Montessori Night

Earlier this month the kids' school held their Montessori Night, which gives the kids a chance to show off the works they've learned to their parents. We got to watch Rebecca first then Daniel.

She was feeling shy thaat night and while we could tell she knew the works well she didn't want to show off very much. She hadn't napped that day AND had gotten shots at her well check that afternoon, which probably didn't help.

Showing us the book she made of some of her works

Organizing the knobless cylinders by size

Matching objects to the letter they start with-this one she did seem to get into and was more excited to show us

Showing us the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" book she had colored, and pointing out all the things the caterpillar ate.

Purple shirt, shorts, pink boots- yes, she did pick her own wardrobe that night ;)

Daniel, by contrast, was eager to show us one work after another. No sooner would he finish one then he was asking his teacher what he could do next.

Fractions work. He was really excited about this one. And I was surprised to see that he knew that 1/4+1/4=1/2, but I can see how this work would help students grasp that concept well.

Life cycle of a tree: he put the stages in order from seed to flower, then matched the pictures and words. He had also made a poster showing the stages, which he was proud to take home to hang on his wall.

Skip counting by 5s. He also had a song he sang to get from 0 to 100.

It was a natural progression from skip counting by 5s to using the clock. When we gave him different times-7am, 8:15, 3:40, etc., he'd move the clock hands to that time.

Trinomial cube. This work is used in older grades to teach algebra but younger kids use it to learn colors and shapes. The layers must be done one at a time and each piece will only fit in one place. Every piece must be in place for the box to close. He was able to do it quickly and confidently.

The works he's doing really seem to be developing his numbers sense and he seems to be really enjoying them and understanding the concepts well. I think that as he enters grade school, with the right curriculum and an encouraging teacher, he may really get excited about math. (I guess he inherited something from Kevin!)

This was Daniel's last Montessori Night at Apostles and seeing Rebecca's class first provided a good reminder of just how much he has learned in his time there and how much confidence he has gained. We didn't catch Rebecca on her best day this year but it was clear she knew a lot and was proud. It'll be fun to see how she does next year.

Another ADS milestone in the books for this school year!

Disneyland...When can we do this again?

Last week after months of anticipation we enjoyed our first family Disney trip. Given that every day the kids ask when we can go back, I'd say they enjoyed it pretty well!

We arrived Sunday afternoon and headed over to the park to meet my parents, who had arrived the day before to get a head start. I've been looking forward to this trip since before Daniel was born but I know they've looked forward to taking grandchildren probably even longer than that. My mom went as a child with her parents, then she and my dad took my brother and me when we were younger, and now she's experienced Disneyland as a child, parent, and grandparent.

The kids enjoyed all the rides. Daniel especially enjoyed Splash Mountain ("I got all wet! I want to do that ride again!"); unfortunately, we only got to ride it once as it was under refurbishment the rest of our trip. While the rest of us were on Splash Mountain my mom took Rebecca to the Winnie the Pooh ride, which turned out to be a favorite for her, and they rode it 3 times.

The next day brought more of the same. They both decided the Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blasters (aka "the one where we shoot bad guys with lasers, because they're trying to take my buttons and dress"-Rebecca) were a favorite so we rode that one quite a few times.

We also watched the Paint the Night Parade. This parade is the successor to the beloved Main Street Electrical Parade that ran for decades and which I'd enjoyed on every previous trip. While I'm still sad I'll never see that one again live, Paint the Night is a worthy successor. Daniel was on Kevin's shoulders, Rebecca's on my dad's, and I was watching their faces at least as much as the parade itself. Their faces say it all-they loved it!

Walking hand in hand out of the Buzz Lightyear ride, our last ride of the night

A few weeks before the trip I upgraded phones because my 5S was out of storage and I'd been making it work as long as I could. I debated between the iPhone 6 or 6s and ended up going with the 6S in large part because of the improved camera and the Live Photo feature which, effectively, captures a 3 second video instead of just a still photo. This trip convinced me that that feature alone justified the upgrade. Take the 2 parade photos above-you can see the kids are excited. But now look at the Live Photo versions (one from a different night)-you see and hear the emotion and excitement. It's not just a 2D memory. It's 3D with texture, and I find myself smiling every time I rewatch the Live Photos from the week. (Alas, the major drawback at this point is that the Live Photos are really best seen on new Apple devices-to put them on this blog I had to download video versions. But in time, I expect sharing to become easier.)

The next day we ventured to the California Adventure park. On my last Disneyland visit 15+ years ago this was under construction so this would be the first visit for all 4 of us. The highlight was CarsLand modeled on the town of Radiator Springs from the Cars movies. Daniel loved the Lightning McQueen race car ride. Rebecca wasn't tall enough to ride it but we made use of the "rider swap" feature so one adult or pair could stand in line with Daniel, get a rider swap pass, ride, then hand the rider swap pass to the other adults, who then got to go almost to the front of the line with Daniel.

