What Makes It Home?

I stole this post idea from Natasha because I loved it. We moved to the town we live in just over 4 years ago. We built our house expecting it to be our forever home - or at least 'until the kids are all out of high school' home. We love our little town so much, and I look forward to many decades of fun to come. Here's a small listing of some of the reasons I love our little town!

The Square

Our town was voted as having 'The Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas', and it is one of our favorite places to hang out! There's a parade at Christmas and in the spring with the Red Poppy Festival, lots of random festivals, great restaurants {my favorite in the world is on the square, called Blue Corn Harvest}, fun bars, just so much to do!

Hula Cowgirl

Is it weird that one of my favorite things in our town is a snow cone place? One of my absolute favorite places to go! Their snow cones are out of this world, and they make a bunch of desserts, homemade popsicles, and have an amazing concoction which is a snow cone and ice cream blended together. I die.

Garey Park

We have an insanely awesome park. Huge splash pad, several playscapes, zip lines, open space - we love going! There's also fishing and horseback riding, but we've yet to try those. I love going because even when it's insanely hot, we have the splash pad to cool us off. Plus lots of covered areas where we can rest and eat snacks! It's a great place to meet friends and let the kids play while the moms chat.

RBC Friends

Where we especially lucked out is having 2 sets of our best friends living within .5 miles of us in the neighborhood. Our weekends largely revolve around hanging out with these peeps. Riley and Kelby are brothers who grew up in Pflugerville - they even had my mom as their PE teacher - but moved away years ago - and they are both just enough younger that I didn't know them then. When we started hanging out after college, Kelby was dating Karin and after they got married she worked for Deloitte for a few years with me! Then Riley married Susie who was a college roommate to another close friend, Dez. Brent and Riley also work together along with Dez's husband, Derek. We're trying to recruit them to the neighborhood too! {grin} Kelby even made us a YouTube playlist of all our favorite songs. Susie and I work out together, the kids all play together, we get drinks at the clubhouse, we go out together {or stay in together}, Susie/Karin/I have a 'sip and stroll' routine - just so much fun together!

Riley & Susie ~ Allena & Brent ~ Karin & Kelby

My ladies!

Swimming at Karin and Kelby's

Country Club

This ties together closely with our RBC friends. We love doing things in our neighborhood or at the country club. Our golf cart is one of my favorite purchases - we will take up to the clubhouse for drinks/dinner, we participated in our 4th of July parade in the neighborhood, it makes it so easy to get to the pool. PLUS obviously we love all the activities - Brent is a huge golfer, and he takes Trent a lot, there are events, and I think we're going to attempt tennis lessons for the kids next summer - eek!

The Kids' Schools

I feel so blessed to have found the 2 schools our kids go to. Brent even texted me yesterday 'You love school.' Yup, I do, and I especially love these schools! I have made friends, the kids are happy, the environments are so amazing, I could go on and on, but these are a huge piece of why I love our town.

This post was so hard to write because as I looked through pictures I thought of more things I wanted to discuss or more pictures I wanted to post! I finally had to just say 'I'm done!' {grin} The only things missing from my little town are my sister - she moved from here almost 3 years ago and I'm still sad - and my BFF - who says they might retire here haha.

One last story - last fall, I saw 2 older ladies walking in the neighborhood and I told Susie about seeing them and called them 'cute, old ladies' and said I could see that being us in 30 years. Trent was there and said 'Yeah, sounds about right except for the cute part!' HA! He's such a stinker, but I do look forward to many, many more years of making great memories in our town!

Movie Review: Where'd You Go Bernadette?

As I mentioned yesterday, Allison and I got a wild hair and saw another movie last week! We hadn't seen one since the end of May and saw 2 in 5 days haha. I read Where'd You Go Bernadette last month and was excited the movie was coming out this month, so it worked out well that Allison wanted to see it too.

Plot: A loving mom becomes compelled to reconnect with her creative passions after years of sacrificing herself for her family. Her leap of faith takes an epic adventure that jump-starts her life and leads to her triumphant rediscovery.

