Spring Break 2014

I just love Spring Break. It's so nice to be able to have the kids home for a week and do whatever we want to do. I always love that Spring Break in Texas has always fallen on my birthday week so we got to spend time with family and celebrate. Monday and Tuesday we had play dates at the park and went to a "Fairy Enchanted Forest Festival" at the library and enjoyed being outside. On Wednesday we left for our "stay-cation" to my parents house for 3 days. We were able to go with my parents and sister Natalie to the "Lego" movie and Cavin and Ella seemed to love it. I however wouldn't mind if I never saw it again ;) We then went to Los Cucos for a birthday dinner and it was yummy! Thursday we took the kids to the Livestock/Carnival part of rodeo and we enjoy doing that each year.

We got to take the shuttle bus over after we parked and the kids were pretty excited about that ride :)

The kids' favorite thing is the "Farmers Market" where they get to pretend they are farmers and plant a seed, milk a cow, collect eggs from a chicken...etc and at the end they earn money and turn it in at the "store" for a treat.

Ella planting her tomato seed and watering it.

The girls with their baskets they are filling.

Ella and Cavin milking the "cow"

Everything is more fun with Aunt Natalie!

Next we went to the "Pig Races" and the kids love these. We cheered our favorite pig on!

 Grandma and Channing with her cheesy grin :)

Anyone look like they are ready for lunch??!!??

Next we went to the Carnival and rode a few rides. I gave each child 10 tickets and they could spend them how they chose. Ella has a tendency to think she can win and always is hopeful so even after much warning she spent all her tickets on a carnival balloon game hoping to win a stuffed animal and she lost and was sad she had no tickets for the rides...hopefully one day she will learn.

Cavin and Channing went on a couple rides and I LOVE this picture because it describes Cavin's personality toward his sisters. He is so sweet and just loves to make sure they are happy.

First the tractor and now the motorcycle!

Channing spent the remainder of  the day on my dad's shoulders as Cavin was too pooped to walk and wasn't feeling well. By the end my dad's hair was nice and groomed from her hands running through it ;)

After the Rodeo and the LONG drive home through the traffic, we came home and my dad started up the fire pit and we had hotdogs and smores.

 The kids played bubbles and balls while waiting for dinner!

Roasting marshmallows for our "smores"

Ella and my dad got marshmallow everywhere! YUM!

Cavin has a pretty good marshmallow face too!

Since we didn't already have enough treats, we celebrated my birthday and opened presents.
Friday we took the kids for a picnic in the park and it was a beautiful day. There were bees around us at lunchtime and Channing and Cavin were not too fond of our picnic friends.
That evening my mom, Natalie, and I went back to the Rodeo for the rest of the livestock show and the concert to see Keith Urban. It took us almost 2 hours in traffic to get there and 2 hours to get home. Although it was fun, sitting in the car kinda put a damper on it! 

We still enjoyed a night out...a very late night out!
Saturday I got to go out with some friends to the Cheesecake factory and celebrate my birthday which was a lot of fun, wish I remembered to take a picture. My best friend Stacey wanted to make sure I had my breakfast birthday donuts since it was gonna be Sunday, so she brought me some :)

Aren't they cute!
On my actual birthday, Sunday, my parents came to our house and ate and we had more cheesecake! 

It was a fun week and I am lucky to have a wonderful family to spend holidays with. I know we won't always be able to live close, so I am so grateful that my kids get to know their grandparents and have someone to spend days off of school with. As you can see Ragnar was not in any of the pictures, the Rockets season is winding down and he is busy at work. I am even more grateful to have parents close to step in when Ragnar is gone. Ragnar was kind enough to hang with the kids on Friday night and Saturday night while I played and I am grateful for everyone's kindness in making it a fun birthday and a great week with the kids!