Summer is for.....

 shady walks, (Buescher State Park for Kid Fish)

 creating things, (pictured security doors to keep boys out, but then when we had some boys over for dinner they were welcomed in)

 catching frog,

 library events, (so far we've seen the singing Zoologist, a magician-pictured with assistant Gloria and a tap dancer, all excellent and funny live performances for free)

 did I mention creating things? (I watched six kids while some Friendship International ladies did a short project with some students of going around town publicizing for Friendship, the big kids created this fort)

 Summer is for climbing trees, (outside our library)

 building forts, (our pool had this box and let us take it home, again a no boy-or only one at a time-hideout, here they are also trying on pants to see if they still fit for Russia)

 did I mention catching frogs?  (these were outside our pool but now are free and in the wild)

 more singing fun, (the Singing Zoologist himself at the LBJ Wildflower Center Nature Nights)

 playing in waterfalls, (LBJWC)

and playing in dirt!
It hasn't broken 100 degrees yet this summer so we are enjoying a lot of outside time!  We are also going to $1 movies and lots of hanging out with friends.  Life has been busy but when we return from Russia it will slow down with events.

Fun in the Sun!

Father's day at the beach.  On Sunday we drove to CC and headed to Mustang Island state park. There was sea weed but we still enjoyed playing with an awesome sand castle, having dinner, feeding sea gulls, walking down the jetty and swimming.

Great things about being in the sun all day is the girls go to sleep easily.

Monday Caleb had a work shop, so the girls and I went to a free beach on North Padre Island.  It wasn't very crowded so we swam a lot, we would go out into the "rolly zone"  where the waves weren't crashing and float.  Super fun.

Our sand castle.

Feeding the sea gulls.

Pics by the mermaid sculpture by the trashy beach store.  (We actually went the whole time only spending money on food-free fun in the sun).  Speaking of the, the three of us got sunburned!!  That normally doesn't happen to the hat & rash guard family.  Fortunately it all turned to tan but was still painful for a few days.   That evening we had dinner in our hotel room and then walked along the sea wall in CC.

Tuesday Caleb was back with us and we headed to Port A to see where we lived when Lydia was born.  There were lots of treasures in all that seaweed!

Obligatory shark mouth photo.

Some fun sightings at the birding center.

We had dinner with Lari Jo and family.

I am officially old.  On Wednesday the morning we were to leave at noon, we had planned to go to the city Corpus Christi beach.   That morning my sunburn didn't feel good and I thought about packing up, so I sent Caleb and the girls to the beach and I stayed in the hotel room and packed and rested.  They had a great time doing mermaid tales :)
So glad we live close enough to the coast to get to do this every year!

VBS

 We had a great week of VBS-Agency D3, a spy theme.  I did missions and it went really well.  Summer came with us and Gloria went into the Kinder class.  They had a great time and discovered the evidence of who Jesus is, sang, danced, and played.

 Each day we had a picnic after by the pond.  The weather was surprisingly cool and friends would join us.  One day we swam, another captured turtles, another kayaked and the last day was baptism and hot dogs!

When we got home we practiced the songs (which were really good this year) with youtube.  When we got to Salado, we did the whole cd with motions for the family.

Beginning of summer

 Lydia's last A honor role assembly.  She also got Art & Writing Awards!

 She did it!  She got 20 checks for doing chores and earned a Rainbow Dash Equistria Girls dolls, for those of you who don't know its a movie where the My Little Ponies turn into 'humans'....creepy

 On Caleb's birthday we went to Cabela's where he was working a kid event.  I told the girls they could have one treat for the day.  They are smart cookies they found candy with a toy combo :)

 Happy Birthday cheesecake and folder of notes!

 Fancy dinner at Carmelos, the lemon helped keep Gloria entertained for a while.  Lydia said the bread dip tasted like foot scrub!!  They had made olive oil and brown sugar foot scrub at a parent's night out for mother's day.  I think she is ruined from olive oil for life.

 Happy Fancy Family.

 In the courtyard.

Kathy is in Central Texas!!  We went for a visit and went to Chalk Ridge Falls for a walk and bridge bouncing.

May Fun

 May as always was a busy and fun month.  Gloria and I went to Houston twice to get our visas to Russia and right down from the consulate was the Houston Nature center.  It was a great place to stretch our legs before getting back into the car.  Gloria loved the tight rope.  Our second time it was field trip day so she only did it once and there were tons of kids around but that day she got a popsicle

Lydia's school had a family Health night.  There were A-Z fruits and veggies, dancing, inflatable rock wall (Lydia got to the top, Gloria not so much), egg races and archery.  Super fun time with lots of friends (like Mia)

 All the cook kids have birthdays in May :) and we went to three parties this month, including Gloria's favorite school friend Judah at Build-a-bear.

 The pool opened!!!  The first weeks were a little chilly but its hot enough now to be nice.  We blame Lari Jo's daughters for this pose.

 Because of school, Lydia pretty much falls asleep when her head hits the pillow.  Gloria again not so much.  But one benefit is when Dad takes out the trash and finds a toad on the porch she got to come out and see it and of course with Gloria seeing a creature equals touching, holding and handling the creature.

 Another party-Kylie's at the Jumpy Place!

 Then off to a grown up party-crawfish boil.  But the kids had a great time too and Gloria enjoyed making a craydaddy village-notice the one hanging out on the pillow here.  Everyone there were in the late 20s to early 30s and were hanging out in the back yard all day.  We got there at 3 and left at 7 and that was just the middle portion.   And no one was looking at their phones at all, they were investing in face to face relationships-the world is not lost :)
I realize now that all these pictures are of Lydia & Gloria.  We had fun too just from behind the camera.