Late, late, late pics from Cooper's birthday!

I am so excited to be able to post from my own laptop and using my own pictures from the camera and not just my phone!  We finally got WiFi at my parents house and now I can put up some pictures from the last 4-5 months!  Hey, better late than never!

Here are some pictures from Cooper's birthday and his party in February.  Cooper chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday dinner!  Big surprise!

Addison is more terrified of Chuck E. than Cooper is, but he was still a little shy!

We had Cooper's birthday party at The Little Gym in Katy.  He loved it and it seems like everyone had a great time.  We have always had good luck with parties there - they do everything for you except the cake and party favors.  Not to mention that it is fun for kids at a variety of ages!

Cooper LOVES Batman so that's what theme we went with this year.

Big sister having fun at the party.

The birthday boy and his mamma!  Love this little guy!

Daddy helping Cooper walk up the wall and do a flip.

Some of the friends at the party dancing and playing along with the music.

Waiting patiently for the Air Track to blow up - so much fun!

Big ole' smile!

Happy birthday again, Cooperman!  We love you as high as the sky and as deep as the ocean!

Mother's day and Mayfest in Dallas

We finally took a roadtrip to Dallas the weekend of Mother's Day.  We always have such a fun time up there and we were all excited to see Kevin's parents and Cameron!  



Roadtrip!



Cameron!!!  We have missed you so much, but we know you have been getting the royal treatment in Dallas!



 We have been to the Taste of Addison festival a few times in the past, but this year, we went to Mayfest in Ft. Worth.  What a great festival and very kid-friendly!  Tons of activities to do and we all had a great time!



This girl is adventureous!  She is a little dare-devil!




Cooper wanted to do this, but after he bounced a few times, he wasn't as thrilled!




A round of golf with Daddy




Corn on the cob, hot off the grill!  So yummy!



After brunch on Mother's Day




Karen and Gordon on Mother's Day




Buckled up for a ride in the convertible - the kids thought this was so cool!



Wooohooo!  :)



She had this huge smile on her face the whole time!



Flying kites at the park




Climbing trees at the park




Took a dip in the cold pool - Cooper had to get warmed up by KK!




Goin' fishin'



Always a fantastic time in Dallas - that city is great!  But especially when you have your own tour guides that have mapped out fun things to do!  Thank you Karen and Gordon...for another fun-filled weekend!

March for Babies 2011

Is it possible that it is the end of May and I haven't created ONE blog post???  It's hard to believe considering we have been doing some pretty amazing things in the last month!  I will create several quick posts just to get things documented! 

The first was the March for Babies!  I don't have lots of pictures except those from my phone or ones that were given to me! 

But we had another great year - we surpassed our goal and had around 35 people walk with Team Coop!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you again for all of the friends and family that has supported this great cause over the last 4 years!  I wish I had the picture of the whole group, but it's still on my camera!

April activities

I cannot believe this April is coming to an end soon.  We have been so busy the last several weeks, I hardly know where to start.  When we got back from Seaworld and San Antonio, Grandma Hursey came to Houston to stay for almost 3 weeks.  We really enjoyed the time that we got to spend with her and I am sure she was ready to leave after being around all of us - I think we wore her out!  We went Strawberry picking at a family farm about 15 minutes away from my parents' house.  It was a perfect activity to do with our kids and grandma since you had no problems finding big, juicy strawberries - it was a great selection!  Came home with 18 lbs of strawberries!

Addi and her favorite fruit!



 



Would you look at that???  :)



Addison with her Great Grandma Hursey and Nana

Addison and Cooper's school had a Trike-a-thon last week.  The kids were super excited to bring their bikes to school.  Cooper and his bike TOWERED over all the other kids in his class - most of them were on actual tricycles or small bikes. 

Addison and her classmates zoomed around the Energy park.  Only one child had no training wheels.  Even though we have been working with Addi on that, we had to put her training wheels back on for this - she made sure we knew to do that! 

We went to Corey and Becky's wedding last weekend on Saturday, but on Friday night, they had a family Crawfish Boil at this beautiful park.  It was very kid friendly - they had face painters, balloon makers, Marble Slab catering dessert, Bouncy House, huge field to play in, and a playground all right there!  What a fun celebration!  We had a great time with lots of friends at Corey and Becky's wedding!  It was beautiful! 

The other night while when were about to eat, a few of us wanted mint for our water.  We asked Cooper if he could get a little bit of mint from the garden.  This is what he came back inside with:

I said, "Wow Cooper!"  And he said, "I got some to share with our whole family!"  That was awfully sweet of him, wasn't it?  :)

Seaworld and the Wild Oak Ranch Hotel and Resort!

 At the beginning of April, we decided to take a road trip to San Antonio and meet our friends, the Simmons' and Rentfro's at Seaworld!  We were so excited to take the kids here and it did not disappoint!  We went on a Friday and got there just when it opened.  It was a little chilly when we first arrived, but it warmed up really quick and was perfect the entire day!

Cole, Reid, Cooper, Addison, and Rylee



The girls!

The kids all did great - we watched several shows including the Sea Lion show, Beluga Whale show, and of course, Shamu show.  All of them were good, but I was the least impressed with the Shamu show.  Cooper loved the Beluga Whale show because he said the people in the show were like Spiderman...and I could see why he would say that because they moved like him!

