The Last Day

So, even though WE were on spring break, the Texans were not. My sister was willing to not go to work and keep her kids out of school so we could play one more day. Yay! The result was one really fun, really busy, lots of fun last day. FIRST, we went for pony rides. The big thing was the outfits. Since the cousins lived it Texas, they had appropiate attire, like hats and boots. My kids felt very inferior that they did not. Luckily, the cousins shared.





Unfortuately, (fortuately) it was required to wear helmets.



Now, it was windy. We had 5 kids. It took a long time to get the pony ready. There were lose animals. Parts of pony riding were not all successful, but everyone did get to ride.




And ride Playdough the pony:







We got free bandanas!



After the ride, we were trying to decide if we should picnic or go to chickfila when C says he wants to go to Chuck E Cheese. Well, there wasn't really a reason to NOT go, so we went. Turns out, Tuesday during NOT spring break is the perfect time to go to CEC. I am pretty sure this was my kids favorite thing we did. James couldn't decide what to do:





Andy and AC just rode this bus over and over. They would still be there if we hadn't run out of money:



With all the tickets, all the kids got vampire teeth. Very scary!



Sometime during this day, the kids realized they could wrestle.



Mark and I decided we couldn't stay at the house, cause they would wrestle and get hurt, so we went to another park. (breeders!)



This one was really cool. Had a mix of older and younger kid stuff. Think I remember this one in the mud run:



AC would just hang.



Funny story. While AC was doing this, I was on the phone with her mom discussing dinner when AC let go with her right hand. She swund around and starting going down the pole (and startd crying). I abruptly said, "gotta go!" and hung up. She was ok, when back to hanging, and when I called back, Aunt K just said, "NOT COOL!".

At any rate, the boys went back to wrestling. So we went home.



Had a yummy dinner, bed, then drove back the next day. I love Houston in March, but I think it gives me a misrepresentation to the weather there. It was a great trip!

NASA

This trip was a little different from others because the SC and TX spring breaks did not line up. Spring Break in TX was actually the week before, so Monday found our family with nothing to do while everyone had to go to school. Thanks to Andrea, I had a plan. We went to the Johnson Space Center. James was SO excited. This is him being excited in the parking lot.



Most of the pictures are of James, because he was really into it.

The Space Center was unbelievably cool, but I don't think we had as good of a time as Andrea did. It is hard for me to believe, but we had Poor Time Managament. The Space Center is set up with lots of different shows. These shows are at certain time according to a schedule. With two small boys, it is hard to be on a schedule and we lost an hour waiting for the tram tour. (We thought we were going to be on the 10:30 tour, but we didn't leave until 11, so I guess we didn't make it.) Thank goodness for my ipod touch...Best Gift Ever. The boys watched Backyardagains while we waited and waited. They were into it once we left:



The tour took us around NASA. You got to see everyone who worked there just going about their lives. Can you imagine the jokes if you worked there? One of the driers in the bathroom didn't work, and if I worked there I would say, "man, we are freaking NASA. We can put a man on the moon, but we can't fix the drier?" I think I would have really enjoyed the tour if it wasn't for the kids, but really, they weren't that bad. Here is the building were the Saturn Rocket lives:



Rockets out front:



And the HUGE rocket inside. Yes, I know that Andrea's pictures are better!



The kids tolerated the tour, they tolerated the picnic lunch outside, but once we walked it, they saw this, and that was all they could talk about:



This was a huge 4 story play structue. It was really cool. It was so big, they had cameras outside so maybe you could see your kids playing. This is James and Andy on the 4th floor shooting something:



I think this is James, again on the 4th floor:



They also had lots of hands on exhibits, like a children's museum. Mark asked me to put shoes on the kids feet and he would see if a flight simulator was open. Um, sure.



