Ding, Ding, Ding!
here are the pics from our trip to port A today with beth & her kids, where they played inside a giant shark (who thinks of these things??) and rode the trolley around town. the good parts include jack & josh sucking their thumbs side by side and all of the boys singing their ABC's, inserting the word "poo" anywhere that seemed to fit.

Playdate @ Beth's
her place RULES! it's on a canal on the island, complete with pool, deck and calypso music playing in the background. it was like being at a resort. it was also fun & different to play with boys for a change. jack was in hog heaven. here he is doing on of his crazy belly flops in the water, mia & claire seeing RED b/c they're together AGAIN, and ben, mia, josh & jack having a spitting contest. sunny-i promise claire was right beside me the whole time-you just can't see her in the pic.

This one's for Mom...
who is sick and tired of looking at the seagull blog. lucky for you, lady, it drizzled so we had an excuse to put on some raingear (okay, so jack looks like one of the village people) and take some pictures. we have to get out there when we feel so much as a drop of water b/c IT NEVER RAINS HERE!!!!

Question: What is a seagull's favorite food?
Answer: Cheetos Puffs!
no joke. the gulls today were ruthless predators. scaring moms & kids, making kids cry, swooping down on us at unsuspecting times to swipe our cheetos, pooping on us, and i swear to you, one actually ate a cheeto OUT OF MY MOUTH. if i try hard, i can actually recreate the feeling of bird beak in my mouth. that is nasty. do you think you can catch bird flu by french kissing seagulls? i hope not. we might all be in trouble. in fact, i'm feeling a little woozy right now...

had sunny's & my kids at the beach and beth and her son, josh, met us out there, too. had a great time-the girls mostly played in the sand (yes, there was a little mud fight between mia & claire) and when the boys weren't racing down hills (note: seagulls in that pic), they were out jumping waves. we all got just enough sun to go home and crash, and that's the way we mommas like it. :)

Mia's New Boyfriend
meet marshall. such a cutie! i love the blonde, wavy hair. and he's an older man, too...5 years old to be exact. they met at vbs last week and were sort of inseparable. he carried her all over the place, and this girl had a huge grin plastered on her face the whole time. young love. definitely not letting her out of the house again anytime soon.

Addie & Sean's Baby Shower
the baby is coming july 5th! enjoy the pics of our baby bottle drinking game & me (after the drinking game, obviously) sneaking some chocolate from a prize someone else won. it was ghirradelli-i can't be blamed for that!

Father's Day Poem

by Jack & Mia

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Do

We love to snuggle with you

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Day

We love you on Father's Day

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Dee

Your back scratches are fun for me

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Dool

We like playing with you in the pool

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Dun

Piggie-back rides are a bunch of fun

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Dooks

Thanks for taking us to see the Hooks

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Dole

With you we dance to Rock & Roll!

Claire's Party
we splash. and we jump up and sit down, then jump up! and jump up! we had cake at claire's party. and we play! and had balloons. -mia

sprinkler, pool and i love claire. and i love gwen. and happy birthday to claire! 2 years old-happy birthday to you! and have a nice 3 year old day on the nice, nice party. and hope you enjoy being 4 years old so have a nice 4 day. -jack

the kids obviously had a blast at claire's party last night. just had to get pics of mia's extreme diaper and jack crack in there. dave had a great time, too, playing kirby's electric guitar & eating hot dogs and queso (a food that tasted good at the time but now sounds sort of nauseating). -mariah

My Sweet Angel Girl
has a new smile. make that snarl. this is her new pose for almost every picture, which i hope she grows out of SOON so i can have cute blog entries again. :) she also has marker and cupcake all over her face, which only adds to her charm. we are finally done, done, done with vbs. a group of us took our fiesta to kids at an apartment complex that the episcopal churches here sponsor. those kids had a blast and i'm so glad we did it, but now we are extra exhausted. good thing the u.s. open is on today. there's something about golf that often leads to some really sweet couch snuggle and delicious afternoon naps.

HOOKS GAME got to see another game tonight (for FREE-holla!), this time with the youth group at our church. after jack loudly interrupted the star spangled banner (or is it the national anthem?) we sat in actual seats, which was new for us, had "space ice cream" (i.e. that dots ice cream they sell at the mall) and had a great view of the game. unfortunately, jack spilled his ice cream, which led to some major drama, but then he was over it by the time we got to the playground. the sweetest part was jack leading mia around by the hand. that just gets me every time. we got home after 10, and i keep hoping against hope that the kids might sleep in tomorrow, even though i know that's just a foolish girl's dream. the pic is of jack wearing his new friend chris' cap.

