Texas Trip (Day 2)

I was so tired that first night that I slept so good! We were all tired and slept in a little and the boys played their kindles for a little bit before we had breakfast, then we just hung out at the house for awhile...

And Ashton began his quest to catch the bright green lizard...

(See how that story ends later...)

Then went to this fun park we'd been to before that has some cool trails behind it...

 Looking at turtles down in the water...

 Then Grandpa found this tiny turtle on the trail...so cute!

 After we'd walked all around the trails, the boys were playing on the park and heard the ice cream truck coming and of course wanted something. It reminded me so much of when I went to visit my grandma in Texas when I was a kid and the ice cream truck would come around :)

So I couldn't resist...

 And I also couldn't help but think of the times before when we'd been to this park...

This is the only picture I can find for some reason, but I love it :)

Ashton wanted to learn to make guacamole when we got back, one of his new favorite things...

Just nice to relax! 

 That night we had delicious home made tacos and just relaxed more. I love vacation! Oh and every night Lars would stay up and watch part of a series he's been watching on Netflix called Breaking Bad on his ipad, while I fell asleep!

Up next our fun day at the beach...

Texas...2015 (Day 1)

We had such a great time in Texas last week for spring break...it had been way too long since our last trip. 5 years to be exact. Time goes by so quickly.

The boys were so excited!

On the shuttle...

Poor Gunnar fell getting off the escalator right after this picture and skinned his knee really bad :(

Anyway like I said in my last post, we flew out on his birthday

(pics on the plane)...

...and got into Houston about 5:30 or 6:00,

 ...then we all went out to Chili's for Gunnar's birthday dinner...

 Then we drove to their house and they had a big soccer cake and ice cream waiting for him :)

 And got him a neat new watch and an amazon gift card :)

 After we ate cake and ice cream, it was getting pretty late so after Ashton caught this tiny lizard it was time for bed.

 

SEVEN!

I will never get used to or really be happy about my boys getting older each year! Okay...I am happy to see Gunnar growing and being healthy, but I would still keep him little forever if I could, or I would take him back to one of these stages :)...

 But March 28th has come and gone again. This year we'd planned a fun trip to Texas to visit Grandma & Grandpa Demander and the way that worked out best for our plane tickets was to fly out on Saturday the 28th! Gunnar was actually really excited to be flying on his actual birthday. But we also wanted to have a little friend party for him as well so we decided to do that on Friday, the 27th...and believe it or not it was a sunny BEAUTIFUL day!!

But I will get back to that in a minute...

First off, all Gunnar talked about wanting for about a month before was an outdoor basketball hoop for our driveway, so that is what we planned to get him. Lars ordered it and it came a few days before and we actually gave it to him on Thursday and Lars spent about 3 hours putting it together that night!

I loved the look on Gunnar's face when he walked out of the garage and saw the big box! And it was cute to see Ashton trying to cover his eyes for him and lead him out :)

Needless to say he was really excited for his early gift! It was dark by the time it was all set up and ready to go, but he got to shoot a few hoops before bed as well as before school on Friday morning...

Happy kid :)

And I loved seeing him coming towards me after school wearing this...so cute!

Love this boy.

We planned his party for 3:30 on Friday after they got out early from school like they always do on Fridays at 2:10.

His invitation...

So many kids have their parties at the JumpZone trampoline place these days (and he didn't really want to do that)
 so I asked him if he would maybe want to have a soccer party at the park and have all of his friends come and play a soccer game. He loved the idea, so I got to work on his invitation and party favors etc...

He ADORES soccer!
And it is so fun to see. All winter he went once a week to an indoor soccer practice on the other end of town and he loved it and learned SO much.

Anyway I really was trying to keep it simple since we were flying out the next day, so I talked him into these cupcakes with bouncy soccer balls in the middle for the kids to take home...

...and he chose mint chocolate chip ice cream. His favorite lately. And as well as the balls, they got a soccer pencil, a green airhead candy and a bookmark...

The party was a lot of fun! I love this little group of friends of his and they all love soccer too, so it turned out great...

 All of his little friends are also taking French, so they just started singing Happy Birthday to him in French...it was so cute!

Yay for finally getting to blow out candles...no wind!

This picture...

Made me think of this picture...Oh my goodness he is cute!

Present time!

New scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Harry :)

And back to more soccer after presents...we pretty much had to drag them away!

So glad Grandma could come...

After his party, we went home and tried to talk him into picking a place to go out to eat, but he begged to just stay home and wanted us to go pick up pizza, so that's what we did.

Anyway such a fun day!

So many things I love about you Gunnar...

You have a huge personality! You entertain us every day, you are so funny!
You are still pretty quiet around other people at times though and always polite.

Your sweet smile and laugh.

You are so so smart! This doesn't say much (because I am terrible at it), but you can figure out math way faster than Mom can!

You are a good listener and a good student as well as a good friend.

Everyone likes you.

Sometimes you are so stubborn though!

Which reminds me of how much we love your cute red hair, you like to call it orange :)
How you still love for me to lay with you at night and beg me to not go.

And back to how smart you are, you love grammar as much as I do and really understand it and speak so well! Dad calls you the grammar police...haha.

And I can't forget how much you love to eat...you are pretty much always hungry, but still SO skinny! But you're always working on and showing me your muscles in your arms and legs.
How athletic you are and how good you are at anything you try!

I really do love seeing the amazing little person you are and am always so grateful I get to be your Mom :)

I love you my sweet 7 year old!

 Up next your real birthday spent traveling to Texas!