Diaper Decrease!

Big things are going down at the Morgan house. BIG things!

Elaina decided all on her own that she's not wearing diapers anymore. I'm down with that! One day she got on the potty, did her business with her poker face on then looked right at me and said, "Get me a prize". I think her bff had been giving her some pointers! The next day we got some Dora panties and I gave her instruction: "Do NOT pee pee on Dora." Her response? "Do she no like it?" Nope. No she doesn't. Thus far Dora has remained unscathed and princess has bit the dust only once. I'll say that's a win! 

School Time!

Summer went by faster than usual this year it seems. One day you're unpacking and cleaning out backpacks, the next day you're filling them up again. Speaking of backpacks, Cade asked for a new one this year. That makes me sad. It wasn't because his was falling apart, or torn, or unusable. It's that it had a shark (a tiny one, thank you, nicely embroidered on by llbean) along with his initials. A monogram. Apparently that's not cool when you're ten. Whatevs... A new backpack it is. Green. Plain. Functional. I remember fifth grade well. I loved my teacher, kicked tail in tetherball everyday in recess, and was preparing myself for a big move to Tennessee. Fifth grade was the last year I'd spend with the friends I'd had my entire life. Fifth was a big one and I can't believe I'm parenting a fifth grader. Here he is:

Grant is heading into third grade this year. He's mourned moving on from  another teacher that he adored and has high hopes that his third grade teacher lives up to his expectations. I am, too. Third is a big grade, too. Real, letter grades. TCAP testing. It gets real this year! 

 Little Buddy, not so little anymore, is moving up to the big first grade. His one hang up about school starting was that it meant that we had to start brushing his hair again. He had a last minute, albeit, forced, shirt change just before leaving because he dribbled chocolate milk all down the front of his other shirt. He told me it was "totally fine. It didn't matter. Who cares anyway?" Who cares? Me. So, against his wishes he attended the first day of first grade in a clean shirt with brushed hair. 

 Prissy Pants is not even going to school but she could not let the opportunity pass for showing off her new camera smile. 

 Here are all my loves on their first day of the 2012-2013 school year.

 And, when I told them they could do whatever pose they wanted for the last shot, here's what I got:

If there's one thing that's good to do on the first day of school it's a little Tebowing. My favorite part is that Lanie joined in with no coaching. I love a good, early morning laugh! Here's to a fantastic year of learning! 

Last Summer Swim

With school starting in just 2 days today marks our last official pool day of the summer:( We've had tons of fun afternoons splashing in our neighborhood waterhole! We lined the kids up for a pic....hard to believe all of those kids are from only 2 families! Right to left: sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second, first, kinder,  3 and 2. Wowzer! 

Happy 13!

Happy Anniversary to Bobby and me! Thirteen years have quickly gone by and I'm so thankful for each one of them. We celebrated by visiting our usual (usual meaning we're totally VIPs after dining there regularly during our 18 years of togetherness) date place, J Alexander's. I pray God grants us another 62 years of loving each other over J's spinach con queso!

At Baytowne

We always spend at least one evening at Baytowne Wharf getting dinner and taking in the fun things they have going on. This year the rain put a damper on our festivities. We still managed to get a picture in the big chair before the downpour started. 

Semi-loving brothers

We always like to just walk around in Baytowne to see what's new and what kind of festivities they are planning. 

This year this little place with Tow-Mater was new and they boys thought it was pretty neat. You shot the guns at different targets and whenever you hit the target funny things would happen. It was pretty entertaining!

One of my favorite parts was the sign inside. I think I need one of these to put downstairs:)

We managed to get some snapshots in before the rain hit:

It poured all through dinner which was a bummer because that confirmed that there would be no fireworks show. If you've read any of my Fourth of July posts you know that my family LOVES some fireworks. Instead we stood in the rain and let Grant and Rhett make a wax hand. Cade opted out. Unfortunately, in a house with three rough boys and one curious two year old, the wax hands lasted all of 36 hours at best. 

Family shot before the rain:

Me and my dad (obviously on another day trip to Baytowne since we're wearing different outfits:) ). 

I don't know why but these are my two favorite pics from our Baytowne experience. I like the lights in the background on this one:

And I like the love in this one:)

See you next year, Lord willing, Baytowne!

Beach Time!

This year's beach vacation was nice and relaxing as usual. With all of the summer hubbub and lack of blog time, it's months, months later and I'm just now sitting down to write about it. With that being said, the commentary will be virtually nil and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:) I used my "good" camera only rarely because whenever I took it to the beach it would fog up and inevitably the wind would blow.....sand in your camera is no bueno. Here are my lovelies:

I loved this one:)

 Bobby's mom and dad joined us on this year's vacay. My sister also joined us, as usual, and I have no idea why I don't have even one picture of her on the beach!?

Bobby and Grant

Bobby never ceases to make me laugh. I was taking pictures of the kiddos when he ran by all "Baywatch" on me. I was cracking up! 

This year we bought the boys all a cheap boogie board and it was well worth the moola. They spent hours riding the waves and being beach bums.

Bob helped them out adding a little umph to each ride. 

Elaina didn't care much for the water so she hung out with whomever would hold her or sit and play in the sand. 

This was my favorite picture of the whole trip. She was so still while mom covered her in sand. She loved it!

 The boys were seeing lots of tiny fish in the shallow water so we went to the beach one day armed with nets. 

The boys caught a ton of little "sharks" (is what they claimed). They looked a lot like the little fish Danielle had in her fish tank in our dorm room.

 Clouds rolled in towards the end of the week. 

It didn't stop Bobby and Cade from riding in some waves though. The skies were definitely not ripe for tanning! 

We spent most of the last beach day just playing in the sand and waiting on the rain to come. There was some baseball throwing, football tossing..

and just lounging! 

Some last day at the beach pics:

 Big feet, little feet in the sand.

I wish every day could be a day at the beach!