Dancing Queen

This is how Hallie passed the time at Will's baseball games:

If she hadn't called her random, spastic movements "dancing" we probably wouldn't have had any idea what she was up to.

Baseball Season Wrap-Up

Another great youth sports season is in the books!

One final batting practice.

It just looks like it belongs to a ball player.

Good form?  (I wouldn't know.)

Listening to Coach Joseph's end-of-the-season wrap-up.

Shaking Coach Joseph's hand.

Wanting to get his hands on that trophy.

Poor Grandpa had to sit with Hallie, who spent most of her
time pulling his hair and poking her fingers inside of his ears.
He was very tolerant, even when she spilled her slushy on him.

Marshmallow Madness

While cleaning out my kitchen cabinets I came across a half-full bag of stale mini-marshmallows and a box of toothpicks. I decided to knock out both snack and an afternoon activity with one stone and set the items out on the kitchen table for the kids.

Will and Hallie spent an impressive 30+ minutes building structures, animals, words, and shapes of all kinds, and oddly enough, neither ate a single marshmallow. Those puppies must have been REALLY stale...

To get them started, I built this:

After I showed Will how to make a triangle, he was able to copy my design and build his own tower. He was pretty proud of himself, and I was pretty impressed.

Hallie made birthday candles, and then, after a little direction, shapes:

Will also made a porcupine fish, and then we connected our towers to make a "cage" for Will's Angry Bird.

Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon!

Date Night

About a year ago the four of us split into pairs - Will and me, and Hallie and Tom - for our first official date night. Will and I went to the Speedway Spectacular, hosted by the Brazos Valley Children's Museum, and Hallie and Tom went to McDonalds. I can't say for certain which child had a better time that night.

This year, Will and I headed out to the Speedway Spectacular once again, but this time around Hallie and Tom went to Chick-Fil-A and then to the grocery store.

Unfortunately and in my opinion, the Speedway Spectacular was sadly lacking this year. Though not much different than last year's event, this year's Speedway Spectacular was bland and uninspired. Perhaps it was because we'd already been to the less-than-impressive Texas World Speedway, or because the event coordinators didn't run the advertised car race because the track was too wet. (Yet they let limousines give attendees rides around the track - go figure...) It could also have been the ridiculous 30+ minute wait to drive our car into the venue - I was pissed off before I even got out of the car in the parking lot.

Will had a good time, but on our way home (after leaving the Speedway Spectacular early) we agreed that next year we'll go out to dinner and to a movie instead.

Hallie and Tom, on the other hand, had the time of their lives at Chick-Fil-A and the grocery store. It takes very little to get that girl excited - french fries and playgrounds (along with bacon and dresses) are the keys to her heart.

Angry Birds

Will is really good at Angry Birds. I mean REALLY good. I usually let him play for a few minutes a day - in the afternoon before rest time or in the evening before bedtime - and he has single-handedly (as in by himself, not with one hand) taken out enough pigs to score three stars in every level and gain access to a number of advanced levels. If you opened Angry Birds on my phone you'd think I had a chance at becoming the next Angry Birds gold medalist; in actuality it's Will who should be suiting up for the upcoming London games.  Or the Angry Birds video game olympics.  Or whatever competition people who are good at video games participate in to prove their dominance.

There are times when I - mean old mom that I am - won't let Will play games on my phone. You know, when I'm talking on it, or when the battery is dead. Sometimes he pouts, but sometimes he does exactly what I would hope a child of mine who isn't allowed to play Angry Birds on my phone would do...he uses his imagination! To play Angry Birds.

Yes, he's playing in his underwear.  And yes, as soon as I saw this picture I fed that skinny boy some bacon and ice cream.

Angry Birds, the back porch edition, was actually really fun - Will and I played for quite a while that afternoon while Hallie napped.  It was fun enough, in fact, that I just might be buying Will a couple more birds (I think there are also blue, yellow, white, and black birds, each with different "powers") to help us bring the game up a notch.  Anything to keep his imagination spinning.

You May Have Had to Be There...

One of our favorite strollers - we've had quite a few over the years - is a simple, light-weight, black Maclaren. My parents bought it for us when Will was about six months old, and we're still using it today for all of our indoor and short-distance stroller needs.

The stroller has one problem though...due to it's low weight (it's really easy to fold, unfold, put in the car, pull out of the car, etc. with just one hand and while holding a child in the other arm) it easily tips over if the weight distribution between the front and the back of the stroller isn't even. That means you can hang bags on the stroller handles if a child is in the stroller, but if the child gets out of the stroller it will tip over backwards, spilling the bags on the handles and anything in the basket below the seat directly onto the floor. This has happened to me hundreds of times, and it's at times embarrassing and always annoying. I often strap Hallie (and used to strap Will) into the stroller, not because I'm worried about her falling, but because I don't want her to get out without warning me and tip the stroller and it's contents all over the floor of the mall.

On Mother's Day we visited the newly remodeled Memorial Student Center on the TAMU campus. Will and I were walking in front, while Tom followed behind, pushing Hallie in the stroller. I turned around just in time to see - and all of this happened in less than a second - Tom pick Hallie up out of the stroller and plop her onto his shoulders, Hallie clap both of her hands directly over both of Tom's eyes, and the stroller topple over. Will and I started to chuckle, and our chuckling turned to out-loud laughter when Tom, still completely blindfolded by Hallie's little hands, tried to pick pick up the stroller, the bag that had been hanging on the handles, and the contents of the bag with his feet. I was laughing too hard to do anything but shove Will in Tom's general direction with the instruction, "help him".

It was all I could do to take a picture; unfortunately I was too late to catch Tom's fancy footwork.

Maybe, just maybe, you had to be there.

May

School wraps up today, but don't worry - the end of the school year doesn't mean that Hallie's monthly songs will come to an end. If I can't find official lyrics to take us through June, July, and August, the kids and I will put on our thinking caps and write our own. I can't wait to, after a full year has passed, start at the beginning and watch Hallie grow through these songs.

So here you have it: May!



It is May, it is May
Flowers grow, end of school
Time to say I love you, time to say I love you
Mother dear, mother dear

April
March
February
January
It's December
It's November
It's October
It's September