Weekend in CS with the Powell's

For the past few years, the Powell's and Huey's and our family try to get together. We have gone to each other's homes and taken a couple of beach and cabin camping trips together. But, with everyone in school and kids getting bigger, those vacations seem to become less. We need to work on that! However, we did get the Powell's in town for a weekend at the end of October and it's always so much fun! With Mandee and Derek, like many of our friends who we don't see often, we can pick right up where we left off and have the best time. And our kids have so much fun together. Beck and Ben and Atticus and Grace just play and play (and those boys are always SO sweet to include Grace in everything!). So, they came into town Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning. We hit up the pumpkin patch, played baseball outside, ate Mad Taco, cooked out, stayed up way too late visiting each night while the kids crashed, and it was just a great time.

They arrived Friday night; we ate fajitas for dinner; and they got busy playing!

They were up early the next morning to pull every toy out and play and play! Even Everly enjoyed herself. 

 We hit up the pumpkin patch next to let them burn off some energy. I mostly took pictures of Everly - the cutest pumpkin in the patch!

Then, before we went to lunch, we headed to the corn maze. For a cool day, it ended up hot and everyone was tired, but it was fun to see what TAMU Ag can do when they put together a maze!

Then we headed to eat at Mad Taco.

 

Then, we headed home to a beautiful afternoon of kids (and dads - I need to post those videos!) playing baseball! I love that Atticus used his football helmet for Halloween as his batting helmet, since he didn't have one. Luc and Ellie, from next door, came to play too! Actually - here are links to the videos, although I don't expect anyone to find them as funny as I do! You may have had to be there! 

https://youtu.be/sOCyTEzr5AI

https://youtu.be/rkSlL3dLjyE

https://youtu.be/MOwnS_5rr2U

 

 

Ben wouldn't smile - he is such a cute little stinker! But, he's the sweetest to Grace; I hope these boys always take care of her when we are together. Melissa and Ella also came by because they were in town for the football game. 

Then, they came in, drew mascots for awhile, we ate steaks and kabobs, and attempted to put them to sleep on the floor with a movie. I think they finally fell asleep!

It's always a great weekend with our friends in town!

Our weekend with Beck and Ben

At least once a year, we have the Powell's to stay in College Station with us! Sometimes, we have years where we see them 3 or 4 times at the beach, JW Marriott, Austin, or Orange Grove, but this time, we had not seen them in almost an entire year! So, it was so much fun to have them come stay for a weekend! Many times, the Huey's also come in for a day trip to College Station on Friday, but they were busy this time, so it was just the 9 of us. On Friday night, they arrived and we ate chicken, baked potatoes and salad while the boys and Grace started playing. They picked up right where they left off with their friendship and never had any problems all weekend. Even Grace played the entire time without every feeling left out and they always included her. They played and played and crashed Friday night, and us adults even stayed up until 1:30! That is very late for me and Vic these days!

On Saturday, we got dressed in our Aggie gear, since this was the big Texas A&M vs. Alabama game weekend in Alabama. Before we left, the kids went outside and Beck coached them to play football for awhile. He was so funny telling them where to stand and what to do and was serious. But, sometimes, his other 3 players got confused or forgot and it made for some interesting plays, touchdowns, and tackles. It was the funniest thing! Also, since Mandee and Derek had not seen the new stadium, we headed up to campus to walk around the stadium, the MSC, and over to the Century Tree. The kids ran and played and we got the cutest pictures that I truly hope we get to recreate one day when they are all Aggies attending Texas A&M together! We went to Chimy's to eat lunch and hit it right before the college crowd arrived to watch the game. It was a great lunch because the adults sat at one table and the kids, minus Everly, sat a different table. It's exciting to get to that point in your kids ages! Then, we headed home to watch the game, do a lot of pretending and dress-up, play outside with some of the neighbors, and finish off the night with pizza. Early the next day, they headed home and Atticus and Grace were so sad to see them go! We look forward to every time we get to see Mandee and Derek, Beck and Ben.

Playing Catchup: Huey Powell Weekend

We had our annual fall Huey Powell weekend in November. On November 15th, they all came to the house (actually the Powells stayed all weekend) for a fun day for the kids to play and adults to visit. Actually, this time around Mandee, Emily and I even got a couple of hours away to have a visit at Napa Flats with no kids! It was full of toys everywhere, lots of snacks, lots of playtime and lots of fun! And here's a picture to show how big our babies are getting!

Ben, Beck, Leighton, Camden, Atticus, Haley & Grace!

Weekend in Austin

The day after Grace's birthday, we met the Powell's in Austin at the Huey's House for a long friend and kid weekend. We arrived Friday night. The Huey's live in a large, beautiful home in the Steiner Neighborhood in Austin. They have a fabulous backyard where we spend the majority of the weekend. The weather was gorgeous and the kids had a blast! There were 7 kids total ages 22 months thru 5 years. We cooked out, went to the Austin Zoo, celebrated Grace and Becks' birthdays with a St. Patrick's Day theme, and had a bit of "find the leprechaun" game going on all weekend for the little ones. Most of you have seen it on my Instagram, but I created 6 different notes that the kids would find throughout the weekend starting with a book about the leprechaun and instruction to look for him so they could get his pot of gold. We used shamrock confetti to show the leprechaun had been around. They got green jellybeans and had to search for his hat and wear green all day on Saturday. They made magic pudding (pistachio) when they mixed milk with the magic powder. They had to hunt for gold coins (chocolate) and just had a really good time, although they did not find the leprechaun! I got the ideas from my expert Kindergarten teacher, GG! On top of that, we just had a really good weekend with our friends and got enough visiting in without any major kid accidents. At this time in our lives, that is a win! Here's a few quick pics: