April Rewind

April was another mostly fun and busy month!

We started the month off with my mom having a stroke and Brent's mom having hip replacement surgery...on the same day. To say I was a hot mess would be an understatement but they are both doing so great now. You wouldn't even know my mom had a stroke, and Brent's mom's hip is just about perfect!

We went to Two-Step for the 3rd year and also had out-of-town visitors come - Brent's cousin, Philip, and his wife, Kristi, and some friends {of Philip's and ours}, David and Carla. BUT the weather was terrible, and we bailed early on the first day and didn't even go the second day, ha!

Allena, Carla, and Kristi trying to not be popsicles

Got the kids in the bluebonnets, yay!

This wasn't the best year for our favorite flower, but they always make me smile.

The girls got to play in my mother-in-law's wedding dress! Cuties!

Drew had to have her last 4 baby teeth pulled. The permanent teeth were growing in and 2 of the baby teeth weren't budging! This was the last step before braces!

Feeling just a little woozy! And look at the roots on that 1 tooth, so gross.

Easter! The whole Swope clan.

Strep throat, nooooooo!

Girl Scouts do World Thinking Day!

I chaperoned a field trip for Paige. Love being able to do this.

And one step closer to catching up, yay.

First Week of School 2025-26 School Year!

We have finished our first week of school and lived to tell the tale!

You're going to see a lot less of Trent on the blog {per his request} but I'll be sure to at least document his comings-and-goings so he's not totally ignored on my small piece of the internet. {grin}

I'm going out of order with life as I'm trying to catch up from my short-lived blog hiatus. So a small bit of information is needed before we actually talk about school. We took our family vacation at the very end of summer [of course I'll post about it...eventually!] and made it back the day before Meet the Teacher - which I was happy to not miss. Well, as I shared last week, Drew made the middle school cheer team and was so excited to get to work at Meet the Teacher - we picked up her uniform that morning, and she couldn't wait to get to wear it.

The cutest Gator cheerleader in history!

[also notice the braces that joined us a few days before vacation]

We were excited by the teacher Paige got and both Trent and Drew were happy with their schedules. Win-win! No one was very excited to actually go to school, but we jumped right back into our routine and settled in pretty easily.

Little Miss 3rd Grader in Ms. Gillian's class

Ready to take on 7th grade!

We had some tears from Paige on Monday night - change is hard - but we seem to be rocking along pretty well. Dropoffs and pickups are going smoothly, both of the big kids are happy-ish with their schedules {have classes with friends, like their electives, like their teachers}, so it all feels really good so far! Yay! Another item to add into the mix is Trent got his first job at H-E-B!! So we'll be juggling after school activities for the girls {tumbling classes, cheering events, Girl Scouts} and Trent's work schedule {while he still continues to s-l-o-w-l-y work toward his drivers license} - definitely a busy season for us but loving it!!

The Rest of March!

Continuing my revisit of 2025 while in my blog 'downtime'...

We finally celebrated Drew's birthday with a sleepover with her besties!

We also celebrated Gus' birthday - our favorite little pup turned ONE!!!

The bluebonnets were late coming in this year. This girl was NERVOUS!

Donating extra GS cookies, love the giving hearts of our girls!

Who doesn't love cake for their birthday? HA!

Makeover with my jazzercise faves!

Drew's art continues to amaze me!

Can't stop, won't stop

Gearing up for primitive camping! AND GCPS' newest cheerleader!

One of the things we did with Girl Scouts this year was take our girls primitive camping! The girls earned several badges on this trip, but we all had a blast!

What is primitive camping you ask? No electricity, no running water 

{therefore no flushing toilets so I'm throwing away our waste, yuck}

Where we camped was right near a museum for the first settlement in Texas!

Dressing up as settlers, cuties!

The day we returned from camping, I took the girls to see Hamilton with Tricia and Charlotte. Such an amazing musical and experience to share with them.

I'm exhausted re-living all the busy-ness of March ha!

Back to School Questionnaire 2025-26 School Year!

And just like that...we're back at it! School started yesterday, and our first day routine went off without a hitch {mostly}, and we seem to have gotten back into our groove so far! I will NOT presume that it'll be smooth sailing for the whole year, but I'll take it for now!

First day of Kinder 2014

Favorite Color:

Trent: Blue

Drew: Navy blue and red

Paige: Blue

Favorite TV Show:

Trent: BoJack Horseman

Drew: Arcane

Paige: Ms. Adventures {a season of LDShadowLady's YouTube channel}

Favorite Movie:

Trent: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Drew: Jumanji

Paige: KPop Demon Hunters

Favorite Toy:

Trent: My phone

Drew: Legos

Paige: My stuffies

Favorite Book:

Trent: Berserk

Drew: Heartstopper

Paige: Harry Potter

First day of Kinder 2018

Favorite Food:

Trent: Chicken

Drew: Mexican or Chipotle

Paige: Mango

Favorite Place:

Trent: Hawaii

Drew: Anywhere with Blair

Paige: My bed

Favorite Part of School:

Trent: Algebra II

Drew: Cheer or lunch

Paige: Dismissal

Favorite Part of Summer:

Trent: Everything

Drew: Not having school work and vacations

Paige: Sleeping and screen time

Favorite Holiday:

Trent: Summer

Drew: New Year's

Paige: Christmas and my birthday

First day of Kinder 2022

Favorite Thing to Do with Mom:

Trent: Buddy read

Drew: Everything except when she acts crazy

Paige: Snuggle

Favorite Thing to Do with Dad:

Trent: Golf

Drew: Gas station trips

Paige: Telling jokes

Favorite Thing About Trent:

Drew: Whenever he doesn't stink and the fact he is getting a tiny bit more mature and isn't as bad as he used to be 

Paige: He's funny sometimes

Favorite Thing About Drew:

Trent: Her personality

Paige: She's ok

Favorite Thing About Paige:

Trent: Her cuteness

Drew: Whenever she sleeps over at Nana and Papa's house {vicious!}

First day 2024

What are You Going to be When You Grow Up: 

Trent: I don't know

Drew: Don't know yet

Paige: President or a teacher

Who are you Going to Marry:

Trent: I don't know

Drew: Someone Asian

Paige: Gray

How Many Kids Will You Have:

Trent: I don't know

Drew: 12 dogs and 2 kids

Paige: 2

Hoping for a wonderful school year for everyone!!