Rebecca met Jessie from Toy Story and was excited to show off her light-up pink boots. Again, still photo versus Live is a big difference.

 

That night my parents took the kids and Kevin and I enjoyed a nice dinner and wine at a restaurant just outside the park. The next morning Daniel and Rebecca couldn't wait to tell us about the magical headboards in Mimi and Baba's hotel room that lit up with fireworks!

Thursday was Rebecca's 3rd birthday. When you're in Disneyland for your daughter's 3rd birthday, and she loves Minnie Mouse, what better way to start the day than with a character breakfast with Minnie and friends? She loved meeting Minnie and Pooh but was rather cool toward Captain Hook, "the bad guy." 

I love this Live Photo:

Between breakfast with Minnie, a day at Disneyland capped off with Paint the Night Parade and the fireworks show, and stopping for ice cream on our way back to the hotel, I'd have thought that would be the perfect birthday for a 3 year old. Alas, she burst into tears while we were in the hotel eating ice cream, disappointed that she didn't have a candle to blow out. Nice try, mom. (I did rectify that omission this week with a strawberry cake with purple icing and bananas for her school birthday party, because purple is her favorite color. Except that after seeing the cake, she declared that pink was her new favorite color. Better luck next year.)

Friday was our last day and we made it count, hitting many favorite rides one last time. On past trips I remember the last hours of the final nights being a mad rush to hit all the big rides again. This time, the final rides included the Tiki Room, Tarzan Tree House, Alice in Wonderland, and of course, a few more rounds of Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters to shoot a few more bad guys with lasers. Then it was goodbye Disneyland till next time.

Five days proved to be about right. I had thought Rebecca might get tired and cranky as the week went on but she held up like a champ. We went back to the hotel every day for a nap and she took a long one each day. She didn't seem upset about not getting to do all the rides Daniel could; she was perfectly happy to do something else instead. She finally had a meltdown once we'd arrived back in Dallas at the airport, as I was trying to get her strapped into the car seat to go home. She fell asleep on the 20 minute drive home. Daniel never napped (the only one of the four of us who didn't), but he was ready for some downtime by the end too.

Our expectations when we scheduled the trip for February were that crowds would be light but weather would likely be cool. Sort of right on the one, not so much on the other. 

We arrived on Super Bowl Sunday and while it wasn't as crowded as summer, we were definitely not the only ones who had the thought to skip the game and go to the park instead. The next day, Monday, was almost as crowded, which surprised me till we found out there was a parade there for Peyton Manning. The rest of the days were a little lighter, and we seldom waited in a line more than 30 minutes, so I guess it wasn't busy, just felt that way. There were definitely far fewer school-aged kids than normal, most kids were preschool aged and younger.

The cool weather we had expected, on the other hand? Not so much. It was in the mid-high 50s early morning and at night but reached nearly 90 with full sun during the day. We'd usually leave the hotel in the morning in shorts and tee shirts then return in the evening after our naps in jeans and pullovers.

Another aspect that was a little surprising is that those fast jerky rides are a little harder on an adult body than I recall them being when I was young. Still fun, but a visit to the chiropractor was definitely in order after all that. I guess the carrying and holding kids might have had something to do with it too.

We had wondered if the kids were at good ages for a Disney trip. I was 8 the first time I went and Kevin hadn't been as a child at all, so this was uncharted territory for us. The timing was mainly about getting in during the offseason before Daniel started grade school and that wouldn't be possible, and getting to go while Rebecca was still (barely) under 3 and didn't need a ticket. This turned out to be a great time. They loved seeing the characters and were really taken with the magic of everything in a way they may not be in a few years. Daniel was old enough to ride most rides but was happy for the most part to do the ones Rebecca could do too. And she didn't seem to be upset that she couldn't ride some of the rides. I'm glad we were out of the diaper stage and never had to wait in the sometimes long lines for a changing station, but it'll be nice later once we can visit stroller-free. It was nice to have a stroller there, but the week did remind me why we very seldom used strollers when the kids were younger. I wore Rebecca in my Beco carrier sometimes but she did get heavy, and it was hard to get her in and out as often as she wanted. Still, the hands-free aspect was nice and much easier for navigating through crowds than the stroller was.

We went into this trip with high expectations, me with nostalgia for prior visits, Kevin and the kids having never been, and having talked it up for months. And for all that, I think it still exceeded expectations. We're definitely looking forward to going back in a few years (now that Rebecca needs a ticket, we'll wait till she's tall enough to ride most of the rides) and it'll be fun to see which old favorites they want to do over and over again and which rides catch their interest anew. As the Paint the Night soundtrack says "I gotta know, my friends, when can we do this again?"

Daniel's 1st triathlon!

