncle since they owe her over $10,000 in rent.

So what do we do before my birthday dinner? Drive by the uncle's house to see if our BMW is parked outside! It wasn't. So after dinner we did a second drive by. This time a guy was standing out in the street talking to someone. Brian decided to ask if he knew the people that lived in the house. It turned out to be his house and he was ticked because people were always coming by looking for cars and rent money. He finally told us he knew the guy, who happened to be a gypsy, and described our BMW without us saying a word about it. This guy and the guy he was talking to were gypsies also. He told us he'd tell us where it was for $100! We didn't have any cash, but he went ahead and told us where the apartments were where we'd find it parked. He didn't believe us when we said we'd bring him the cash if we found the car.

We found the apartment complex, said a prayer that God would protect us and help us find the car, then drove around and around and around looking for the car. There were parking spaces and garages (all of which were closed). On the last row, there was one opened garage, with Brian's BMW parked inside! We were freaking out big time, and Brian started fumbling around for the key. He jumped out and I took over the truck. He went in the garage, backed it out, and we drove off without any confrontation. We went straight home and he cleaned out the garage and parked it in there! We decided to go back to the apartment and get the unit number so we could tell the land lord where she could find them. Then we took $100 to give the gypsy that helped us.

Brian called the police to let them know what happened. He had gone and told them about it a few weeks ago, but they couldn't do anything since it was a civil matter. They told him he should have called them before he took the car, but next time he would know. NEXT TIME??? He let them know there would be no next time! Lesson learned. But boy did it make for an exciting birthday! I married a guy that knows how to show a girl a good time. "Hey baby, wanna grab some dinner then go repo a car?"

As I look back at this story (I always proofread before I hit "publish") one sentence really sticks out. Never in a million years would I have predicted that on my 36th birthday I'd be writing, "Then we took $100 to give the gypsy that helped us."

This was all 3 hours ago and Brian's heart is still racing!

The Tooth Is Out!

Yesterday morning Coleman came downstairs and said, "I pushed my tooth out with my tongue!" Since I've been named the designated tooth-puller for our house, I was thrilled! I had been wiggling it testing out it's readiness, but I was hesitant to yank too hard. I remember not wanting to lose any teeth after the first one. My parents could tell you many stories about me and my reluctance to have teeth pulled.


So we're all excited to have this milestone under our belts! And now our house has officially been visited by the tooth fairy! She left $2 under Coleman's pillow. Coleman asked, "How much did you get from the tooth fairy?" I told him probably 1 or 2 quarters. He said, "Wow, it's rised a lot!"

Today Spence (dressed as Batman of course) and Allie were riding in the stroller on the way to pick up Coleman from school and we had a funny conversation:
Mommy: Spence, can you believe you're about to be 5?"
Spence: Yes, I believe it.
Mommy: Ha! Well, it's hard for Mommy to believe.
Spence: Why? You have to believe it!

I guess I do have to believe it! It's coming in 4 days!

Since I shared something about Coleman and Spence, I thought I'd share this picture of Allie and me. I was wearing a hat because my hair looked gross. So Allie wanted to wear a hat also. Unfortunately, every time we left the house, she would forget it.

Trick or Treat!

As I write this I'm staring at a pile of empty candy wrappers. We got lots and lots of treats. I mean the kids got lots and lots of treats!

Batman, Arf Trooper, and Shirley Temple ready for candy!

Allie sees her little friend out trick-or-treating

Walking with Daddy

Getting the hang of this trick-or-treating thing

Spence and one of his favorite neighborhood decorations

Time to dig in!

We hit the jackpot!

Church Carnival

If my favorite fall activity is the pumpkin patch, then my kids' favorite is the carnival! They had a blast at our church carnival tonight. I'd love to share pictures of them playing carnival games, coming down the giant bouncy slide, riding a pony, taking a train ride, and me feeding Allie a red snow cone without getting it on her white dress, but I can't. Not because I didn't have my camera. And not because I didn't have charged batteries. But because I left the card in the computer after uploading the pumpkin patch pictures. Ahhhhhh! I almost went back home to get it, but I decided to just enjoy the night and get lots of pictures when they go trick-or-treating. We did get a family photo taken at the carnival, so I'll share that when I get it! And here are a few I took when we got home.

Batman, Shirley Temple, and an Arf Trooper (Star Wars guy)


Since my kids don't like their faces painted on, I decided to go for it!

Here's a better one of Shirley

Pictures from a Patch

We were bribed to smile!

Sometimes I smile for free!

Pretty pumpkin dress from Grandma

See my loose tooth?

Proud of Those Bees!

The Bees played in the championship game last night. They were up against the best team in the league and played awesome! They only lost by one run. So close! But they had a great season. Coleman learned so much and had a blast (even if he won't admit it). We'll see if there's more baseball in his future.

Coach telling them they should be proud of themselves

After getting his medal

A future baseball player???

Maybe once she's fully potty trained! There was an accident and Mommy forgot to bring extra pants.

Pumpkin Patch Season!

Today Spence's class took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Yes, my favorite place! And of course this is the "city" version of the pumpkin patch. Isn't his class adorable? He has wonderful friends and two awesome teachers!


This is his best friend, Roman. In a few years I imagine Roman's mommy and I will be telling all the girls to leave our boys alone!

When Coleman started going on field trips in Mother's Day Out I avoided going at all costs. But Coleman wasn't really the kid that wanted Mommy around anyway. Now I'm more inclined to enjoy a little one-on-one time with my kids and tag along for a field trip or two. Here we are chillin' by the pumpkins.

And I had to snap a picture of this on our way in to school this morning. Aren't they sweet?

If you can get past the sweet curls and fun shirt, take a look at her shoes! She picked those out this morning. One of the teachers was commenting on her shoes and I replied, "Spence prepared me for anything!" She's following in the green croc footprints, only Allie style!

Fall! Fall! Fall!

Cooler weather is here (if only for a little while). I'm awakening from my heat-induced coma and ready to start blogging again! Also, we just got a new computer and our technical issues are solved! I'll have more posts soon!