Rhinestones & Wranglers

Last night Jeff and I attended the 29th Annual Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Chairman's Ball with Stephanie and Charles. The theme was Rhinestones & Wranglers and people wore either boots and jeans or black tie. I wish I had worn boots and jeans (and a winter coat) - it was so cold in ballroom! I wore Jeff's suit coat most of the night.

They had pool tables set up and a corner to play washers, as well as several neon signs on the walls. Stephanie's law firm bought a table and she invited a bunch of people to attend. We were placed at a table decorated by the owners of the local TCBY. I won the table decorations, so I took home a giant martini glass filled with TCBY pens, flowers and about 4 jars of salsa. I end up winning the table decorations every year because they go to whoever's birthday is closest to the date (mine is Aug. 31).

The event honored the outgoing chairman who wanted the ball to be like a honky tonk. He rode into the ballroom on a golf cart decorated with University of Texas flags while their school fight song played. All the Aggies in the room collectively rolled our eyes!!

Disney Pictures are Up!

I uploaded all our pictures to a Shutterfly account. Click on this link:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbMmbZmzcuGKS

If you need an account ID and password, use:

thelemmonsfamily@comcast.net as the account ID

aggies as the password

The album is called "Disney Trip 2007". You can view them as a slideshow. As a warning - there are 200 pictures, so get comfortable!

We left Houston Wednesday morning on a 7:00am flight. We got to Orlando around 11:00. By 1:00pm we were in the Magic Kingdom hitting all of our favorite rides. Since it's summer and more crowded, we didn't get to do everything we wanted, but we hit the highlights. We rode Splash Mountain (see hilarious picture at the end of the slideshow) which was Lindsay's favorite once again.

Wednesday night we swam in our hotel pool at All Star Movies Resort. We stayed in the Toy Story building like we did in 2004.

Thursday morning we got up and took the Disney Cruise Line bus to Port Canavaral. Disney has built it's own port complete with a mouse-ears shaped entry to the gangway. We were randomly chosen as the "Dream Family" of the day and were the 1st people to board the ship at 11:30am!!! How exciting! We immediately hit the lunch buffet on the ship and swam in Mickey's Pool the rest of the afternoon. We attended a Bon Voyage Party and watched the ship set sail. That night we dressed for dinner and ate Triton's restaurant on the ship.

Friday morning we woke up in Nassau, Bahamas. We took a shore excursion to Paradise Island and the Atlantis resort. We swam in the ocean, floated around in the lagoon and then toured the aquarium. Back on the ship that night, the kids went to the Oceaneers' Club (kids' club) on the ship and Mommy and Daddy spent some alone time at one of the bars and ate dinner at Animator's Palate. Animator's Palate is the coolest restaurant and if you don't know about it, check out Disney's description because I can't do it justice.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/dcl/en_US/onboard/dining/detail?name=AnimatorsPalateLandingPage&bhcp=1

Friday night was also the Pirates IN the Carribean party. Brandon dressed as a pirate, Lindsay dressed as Ariel and we watched fireworks off the back of the ship. Disney Cruise Line is the ONLY cruise line that has permission to shoot fireworks in the ocean. Very cool.

Saturday morning we woke up at Castaway Cay, Bahamas. This is a private island that Disney owns and only Disney Cruise ships can dock there. It was so beautiful and secluded. See more pictures and a description here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/Photos/DCL_castaway/index.htm

That night Lindsay came down with a fever, so she and I stayed in the room while Brandon and Daddy went to see Dreams - a Broadway style show in the Walt Disney Theater. They also went to dinner and brought food back for Linz and me.

Sunday morning we returned back to reality and a TON of dirty laundry!

It was a wonderful trip and we had a fantastic time.

Hilarious Picture Award

This is Lindsay's favorite ride, Splash Mountain, at Disney World. The look on everyone's faces is priceless. You can click on the picture to make it bigger and get a good look at Lindsay and Brandon's expressions.

Back from Vacation!

We just got back from our awesome Disney World/Disney Cruise vacation! I am currently uploading all of our pictures (over 200 of them!) onto a Shutterfly photo album. Hopefully I will be done soon and will post a link.

