Happy Birthday Lila!

Beautiful Lila had a fantastic birthday party to celebrate turning three. The theme was pancakes and cupcakes, all the kids wore their jammies to the party. Finley was excited to wear her Buzz Lightyear PJs out of the house and kept saying "to infinity and beyond!" This was pretty much Finley's dream birthday party. There were pancakes, sausage, bacon, doughnut hole lollipops (!), and all of her favorite fruits to eat. And that was followed up by cupcakes. Finley was in heaven. Add in the bounce house, swingset, kitchen playset, pinata and lots of fun kids to run around with and you have Finley's idea of a pretty perfect morning. We were so happy to celebrate Lila's birthday. Major props go to Lila's mom and dad, it was one of the neatest parties I have ever been to and all the kids were having so much fun. Happy 3rd birthday to Lila!

Finley's First Soccer Game

Finley has been to multiple sporting events, Astros games, University of Houston Cougar football games, Texans games, Cougar basketball games, the Final Four, and Texas A&M football games, but she has never been to a soccer game.  Luckily, her BFF Max and many of her playgroup friends (Ava Kate, Patrick, Jahan and Finley S.) are on the same team.  We headed out on a very warm Saturday afternoon to watch Max play.  Finley played around with him and his dad during practice.  She seemed more interested in chasing Max around than actually kicking the soccer ball, but she was sort of interested once she realized you could kick the ball.  After practice it was time for the big game.  It was quite warm and Finley was a bit tired from running around so much.  We made it through the first quarter and saw Max's team score three goals, two for their team and one for the opposing team.  The solid defense shut out the opposing team. Finley gave her favorite player a bunch of hugs and kisses.

Playhouse

Grammy and Grandad finally are living in Texas and Finley couldn't be happier. But Grandad knew how to make her even happier, her very own playhouse. I had spotted it at Costco the week they were moving to town and I knew that Finley would adore it. She was really excited when we finally went to Costco to buy it. Everyone at Costco was commenting what a lucky little girl she was to be getting such a cool playhouse. I chose the one afternoon we had a thunderstorm to drive it down to League City.  Turns out driving a pick up truck isn't as hard as I thought it would be, even in a downpour.  Grandad spent many hours assembling the playhouse to be ready in time for Finley's first overnight visit. There is a phone, sink and stove inside the house, so Finley is right at home.  Note the Texas step stone in the yard...I would have never thought my parents would have that in their yard, my guess is that it won't be around for long.

Final Swim Test

Finley passed her final swim test with flying colors. For her efforts she received a bell, new t-shirt and we took her to dinner at Pappasitos. She completed this test so quickly, she made it to the wall in less than a minute. After she was done, she and Miss Crystal worked on her swim strokes. I think we will have a little dolphin in no time.

Puzzles

We recently cleaned out Finley's toy closet and in doing so discovered a lot of toys that had been lost under the pile. Some toys hadn't been touched since Finley's birthday. I guess that is a consequence of having your birthday right before Christmas, the Christmas toys quickly replace the new birthday toys and they are soon forgotten. Finley wanted to put the United States puzzle together first. She knows the state of Texas and where Houston is, we are working on the rest of the country.

Back to the Splash Pad

This past weekend we headed back out on the boat. Sadly, the water was super choppy and not very conducive for a pleasure cruise. Finley requested that we go back to the splash pad at Kemah and we were happy to oblige. She has so much fun running around and trying to predict where the water is going to spray next. I think this may be on of the last wears for my most favorite flamingo swimsuit. Note to Gymboree: you need to have a flamingo collection every year.  I am still working on convincing Finley that flip flops are totally okay to wear.  She gets so giggly whenever anything gets between her toes.  I got her special froggy flip flops and hopefully she will be cooperative and wear them this summer.

Swim Test #2

I am very happy to report that Finley successfully passed swim test #2.  Once again, it took over five minutes. She is just so chill and zen in the water.  I think she could float for years and be totally happy.  She didn't even want to grab the wall when she made it there, she just wanted to keep on floating.  Next week is the big test.  Big mainly because Finley hates wearing jeans and she won't have her swimsuit on underneath.  Hopefully she passes, as long as she gets to her float zone, I think she will be just fine.

Clean Up on Aisle 5

Max and Finley had their first date to Costco today.  Costco carts were made for sharing with that special someone and Costco samples make for one cheap date.  I grew up with Price Club and I remember having a cheap date or two there back in high school.  The lovely couple sampled orange juice.  Well maybe sampled isn't the right word, Max had four cups and Finley had two.  The also enjoyed shrimp wonton soup with a fork, which didn't seem to challenge them as much as I thought it would.  The funniest part was that both of them were obsessed with walking around the walk-in cooler where the produce is, they loved it!

Mecum Auto Auction

Clifton and Finley went to the Reliant Center on Saturday to check out the Mecum Auto Auction.  They both like watching the auction on television, so they were excited to see the auction in person.

Red Flowers

Splash Pad

On Easter Sunday we took the boat out and made a stop at Kemah so Finley could play at the Kemah boardwalk splash pad. Finley had so much fun running around and seeing where the water was going to sprout from next. She ran around so much that she slipped on her bottom, which I think scared her a bit. There were no tears, but she was done with the splash pad for the day and ready to nap on Galveston Bay.

Go Rockets!

On Wednesday night we had Rockets tickets. It was Finley's first Rockets game.  These seats were quite awesome, 4th row on the floor.  Finley was most excited about seeing Clutch, same as last time.  It seems that Finley isn't the Rockets good luck charm, since they lost again.  Hopefully the Rockets will make the playoffs and we will get to see them play another game soon.  Finley made it through the entire game and did really well.  She was pretty good about following the ball, but she had to sit on our laps to see since the rise isn't very much. 