Reckless Behavior
i know i shouldn't do this while driving a car, but if you were around mia this week you would understand. she's having her AWFUL fits again where she acts demon-possessed and nothing will make her happy. so, if me one-handedly (and without looking back) taking snapshots of her in the backseat cheers her up, then so be it. just call me britney. and enjoy the pics knowing that my reckless driving was also wreckless driving. :)

Hey Baby, Let's go to Vegas

this trip was supposed to be dave's b-day surprise to me, but i ran across an e-mail and poof! no more surprise. he was bummed but i thought it was cool that way, b/c i got to prepare myself accordingly, neurotically searching for new clothes & spoiling myself with a new haircut. woo hoo! thanks, honey. this is us at the corpus airport-a little sleepless-but mostly PUMPED about getting to vegas in a few hours. and it turns out what happens in vegas doesn't stay there...lucky you, i blog about every little detail!

Las Vegas II: Are we there YET???
well, our flight got delayed, putting us in vegas at 11 instead of 9 like we hoped. then we had to stand in a line for a taxi that made me feel like we were at the DPS. thankfully, mom & dad met us at the airport so we weren't totally bored. finally made it to the bellagio, and it was fabulous, of course. it's in the background of the pic of dave & me. we went to our room (i was most impressed by the electric curtains)and sat by the window & ate mini-bar snacks for a while, and then we went exploring a bit. maybe you can see the eiffel tower behind mom's head? played a couple of slots at the paris hotel and then got some ritas. this sort of ended up being the extent of our drinking and gambling while in vegas. we're high rollers, i know. :) nehoo, we were pretty pooped by 3am and called it a night.

Las Vegas III: 6am-3pm
Woke up early with an urge to run, so i went down to the gym and had the most expensive run of my life ($25 to use the treadmill!). then rounded up the party and we all met at the poolside cafe for breakfast. headed out to the venetian to ride on a gondola. so fun! our gondola guy was a great singer & comedian, and he even serenaded me with "they call the wind mariah" for my birthday. ended up shopping and walking SO MUCH through different hotels that in this picture at caesar's palace, dad and i are just pretending that we aren't about to collapse at any moment. also got to stop at planet hollywood for snacks. mmm, mmm, good.

Las Vegas IV: 3pm-midnight

mom & me poolside @ the bellagio taking goofy pictures while the boys took naps, getting cute for dinner, eating at the mesa cafe (a bobby flay restaurant in which dave ate spinach!), and then witnessing the largest chocolate fountain in the world. oh yeah. i was in heaven. then we got to see O, which was pretty amazing. the stage transforms itself from a regular stage into water and back again. topped the night off with the fountain show @ the bellagio. all in all, a fabulous birthday day. shout out to mom & dad for making a girl feel special.

Las Vegas V: Sour Face Girl

this is what i looked like the ENTIRE trip home from vegas. we left around midnight and didn't get back to corpus til 9 am. this meant lots of layovers, bits of sleep, and walking around dazed and confused (dave even walked out of the ladies' room at one point!), snacking and general grumpiness. was very happy to finally see the kids, though! and thanks, jim & travis! you guys ROCK for staying with the kids and sending us on one heck of a birthday trip.

My Buddy

jack is always up for ANYTHING, and i dig that about him! today he helped me wash my car and thought it was about the most fun ever. oh, btw, i promise i don't make him scrub our patio like cinderella. that's all his idea.

I Enjoy Being a Girl
we trekked out to portland today to try out their pool. it was pretty fantastic (uh, this pic not of the portland pool. just wanted to add some ambience to the blog and give you something to look at), with all kinds of fun stuff to do. mia even mustered up the courage to go down the slide! jack & i were so proud. then mia and i went to lay out on the beach chairs and just be girls. we soaked in the sun, ate pb sandwiches and grinned at each other as we watched jack splash around. ahhhh. this is the life. also, vbs was really fun today! am not even making that up. turns out the arts & crafts room is perfect for me b/c i just give the kids their supplies and they get to work. hmf. maybe crafts aren't evil after all.