Aiden's 1st Birthday

I finally uploaded pictures off of my camera....

Back on April 9th, (also Aunt Jean's birthday---Happy Birthday Aunt Jean!!) we went to the Moffitt house to help Aiden celebrate his 1st birthday.  His room is decorated in a surfer theme so it was only right that his 1st birthday be celebrated with a Luau!!  The kids had fun playing with all of the other kids there and Hudson always enjoys the loads of toys Eli and Aiden have in their toy room!  Aiden had a delicious Neapolitan flavored cake which was decorated with monkeys and surf boards!

Here's the birthday boy:

 I think she's trying to pull out her bow in this picture.  I was so excited to have a little girl and put pretty little bows in her hair but she just rips them right out every time!  I'm hoping she'll grow out of that soon!

Happy Birthday Aiden!  We love you!

Frosty Boaster & Dogbite

I was sitting outside grilling and watching the kids play when I looked over and noticed this little turtle sleeping behind our flower pot.

 Hudson asked if we could keep him.  We didn't have anything to keep him in so he spent the night in our bathtub...sadly, probably terrified.  The next day, Jason went to PetCo to look for an aquarium for him.  However, after talking to the reptile department, he realized keeping a turtle is A LOT of work.  More work than we would like to take on at this point.  So instead, he brought home a box for him and we turned it into a temporary home.  Hudson named him Frosty Boaster Holladay and we kept him for one week before letting him go to live in our backyard again. 

Our next temporary pet was Dogbite Holladay (another excellent name by Hudson...he has a gift.).  Dogbite was (is) a chameleon that Hudson caught after returning home from the grocery store on Mother's Day.  He saw it sunbathing on our fence he surprised himself when he reached down and caught it on the first try.  I truly don't think I've EVER seen him this proud of himself.  He began shouting, "I caught my first lizard!!  I caught my first lizard!!"  He had the absolute biggest smile on his face and I think it was there all night long.  I'm sure he even dreamed of lizards when he was sleeping that night.  In a bargaining attempt with his Dad the following morning, Hudson managed to talk Jason into letting him take the lizard to school in exchange for letting him go when he came home that day.  I'm betting the school wasn't especially pleased when they came walking in to class with a lizard in a jar but the kids loved it and Hudson was truly proud.  We he came home that evening he went to let the lizard go but the lizard was content hanging out with Hudson.  Hudson kept telling us that Dogbite loved him and they were buddies!  They walked around together all evening until it was time to eat dinner and say goodnight. 

Easter Day 2011

We colored our eggs the night before Easter and left them out for the Easter bunny to hide.

Then we woke up and Hudson found his and London's Easter baskets!  They had fun going through them and checking out all of their goodies. 

Then it was time to head outside and find all of the eggs!

We spent some time going through all of the eggs.  Then we ate breakfast, got cleaned up, and went to church.

After church, we ate some lunch, took a nap, and went swimming! 

Kemah

The Saturday before Easter, we took a trip to Kemah!  We went early so it was not crowded at all when we arrived.  The temperature was perfect and the ocean breeze kept us from getting too hot as we waited in line at the rides.  Our first stop was the Ferris Wheel!!  Hudson and Jason went as London and I stood back and took pictures. 

Here is London watching Hudson and Daddy go around and around on the ferris wheel:

Next we rode the carousel:

 After the carousel, we rode the airplanes. 

Then it was time to fill up our bellies and enjoy watching the fish at the Aquarium:

By the time we had finished lunch the crowd had grown exponentially.  We rode a couple more rides and then called it a day!  A great day!

School Egg Hunt

The Thursday before Easter was the egg hunt at school!  The kids had been busy making their egg baskets all week and were eager to fill them up! 

I arrived in time to capture a couple pictures of all the eggs left by the Easter bunny that would soon be snatched up in a matter of seconds!

I went into London's class first and they told me the big kids would be going first.  I took London with me to go watch Hudson so she could learn how this egg hunting thing is done!

 Hudson's class was all lined up at the door with their baskets in hand!  The were ready!!!  They couldn't wait to see all of the eggs waiting for them on the other side of the door. 

 Since Hudson has been so good at school, he has been made the official door holder and he is very proud of that job.  He had to hold the door for everyone else as the went outside to start gathering eggs.  If it had been me, I would have been all upset that everyone else was getting a headstart.  Not Hudson.  He was proud to do his job!

 Then he was off!!  However, I have to say, he was not the most aggressive egg gatherer.  He was more concerned about finding the perfect egg to give to London!  He found her a big pink Dora egg.  What a sweet brother!  I kept trying to tell him not to check out each egg but to grab as many as he could! 

 He started grabbing faster once he realized how quickly all of the eggs were disappearing!

 Then it was London's turn and she did learn by watching Hudson!  She also wanted to check out each egg and see what was inside before moving on to the next one.  Once she opened one up she would, in true London fashion, quickly and sharply throw it into the bag and move on.

 It didn't take her long to get distracted by the treehouse and decide it would be more fun to play than pick up eggs and put them in a bag. 

