Friday's French Quarter Festival

Jude, the boys, and I went to the French Quarter Festival with my MF's today and we had a lovely time. Cullen was bored out of his mind as he doesn't appreciate 'the true New Orleans' at the age of nine. Aiden threw Roman to the ground during a rough play session and Roman had a horn poking out of his forehead which required an ice pack and medical attention. Aside from that, the weather was gorgeous, the food was delicious, the music was fantastic, and the company was fun. I am glad we went. *I stole a few pics from Angele and Blair, so thanks. :)

The stroller brigade

Cullen trying to get beamed out of here

Ro has never seen a fake baby before and he doesn't know what to think of it

Friends

Having fun

I love this picture!

Ro and his "knot"

The Big D

On Good Friday, we left on a nine hour car trip to see family in Farmersville, TX. It was Jude, myself, Cullen, Aiden, Roman, Julia, Jake, and Isabella (the inlaws dog). We all fit in the suburban quite comfortably. We had a great time there and the boys had smiles for five days straight.
We went to see our Aunt Kay on her ranch. She is the wife of Julia's brother, Sonny (Jude's uncle and godfather), who passed away about four years ago. Sonny has one son, Kenny, from a previous marriage who is a little older than Jude. All the family is close there.
On the ranch, she has a nice large beautiful home that they had just built about a year before Uncle Sonny passed. Then, also on the ranch, they have a house for Elaine, Kenny's ex-wife. Elaine and Kenny were married for a few years and they have three kids together: Matthew, Elise, and Lindsey. The kids get the advantage of living by there Mimi on the ranch with their mom. A few months after Jude and I got married, Kenny got remarried to Nichole and they have two children together, Hailey and Hayden. That is all the family we were visiting in Texas. There is another house on the ranch for the farm worker and his family. He has two little girls and they got to come play a lot, too.

Friday-we left at 7 am, stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and arrived in the evening. We had Dairy Queen for dinner and then went to the ranch. We called it an early night because we had big plans the following day.
Saturday-I woke up at 7:30 am and went for a mile and a half run in the country. It was nice. After, we took the boys to Six Flags and their cousin Lindsey came with us. I tried to take Cullen and Lindsey (who is 11) to ride the big kid rides, while Jude took Ro and Aiden on the smaller rides. At one point, we were all together on the train, the four kids sitting between us, and a lady leaned in and asked Jude "Do you all have enough kids?" OMG! How inappropriate. She continued to try and chit chat with him throughout the ride and I didn't get the scoop till after. I told Jude he should have told her "We like to #%*@!" It was a long day which ended with us eating at a Mexican restaurant.

Sunday-I woke up with my shins killing me. Apparently, my legs over did it the day before; but, it was Easter. We had a nice lunch and we had more family join us. I got to meet Jude's cousin's wife, Nichole, who I had only known through myspace and we hit it off. I think she is fantastic! If we lived closer, I would love to hang out more. We both took lots of pics of the kids Easter egg hunt and the day was a success. The males ended the day fishing and I thought I was going to go insane trying to keep Roman from touching everything in the house and getting into trouble outside. I needed a plan for Monday if they planned on fishing again.

Monday-We woke and decided to go buy the boys boots because the farm was wet and we wanted to visit the animals at some point. Also, the males wanted to go fishing again. After a trip "into town", a twenty minute drive to Wiley where the closest Walmart was, I decided to take Roman to the outlet mall in Allen, Premiere Outlet. Nichole lives near there so we met at her house first. Then, we all headed out shopping. What a nice time I had. I even found a great deal on a fabulous Coach purse that I took home with me. *Smiles* Jude wanted me home at a decent hour for fear of me driving on the country roads at night. They have no street lights there in Farmersville. On my way home, I got lost, of course. It took me a little over an hour to get home when it should have taken twenty five minutes or so. No worries, I made it home. We all watched a movie that night (do not rent "Nights in Rodanthe") after eating the days catch and went to bed.
Tuesday-Our last day there, we went to the Dallas Galleria and Jude took Cullen and Lindsey ice skating while Nichole and I took the younger ones to the mall play area. After, Kenny (Nic's husband) joined us and we all had lunch together. We tried to sneak off for a little shopping but got called back after only thirty minutes. There was so much to see there and yet no time to do it. We headed back to the farm because we were supposed to visit the farm animals and then go eat with the whole family. We took some pics there and were off to McKinney to eat at another Mexican restaurant. We had a nice dinner, the kids were even somewhat behaving themselves. On our way home, we decided to leave late on Wednesday so we could pack in the morning and the kids could burn some energy before the long car ride home.

