Last Day Cupcake

Ava's last day of school was today and for her party I made a chocolate cupcake with chocolate fudge buttercream icing that knocked the socks off of everyone who tasted it.  I guess I was extra inspired by the thought of Ava being home with us all day again for a while!

We Did It!

We were the only family that participated in the recital, it was such a fun experience to share with the kids.

The Performers

The kids have loved having Miss Ginger as their piano teacher these past 4 months and have really enjoyed learning to play and both performed their pieces perfectly as well as their duet.

My piece was shaky, but I blame that on practicing in the wrong octave and only practicing with my partner about 3 times before performing.  I was a little disappointed with how things shaked out, but was so glad I participated.  Not being as good as the 16 and 13 year old performers bugged me, but I tried to be tough and remember that I have only been taking piano for 4 months, not 4+ years.

Piano Recital

I was asked last minute to make programs for tonight's piano recital.  I think they turned out pretty darn nice!

Ugly Bug Ball

The 2nd grade has an annual dance entitled The Ugly Bug Ball.  It was started a few years ago, but essentially it is a dance the kids wear hats they decorate to look like the bug they are studying or the habitat their bug lives in. 

Ava chose the pill bug (her favorite bug right now) and made a powerpoint presentation after doing research about her insect.  The pinnacle of the afternoon was when all the 2nd graders went into the lunchroom, had snacks and danced together with their teachers while wearing their hats.

It was so fun to see how much Ava has loved learning this year as well as getting to know some fun friends and an amazing teacher.

Egyptian Market Days

Ava is in the gifted and talented program at school (no surprise there), and for their end of year project they all created items to present to the class along with slideshows depicting their item and explaining a little part of the ancient Egyptian culture they were studying.  Additionally they were to dress up as an Egyptian person.

Ava designed her outfit (complete with jewelry from Mom's closet) and I blew everyone's mind and sewed the dress to perfection, with velcro closure at the back and all.  Ava spent many hours attaching the 300+ beads to the fringe we cut in hemline of her dress.

Ava chose to study artifacts in depth and made a friendship with a scarab beetle charm to show everybody.  The slide shows were in depth and we all enjoyed an authentic Texas version of Egyptian food (we brought fried chicken wings).

Low Key Morning

Watters Creek has some great restaurants and stores, but it also has a huge green space in the middle with a pond that the kids love to climb all over and watch ducks.  This morning we grabbed some pastries from Market Street and hung out here.

Kindergarten Graduation

Jack finish up his school year tomorrow after a teddy bear picnic with his class, but today was his graduation.  The teacher had diplomas for everyone and music played as they retrieved it while wearing felt hats.  Jack loves Miss Marnie and will never forget (nor will I) how amazing she as a teacher, a person and mom!

Back Again

We seriously cannot get enough of this weather, no lines and rides for the kids to enjoy.  Here's Ben hanging out while Kyle and the three oldest went on Aquaman for the 10th time.

Jack's Plays

At Jack's school they have been learning about plays and have been preparing to do their own plays for a few weeks now.  I had no idea the extent of the props, costumes and acting that would be involved in their three productions.

Jack starred in the Pied Piper of Hamlin as the mayor and played a supporting role as a monkey in a play about has as well as an audience member in Jack in the Beanstalk.
 

We're so proud of our big monkey!

Phlebectomy

If I thought the RFA was rough, I was not prepared for this second surgery that was required to remove the diseased veins that were not affected by my main vein closed by the RFA procedure last week. 

Being awake for this surgery was so intense.  Multiple times the local anesthesia was not injected and I was able to actually feel the doctor pulling my vein out of my leg. 

Normally they will only do about 10-12 injections and subsequent vein removals, on me they did 17.  I almost threw in the towel after about 11.

I was completely drenched in sweat when they wrapped my leg up tight, put another compression sleeve on and sent me to the waiting room where Kyle was.  Two more days of no showering and after removing the extensive bandages that controlled the bleeding, I was left with this.

 

The kids refer to it as, "Mommy's gross leg."  Thanks guys, it's all your fault!

More Six Flags

Having season passes makes short trips from 10-3 totally worthwhile.  Ben misses his nap, but we miss traffic and spend what seems like plenty of time at the park.  Going while everyone is in school makes the lines super short.  The kids rode on the car ride about 5 times in a row without waiting once.

