Today was Ella’s first field trip (she has 8 field trips this preschool year!) They went to the Dino Park and I got to tag along! (Love being a stay at home mom!)
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| Ella loved this T-Rex head! |
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| I love her face in this one. She’s thinking, “Guess I’m being eaten alive.” |
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| Jake and Ella acting like T-Rexes |
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| don’t remember what this little guy is called |
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| Brontosaurus |
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| Stegosaurus and Ella’s class |
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| Jake and Ella (could pass for siblings don’t you think?) So sweet. |
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| our Ella Bella |
Water parks. They are frustrating for a person like me. Why? Because I feel that it is an event with my kids that I MUST document with high quality pictures, however, a water park is not exactly the best place to bring my very nice camera and lenses. So, I did take pictures today, (with my friend’s camera), but begrudgingly. I really wanted to get ‘the shot’ where the girls are flying down the slide in their tubes, but of course, I can’t. So if we were near our locker, and I was in the mood, I got out the camera and took a few shots. So what I’m trying to say is that I’m not super excited about these pictures. 😛
We thought today would be a good day to take the girls on their first trip to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels. Today is the second to last day that the water park is open this year so I thought it wouldn’t be too crowded. We had promised the girls to go this summer, (they had even been saving their chore money for tickets), and summer came and went so fast that before you know it, September was here and we were down to the last weekend it was open! So we really were praying for good weather! As I checked weather.com in the car halfway there this morning, it was slightly nervewrecking to read 95% chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. We told the girls our game plan-go on as many slides in the morning as possible! But after we bought the freaking expensive tickets, I decided we would battle the rainstorms and spend as long as possible there! 🙂 When we got there, the girls were excited and then Ella, after seeing the tube slides, quickly decided she was scared and wanted to go home. You can see the fear in her face in this picture.
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| Ella is not so sure about this place! |
We forced our girls to go on the tube slides (another drawback of uncompassionate parents), and the water was FREEZING! After all, it was an overcast day and it was only 80 degrees outside! Ella was not a fan of any of the tube slides. But we promised we would head to the kid section and then she relaxed a little.
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| Rilyn |
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| Ella |
James really wanted to do the Boogie Bahn ‘ride’ where you try to boogie board. He asked me if he looked like a Californian after the ride and I told him Californians don’t boogie board with their glasses on. 🙂
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| time to boogie |
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| good thing I have my glasses on so I can see the water splashing in my eyes! |
The lazy river was a hit especially when they found an alligator to ride on! James was having fun trying to tip them over!
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My thoughts that Schlitterbahn wouldn’t be crowded were wrong. We waited on a slide that was labeled “high thrill” for an hour and a half and Ella fought us the whole time. She made up excuses, cried, made us hold her…but we didn’t budge. Remember, we have very little compassion. After the slide was done, she told us that was best slide ever. (Using lasers, they project a dragon head on a waterfall that is falling over you in a dark tube so it looks like the dragon is eating you.) It was Rilyn who was complaining how scared she was!
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| my freckled beauty |
Then came the rain. It poured for like 30 minutes. We were COLD and WET. Not fun. But we walked to the last park (there are 3), to try and enjoy a couple more slides. The girls were done with slides though and we didn’t want to really wait in the long lines, so we opted for the kid area again. This park had a pirate ship.
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| Ella going down! |
Rilyn took it upon herself to be the ‘slide lifeguard’ at the pirate ship area. For 20 minutes I saw her at the top of the slide making each child give her a ‘ticket’ (a high five) before they could go down the slide. She made them go one at a time and told them “No alcohol.” (I’m sure she said this because every time we went into a new park, they would check our cooler and say, no alcohol or glass bottles inside.)
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| Rilyn making the boy give her his ‘ticket’ |
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| Ella always looks so funny going down slides! |
And finally, did you know Schlitterbahn has a mascot? Apparently, Schatze the dog represents!
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| Rilyn with Schatze |
We decided at the end of the day (we stayed about 6ish hours), that we will go back in a couple of years. We want Asher to go with us next time and he needs to get older, and we want the girls to go on the slides because they want to and not because we are forcing them to!
It was a GLORIOUS rainy morning today!! We started a new season of life in the Paquette household and I am praising God for giving me just what I needed at the right time-rest, peace, quietness. Today is the first day of preschool for Ella and Asher, (and the very first day of preschool EVER for Asher!) It feels different sending your youngest (and last) off to preschool. I’m much more anxious and nervous for Asher then I ever was for the girls. It could be because of his personality or that he’s my baby-probably some of both. As for me, Asher and I needed some breaks from each other during the week. Actually, I think it’s safe to assume that Asher would of preferred me being at his beckon call and at his side ALL day, EVERY day, but I just don’t have the patience right now. (So maybe I had a month long countdown going in my head until preschool started.) 🙂 Asher was crying when we left him, but that didn’t surprise me. I am very interested to hear how his day went from his teacher. Ella is a preschool pro, (this is her 4th year of preK!) and was very excited to go back!