Wednesday-We woke up early and all had breakfast together. I packed ALL morning and cleaned while Jude played with the kids outside and visited more of the farm. We baked Aunt Kay a cake because her birthday was the following Friday, so we could all sing to her. We left at 2pm and stopped at McD's for dinner, half way home. We all got home about midnight and we were all happy to be back in our own beds.

The trip was wonderful and I am so thankful Aunt Kay let us come stay for five nights. The memories the boys will have for years to come are priceless! They were also taught a lesson in relationships. You can NOT marry your cousin!! Lindsey and Elise charmed the boys so much that Aiden was trying to do toesies on them and all the boys were fighting for their attention. They are a very sweet family:)
CLICK FOR PICTURES

The perfect alphabet

The alphabet two months earlier

Kids and Canvas

It was so gorgeous today, we decided to go out back and paint a beautiful masterpiece.

Then, Roman's friend came over to play with him and they really got down to the alphabet.


Cullen played at his friends house down the street all day. I barely see him on weekends these days and he is only nine. :(

I love spring!

Here are a few pics I took today of the garden. The weather is amazing right now and I love when Mother Nature shows off.

Too many children, not enough park

I woke up this morning and made myself a nice cup of coffee. With half the cup containing Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla coffee and the other half of the cup, milk, I set it on the kitchen counter and went to wake the kids. Roman was out the bedroom door as I was fooling with Aiden in the room. All of a sudden, I hear glass break and Ro crying. I fly to the kitchen to see Ro standing there with my favorite coffee cup in pieces and he is drenched in luke warm coffee. I get the big cleaning job done and rush us off to the gym, where I am ten minutes too late for the class. Thanks, Ro! I then work out all alone. After the gym, we decided to try the park out since we didn't do the zoo yesterday. The kids were dying to burn some energy. The first park we went to had three or four bus loads of children there from the city. It was packed and I couldn't keep track of my two. I called Liz and Amy and we decided to change parks. The second park only had one bus load there and it was the local parish public school kindergarten class. That wasn't so bad. Actually, Roman was very fond of the group and kept trying to sneak into their lunch circle. He took a class photo with them during their lunch. lol The weather was beautiful and we had a great time. On our way home, I decided to go to the mall and get Cullen's teacher a gift card because it was Teacher's Appreciation Week this week and I am a procrastinator. Once I am in the mall parking lot, I discover Roman is sleeping. I decided to leave there and just hit Rouses up so I could get a nice non-meat Catholic dinner for tonight and grab a g.c. there, kill two birds with one stone. I pull into Rouses, park, go to grab my purse and realize, wait, I left the dang thing at home this morning on accident. I have no money or id on me. I just sat there and thanked God I hadn't shopped and tried to check out before realizing it. I do not know where my mind is this week! Home we went. Jude will have to pick up dinner:)

Movies and mani's

This morning we were supposed to go to the zoo with our MF's but we got rained out. So, since Daddy was home, mommy slept in real late. (Thanks, Dad!) Aiden had his four year check up later in the day and boy was he pissed when he got his immunizations. I forgot just how loud that child can scream. We left there and met Daddy for a 5:45 movie, Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D. It was a really cute movie but I had to leave before the end because it was Mom's Night Out with my MF's.


We had a great time getting manicures and pedicures together, eating mucho sweets and sipping bubbly drinks.




