Crosspoint Party in the Park

As many of you know, my church is in the process of building a new building in South Grand Prairie....and we changed our name from Turnpike to Crosspoint. I won't go into that subject because I'm one of the old geezers who is still bitter about it. :-) Anywho, a couple of weeks ago we had an outside church service and cookout close to the new property to advertise and welcome new people. I think it might have been the hottest day of the summer. I thought the morning wouldn't be bad since it started at 0930 but I was sweating the second I got there. It was really bad. At least two people actually passed out! Overall, it was a great day of fellowship and hopefully we got some new members from it!

Ethan helped load cokes for lunch while church was going on.

And so did Caleb.

Kristy and Amanda helped put all of the food out.

See that sweat? It was still morning!

Cooking burgers and hotdogs.

That is actually my pool that we donated to load with cokes and water.

Thirsty?

The church service was under the white tent. I decided to let the kids help with the drinks and food instead of me stressing and trying to hold them down during church while sweating to death.

Ethan and Tyler after loading drinks.

The kids put on a little circus during church.

Caleb wouldn't let me put him down so I had to get on stage too...while dripping sweat.

Refueling on some diet coke.

Mondo and Jeffrey cooked burgers for hours. Thanks guys!

Lunch time.

There was also a petting zoo which I always love. Caleb was chasing all of the animals. He compared this turtle to Turtleman. There is no comparison. That turtle was huge! He kept knocking on his shell.

That baby cow was pretty cute. He followed me around and was licking my legs. I guess they were salty...or sweet with my lotion. I literally had to push him away from me. It was a little gross.

Ethan enjoyed the animals too. He really liked the guinea pigs because we had just watched "G-Force".

Did I mention we had snow cones? :-)

Kindergarten Graduation

I honestly thought that kindergarten graduation was going to be no big deal. Boy was I wrong! It was a much more emotional moment for me. It started with one of the teachers reading a poem about kindergarteners from the first day of school until the end and how much they change and grow up. Then the slide show came with the song "Let Them Be Little" by Lonestar. Sobfest! I actually didn't sob, but I did tear up quite a bit. I didn't realize how much my tiny baby grew up in the last school year. He went from being terrified and crying everyday at school to getting in trouble for talking too much and being silly during the class. He loved his teacher and made a lot of friends. He even cried on his last day of school when he had to say goodbye to his 6th grade "book buddy".

Ahh Ethan. I'm so sad that you are growing up too fast but also excited to see what the future brings for you...my little first grader!

All of the kindergarten classes.

Lost in a sea of white gowns.

Hernandez clan.

Momo came to celebrate.

...and Nana and Papa.

The three amigos: Ethan, Will, and Brody.

Poor kids were so tired of posing and smiling.

Will, Caroline, and Ethan.

That's Bryce in the middle. I went through all of school with his dad. Weird.

One last pic with his pals!

Brody's mom had a last minute gathering after school for the graduates. Of course, I slept through it because I was napping before work.

Kindergarten Beach Party

It was called a "beach party" but it was a little lame-o. It's something the kindergarteners do every year during the last week of school. There were different stations where the kids could play in the water for 15 minute intervals. It was really wild and I was grateful that it was first thing in the morning so it wasn't 105 degrees outside.

Playing in the sand table.

This station had little plastic pools with water toys in it. Ethan spent the whole time running in circles while being chased with wet sponges.

Crazy kids.

Blowing bubbles.

Trying to put his lei on me.

This game was a total flop. The kids totally didn't get it. They passed a sopping wet sponge over their heads and the last person was supposed to squeeze it into a bucket then run it back to the front. Kids were squeezing it over their heads or just holding on to it while other kids yelled at them. A little chaotic.

At least he got wet.

Then they moved inside for some limbo dancing. They eventually put the pole so low that the kids were crawing under it. Again...missed the point. But they were laughing hysterically so that's all that mattered.

Then they decorated little visors.

Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch

We took our annual vacation to San Antonio's Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch a few weeks ago. And as usual it was wonderful. We added a few more families this year which was a lot of fun for the kids. I'll let the pictures tell the story since there are so many!

We always have to stop at Bill Miller's on the way there. It's Mondo's favorite childhood restaurant. Yes, we might have smuggled in some McDonald's for our picky eaters. It is a BBQ/fried chicken place.

This is how he wanted to pose for his picture. Mmm...that sweet tea looks good. It's the best!

Here's a view of one of the rooms. We stayed in a two bedroom with my friend Summer.

This is the adjoing living room.

Summer thought I brought a lot of chips. What can I say, my famly loves chippies!

I might get in trouble from Eric by posting this picture. :-) Really, they all needed a bath at the same time and who doesn't love bubbles? They didn't notice that one of them had different parts. Actually, no one noticed any parts because of all the bubbles! A squirt of shampoo on each head + jets = a TON of bubbles! We only did this once. It was a bit wild to say the least!

I debated on posting this one...but he's all covered. It's a bubble monster!

Munching on burgers and dogs.

Will's birthday was the weekend that we went so Summer brought some Star Wars cupcakes.

Every year we go to Sea World so we decided to change it up and go to Fiesta Texas. Little did we know it was field trip day! I've never seen so many buses! Luckily they were mainly on the bigger rides. Right when we walked in we saw some characters to take pictures with. That's Will, Tyler, and Maddie.

Scooby Doo! It's impossible to get a good picture with this rowdy bunch!

I was a good sport and rode this looney toon ride...that spins around and around. Blah!

A little train. Ethan was a good big brother and rode it with Caleb even though it was lame-o.

Not a great picture but I wanted one outside of the park. This was on our way out. We didn't stay too long because it was super hot and crowded.

We had some sparklers and smores one night. We had to go old school because we didn't have the skewers to put the marshmallows on so we used twigs. Pretty fun. There are smore pits there but they weren't open on Friday night. :-(

Caleb made me nervous with that thing!

Caleb was too busy to pose with Daddy.

That's Ethan and Will jumping in.

Building a sandcastle with Daddy.

Kristy and I helped Maddie and Caleb build a sandcastle...

...on the condition that they got to stomp it when we were done. :-)

The motley crew. From left to right: Vance, Tyler, Mallorie, Will, Jaley, Maddie, Maggie, Caleb, Carter, and Ethan.

Can anyone see what that says? ;-)

Taking a break.

Snack break.

They posed themselves and said "take a picture".

He's looking at the slide. Don't worry Caleb, you're too little for it anyway.

Playing on playground. The equipment was a little hot.

This just makes me laugh. He looked so big on it.

Wet family photo.

Wow, look how dark Ethan is!

They all piled into our bed and watched a movie. But no, they did NOT all sleep in there. Just my two.

On the way home. Worn to a frazzle. He fell asleep mid chicken nugget.

I had to donate my pillow to Ethan.

What a great, exhausting trip. :-)