I'm just going to play play play play play...

Shelly and I heard that Taylor Swift was coming to Houston with her 1989 tour in October 2014. We immediately bought tickets in the nosebleeds and kept the secret from our girls for almost an entire year. We listened to the 1989 album a thousand times and finally it was September 2015 and time for a wild girls night out. All six of us were excited and we made it downtown and parked quick and easy and made our way to our seats way at the top of the Astrodome. Vance Joy and Shawn Mendez opened the show and half way through their songs, we headed down to get some snacks and stretch our legs before the big show began. The girls were dancing and singing along at the bottom of our section getting their wiggles out when we were spotted. A lady approached me and said "I am with Team Taylor and she really wants some young fans down in front, would you all like to please follow me?" It took me a few minutes to process what she was saying and then my jaw dropped. Really?! She gave us tickets and we followed her down and down and down until we were entering the ground floor.  (We were walking on home plate.)  We kept passing security who waved us by and finally we were escorted to our seats ON THE FRONT ROW. WHAT??? It was totally unreal and the girls were screaming with excitement. Shelly and I were laughing at all of the people watching us as we passed them thinking "wow, how much did they pay for those seats" as we led our 9 and 5 year olds to the closest seats at the biggest concert of the year.

Before we knew it, the entire arena went dark and up popped tons of dancers and Miss Taylor Swift herself singing Welcome to New York. It was seriously the most amazing moment and we had not even caught our breath yet. For the next 3 hours, she sang every song we knew and changed costumes and danced and put on a show like we had never seen before. There were special guests and fireworks and smoke and we had a front row seat to it all. The girls sang at the top of their lungs and felt so special and lucky being so close to all of the action. At nearly 11:00pm (on a school night ) Taylor sadly said her goodbye and we all made our way to the car exhausted and with our ears ringing. It was surely a night to remember and one that we may never be able to recreate again. Wow! Thank you Team Taylor for the night of a lifetime!

And the summer ends with August...

Once school begins we know that summer officially ends. (Even though the temps still stay summer like till Halloween.) Our lives are back to being scheduled and busy and the weekends become our sanity. In August we cut off all of the chlorine with haircuts, we celebrated Grandma Joan's birthday, and we continued to check things off our bucket list. We had a blast visiting Dallas and loved going to Legoland with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Van and celebrating Caleb's birthday at the Beach Club. We finally rode the trolley around The Woodlands, visited the dentist, had a camp out in mom and dad's bedroom and celebrated June turning 1 years old. The month ended with Isabelle getting a tooth pulled and it was her first day to skip school of the new year. What a fun summer we enjoyed. I have always loved the month of August myself. (I turned 36 on the 2nd.)

First week of 4th grade and Kindergarten

The summer days went by way too fast as expected. All four of us were not ready when the first day of the 2015 - 2016 school year came around but none were panicked quite like Olivia!

Olivia has said since she started preschool at age 3 that "school is the worst" and she has no interest in going. We could not get her excited this summer by buying school supplies or letting her pick out a new backpack and lunchbox, etc. She did not want to go to Kindergarten and that was final.

Sigh, sadly she had to go. I was having my own sort of emotional meltdown sending my baby to her first day of ALL DAY school but I held it together and faked it till we left her sitting in her seat in Mrs. Parker's room. We are so thrilled that she was blessed to be in a warm and experienced teachers classroom and although she still ( 9 weeks later ) fights everyday not to go, we know that she is in good hands at CFES.

Isabelle began a new year with Mrs. Schwarze for math and science and Mrs. Adams for language arts and social studies.  (She also visits a new Mrs Lummus everyday to enrich her education.)  Both of her BFFs Emily and Abby are in her class and her teachers are young and fun and she has had an excellent start to the year.  I am beginning to think that 4th grade may teach us more about life than academics though.  I'm not ready!
After our first day of school, half the neighborhood went to the new FroYo restaurant that opened biking distance away and celebrated surviving day one.  Somehow that turned into running through the fountains in your clothes and the kids had a great time burning off some back to school steam.

When we relocated to Houston a few years ago we picked our house specifically so that our girls would go to Creekside Forest Elementary and we continue to feel like that was the best decision that we ever made. Having said that, our home is so quiet without them each day and we long for the days when we get to be lazy together. Parenting is not for the weary.


Go Creekside Cougars!

Roasting in July

We did our best to stay cool in July before we vacationed at the end of the month in Montana. July's focus was the girls Summer Bucket List and we did a pretty good job checking off activities each day. The girls attended soccer camp together, had a lemonade stand with the Millers, cheered on the Astros, visited the zoo and took their dolls for make-overs at the American Girl Store. We celebrated Ben's birthday with a bike ride to Starbucks and a swim date at the pool, we bowled with friends and we had a sleepover at Grammie and Grandpa's house. July was the epitome of summer and we have lots of wonderful memories to prove it.