Hard at Work

Kyle has been so busy, I keep waiting for it to end, but each day arrives with this image.  At least his workplace is amazing!

Pizookie!

Dessert was just as good.  Once the kids were in bed, Kyle whipped up this pizza cookie and we devoured it together.  Thanks for a day of pampering, Chef Kyle, now on to the 2 hour foot massage!

Schnitzel

Jager Schnitzel was probably my favorite dish while we were living overseas and just happened to be what Kyle "reheated" for me on Mother's Day while we were in Vienna.  He outdid himself with the mushroom sauce and asparagus and gave me a memorable German meal in America!

His only mistake was getting lemonade that contained green tea as a beverage.  It was definitely German, but not on my list of approved beverages.

Nice Hair

I was supposed to avoid showers with my leg for 2 days, so despite hair's greasiness, I rolled into church looking this good!

Mother's Day 2013

Today started off well as I slept in and nursed my aching leg.  A blueberry french toast was prepared by Chef Kyle and devoured by all.  The kids loved it even more than me.

Lamborghini

When we came out of Iron Man 3, we discovered this parked next to the Lexus.
 

We seriously walked around it about 20 times and then got in the car and watched as 20+ onlookers did the same thing as us until the owner of the car arrived at which point we followed them and continued our gawking until they were out of sight.  Such a cool car in person, the pictures do not do it justice.

Clickety Clickety Clack!

Kyle and the kids on the trampoline is so awesome.  They love the bouncing, I love the height they get and Kyle loves jumping in general.  So glad we got this!

Downtown

The city we live in has a quaint downtown area that we have started frequented on Saturday mornings.  The kids love all the sidewalks and things to look at.  Today wasn't my favorite visit, with my leg hurting and the compression sleeve looking less than awesome and more like one of Mrs. Doubtfire's pantyhose.

RFA

The kids messed me up when they were 10+ pounds floating around inside my uterus.  The damage that was done by 10 pound 7 ounce Jack alone opened the flood gates to bigger problems with each subsequent pregnancy.

One of the issues I was left with was dilated/diseased veins in my right leg.  The giant veins were not only totally ugly, but meant bigger problems in the future if not corrected.

By corrected I mean inserting a laser catheter in the vein and burning it from the inside until it eventually dies and is reabsorbed by my body.  This all happens while I am awake and freaking out, by the way.

Once the catheter is removed I have to wear a compression sleeve to help my body reroute my blood to healthy veins.  All this took place within an hour and about 2 minutes drive from house.

New, Old Couch

The couch is back with it's new silver Ikat print and black piping.  Now I just need to whip up some pillows!

Narraganset Green

After much deliberation, we finally got the walls of the master painted this moody blue/grey/green color from Benjamin Moore.  It is so pretty and exactly what I was wanting for our room.  The color was inspired originally by old tapestries, according to an article written about it.  I like old stuff, and thought this timeless color would pair great with the scheme of our home.

The painters weren't the greatest, though, and got paint on our new shades (which they tried to paint over) and our duvet cover.  We won't be using these guys again, but at least they paid to replace everything (and lucky for me, I was able to get some more of the fabric).

Alls well that ends well.

Turtle Crossing

We live across the street from a lake and our next door neighbors live next to a small pond, making our area of the neighborhood super prone to turtles.  They can be seen all over place.

Today on our way home from school, Ava and I saw this guy on the sidewalk out front and decided a closer was in order.  He was pretty chill until we started getting up in his grill at which point he started walking extremely fast across the street.

For fear he would be run over, as many have in the past, we followed him.  He was so fast, I had no idea turtles could move like that!

Park Day

The weather has been so amazing lately, so glad we were able to get out and go to one of our favorite parks, especially now that Benny has his new dump truck and bulldozer to play with in the wood chips.

Butterfly Girls

The boys liked the butterflies, but these two had so much fun having the insects land on their fingers and hands, it was such a sweet photo opportunity with the wind blowing through their hair.

Quattro De Mayo

Having two families who are also from Mesa, AZ as friends, inspired us to have a Cinco De Mayo party.  Since the 5th landed on a Sunday, we held it on the fourth and called it Quatro.  

On the day of the party Ava decided it would be fun to share her butterflies with all our friends and release them once all the kids arrived.  It was so neat to see how excited even the boys were about these butterflies.  Ava was so sweet to share this moment and I'm so glad she did.