Halloween 2012

Halloween was a fun day for the Parsons kiddos.  Sid had a Fall Festival at school in which he dressed up like a cowboy.  Kate participated in the 1st grade Costume Parade at her school.  Only first grade gets to wear a costume to school- so it was a special day!  Then we trick or treated with friends in the neighborhood.  Here are a few pics from the day!

 

Sid and his buddy Gage at the Festival.

 

 

Sid and his teacher, Ms. Sharon

 

The kids made trick or treat bags before we hit the streets...

 

My little angel (6 yrs.), piggie (18 months), and black and white cat (4 yrs.).  Madelyn was not into the costume thing- she was not excited to put on her costume and the piglet hat did not stay on long...

 

The cat's claws...

 

This is our neighbor, Mason.  He is one of the many 9 year old boys in the neighborhood.  I said, "Ooo, Mason, you look scary!"  Kate said, "What, he is just a hockey player, what is scary about that?!"- Oh how sweet and pure Kater is- she obviously has not seen any scary movies!  I plan to keep it that way as long as possible! :-)

 

Kate and Sid with Katherine- our next door neighbor and movie star in the eyes of my kids :-)

 

Maddy was pointing to her nose to comment on Katherine's face paint on her nose...

 

One of Maddy's few smiles of the night, looking at our neighbor, Katherine.  She was quiet and fairly motionless as we walked through the neighborhood- taking in all the costumes and activity.

 

The girls with the 1st grade gang of boys.  The boys posed and by the time my camera actually clicked, they were off to the next house...

 

Scary decor all over!

 

This sums up trick or treating in Texas and in our neighborhood...

 

My friend, Melissa (and Kate's friend, Mackenzie's mom), helped me push the stroller up the hills and trick or treat with us.  Justin is home sick with a tummy bug :-(

 

Sid and his buddy, Braden.

 

Kate and her good buddy, Mackenzie.

 

So sweet!

Happy Halloween to you all!

May Pictures

Below is a link to some pictures from May.  Mother's Day at Sid's school with Mrs. Frame.  Kate's Kindergarten musical, class play date at the park, graduation, and dance recital.  Last day of school party in the driveway :-) 

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Madelyn's First Birthday

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Madelyn means “High Tower” or "Strong Tower,"  so we had a French/Parisian (I was thinking Eiffel tower) themed birthday for Miss Madelyn’s 1^st.  I decided to make it bunny and French themed because her birthday falls on Easter this year and I already had lots of bunnies out for Easter décor J

It was such an amazing blessing to have lots of our family (3 of which will turn 1 this year as well!) here to celebrate with us.  I don’t think I will ever get over how special that is…it is far from convenient for our family to come to our house, but it is so much closer than we have been in the past.  Thank you all so much for coming to celebrate with us and Miss Madelyn.  Please excuse all of the boring pictures of food and décor- this is just my way of documenting it for Maddy’s baby book and our family archives. 

A BIG THANK YOU to Nana and Papaw and Gigi and Poppy for all of their party help, house help, and help with the kiddos.  They cleaned, prepped, changed diapers, did laundry, cleaned some more, etc.  You guys are amazing!  I am really missing my house keepers now ;-) 

We had French themed food:  Fresh strawberry juice (Justin is on a juicing kick) with some bubbly, lemonade for the kiddos, Julia Child’s Salade Niçoise, Sandwiches on French Baguettes, & French Fries J.   Mom displayed lots of desserts that included vanilla and strawberry ice cream, cookies, Madeleine’s, chocolate bunnies, etc.

Maddy received a swing for our swing set as her b-day gift and she LOVED it!  So sweet- all of the cousins had fun playing with each other and hanging out.  I loved seeing Sid and Brennan wrestle and the babies just playing around the floor with toys together.  What a great weekend! One we will not soon forget- thanks again for celebrating with us!