Parenting 101

It's Monday and this week is already crazy. I am running around doing laundry and packing for our trip this week while trying to keep the kids entertained enough that they stay out of my hair. They are tired of going on errands to buy odds and ends for the trip and it's over 100 degrees outside today, so I doubt we'll even go in the pool until later when it's cooler.
So, then I was reading one of my favorite blogs by a woman named Heather Armstrong who is the mother of a particularly ill-tempered 3 year old. She wrote something about parenthood that made me laugh out loud. Her daughter has a weird habit of sleeping with random things in her bed like books and bottles of shampoo, a frisbee, etc. Those of us with children know that ALL kids have eccentricities and this just happens to be hers. Well, Heather and her husband put her to bed and her daughter says to them, “You guys are my friends.”

Heather writes:
"You think you’re going to be prepared for the sheer incredibleness of such a moment, but it’s like, someone keeps setting off pipe bombs on your front porch and throwing rocks through your windows, and then one day out of nowhere they show up and mow your lawn. And you’re suddenly glad you didn’t shoot them last week."

That is an awesome quote about parenthood. I know that all the stress of this week will be worth it when we are all 4 sitting on a beach in the Bahamas.

Here is the link to Dooce, Heather's blog.
http://www.dooce.com/

Alliteration: Triplets Turn Two!

Caroline, Dylan and Garrett (alphabetically listed - no special treatment!) celebrated their 2nd birthday today at a place called Monkey Bizness. It's like a big warehouse with a bunch of inflated bounce houses and slides for the kids to jump and play around in. There were tons of young kids and babies there, as well as several pregnant women. Jeff made the comment that he hadn't been in a room with that many pregnant women in a long time! Brandon and Lindsay had a blast playing around on everything and Lindsay beat Jeff in a game of air hockey 7-6.

Caroline playing hide and seek with Jeff

Lindsay: the air hockey champion

The Male Half of Team Lemmons

Happy Birthday Caroline, Garrett and Dylan (L to R)

Dylan initially ate his cake with just his mouth - no fork!

Garrett thoroughly enjoying his cake

The delicious fish cupcakes

Day at the Zoo

Jen with all 5 kids

Jen, Dylan (white) and Garrett (yellow)

Finally, it feels like summer here! Today it was in the upper 90's and, being the smart women we are, Jen and I decided to take the kids to the zoo today! What? Go to the zoo in the fall or spring when it's cool outside? No! We want our kids to sweat buckets and for all the animals to be passed out from the heat when we go to the zoo!

Actually, we got to the zoo when it opened at 9:00am and it wasn't that hot yet. We raced to the tigers to see the big cats before they start their all-day naps - and we were not disappointed. There were 2 tigers in the exhibit and one tiger was lying in the shade looking around while the other tiger went for a swim. It was so awesome seeing the tigers being active. At the black bear exhibit, two teenage black bears were play fighting and messing around hugging and play biting each other. It was so interesting to watch. We took Grandma and Grandpa along with us and the 5 kids (as well as Jen's nanny and the nanny's nephew) and G&G were telling stories from their days of living in Alaska when they saw a bunch of black bears.

After the zoo, we went to McDonald's for lunch. I think it's interesting to note that G&G may be the only people I know who order a salad at McDonald's!

Golf Outing

On Sunday afternoon Grandpa and Jeff braved the 100 degree weather and took the kids to play golf. Brandon's swing looked really good and he hit some great shots (like the one above - notice the ball in the air). He also got to drive the golf cart, which he loves. Lindsay looked fabulous in her visor and also got in some good swings. Everyone was hot, sweaty and hungry afterwards so we went to dinner at Johnny Rockets.

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Lindsay's summer Mommy's Day Out class put on a music program on Tuesday called "Route 66". Her class (the Zebras) sang "God is So Big" and "The Goldfish". Once again, Lindsay loved being on stage!