Finley's First Swim Test

Finley has really made great progress in swim class and Tuesday was her first of three swim tests. The kdis are to wear summer clothes with sneakers. They are thrown in the center of the pool and they are supposed to flip over and float. To pass the test they either have to float to the side or stay floating for five minutes, at which point the teacher will assist them by pushing water to aim them to the side. As you can tell from the length of the video, Finley passed her test. She takes her second test this coming Tuesday and that will be in fall clothes. The final test is in jeans, Finley hates jeans, so that one could be tricky.  I am so proud of our little fish.

On the Big Rock Candy Mountain

I always remember one kids' singalong video from my days as a babysitter.  It was a bunch of kids singing and acting out songs such as "Backwards Land," "I Like Trucks," and "On a Big Rock Candy Mountain."  I still get those songs stuck in my head sometimes, but I have never been able to find the video on YouTube.  We all went to Galveston this past weekend to look at a couple of houses.  Finley did great and we went to lunch at the Black Pearl afterwards.  She ate so much and was so well behaved, that I promised her she could pick out a piece of candy or get some ice cream on the Strand at La Kings Confectionery.  I thought for sure that she would opt for the ice cream, but I was wrong.  She spied the rock candy in the back and that is all she had eyes for.  Luckily, there were lollipops so it wouldn't get too messy.  Finley enjoyed her pink rock candy lollipop very much.

Easter Party

Finley's school had an Easter party last week before the Easter break.  There were all sorts of yummy snacks for the kids, but the biggest surprise was that Finley didn't want to eat her cupcake.  I wonder what got into her that she wasn't interested in sweets, they are usually her favorite part.  We took home her balloon to add to the holiday mylar balloon collection we have going, we did finally get rid of her birthday fish balloon.  Finley is back at school today, first time since last week.  I know she was really missing it.  I wonder how she will deal with the summer and no school for a few months.

Faberge Egg

On Friday, Clifton had off work and had read about the Faberge Egg that would be on display at the Museum of Natural Science for one week for Easter. We had gotten up early to drive Grammy to the airport, so after we got back we had a breakfast of crepes and homemade strawberry jam. We all walked over to the museum since the weather was so gorgeous. The egg was really beautiful, but not at all what I expected. It was a lot simpler than I thought it would be, but it was still stunning. We visited the dinosaurs, animals and energy hall. We had lunch at McDonald's in the museum and we walked back home so Finley could get a nap before we went to the Astros game.

Easter Eggs

I have an egg carton full of blown out Easter eggs from over the years. We did lose a couple eggs to accidents last year, but I still had about eight left. This year I made hardboiled eggs (by baking them!) because Clifton wanted some to eat. So we had about half a dozen hardboiled eggs and 3 blown out eggs. I used the final four dyes from our Pottery Barn Kids egg kit, I wish they still sold it, at least I have the tools to blow out eggs now and we still have some stickers left. Finley didn't spill a drop of dye and did very well coloring the eggs. She did crack one of the hardboiled eggs, but I think that is pretty good considering I cracked an egg trying to blow it out. Finley declared her pink egg to be her favorite, which I know if a huge surprise. Her basket used to seem so big, now it is so crowded with treats and Easter gifts, there was barely room for just a couple dyed eggs.  Of course, the inflatable chick had to assist.

Happy Easter

Finley had a very exciting Easter! She woke up just before 7 am to discover the Easter Bunny had visited and hidden eggs all over the house (just like last year and the year before that)  Finley was so excited to find all the eggs.  The Easter Bunny left her lots of treats, Little People, Wheelies and Cootie.  After the early morning, we headed up to Intercontinental Airport to go through our Global Entry interviews (we were all approved, phew.)  We then headed back home to pack up for an afternoon on the boat.  We headed over to Kemah so Finley could play on the splash pad for a bit, then it was out to Galveston Bay.  Finley had such a wonderful Easter!

Opening Day

The Astros aren't going to be very good their last year in the National League, but that didn't matter, we were heading to Opening Day no matter what. Finley has never missed the home opener, which is quite an accomplishment for a three year old.


First Opening Day
Second Opening Day
Third Opening Day

The size 4T dress she wore last year was still very wide on her, but it was WAY too short.  So we improvised with a Texas shirt, too big Astros cap and baseball hair clips from Aunt Joan.  Finle was so excited to go to the game and was even more excited for the fireworks after.  Finley ate most of Clifton's chili cheese dog and snacked away, but after about the 4th inning she didn't eat a thing and was still very entertained watching the game.  She loved the fireworks and can't wait to go to her next Astros game.

Grammy's in Town

We all thought Grammy and Grandad would be in their new Houston home by now, but due to some problems with their buyers in Atlanta, that hasn't happened quite yet.  Finger crossed that it all works out in the end.  In the mean time, Grammy came into town for a last minute trip to see some houses to create a back-up plan if everything doesn't work out with their original selection.  We went out to dinner at Los Cucos and Finley was so happy to have Grammy in town.  She does keep asking, "Where's Grandad?"  Hopefully he will be here soon enough.

Best Part of Bluebonnets

Dairy Queen!  We may have bribed Finley to take pictures in the bluebonnets with the promise of Dairy Queen.  We headed to Bellville for a Dairy Queen lunch, but Finley's favorite part of the meal was her Dilly Bar.  She requested it as soon as we arrived and was thrilled when we turned in the kids' meal coupon for her Dilly Bar.  Such a happy girl.  She ate the entire thing and didn't spill a drip on her dress.

Bluebonnets!