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| ella- 4 1/2 years old |
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| His Buzz backpack that is bigger than him. |
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| New lunch kit from Grandma! and a little unsure of what
this preschool stuff is all about. |
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| preschool buddies! |
Ella and Asher are going to preschool with their best friends and Ella and Anna had to keep the tradition alive and dress alike on the first day. This is their 3rd year doing it!
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| At the donut store with their BFF shirts on! |
Asher is going to preschool with Caden and Malachi. I figure might as well dress them alike too while they still don’t care, because I’m certain the boys will nix the matching outfits sooner than the girls!
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| Three little monkeys sitting on a bench! |
Ella’s class is Miss Robin’s Rhinos!
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And Asher’s class is Miss Brooke’s Bees.
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| Caden and Asher are both in the same class. That could spell TROUBLE! |
We got a new Flip video cam and James was playing with it the other day. He made this ‘music video’ to show a day in the life at our house! A certain little boy who loves jumping off our furniture, a messy-prone girl with marker stains on her dress, toys all over the floor, a certain 6 year old picking her wedgie in front of the camera, and one boy who loves spinning until he falls down dizzy!
I learned a couple of summers ago that baby powder, when applied to a child’s sandy hands/feet etc., will get sand off easily. So since then, I have always had a bottle of baby powder sitting outside for the girls to use before coming in. Yesterday, the bottle ran out and so I replaced it with a different brand bottle. Well, this new bottle must of caught the attention of bffs Anna and Ella this afternoon. Ella and Anna came into the house from the backyard today telling me that they wanted to blow bubbles and they need my help.
They looked like this:
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| Ella asked me, “Why are you taking our picture? You think
we look pretty?” |
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| white hair |
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| You can see who probably had more fun playing in the baby powder… |
I had to chuckle at these two. At least they smell good!
Summer mornings could look like this at our house.
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| A little heavy on the lavendar and pink blush/eyeshadow Rilyn! |
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| Ella likes the messy purple lip gloss look with rosy cheeks! |
I think it is safe to say that my girls don’t have a career in make-up artistry, but they sure do love trying! They came out of their room sooooo proud of their new look and thought they looked gorgeous! (I actually thought Rilyn did a good job applying the make-up if she was going for a 1980’s retro look). The kicker was that James called about 5 minutes after I let them play with make-up and asked if we could come up to his new office. I didn’t know if I should make them take it off (and risk making them think they looked ridiculous) or let them keep it on. When we got to James’ office parking lot I talked about how daddy likes his girls looking ‘natural’. Rilyn said, “Mom, I don’t even know what that means!” 🙂 We talked about how God gave them natural beauty and make-up is fun to put on at special times, but daddy wants you to look natural when he sees you today. So I was able to talk them into taking off ‘some’ of their make-up before we walked into James’ office. Phew!
My girls have really gotten into playing ‘pet hospital’ with their stuffed animals. I’m not quite sure they have the ‘hang of it’ though (no pun intended!). What do you think? Would you like to be this giraffe in their ‘waiting area’? I’m not sure if he is at the hospital because he is sick or because he is getting strangled. I guess they have strict rules about only pets allowed with a leash on.
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And in the spirit of animals, here are two pictures of my wild things all dressed up to go to Dancelife earlier this summer during Jungle week! By the way, you can sign up for Dancelife now for the fall!
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| Rilyn the zebra |
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| Ella the giraffe! |
We attended my nephew’s 1st birthday party yesterday and it brought back a lot of memories of my babies on their first party day! There is something so stinkin’ cute about party hats even if most of the time the kids hate wearing it! I mean, who doesn’t love a cone sitting on top of your head with a strangling piece of rubber band wrapped around your neck? 😉
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| Caden was not a fan of the hat! |
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| Asher was not a fan of his hat either! |
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| Ella agrees-NO PARTY HAT!! |
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| Rilyn was apathetic to her party accessory, in fact, she wore it for her whole party! |
Here are more pictures of our afternoon at the lake on Saturday! We went to Decker Lake which is only 10 minutes away from us!
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| James and Ella |
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| me and Rilyn |
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| James |
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| air borne |
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| love this pic! |
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| all good things must come to an end! |
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| water skiing |
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| Me water skiing after 12 years! I was really surprised that I could still get up! It is such
hard work on your arm muscles! |
the paquettes 