When I got home, Jude had picked up Aiden's new dresser that Mimi bought him for his birthday. We took it out the box and set it in his room while the rug rats were sleeping. It is so cute and matches his furniture decor. He is going to love it!

Put on your reading glasses, I have lots to say today

Post 1

Smarter than the average bear

Yesterday, we received a letter from a certain school saying Aiden was accepted into their program, but the space was limited and he is now on a waiting list. This was the school he tested to get into. The test he said he "didn't do good" on. I was so proud of my little man for scoring high enough. He has his father's brain and his mother's good looks. Oh, wait, he looks just like his father. Okay, he is ALL Jude. (Names have been removed to protect the innocent.)

As for the waiting list, Jude said it was kind of like getting accepted into Harvard but not having the funds to go there. I think the point of it all is that he GOT accepted. I am one proud momma. He scored high on Words and Letters, and I just want to thank Starfall.com for all their help. Aiden plays that by himself for long periods of time.

Post 2

Making the band

Roman wanted to play the drums this morning and I let him go at it. Aiden heard the beautiful music coming from the living room and decided to join in.
Hear the video:

Post 3

April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a very off day for me. A little depressing. Thirteen years ago, I was in a terrible relationship with a terrible person and I made lots of bad choices and mistakes. One is marked by April 1st. The last two nights I have had haunting dreams of that time in my life. The first night, after waking up, I told Jude about it and said I didn't know why I was dreaming of this person. Jude was a little concerned, too. In bed last night, as I was falling asleep, I realized today was going to mark a certain anniversary. That date haunts me every year, either consciously or subconsciously . I am thankful for all that I have in my life and I thank God I am where I am. I always took the wrong path in life up until a few years ago. One day, I would like to write about it all. One day.

Post 4

The MMM

In August of 2006, I was moving from Bayou Country to the place we are now and I wanted to find a group of other moms that I could relate to and hang out with. I had done this in Bayou Country, online, and was eager to do this in another new area. I didn't know many people here so I got right to it, prior to moving. I signed up for the local MMM and it was a small group. Within a day, the organizer who had started the group three months back, wrote me an email saying she was closing the group. She said she had asked others to take over, they didn't respond, and she was tired of the situation. She was a little abrasive and aggressive. I said I would take the organizer role on as I didn't want the group to close. Before I knew it, I was organizer, still living far away for a few weeks. I made my friend Amy join, which she was very willing to do, and we tried to make the group a success. Surprisingly, it came easily. We are part of a great group of moms and I recommend anyone to try it.
That being said, I feel a sort of ownership with this group. It is like a business, but there is no financial gain. It is a volunteer position. I may act like I own it at times but I know that I do not. It is just a sense of pride and ownership I feel for the group as a whole that may, at times, may, come off wrong. It is still my baby to me. I may not be right in how I feel, but I can at least admit that. I have left the position of organizer and assistant organizer to deal with a huge tragic event in my life, and as soon as it passed, I was back on board volunteering. A friend of mine went missing and it was later uncovered that her husband had murdered her. I say uncovered, instead of discovered, because a few of us knew this all along, we just needed the rest of the world to catch up with us. Her name was Brandi Hawkins Laurent and you can google her name to read more. There is lots to read there. Anyway, I was MIA from the group, actually, from my life, for over a year and a half. You cannot judge me or understand it unless you ever have to experience this yourself. I pray no one ever has to go through it. I know I am getting off topic, but my point in all this rambling is, some members may have joined when my life was shut off and I may have not been myself at that particular time. I apologize. The group has undergone lots of changes in leadership lately, but we are still moving in the right direction and the group is still going strong, almost three years later. My MF's (mom friends) have been a life saver to me and I do not plan on leaving the group until I am kicked out for having teenage children. LOL Okay, that is an exaggeration. Slight. To our members: I hope all of you enjoy the group just as much and if you ever have a problem with the group, I hope you will feel welcome to come talk to me. We, as organizers, want to try and make everyone happy!
The end.