Chick-Fil-A... our family's McDonald's

As a kid I can't think of anything more exciting than getting a happy meal and going to play on the playground...which, back then, was outside and metal, so in the summer it was about 200 degrees...but none the less, still super fun (blisters and all). I thought it was just a kid thing and that all kids like McDonald's. It turns out that if you never take your kids there, they don't ever ask to go! I thought I had done great as a parent when we can drive past McDonald's and Timothy won't even bat an eye. But then today, as we were driving to the grocery store and passing Chick-Fil-A, Timothy yells out "I want to go there Mommy! I want Chick-Fil-A!" Ugh! He's craving fast food! I've failed! So what was my response? "Honey, it's expensive. We can't go there all the time." That's NOT a lie. Eating there all the time does add up, but now I can guarantee he'll tell his teacher and friends at school "Chick-Fil-A is expensive!" They are going to think I'm the cheapest person on the planet! Haha! Oh well. I guess every kid has their favorite place to go. Timothy's places are Chick-Fil-A, 7-Eleven (for Slurpees), and Costco (because it has fork lifts and samples). I guess that's not so bad.



Here are the kids at Chick-Fil-A one morning a week or so ago.

Easter Photos

Darn these school pictures! They are so stinking cute! I prefer not to spend a small fortune every few months, but every time school picture day rolls around I KNOW I'll be suckered into buying another package. AND, we'll be taking photos in the blue bonnets next week (as if we needed more)! I hope all the Grandparents are ok with pictures for their Mother's Day/Father's Day/Easter gifts!

Timothy should work for Hallmark

Timothy has been working hard on learning how to write his letters over the past month or so. He spends hours tracing over the letters on his dry-erase flash cards. I bought them for him at the airport on my way home from a business trip. I thought he'd be disappointed that I didn't get him a toy, but I was pleasantly surprised! The cards are one of his favorite things right now. He even took them to the Super Bowl party at our friends' house a couple weeks ago.

Today was Timothy's teacher's birthday, so this morning we made her a card. I folded a piece of scrapbooking paper and wrote out "Happy B-Day Miss Shaniqua" on a separate paper for him so he could see how to spell it. (I figured Birthday and Shaniqua might be too many letters for the card so I shortened it to B-Day, which he was not happy about.) He wrote it out on the card, painstakingly forming each letter. (See below). I thought it turned out pretty good, especially for a 3 1/2 year old!

Imagination Movers!

Today we went to see the Imagination Movers! For those of you that might not be hip to Playhouse Disney, the Imagination Movers is a show about 4 guys who are in a band and work in a warehouse solving problems for people. Ok, it sounds super hokey, but it's very entertaining. Here is a link to their bio. http://www.imaginationmovers.com/bio/ These guys all had normal day jobs and played in a band together on the weekends until they were discovered by Disney. I think that's what makes the TV show and the concert so great. They actually write their own songs and are very good performers, not just some cute actors that lip sync.

Anyway... We went to see their concert today! Timothy was SO excited and Charlotte had no idea what was going on. As soon as the show started though, Charlotte was up and dancing and Timothy sat in his chair so shy and quiet! It was sweet. Mark and I had an awesome time! Despite the songs being about running-in-place, ice cream cones and eating healthy snacks, they really can rock! ...oh my... I have turned into a full fledged dorky mom!

See below for some pictures of us at the concert and a short video of the kids. Being at a concert sitting about 1 inch from each other doesn't make it very easy to take pictures, so please excuse the quality and quantity of the pictures/video.

Super Bowl Cupcakes

The Super Bowl is in Dallas today... actually it's going on as I type this blog post. Even though I couldn't care less who wins the game, I was in the Super Bowl spirit. I told my friend Lauren I would bring cupcakes to her Super Bowl party. It was actually her suggestion, but I do have a fascination/obsession with making cupcakes lately. My obsession with cupcakes started around Timothy's and Charlotte's birthdays. I wanted to make something cute for their party, which was Shrek themed, so I made Shrek cupcakes. These took forever to make, but they were so much fun!


I forgot to take pictures of these until after the party, so the only Fiona cupcake left had already been licked when I took a picture with my Blackberry.


Timothy loves to help me bake, so he stayed up last night and helped me mix the cupcake batter (and lick the beaters clean of course). Today was decorating day! Timothy and Charlotte each got some icing and a cupcake. Timothy actually decorated 3 of them, while Charlotte just devoured hers. : ) They are both such good helpers!
















I hope everyone had a great Super Bowl Sunday! We didn't watch much of the game, but we had a blast!

Long time no taco...

Hi All! This is Sarah. I'll be taking over the blog posts and hope to keep up with it pretty regularly. Mark may jump in from time to time, but I'm trying this out as my new hobby. It's been about a year and a half since the last blog post, so I have a lot to catch up on!

(Today's blog title is courtesy of my step mom Mary. Love you Mary!)

Do you recall the old saying "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN"?, and it stated ideas like “Don't hit people”,” Be polite”,” Share”, my favorite “Flush”, and another one that should be on the list “WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER YOU USE THE RESTROOM!” (seriously some people are just disgusting).


Well a few weeks ago Sarah, Timothy and I went to a wedding for one of her coworkers. We had a great time going out of town as a family to Brownwood, Texas, a small town about 3 hours from where we live. The wedding was great but for Sarah and I as parents the highlight was watching Timothy. He had such a great time, especially on the dance floor! At first it took some coaxing but in no time he was a dancing machine. As we watched Timothy work his hardwood magic I remembered the old kindergarten saying and thought that it was a true statement, however I thought that all we really need to know, we can learn from our children.

In our lives so many of us, myself included, are worried about things that are out of our control, worried about what others think of us, what we look like, how we dress, where we work etc. But in the eyes of a toddler there are no worries. Although at first a toddler may be shy, a toddler just does not care what you or anyone thinks of them. They are so carefree and live life exactly in that moment. There are no fears of work or being socially accepted. There are no fears of their favorite sports team not making it to a World Series. There are no fears of paying the mortgage or making sure the dogs have all their shots.

When I watch video like this of Timothy it sure helps to calm any fears that I have of what is going on in the real world. I can live vicariously through him in these videos.


I hope you enjoy watching my little man dance his heart out.