Last Month of Summer

As we begin the last month of summer break, this is one of the images I will remember from this particular summer. Brandon loves to play his GameCube and has become quite an expert at most of the games. I look at him lying on the floor like this and he seems so BIG to me. When did my little baby boy become a big seven year old kid??
August will also be one of the busiest months of the summer. We have plans every weekend and our Disney Cruise trip in the middle of the month. Then ballet starts for Lindsay and Brandon reports back to Buckalew Elementary School on August 27th. And the month ends with our trip to College Station for my birthday on August 31.

No Pictures, Please

Sunday night we had the Babb family and the Culberson family over for dinner. And with 7 kids and 6 adults, there was too much craziness to remember to take pictures. But we all swam, ate dinner, played outside and had a great time.
This is the prelude to my birthday weekend at the end of August. The 6 adults will be going to College Station for the weekend for the Aggie's season opening football game. Can't wait!

Lake Conroe

After an hour waiting for the rain to stop while huddled in the boat marina, we finally took our rented 20' pontoon boat out on Lake Conroe. It turned out to be a gorgeous day with blue skies and lots of sunshine (and sunscreen). The kids LOVED the boat and being out on the water. We fished a little, but didn't catch anything so the kids got bored and decided to swim instead. Brandon had a blast jumping off the side of the boat into the water. The water was warm and surprisingly clean - especially compared to the Gulf of Mexico where we usually swim on vacation. There were plenty of boats out on the water, but it wasn't crowded either. I think the rain in the morning kept a lot of people away.
The kids watched other people waterskiiing, jet skiing, and riding on tubes dragged behind ski boats. Brandon really wants to rent a ski boat next time, so he can ride on a tube.
We had planned on going to Galveston like we do almost every summer, but thought this would be something new and fun to do. I am really glad the kids had such a great time. We will definitely do it again soon!

Rained Out

Brandon attended his second session of golf camp last week. Unfortunately, it rained a couple of the days and he didn't get to do another awards ceremony. There is supposed to be a rain date make up for the awards ceremony, so we may have another update on golf camp later. But thanks again to Grandpa for driving Brandon back and forth every day and for rescuing him from the rain and treating him to lunch at the club!

Sunday Art Project

Jeff takes the kids to the free kids clinic at Home Depot every 1st Saturday of the month. They have made some pretty cool crafts in the past. This month they made wooden art boxes with sliding lids. The kids painted them this weekend in the garage while it rained. It's becoming increasingly harder to find things for the kids to do this summer with all the rain we've had.

Here comes the Bride

Lindsay on the internet either playing Webkinz or planning her wedding.

Sunday Dinner at the Babbs

On Sunday night we went to the Babb's new big, beautiful house for dinner. The kids played in the blow-up pool and sprinklers (a.k.a. the Redneck Riveria) and had a great time. Caroline tried on both Brandon and Lindsay's Crocs and Dylan drank his weight in pool water. Garrett stayed busy shoveling water and drinking his siblings milk. We had a great time and Brandon even got to take home a Lightening McQueen toy. It came home with us because the triplets can't seem to share it without getting in a fight. Low and behold - my kids can't share it without getting in a fight either! So, Lightening now resides on the top shelf of a closet. I guess a 5 and a 7 year old don't have much more impluse control than the 2 year olds!

Testing the waters

Dylan

Brandon and the sprinklers

The triplets are almost 2 years old

Caroline testing out Lindsay's Crocs

Happy Birthday, America!

Gwen and her kids came in town this week for 4th of July. We went to the Woodlands hometown parade early in the morning and then to the fireworks show that night. The weather cooperated long enough for the parade to end, but then rained pretty much the rest of the day. It cleared up in time for fireworks, which were awesome. The cousins had a great time playing with each other!

That will be $89 and your dignity, please

The kids slept on an air mattress in the living room last night because the air conditioner wasn't working. It turns out - the breaker had flipped during a storm. It cost $89 for a certified a/c technician to flip a switch for us and tell us that nothing is wrong with our system.

Saturday Morning Donuts!

Somehow we have a family tradition of Saturday morning donuts for breakfast in our house. We aren't quite sure how it started (or when), but Shipley's sure is happy about it!

Lindsay eating Laffy Taffy