Review: I thought they did a great job of turning the book into a movie. I did wonder how it would come together given the first half of the book is told through letters and emails, and I thought the movie was done well! Main thoughts: 1) I thought Cate Blanchette was phenomenal as Bernadette - she is such a quirky character but largely because she's too quick/smart/creative than everyone else in her world, and I love how that played out on screen. To be fair, Allison got annoyed with Bernadette, but I thought Cate was just amazing. 2) Since I just finished the book, I remembered the plot better than Allison did, so I noticed the changes made to the movie. Overall, I agreed with them. The changes were largely done just to fit into a 2-hour movie - little details or secondary plots cut out. There was 1 big thing near the end cut out that I was actually really glad was cut out because it left a really bad taste in my mouth in the book. 3) Just like in the book, the last 1/3 felt a little long - not bad, just long. I highly enjoyed the book, and I highly enjoyed the movie!

Currently: Dreaming of a Cool Front

Current Book

One of our neighbor/friends belongs to Book of the Month,

and I reap the rewards big time!

Current Song

My latest Jazzercise downloads:

Shawn Mendes - If I Can't Have You

Pink - Walk Me Home

Fletcher - Avalanche

Current TV Show

Season 14 baby!

Current Podcast

Current Drink

Made myself an Arnold Palmer on this hot day

Current Food

Chipotle salad - probably my favorite thing to eat right now

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

I've been enjoying the aftermath of my birthday a little too much.

Time to get back on my plan - this girl has goals!

Current Outfit

Church dress and curly hair!

Current Mood

Aunt Flo is visiting...I am grumpy.

Current Anticipation

The highs later this week are only 95*!

Fall is just around the corner, and I'm here for it!!!

Current Wishlist

Well, we finally decided to get the kids a frog.

Trent has been begging for forever.

We went to Petsmart today but didn't find what we wanted,

so Brent is on a tree frog mission!

Current Film

Allison and I got a wild hair and saw another movie last week!

Current Picture

Morning snuggles are the best

All About That TEN-Year-Old

I've been really delinquent about posting all about Trent after he turned 10! I seriously am struggling to wrap my brain around the fact that I've been a mother for a DECADE.

Stats:
Height: 54" {54%}
Weight: 60 pounds {24%}
BMI: 14.5 {8%}
Clothes size: 8/M
Shoe size: 3.5

By the numbers:
Inches grown: 2
Pounds gained: 4
BMI: down .2
Teeth lost: 3? This summer was huge for teeth lost so I might be blurring the lines here, ha.

I think at this point in life, there aren't a ton of changes to comment on - the changes are more subtle. I know this is to be expected, but it's still interesting to note - or at least for me!

School - Trent started upper elementary and had his best year ever last year. It started off rough, and the last couple of weeks got bumpy, but the vast majority of the year was really great. He had some good friends, really bonded with his teacher, did excellent on the STAAR test - I'm really excited to see how this year goes.

Activities - His favorite thing to do is play video games on the iPad with his friends. And he wants his own phone - UM NO. But since he doesn't get lots of screen time, he still reads an insane amount {I struggle finding new books for him to read}, he plays some with his Legos, LOVES basketball.

Friends - His best friend is our neighbor's grandson, Jaxon. He is also still extremely close to Miles. At school, his best friend was Asa, but he moved to Nebraska over the summer, big bummer!

Family - Trent continues to be a great big brother to Paige and a typical big brother to Drew. {grin} He dotes on Paige and loves to play with her. He tolerates Drew and is usually actively trying to make her squeal. 

He and Brent are starting to do more together - like golf - and I see the bond between them growing stronger. I think, to a certain extent, he largely tolerates me, ha. He and I still read Harry Potter together - we're in book 6! - and we both look forward to that time together.

Overall, this kid can drive me crazy but geez I love him so much! He is so fun, funny, and smart, and he's such a great friend and kid. 

Movie Review: The Farewell

It has been a ridiculously long time since Allison and I have seen a movie. There are a bunch we want to see, so I hope we have a better stretch in the fall than we did in the summer. BUT August is always a guaranteed movie because we both have a birthday in August, and we treat ourselves to a movie together. {grin}

We went to see The Farewell on Saturday at our local artsy theater. We had a different movie planned, that we hope to see soon, but we were running a little later, so we switched up at the last minute.

Plot: A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies.

Review: Man was this a great film! It took a really tough subject and managed to make us laugh! I loved this family, and I especially loved the grandma, Nai Nai. She reminded me a lot of my own granny - super sassy and fun. I loved how there was a lot of heart to the story without being cheesy and just a lot of comedy gold. We both thought it was so, so good! I know I haven't seen many movies this year, but this is going to rank really highly for me.