Easter 2012

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Here are some pictures from Maddy's official 1st birthday and Easter festivities...Sid having his Easter Egg hunt with his pre-school friends and teacher, Mrs. Frame; The kiddos acting silly before going to the Valley Creek Easter Egg hunt; Kate and her friends at an Easter Bonnet party at her friend's grandmother's house; After Easter services dinner at Rosa's with the fam; Hanging around the yard after church- notice the sad faces at the end of a long day of festivities when we tried to get all the cousins for a picture.  Poor Brennan was not having it- he just kept walking out of the picture to go and ride the tri-cycles :-)  Then Maddy and Kate knocked heads and both shed some tears :-(  We also had an Easter egg hunt with the Resurrection Eggs in our backyard with the grandparents and just hung around on Easter evening at home.

Kate's 6th Hello Kitty Birthday

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Here are some pictures from Kate's Hello Kitty themed party.  It was such a laid back party!- I guess she is getting older and she invited mostly all girls- so they just sat quietly and worked on their craft projects, etc.  It was a fun afternoon with the girls.  We are encouraging the kids every 2 years to donate gifts to a good cause instead of having birthday gifts.  This year she wanted to donate to kitty cats- so we collected a lot of goodies for the kitty cats of Higland Village for the Highland Village Animal Care Services Dept.  We are hoping to deliver it this week...  We were grateful that lots of her buddies were able to share their afternoon with us and celebrate Kater's b-day!- Also, very grateful that our friend Miss Kayli came to help us with the party as well!!!

Spring Easter Collection

This is a big milestone...I actually sewed clothes?!  I have never taken home ec. or been formally trained (with the exception of some great friends that have recently shown me shortcuts and a wise, church lady that gave me a pillow making tutorial), so please excuse the uneven ruffles, etc.

I made the pants for Sid- they are a riot, I had to add a band at the top because I did not cut the pattern accuratly.  Then I just took one of his white button up shirts and added some of the gigham fabric.

Kate and Maddy- I made a pattern from old file folders and eyeballed some of their current dresses.  I should have made the pattern a little larger because they just fit them :-) 

I also made them some ruffled leggings to go under the dresses and some walmart t-shirts with a little embellishments for some casual Easter events this weekend. 

I should mention, the ONLY way I got these items finished is because Justin was on vacation this week and he took the parenting lead during my usual lead hours.  Thanks, honey!  I was so glad to just finish these!

Now let's just hope that the clothes don't fall a part while they are wearing them :-)

Maddy 10 - 11 months

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Ranchhand Rescue

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Instead of birthday presents, Sid asked his friends to bring a donation for Ranchhand Rescue.  It is an organization to rescues farm animals that are sick, hurt, or orphaned.  They take them in and give them proper care with hopes to find them a new home.  Sid's friends were very generous and brought lots of veggies, feed, salt blocks, etc.  Here are pictures from our delivery day...  The kids had a blast meeting the animals and feeding them with some of the food we brought.  We also got to meet some special horses that have prosthetic legs.  Phoenix is the first full size horse to have a prosthetic leg and had only had it for 5 days when we met him.  The kids got to pet Midnite- the miraculous, miniature horse with a prosthetic leg.  What a special birthday!

Sid's 4th Birthday Party

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Here are some pics from Sid's 4th Birthday party! I can't believe he is 4! It was his first big, friend birthday party. He wanted it to be farm animal themed. (I got lots of great ideas from cousin Samantha's farm animal party- thanks, Jen!)  Because we now save monthly for birthday parties (It is my creative outlet! Ha!), we were able to surprise the kiddos with farm animals! It was a blast! (And a little messy :-))

Thanks to all of our family helpers! We could not have done it without you!!!! I think my mom needs to come in early for each birthday party :-) She cleaned my entire garage to prep it in case it rained. And Nana read "Barnyard Dance" to all of the kiddos- it wouldn't be a Parsons kid birthday without Nana reading a book. Papaw was in charge of balloons and farm animal tours and Em did her usual anything and everything :-) We also had our great neighbor and friend, Katherine, help the kiddos make their stick horses.

It was a good time...