Fort Griffin Fandangle!!!

Fandangle time!!! I was so pumped to take the kids this year! We had tickets last year, but Levi ended up in the hospital so that didn't exactly happen. 

We had the chuck wagon dinner in the park beforehand. It was such nice weather!

 Then we walked up and down the streets of downtown. They have a bunch of cute little shops, a car museum, and longhorns on the square.

 They loved the juke box! Lucas is such a music addict!!!

Dancing with my princess!

Dancing with Momma

We of course made a stop at the pharmacy to get an old fashioned soda and lots of yummy candy!! Levi and Chloe got to have gummy bears for the first time!

 All 5 sweet kiddos at the chuck wagon.

 Checking out the long horns!

 There are a couple of veteran memorials on the square. This is the sleepy little town where both my mom and dad grew up. There is LOTS of our family history here!

 Herbert C. Hawkins - my grandpa

Harley B. Hawking - great uncle

 I guess you can imagine he like the car museum?

And there's the Texas Central!!! My Grandpa built this train, Steve helped him drive it in the Fandangle when he was younger. Very special to still see it!!!

 The flag parade. So amazing! They're obviously going way to fast for my phone to capture. When we went to Medieval times recently, their slow trot flag parade seemed quite pathetic!

 The kiddos liked it, Chloe mostly ran around and wanted to sit in Braeden's lap. Levi did great through most of it, just didn't like the loud stuff. :)

Albany will always hold a special place in my heart and I hope to take our kids to the Fandangle many more times!

Gymnastics "Awards"

I use the term "awards" loosely. Chloe had only been in gymnastics for about a month, and I think Levi had only gone once. Once that involved LOTS of crying and screaming, and very little gymnastics. 

 Chloe really loves gymnastics, she jumped right in on day one, and over the summer she has progressed quickly! She follows directions really well, and only has to be redirected occasionally. She's the youngest in her class by 6 months, and I think she hangs incredibly well with them!

 She got some award about motor skills....don't even remember. I'm not an everyone wins kind of gal, so I thought these awards were silly. Sweet, but silly.

 Her whole class. And that's Ms. Emily back there, the teacher Levi has a HUGE crush on! He acts SO much better if she's the one who comes and gets him to start the class. He told me one week "I don't want that black girl to come get me, I want that white girl to come get me." He was calling them by the color of their shirts, it was so hilarious!!

 Levi, well...Levi hasn't really come around to "loving" gymnastics yet. The deal was he would play soccer and Chloe would do gymnastics. Well, gymnastics is on Monday mornings. That means he has to come and sit and watch his sister run around and jump on trampolines for an hour. Soccer doesn't start until September. So when he started asking if he could go too, I decided I guessed that would be ok.

 They should have given him an award for being the most ridiculous. The first day, I understood why he was nervous and scared. (That's just his personality.) The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on week....I was a little confused. Like I said, if Ms. Emily comes to get him he's much more willing to go. I think we may have finally turned a corner this last week, when he walked right in and started the warm up with ZERO crying!

Regardless, I've realized that it's really good for him. He needs things to do for him to learn to listen and follow directions from someone besides me. And I'm still a beaming proud Momma no matter what. I love him so ridiculously much!

Chloe's 2nd Birthday Party

Once again, way too far behind! We had a wonderful time celebrating our beautiful little girl! She LOVES Pinkalicious so much, what better birthday them?

 I really tried to tone down the food, it never works.

 The table was filled with little pinkalicious quotes!

 Icky green food!

 Birthday girl and Mimi!

 Beautiful flowers for our beautiful girl!

 The only cure for Pinkititius is a steady diet of icky green food

 One of our cooks made the cake, it was DELICIOUS and oh so beautiful!

 The birthday girl got her own shaded lounge chair, to share with her brother of course. :)

 She still wasn't feeling fantastic, so she was a little cranky at times. These 3 are the loves of my life, I absolutely cannot imagine life without them!

 NECKLACE!!!

 She most definitely understood the concept of opening presents, and loved it!

 All of the family was here to help celebrate!!

 Collin sure took up with Grandpa!!

 The Gann's were SOOOO pumped to be at our party! Haha, I kid! They really were. :) I'm just not good of making sure I get pictures of everyone...so sorry Diana, this is the only one I had!

 I had an inkling this little beauty would be the only one eating green food!

 Lots of swimming fun!!

 She was of course thrilled to share her chair with her cousin Braeden!

Thank you to all of our family to being here to celebrate, and thank you for loving our amazing kids the way you do!! We love you all!