First Days 2019-2020

We have survived the first days of school! We have had amazing mornings with no rushing or yelling or anything, so it's been so pleasant. Any bets as to how long this will last? {grin}

Trent is returning to the Guadalupe Community for his 2nd year in Upper Elementary {Montessori schools do classes for 3 years, so Trent will be in Upper El through 6th grade}. He had a great year in 4th with Mr. Blackburn, and I think he's a great teacher but also a great personality fit for Trent - they are both funny and sarcastic guys who just 'get' each other, which is so awesome. Trent learned so much last year, and he had great results from Texas' standardized tests {we got his STAAR scores over the summer - 4th graders take Math, Reading, and Writing - he scored Exceeds Grade Level in Reading and Writing and Meets Grade Level in Math - the school overall did really well - which is a challenge for a public Montessori since the learning style isn't really conducive to standardized testing}.

He had several friends move away over the summer, so he hasn't been super thrilled yet over who is in his class, but I know he'll make new friends - he has never struggled in that department! He's too talkative and jokey {like his mama} which can get him in trouble in class but is great for making friends!

Kinder ~ 1st grade ~ 2nd grade

3rd grade ~ 4th grade ~ 5th grade

Drew moved up from Children's House to Lower Elementary {1st grade - 3rd grade} this year, and she got Trent's teacher from 3rd grade, Mrs. Worcester. She and I were both super excited about this - Mrs. Worcester is SUCH a sweet lady, she's very soft-spoken and kind-hearted. I know she and Drew are going to get along fabulously. Drew's best friend from Kindergarten is in a different class, so that was a bummer, but she's already told me about 4 new friends! I'm really looking forward to seeing how much she learns this year - she is so excited to learn new things and loves school.

Casita ~ Casita ~ Children's House

Pre-K ~ Kinder ~ 1st grade

Little Paigey-Paige returned to her beloved Ms. Krystin and her Casita classroom. She has missed her class and friends all summer, and she practically jumped out of the car to get back! This will be her last few months in Casita, as she will transition to Children's House sometime in the fall. Part of me is sad because I know how much she LOVES Krystin, but I know they won't move her until she's ready, so these next few months she'll really get to mother all the little kiddos and boss everyone around. {grin} I'm hoping she'll get Trent's old teacher, Ms. Jody! 

The plan is for Paige to transfer over to Goodwater next year, but there's no guaranteed spot for her until Kindergarten, so we'll see how much longer we're split up between 2 schools. Right now I'm happy because I love both schools so much - and I know I'll struggle to tell CMS goodbye, but I do look forward to less time in the car!

Nido ~ Casita ~ Casita

I hope everybody else has/had a great first day and an awesome year!

Annual Night Before School Questionnaire

It's the first day of school! We're all flustered getting ready, taking our pictures, and remembering our morning routine. So here's our annual questions to kick off the start of school. Paige starts Thursday, so I'll post first day recaps Friday {I know you're all waiting with baited breath!}

First day 2018

First Day of School Questionnaire:

Favorite Color: 

Trent: Blue
Drew: Teal/Blue

Favorite TV Show: 

Trent: Liv & Maddie

Drew: She was trying to think of something off YouTube and I got annoyed and moved on. Ha!

Favorite Movie: 

Trent: Top Gun

Drew: Descendants

Favorite Toy: 

Trent: iPad

Drew: Fingerlings

Favorite Book: 

Trent: Harry Potter series

Drew: Unicorn School and her Beanie Boos Ultimate Collector's Guide

Favorite Food: 

Trent: Chipotle

Drew: Jelly toast and pancakes

Favorite Place: 

Trent: Nana's

Drew: At home with her family

Favorite Part of School: 

Trent: Recess

Drew: Watching the class lizard and reading

Favorite Part of Summer: 

Trent: Everything

Drew: Spending time with her family

Favorite Holiday: 

Trent: Christmas

Drew: Christmas

Favorite thing to Wear: 

Trent: Chewbacca shirt

Drew: Jean shorts

Favorite thing to do with Mom: 

Trent: Read Harry Potter

Drew: Snuggling

Favorite thing to do with Dad: 

Trent: Wrestle

Drew: Airplane rides

Favorite thing about Trent/Drew: 

Trent: When we're not mad at each other

Drew: Spending time with him

Favorite thing about Paige: 

Trent: Everything

Drew: Giving hugs

What are you going to be when you grow up: 

Trent: Paleontologist

Drew: Horseback riding teacher

Who are you going to marry: 

Trent: ...

Drew: I have no idea

2018 here

2017 here

2016 here
2015 here