Other exhbits:





James said his favorite part was when he got to try helmets on. This kid does love to dress up:



The Space Center really got me thinking, and like a lot of things this time in my life, I can't help but thing How Much These Things Must Cost. And to use a term coined by others, Is This A Waste Of Taxpayer Money? I don't really know the answer to that, not sure how I feel, but all of the conviences we enjoy now, my running watch, GSP, cell phones, these things are really not Very Expensive, but it all is related to satillites and space. How many millions of dollars did it take to put the satillite up in the sky so you don't get lost? Is it worth it? Is it not? Should we cut the program? Should we go to Mars?

Eating Out

I am sorry I gave the impression that there was only going to be one post about our trip to Houston. I actually uploaded 45 pictures, so there will be a few more! The post is about what we ate. What we ate was NOT VEGAN, but most of it was very good. Sunday for lunch Aunt K and Uncle B were nice enough to agree to stay home and feed all the kids lunch so Mark and I could go to our favorite place - Pei Wei! Pei Wei is the little brother restaurant of PF Changs and we miss it sooooo much. We got our old stand bys there: My favorite Pad Thai



I used to get it with chicken, but this one is vegatarian style. Wish I had stuck with the chicked just cause that is what I was used to. Mark got the Mongolian Beef:



I am not sure why I never get this cause it is delicious delicious! Unlike the Pad Thai, they go make this at the PF Changs in Greenville.

We also got brave enough to take all the kids out for dinner one night. Aunt K suggested Rainforest Cafe. Now personally, I am against rainforest cafe and everything they stand for. I had been there once or twice, but I really did want to take my kids there. They had a great time! They kept looking around at all the trees and animals and just STUFF! Aunt K got the kids sweet souveneir cups!



And I was trying to be nice by getting "VOLCANOS!" for everyone, but Aunt K was mad I showed her up.



Here is the whole table:



And just the kids outside:



Now, this is probably really good that we did something like this in Texas on a visit, or else the kids would nag me about going all the time!

5 under 6 - 2011 edition

No cute name this year. I guess that is my fault, but it ain't gonna happen!

It is March and that means spring break. Spring Break means that we go to Houston for a visit. Usually, we fly. However, this year, Andy is over 2. That means, we would have to pay for him. Also, we wanted to bring Mark. We would also have to pay for him. Now we are going from 2 seats to 4...you can say that would double our airplane costs. So, we decided to drive. Mapquest put it at about a 15 hour drive, but we were up to the task. We had a few new DVDs, WaterWow, sticker charts, Trio Blocks, snacks, activity and coloring books, reading books, sticker books, tag books, leapster explorer, ipod apps. We were well prepared. The drive there and back wasn't all that bad.



And now matter what is looks like in that picture, we really didn't watch that many shows.

We left SC at 5:15 in the morning. Did hit some Atlanta rush hour, but made it to Houston at 7pm local time. Yep, made it in time for dinner. Here is dinner:



The kids were really excited to see each other and got along pretty much the whole time. Now, last year, was pretty much the Worse Trip Ever. By Worst Trip Ever, for those of you too lazy to click the link, I mean that James developed a fever as soon as we got there and kept it, Andy got pink eye and was cranky and then, AND THEN, Andy totally threw up on me on the flight home. It was awesome. This year, was really the best trip ever. There are probably several reasons: better sleep, no fevers, and less allergies all I need to keep in mind for next year. At any rate, the kids got along GREAT. Andy loved his girl cousins! Playing light sabers with AC...



and AM...



Don't get me wrong, they also played barbie jeep, and cooking, and house. Andy loves that stuff!

C and James played boy stuff: Wii and watched Power Rangers.



Ok, James also played Barbie Jeep.

Within 24 hours of arrive, Mark and I found ourselves in charge of all 5 kids. Here is how they fit in the car:



We took everyone to the park so Aunt K and Uncle B could get some stuff done. I am sure that all the other people at the park just thought we were breeders!



At the park, the tallest butt on top is Mark's!

Vegan Power!

