Valentine's Day



The boys had a great Valentine's Day! 

 

Carson had a class party, and I'm sure all the parents and his teacher loved his gift:

Silly String!!

 

Deacon's were a little safer:

And we made sure that he and his gluten-free friend were included:

 

 Melissa and Bennett went to Deacon's class party at an indoor bouncing facility and took pictures for us.

Brian and I aren't big Valentine's Day celebrators.  We gave each other gifts, but were happy to hang out at the house and eat dinner with the kiddos. :)

Birthday Winter Wonderland

 

 

Carson and his bff James celebrated their 7th birthdays by having a snow party together. (Their birthdays are four days apart)

 

I'm not sure my neighbors knew what they were getting themselves into when they agreed to plan this event with me, but the party turned out amazing, with just a couple of glitches in the planning phase...

 

We initially thought for the invitations to attach the cards to plastic snow globes, but after searching every store we came up empty.  Thanks to pinterest and the fact that their birthdays fall so close to Christmas, we were able to improvise and create snow globes using ornaments with the invite tied to the ribbons:



 

 

 



Next up was the "snow."  We found a company that rented snow machines, promising to create flakes that would not leave a mess, by dissolving quickly:

It looked EXACTLY like snow falling from the sky, cars were even stopping on our street to watch the "blizzard." 

Luckily, Melissa and I discovered the weekend before the party that the snow "melted" basically on contact and wouldn't provide the fun stuff for kids to throw and play in. 

So we ordered SnoWonder, a fine powder that expands into "snow" when you combine it with water.  We ordered enough to make 240 gallons.  And what made it better than snow was that it wasn't cold or wet, so the kids could play as long as they wanted without freezing or needing to change clothes.

To say it was a hit was an understatement!  Although their birthdays fall in December, here in Texas it was a warm 80 degrees outside...kids played in the snow while wearing shorts!

Their was a 60% chance of rain the day of the party, so Brian and Rusty built canopies and a pit to play in.  Fortunately, the rain waited until well after the party ended before arriving.

We also had fencing between our houses so that we didn't have to worry about little ones (ie. Deacon) running into the street.

 

 

The guests also hit up the trampoline.

For the food, we brought out the firepit and roasted hotdogs and s'mores.  And even in the toasty weather, our hot cocoa bar was finished off.

 

 

The boys received lots of toys:

 

 

The cake turned out adorable too:

 



 

We couldn't have picked a better house to move into five years ago. Carson made a best friend, and Brian and I lucked out too!

 

Professional Photos of the Scott Brothers

 

We just got the disk with our family photos, and even though Deacon wasn't super thrilled (we made the mistake of having pictures taken near a pond; he wanted to get in that water and nothing to do with posing), our photographer captured some gorgeous shots.

 

 

 

 

 

More to come...

Family Photo Video

We recently had family photos taken by our very favorite photographer, Carey Anne, who also took the boys photos in the summer of 2011.  She made this amazing video from our session (turn on your speakers, it's so much better with the music):


I love that it feels like a home movie and our input made it so much more personal and special!

Carson's 1st Grade Pictures

 

Our big brother is a full-fledged 1st grader, with class photos and all!  And at close to seven, when pictures start to become a little more awkward, Carson is still our photogenic fellow. 

 

Could it have something to do with the fact that he's had a photo obsessed mom putting a camera in his face since birth?? 

 

 

Possibly.

 





 

We love, love, love his teacher this year too! You can tell she really loves her job and has a ton of energy, even with a class full of six and seven year olds. Carson likes her a lot too, along with all of the friends from his class. He has learned so much like: counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's, reading a ton of sight words, and his handwriting looks so much better. We are only half-way into the school year; I can't wait to see all he can do by summer!

Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Carson lost his first tooth! And when I say "lost" I mean literally too...as in it fell out and he didn't notice until later.

Luckily, the Tooth Fairy is an understanding gal, and all it takes is a handwritten note to her explaining what happened:

When we woke up the following morning, we found the picture she left behind:

...along with the sparkly loot (you can't see in the picture, but his dollar was covered in fairy dust).

The tooth was his bottom front and you can't even see a gap because his adult tooth had already come up behind the baby tooth before it fell out.

Back to School

Carson is now a first grader!! Still not sure how it is possible, but our big boy just keeps getting bigger.

Carson was thrilled to find out his best friend and neighbor, James, is in his class too! So they are spending just about every waking hour together: bus ride to and from school, during class, lunch, recess, PE, and after school too!Carson loves having his very own desk this year.

He also loves his teacher, Ms. Gilbert, who has already nicknamed him "Cutie Pie Carson." He even brought her a gift for the first day of school full of fruit-themed candy:

I can't wait to see how much Carson learns this year!

My Three Sons

The space bar has been broken on my laptop, but has finally been fixed...so I promise to blog a whole bunch this weekend to catch up. Here's a photo of our sweeties to hold you over!

The Woodlands "Stay"-cation

A local magazine, Space City Parent, had a contest a few months back for a "stay"-cation at The Woodlands Resort. You had to write an essay describing why your family should win. I basically described the last year in our house, and guess what?? We won! Last weekend we decided to use it.

Along with one-night stay, we also received a welcome cookie, four passes to their fabulous breakfast buffet, and a $50 gift card to a nearby shopping center.
I have checked out the website for their resort in the past because I had heard how great their pool was, and we definitely were not disappointed! There were 2 large pools, the perfect baby pool for Deacon, 2 water slides, and a splash pad.


Even better, during the summer there are tons of free poolside activities!!

Snocones:

Clowns:


Bennett was happy to just lounge by the pool.
After spending the afternoon soaking up the sun, we drove down the street to The Woodlands Mall for dinner and discovered their playground.
After dinner, we came back and roasted smores by the fire.
The boys had fun swinging on the giant beds too!
Bedtime was a little interesting, seeing as all five of us had to share a room. Deacon is used to sleeping by himself, so wasn't very interested in going to bed when he had an audience. By the time he finally crashed, Bennett was ready for a late-night snack. We eventually made it to sleep.

The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet, which included a waffle and omelet station. We then went and packed up our stuff, loaded it in the car and went back to the pool.

Because it was Sunday and overcast we had most of the pool to ourselves. There was a dj with music and karaoke, a face painter, and balloon artist.
The balloon artists were amazing!! They went above and beyond the typical animals you would expect. Carson asked for a fish and this is what they made him:
After we were waterlogged, we got dressed to leave. Before heading home we stopped and spent our giftcard on lunch at Tommy Bahama's Cafe.

It was such a fun way to spend our weekend, we were so grateful for the opportunity to get away for a stress-free vacation and have a short 45 minute drive home!