  

All 6 kids - Parker, Rylee, Addison, Cole, Cooper, and Reid

Most of the kids went on the little Shamu Express rollercoaster, but Addi was ready for something bigger!  :)  Kevin, Addison, Joe and Cole went on the boat rollercoaster.  They sat 4 across with about 5 rows in a boat.  The kids were sitting on the outside because the dads were trying to avoid getting soaking wet.  The kids LOVED it!  They would have ridden it over and over again if we would have had time!  After it comes down, it makes a huge title wave splash and gets all the on-lookers soaked!  Reid and Cooper LOVED that part!   

Reid and Cooper getting drenched!

The adults took turns ourselves and headed to the big rollercoasters - I have not been on a rollercoaster in a long time...I was a little scared I have to say!  The kids all did great the entire day without naps and we ended up heading out by around 3:00 before any meltdowns occurred!

Our family and the Rentfros went on to stay at the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch, which was absolutely PERFECT for our families.  The Simmons' went back to stay with their family in Comfort - we were sad they weren't able to stay and play!  :)  The resort had all kinds of kid / family friendly activities to do - game archade, movie night on the lawn, swimming pools, water slides, water volleyball, sand volleyball, nature trails, horseshoes, shuffleboard, playground, hammocks, a huge fort by an outdoor restaurant...and I could go on!



Cooper, Addi and Reid in the Lazy River pool - it was cold!

Addison and Cole taking a break after swimming



Not much cooperation for the picture in the beautiful flower garden...

On Sunday, we went to the Riverwalk and had lunch and then it was time to head home...we were all exhausted, but still wished we had more time at that resort.  On the way home, Cooper said that the sun was in his face so this was his solution...

And yes, he did sleep like this for a while...and yes, I did check to make sure he wasn't suffocating underneath the blanket every few minutes!  What a fun trip!!!

Galveston Mardi Gras!

 A few weekends ago, the Butler, Bromley and Knott families went to Mardi Gras in Galveston.  After the Sugarland concert, Kevin, the kids and I headed straight down to the Butler's beach house.  We were there all day Friday with just the four of us.  While I ran to get groceries, Kevin and the kids enjoyed playing at the beach.  The weather was REALLY foggy that day, but warm enough to play in swim suits.  The water was still very cold, but Cooper wasn't scared to get wet...even if it was by accident.

After a few hours at the beach, we had a picnic lunch (per Addison's request) in the "crazy trees."  We have been to the beach house now a few times and she remembered from another time we were there, they have an area in the neighborhood with great climbing trees.



The tree climbers



It's hard to tell how big these trees really are, but look at the top of the picture below compared to where Addison is standing...I think we have a monkey in our family!

Early Saturday morning, bad weather came in and it rained like crazy!  By the morning, the ditches were filled to the top, the temp was colder, the wind was crazy, and it was still raining.  The rest of the families arrived early that morning - but with this weather, we weren't even sure we would be able to do any parades or other Mardi Gras activities.  Luckily, the weather got a little better late afternoon and we planned to go to the parade. 

One family that we met up with had experienced Mardi Gras in Galveston a few times, so they knew just where to go and just where to park.  It worked out perfectly - we only had to walk a block or two and we had a great area to keep track of all 8 kids with us!  We didn't go into the Strand area for the parade - I am sure that would be a little less family friendly.  We were on a street with houses and most of the houses were decorated and having a party.  They were playing some fun music that kept us all entertained before and during the parade.

We didn't really know what to expect from the parade.  We were hoping that it wasn't too wild since we had the kids with us.  It was GREAT!  The kids all LOVED it and had the best time seeing the floats, costumes, and catching beads.  Both of the kids surprised me at how well they could catch the beads - especially Miss Addison.  She caught the most beads by far.  It probably helped that she was on Daddy's shoulders the majority of the time!  ;)



All the boys got glow in the dark swords!



I don't know why I didn't think to get pictures of the kids with all the beads - these were before the parade even started.

All the girls got light up butterflies!

 The next day, we went to the Pet Parade on the Seawall, which was fun too.  Unfortunately, didn't get any pics of that and the kids were so worn out by then, we left right after it finished. 

We had so much fun and look forward to many more Mardi Gras celebrations in the future!!!  Thanks for the invite and letting us stay at your beach house, Butler's!

It's Rodeo time!

 A few months ago, we decided it would be great to see Sugarland in concert with the kids.  We all have fun jamming to their music - and it's kid-friendly for sure.  I found out they were coming to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in March and decided we had to get tickets.  Kevin and I haven't been to a concert at the rodeo in probably 5 years at least, but saw this as a great opportunity and good family fun!\

I bought tickets from a friend of mine at work who always has lots of tickets since she has been on the rodeo committee forever.  We left work at 3:30 on that Thursday of the concert and headed over to Reliant.  The kids were super excited!



The kids are ready to go!  Yeehaw!

We walked around the carnival for a while, ate some dinner, and headed in to the concert.  Our tickets said 6:45pm so we were at our seats just before that.  Come to find out, the rodeo started at that time...not the actual concert!  It was entertaining to watch some of the events like the bull riding, calf roping, mutton bustin', barrel racing, but we didn't realize that Sugarland wouldn't be on stage until 8:55pm!  That is late for our kids! 

Our cowgirl was so excited to see the concert!

The concert lasted an hour and the kids loved it!  We had fun singing and hearing some of our favorite Sugarland songs. 



Handsome little cowboy!

A little bit of poor planning on our part for the timing of the concert, but luckily all of the events kept all of us entertained!  Not sure if we will get to go back and see all the animals and go to the petting zoo before the rodeo is done for this year, but it was a fun night at the concert and the kids did really well considering it was 2 hours past their bedtime!