Paintball Fun

Jacob's friend, Hagen, had a paintball birthday party. Lots of fun was had...

... and Jacob said this didn't hurt too much!

Camping for Father's Day

Jacob and Mark left for a week-long camp at Lost Pines Scout Reservation in Bastrop, TX, on Father's Day. It was the first time Mark has attended a campout with Jacob's Flower Mound troop. It was fun to send them off with this throwback picture!

Friend of an Eagle

Sarah's swim coach, Michael, became an Eagle Scout and invited us to his Court of Honor. It was a special ceremony dedicated to his years in scouting and the people that supported him on his journey to Eagle. It was inspirational for Jacob to see, and it was special for Sarah since he is her coach.

Cub Scout Day Camp 2015

Ethan and Lucas participated in Day Camp again this summer, and Jacob volunteered as a Red Shirt again. It's still hot, dirty and buggy, but we're getting to be pros at this!

Roping ...

Tree hammocks...

Archery...

Red-shirting...

Mining for gold...

and BB Guns!

Crohn's Update

Sarah was not feeling great towards the end of the school year. More abdominal pain, more fatigue, more not wanting to do sleepovers or other fun things. We took her back to her gastro doctor who wanted to do an updated endoscopy and colonoscopy. The last time was already two years ago! He found lots of inflammation in her lower intestine and some ulcerous spots. This is a pic after she woke up from the procedure. She looks frail to me, and quite thin at 74 lbs. 

He prescribed Remicade, a biologic infusion drug as the next step in treatment. It wasn't a decision we took lightly, as the side effects are terrifying. But many patients have done very well on Remicade and she isn't staying in remission on her current meds. This is her during her first infusion. It's basically three hours of sitting in a chair while the drug is dripped into her arm. She gets a comfy chair, a warm blanket and lots of electronics. 

So far, we haven't seen any negative effects but the short term ones are not the ones we're worried about. 

Rainy Day Fun

This was hilarious! Ethan and Lucas wanted to huddle in for the picture. Sarah did not, as that would make everyone unstable on their skates ... you can guess what happened!

Last day of school shenanigans

Nimrata, Lore, Drisana, Sarah, Grace & Ali

Mrs. Bulthaup & Ethan

Lucas at the Rock Star Party!

Sarah's Fifth Grade Graduation

Sarah's elementary school graduation was held at the middle school where she will be join on the fall.  She was part of the national anthem and they played a song on their recorders. It was a sweet ceremony with fun speeches from all the fifth grade teachers and many awards. 

My little girl is definitely growing up! 

Cardboard Boat Regatta

One of the most fun things our fifth graders get to do is build a boat using only cardboard and duct tape and race them at the natatorium. After a week or so of scaled-down models to determine design for best weight capacity and floatation, the big boats were all shapes and sizes. Most only carried one team member, maybe two. Sarah's boat? All four girls! And surprisingly, they came in fourth place overall! 

Bachelorette Weekend

My friend Charisse is getting married on 7/11, so we had a girls weekend at our friend's river house in New Braunfels. It was a fun weekend with lots of laughs, some tears, music, movies and a selfie stick!

Carrie, Charisse, Laurie, Roxanne & me.

It's a Major Award

Jacob and some classmates won First Place in the school district's Student Film Festival! Their film was a public service announcement about child abuse. Jacob attended the award ceremony (while I was out of town because that's not what we talked about him wearing!). Here he is with his English teacher, Mrs. Brennan. 

Jacob turns 14!

For his birthday, he wanted to go to Main Event. But because his birthday always falls on Memorial Day weekend, we struggle to find friends who are in town or not busy with family BBQs. This year, there were buckets of rain expected in the forecast and he was able to find a bunch of friends to go with him for a fun afternoon of bowling, laser tag and games. 

Keep Flower Mound Beautiful

Another day, another scout project. This time, Sarah's troop cleaned up at Lake Grapevine. Even though much of the park was underwater, there was still plenty of accessible trash! KFMB is a legit organization that brought the grabbers and trash bags which was nice. Even park visitors were helping the girls get stuff out of the water's edge.

Eighth Grade Dance

Jacob's school held a dance for the 8th graders only It was not a prom, or even a formal, but of course everyone was calling it that. Jacob, who hasn't missed a scout camp out in a very long time, decided he wanted to go to the dance instead of the campout. 

He asked a girl, who said yes, then texted him later to say she decided against it and she had felt pressure to say yes since she was surrounded by people when he asked. It was a good lesson to learn (ask privately) for future dates. He was embarrassed but recovered nicely. 

There was another girl who adores him and asked him to go to the dance but he declined and just said he was going to go with a group now. She still signs off their text conversations with "Love you" even though Jacob has not responded in kind, so I guess she recovered as well.

I volunteered for the dance to do photography so I could keep an eye on things from behind the lens. Everyone was pretty well behaved and had a great time, although there were some girls with questionable dresses for 14 year-olds. Note to self for when Sarah is in 8th grade! 

I thought Jacob was incredibly handsome and I love his post-braces smile.

Donuts with Dad

A persuasive argument

Our kids have been asking for a dog for a few years now. My responses was always "not until I get my hips fixed." So we've been tossing around the idea. Each kid had a different idea about what kind of dog we should get. Jacob wants a German Shepard. Sarah wants any small dog that will sleep with her. Ethan wants a pug. Probably because he met cousin Samara's pug last summer. Lucas wants a Chihuahua. That's quite a spectrum!

So my mom sent a dog breed book that discussed common health issues, grooming and exercise needs, size, temperament, etc., and we talked about lots of different types of dogs. Mark grew up with springer spaniels. I wanted a small to medium size dog and fell in love with Cavalier King Charles spaniels when the ebola nurse, Nina Pham, and her dog Bentley were in the news. 

Then I saw a woman walking her CKC spaniel and stopped to ask her about the breed and where she got her dog. She lead me to a local breeder in North Texas. But I also love the idea of rescuing a dog and not having to go through the puppy stage for our first family pet. I've been watching Cavalier Rescue USA as well. I'm not in a rush, but the kids are persistent.

Jacob had to complete a blue dog painting project at school based on the works of George Rodrigue. 

This was Jacob's painting. Framed and given as a gift on Mother's Day. Awwww.

Simultaneously, Sarah was working on persuasive writing at school. This letter was given to me shortly after Mother's Day.

Do you think they're trying to tell me something?

Girl Scout Bronze Award Project

Sarah's troop collected towels and blankets for Flower Mound Animal Care Services as part of their Bronze Award project. More than 13 boxes of stuff were delivered!

Earlier in the year, the girls had been given a tour and learned about all the different animals FMACS is equipped to take care of. Not just cats and dogs, but horses, livestock, wildlife - you name it! FMACS planned to pick out the items they needed from our donation and share the rest with other local animal care facilities. The girls were very proud! 

Field Day

The elementary school had Field Day and all the kids had a blast!

Golf on a whim

On a whim, I answered a call for a volunteer photographer for an American Diabetes Association golf tournament. I was told to take shots of each foursome and some candids, and that was the extent of my instruction. 

The guy did say to try and get the foursomes to do something silly for the pictures but clearly there were too many boring folk and not enough alcohol on the course ...

 until....my favorite shot of the day!