Tiny Tigers Belt Test

Today was James' belt test in his Tiny Tigers class at school, which is a Taekwondo class for preschoolers to teach them the basics in karate. At first he didn't really love the class, but he has gotten much better at it. Here's a video of his belt test, in which he did exceptionally well.

James with his new orange belt!

James' Spring Program

This past Monday was James' Spring Program at his school. As always, it was incredibly cute and I am thrilled at how much better he gets with each passing year. James also started taking Spanish this year so he was able to perform the Spanish song as well. Here are some photos and the videos of the program for your viewing enjoyment :-)

James with his class in the adorable shirts their teacher made (each hand print is one of theirs and has their name on their own hand print)

The class performing "What's a Friend For"



Young 4's and older 4's doing their Spanish songs

 

Family Fun Night 2013

Last Friday was James' school's big fundraiser called Family Fun Night. It's basically a school carnival with a silent auction so both the kids and the grown-ups can have a good time. It was definitely a lot of work, but well worth it because I think it was a great success. We actually changed things up this year and instead of doing individual class projects for each student in which the parents can purchase we did one large project for each class and then did a live auction to auction them off. Each class decorated a step stool as well as one rocking horse for the infant class. I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of all of them because they turned out really cute, but you can use your imagination. The live auction was a huge success...the stool for my sons class went for over $100! We will definitely be continuing the live auction in the future. I also made another game for the evening this year, a new "Fishing" game, which turned out really cute:

Here's James playing the fishing game

Some of the night's decorations (the theme was "Under the Sea")
We had all the children take home a fish cutout and decorate it any way they wanted and put them all over

The punch out game we made last year...still the most popular game!

Some of the kiddos getting a head start on the evening

James with his buddy Will

Great picture of some of the kiddos by the talented Linda Leavitt

The night was a lot of fun and we had a great turnout! We're already looking forward to next year!

Spring Break 2013

We had a very nice relaxing Spring Break. We had planned on having a bunch of play dates, but it seemed like many of James' friends got sick over Spring Break or ended up going out of town. We were still able to have a nice break and Daddy even took a day off of work to spend with us. The highlight was that day when we went to the Witte Museum to see their Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit. Here's some photos from the week:

We enjoyed the beautiful weather and painted outside

At Dinosaurs Unearthed

Digging for fossils

James posing with another dinosaur

They had IPads set up at each dinosaur so the kids could learn more about the dinosaurs
 

Playing in the HEB Tree house after seeing the dinosaurs

James checking out the river below on top of the HEB Tree house

We finally had a play date with Logan at Inflatable Wonderland once he was feeling better

James helped me paint the Fishing game for his school's Family Fun Night

Working on more artwork outside

 

My Birthday Weekend

Another year, another year older. Although 33 doesn't seem so bad...at least I'm still in my early 30's! I had a very nice and relaxing birthday weekend. My best friend treated me to a cooking class at Central Market on Friday night which was really fun. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but the food was delicious. We made seafood fideua, which is similar to paella, but it's made with broken up pieces of pasta instead of rice. Then we moved on to grilled tenderloins crusted in cabrales butter (it's a Spanish blue cheese), baked asparagus wrapped in Serrano ham and covered in a bechamel sauce and finished with crema catalana, which is basically a Spanish version of creme brulee. It was absolutely delicious and really fun to do a hands-on class. We will definitely be going back.

On Saturday my friends had a planned a nice lunch at the Friendly Spot down in South town. It's all outdoors and has a nice play area for the kids. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. Here are some pictures from the day:

Note:  You will see a stuffed cow in many of the pictures because James had a school project this past weekend in which he had to take "Callie the Cow" on adventures with him and document it :-)

James with my bestie Margaret (an Callie of course ;-))

Uncle Mike with James' cousin Louisa (and Callie)

James playing with Callie

Me and my hubby

After spending the day with friends we headed home where my boys spoiled me with a delicious birthday dinner: King crab legs, roasted sweet potatoes and a salad (made all by my hubby :-)) and a wonderful red velvet cake made by my little man.

Soooooo good!

James with Callie and my cake

The weekend was capped off with a lovely birthday dinner at my parents home on Sunday evening. Thank you to my wonderful family for making my birthday weekend so special!

 



 James posing with Callie in front of the delicious rack of lamb my dad made

James (with a little help from Callie) making homemade whipped cream for dessert

 me and my little man on my birthday!