We thought it would be fun for Anna to see the astronauts that were on the Space Shuttle that we saw launch, so we went to Ellington Field for their crew return. And, even more exciting, Bucko came down and surprised Anna for the adventure!
Anna thought it was so cool to get to meet the astronauts, and loved that they signed her picture for her. One of them even wrote her name on the picture, which just made her day!
I think at this age, there is truly no happier spot to have a birthday party than a jump place. Anna had an absolute blast jumping with her buddies at her friends Alex and Chloe’s birthday party.
Finally brave enough to do the slides without any assistance (or really even too much cajoling) from Mama!
SO happy…
Just chillin with her pals Adison and Zach…
Kate’s hair is growing in pretty similar to how Anna’s did—a wee bit of a “baby mullet” during these early toddler years. But, it has finally gotten long enough in the back to occasionally put it in pigtails!
She’s much more into her hair than Anna ever was, though, so she loves when I put pretty much anything in her hair—bows, piggies, whatever. Definitely my girly-girl…
A shot from the back—a little lopsided, but not a terrible first attempt… 
We made our annual pilgrimage to a local farm to pick strawberries as one of our “Adventure Fridays” this year. As usual, Anna had an absolute blast! Here, my little strawberry princess enjoys a ride in her “coach” with her pickings. Plenty to eat, and plenty to freeze!
And, Kate got to really “experience” strawberry picking for the first time this year! Last year she was only a few weeks old for our adventure, so spent the trip attached to me in the sling. This year she got in on the action.
And, of course, our fellow adventurers, Julia and Jocelyn, joined us for the harvest.
The lines to pay for our goods were LONG, but the girls were troopers while we waited. They may have a sampled a strawberry or two along the way…
We spent a few days over Spring Break in at Grammie and Bucko’s house in Tomball, and the girls were pleased as punch when the neighbor illegally burning brush caused the fire truck to show up out front! The firemen were so nice to the girls, and let them take a picture with the truck.
We also ventured to the Rodeo while we were all together. It was a whirlwind trip, but a great time! Thanks to Bucko and Grammie for keeping up with us and our gaggle of little ones at the Rodeo!
Both Sydney and Natalie think having a baby around is pretty novel, which happens to work hugely in my favor when to comes to feeding Kate! Here, Sydney helps Kate enjoy some morning munchies at our favorite breakfast place in Tomball…
Kate loved sitting out on a palette on the porte cache (sp?), enjoying the not-too-hot-yet weather. Looking at this photo now, she looks like such a baby! How did my little one grow up so much in just six months??Ok, consider yourself fairly warned. The backlog of blog postings has gotten to the unacceptable level, so I've taken advantage of being on work travel for a fewdays to work on getting caught up. I'm committed to make November my month of catching up (have to get it done before the Christmas photos start piling up, right?). So, expect pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.
This spring, we took Kate on her “maiden voyage” to Kemah to ride the rides. Anna was beyond thrilled to show her the ropes, and excited at how much fun Kate had! Anna also took this opportunity to be quite the “big girl” and decide to ride most of the rides by herself. In this shot, Kate and I are riding in a balloon on the Ferris wheel, while Anna rides in her own balloon. Very grown up.
Again, with the independence, Anna was very insistent on riding in her own plane. Quite the little pilot in the making…
I always have a hard time "predicting" what kind of career path Anna will choose...in some ways she's a very logical, systematic child that makes me think she'll follow in her parents' footsteps in some sort of engineering/science type field. But, oh my does this girl love art! So, then I think maybe that side of her will end up being more dominant and she'll pick a more creative field.
Well, she was playing with some of Kate's stacker blocks (again, last Spring...whatever...), and this was what she came up with. Very systematically stacked so that they wouldn't topple over (they are lots of different shapes and sizes), but color-coordinated.
Then it hit me--she's going to be our little architect!
(Disclaimer: Anna is actually going to be allowed to pursue whatever profession she chooses. Architect is merely a suggestion.)