Perhaps you are wondering where I am with the whole vegan thing. Perhaps not. I feel like I am addressed a lot of the issues here and am ready to move on. I still eat vegan at home. I like it, I will continue it, but the main reason is that it is a lot cheaper. We will continue to eat vegan at home. However, when I go out, I am a "flexitarian". I eat meat and dairy, and I am ok with that. I probably won't go into the vegan thing on this blog any more, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

One last thing I wanted to post were my vegan power bars. These are similar to a Lara Bar. The inspiration was from this recipe and then some changes inspired by this site.

Here is how I do it:

Process 1 cup of almonds in the food processor until "resembles wet sand" ie when it starts to clump up. Dump into bowl.

Process 1 cup dates, a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla. Process until it all clumps on one side of the processor and is finely choppped.

Add almonds back in with a handful of chocolate chips and a spoonful of peanut butter. Process.

Line a toaster oven pan with cling wrap and press mixture into pan. Refrigerate for at least an hour and cut into bars. YUM! I have eaten these before a race with good results. Vegan Power!

The Big Race 2011

I know I went into this last year, but James, like many young boys, loves to run. Like many young boys, James loves to race, and like many young boys (ok, all people all ages) James loves to win. Because of this love of running/racing/winning, I signed James up for his first race a year ago. He had a great time, and, I kid you not, has been talking about his race since then. As in a year ago. Every so often he would ask, "mommy, is my race coming up?" We would explain to him, "after Halloween, after Christmas, after winter is your race." Then it would be "after new years, after valentine's day, after June's birthday is your race". Then it was, "your race is in two weeks" then "five days", "four days", "tomorrow" and finally, "James, your race is after quiet time/nap time".

I guess you could say he was excited.

Last night he started asking, "mom, do you think I can win?" and "mom, do you think I will win?" Turns out, those are two totally different questions. Again, we just tried to emphasize that winning would be nice, but as long as he did his best and had fun, that was all that really mattered. This race was affiliated with the Reedy River Run in Greenville and was a 400m fun run for kids 3-6. It was suppose to start about 5:45, but it actually started about 5:40. We got there about 5:30. There was a big rush to check in and get shirts/numbers on. Before I post this first picture, let me say again that this race was for kids 3-6. Andy is 2.5, but we figured he would not want to be left out this year. We were so right. Ms. Juliet let us borrow John's race shirt from last year and I pinned on James's old bib number and he was happy:


The blue shirts were this years shirts and they were tech shirts, super cool, unfortuately they only had size XL for the adult races, but whatever. When the boys put on their shirts and their numbers they were pumped. This was my favorite part of the evening:


Then we made our way to the starting line. Do some of these kids look older than 6 to you? That is James with his hands on his hips moving his way to the front:


Looks like he made it to the front:


James was ready to go:


And again unlike last year, the kids were just pumped, not nervous at all. The organizer was great. He counted down from 10 to 1 and said go, and they went!

The plan was to have Ms. Juliet at the finish, have me float between James and John, and Mark stayed with Andy. This worked out pretty well. Here is John making the first turn:


Sorry it is blurry, you will just have to trust that is John. At this point, John said, "I'm tired, I want to walk." True to Coach Kerri fashion I said, "John, we will walk until that second balloon, but then we are going to run!" and we did.

At this point I was to apologize for being one of those parents who takes pictures like this during an event. I know it is annoying, and I know I am getting in peoples way, but it is just so cute I have to take a record of it!

This is James leaving us in his dust. I am pretty sure he ran the whole way:


John and I finished about 2:50, so James probably finished 2:20-2:30. James didn't win, but he says he did and we will go with that. Here is James with his medal:


Right after this picture was taken, James said, "Mom, I want to run another race!" Um, ok.

As for Andy, I don't think we have any pictures while he was running, but Mark said he did great. He ran the whole time, may have come in last, as James and John said "we won, but Andy did NOT win!", but his time was about 4 min. Look at this guy with his stolen medal:


We did bring a back up medal, but well, they just gave him one, so we will go with it. Here are all three of our champions:


And finally our celebratory dinner also with Ms. Mattie, who I believe was chip timed:


This dinner was not necessarily a raging success, nor was it vegan, but it was still a good time.

See you next year!