 It was a fun egg hunt and I think I enjoyed watching the kids as much as they enjoyed being outside and hunting Easter eggs!

Yay! A box from Papa & Gigi!

The Wednesday before Easter, we came home and Hudson noticed a box on our doorstep.  I told him I bet it was his box of Easter goodies from Papa & Gigi!!  He was so excited.  He unbuckled his seatbelt as I was still pulling into the garage and he must have felt a little worried because he started explaining why he did it and that he knew we weren't on the road anymore.  As soon as I turned the car off he opened his door and ran to the front door to get the box. 

We opened the box as soon as we got inside!  It was full of yummy chocolates, fun little toys, and some very cute Easter outfits for each of the kids.  They were both thrilled!  It was nice for me too because it kept them both entertained the entire time I cooked dinner!  Thank you Papa & Gigi!!  We love you!

Kindergarten?!?!

I was not at all prepared to open up an envelope and read this announcement.  Because Hudson misses the cut-off age for public school Kindergarten, I thought I had an entire year before I had to think about this.  However, Primrose's Private Kindergarten has a cut-off date of December 1st (as noted below) so Hudson can begin their Kindergarten program this year if we choose to do so. 

Jason and I attended the Kindergarten Roundup meeting with lots of questions, hesitations, and maybe a little bit of excitement...after all, Kindergarten is quite a milestone. We sat in the back of the class and observed the teacher, the kids, and the routine of it all. It was most entertaining to say the least! Mrs. Bell is a wonderful teacher with a disposition meant for a Kindergarten teacher. All of the kids shined with their individual personalities that were made so apparent in the short twenty minutes we observed them. I think they left me with a permanent grin the entire time. We were thoroughly impressed that all of the kids were able to read and spell. We were told the kids, depending on each individual's progress, would finish the year being able to read between a 1st grade to 3rd grade reading level. We were impressed.  We have pretty much decided to go ahead and enroll Hudson in the program.  However, he will attend Kindergarten twice so he will not enter 1st grade as the youngest kid in the class.  There is a HUGE difference between a 5 yr old and a 6/7 yr old so we do not want him to compete with kids that much older than him throughout the rest of his school years.  I guess we should have planned his birthday a little better! ; )

On a similar note, Jason recently put a great learning game on his iPad for Hudson to play.  However, we were both quite shocked at how good he was at it.  It had adding and subtracting which he aced!  It also had sections where it would ask him to find words such as "the" or "ran" and he knew every single one of them!!  It also had him complete the spelling for words like "cat" or "jug" and again, he knew every one!  We realized that all of that money we begrudgingly shovel into this school is paying off.  Yay Primrose!  Yay Hudson!  However, he knows he is smart and is constantly telling us, "(he doesn't say 'duh' but his tone does) I already know that".  I'm sure this is a precursor to the teenager years. 

Jam-packed Saturday

Back on April 2nd, Primrose Sterling Ridge celebrated it's 10 year anniversary.  They hosted a Spring Fling as a fundraiser for two of the foundations the school donates to and it also served as a celebration for the big 10 year mark.  After Hudson went to his first day of swimming lessons, we headed over to the school to join the fun! 

We were greeted by a big firetruck and the firemen let Hudson climb on board and explore. 

This was also the day the school revealed it's new splash pad!!!  During the hot summer months, each class will have a designated day they will get to have fun splashing around outside on the super cool splash pad!  All of the kids had a blast playing on this! (I had not gotten London a bathing suit yet so I just stripped her down to her diaper!) On the opposite side of the school, they had snow brought in for the kids to play in!!  There were different games and activities set up all over the school campus.  They had fun music, vendor booths and even pizza from Russo's New York Pizzeria (which Katia's parent's own).  It was a really great time!!  The school teachers and staff truly out did themselves!!  I LOVE this school!!

Here is Hudson decorating a yummy cookie with some chocolate icing and sprinkles:

While we were there, Cameron's Dad invited us to go to the Muddy Trails Bash at the Rob Fleming Park where he would be serving up crawfish with his trademark seasoning Spice 'n Ice.  We ran home, dried off and reloaded our snacks/drinks and headed to the park.  It was a really fun crawfish fest with booth after booth of free, all-you-can-eat crawfish.  They had some good Zydeco music that Hudson and London couldn't resist dancing to and Hudson enjoyed playing with his buddies on the playground.  I took London for a walk and we found this beautiful bluebonnet hill so I tried to snap some quick pictures.  (I later schedule professional pictures for this spot 2 weeks later and almost all of the bluebonnets were dead since we've had no rain...hopefully we still got some good shots with the few stragglers we hoovered around.) 

Some local firemen had a booth next to Cameron's Dad's and one of them spent at least an hour playing with Hudson and a few crawfish!

After the crawfish festival, we rushed home so I could take a super quick shower and meet up with some of my friends for a mom's night out.  When I returned home, this is how I found the boys:

We had a fantastic day but I don't think we could have possibly squeezed in anything else into one day!!