As I was perusing race options for myself a few weeks ago, I noticed a kids' triathlon on the schedule, the Monster Kids Tri in Keller. After reading more about it I thought Daniel might enjoy it and it would be a fun introduction for him into a sport I love. I told him about it and he was very enthusiastic so I signed him up.

As race day drew closer and I talked with him about what to expect he would get a big smile on his face and say he couldn't wait. The night before I walked him through my own pre-race ritual: inflate bike tires, make sure all labels are affixed to bike and helmet, load the bike on (or, in this case, in) the car, pack all gear, lay out clothes. 

Race morning started early. The race started at 7:30 and was a 30 minute drive from the house so we were out the door by 6:20. At first Daniel was hard to wake but he quickly became alert and excited once he realized what day it was. I offered to let him sleep in the car on the way there but he asked me to play loud music for him-just as I do on my race mornings! So we rocked out to Pitbull and Eminem and danced in our seats.

When we parked and went to the body marking line he said he had rocket boosters on his bike but was going to save them for the race. We enjoyed visiting with the families around us. Unsurprisingly, the parents were all triathletes themselves, and I have to say I haven't seen so much M-Dot (Ironman) apparel since Ironman Village in Victoria. I'm sure for all of them this race meant what it did to me: the chance to include our children in the sports we're passionate about. To share it with them so that our hobby isn't just something that takes us away from them but something fun we can enjoy together.

Of course, it's also about giving the kids a fun experience, and this tri definitely delivered. After body marking, we set up his transition area and headed into the natatorium where he took a spot with the rest of the Leap Frog (youngest kids) group. 

Finally, the event started, with the Leap Frogs starting 5 at a time. Their swim was 25m-one length of the pool, and each lane had a teen escort (I assume members of a local swim team) who had a pool noodle for the kids to hold onto. Daniel has swum 25m  before but made use of the noodle. I was waiting at the end of the lane and together we ran out to transition (note to self: next time bring the towel inside for him). Swim down, bike and run to go.

He was cold so wanted to wear pants and a long-sleeve shirt under his short-sleeve race tee shirt with race number. After one wardrobe change (and a little unplanned nudity when he decided to take off his swimsuit instead of layering the pants over it!), he got his helmet on and we walked the bike out of transition and over to the mount line. I watched him roll away on his balance bike and awaited his return. The bike was a 1 mile out-and-back, and soon enough he appeared on the other side of the road inbound for transition. I cheered him on as he rode to the dismount line and we ran the bike back to transition. 

We dropped off the bike and helmet and grabbed his Aggie cap (I wear an Aggie visor at my races, so this was his version of that) and sunglasses and headed out for the run. I asked Daniel if he wanted me to run with him or wait at the finish line and he wanted me to go with him and hold his hand. I'm recovering from a stress fracture and not really supposed to run but I couldn't pass up the chance to hold my son's hand as he ran his very first triathlon and I figured I could handle a .3 mile run at a 5 year old's pace. We ran-walked it and before long, the finish line was in sight. 

Holding hands, we ran together under the finish marker as the announcer called out "Daniel Williamson of Irving, first triathlon!" He got his finisher medal and was just beaming with pride as he looked at it.

Before we had even walked back to the car Daniel was already asking when he could do his next triathlon, and as he'd look at his medal he kept saying "I'm so, so happy I have this." I told him that the rule was after a race, the athlete gets to pick where to eat and he chose Chik-Fil-A "so I can eat chicken and fruit and play in the playscape." Of course, by the time we got there, the post-race doughnut he'd eaten at the finish line had had time to settle so he didn't touch his food but Rebecca got there just in time to eat it all. Younger siblings have their uses ;)

Afterward Daniel declared that he wanted a medal hanger like mine to hang this and all the other medals he plans to earn, and he asks every day when he gets to do his next race. I'm so glad he enjoyed the race and look forward to sharing more triathlon experiences-his and mine-over the coming years. It was well worth the early morning and drive to see the pride and joy on his face. My little triathlete!

Big girl Rebecca!

It's been awhile since I've done an update on Rebecca so I thought it was time! Our girl is 2 1/2 now and has really grown up a lot in the last few months.

Speech:

Rebecca's receptive language has always been good and she has had a lot of words for awhile but her articulation needed improvement. She could put together sentences of many words but only used the first syllable of every word. Just a few months ago she called herself "Beh" and me "Ma." She was referred for evaluation with an Early Childhood Intervention program but wasn't far enough behind to qualify. One of her teachers really worked with her this summer though and brought about great improvement. Now she proudly introduces herself as "Rebecca" and is much easier to understand. Which is good, because she has a lot to say!

A cute thing she's been saying a lot lately when we ask her if she wants to do something is "yes please, I'd LOVE to!" Speaking of love, we get lots of "I love you"s from her too, and when I tell her "I'm happy you're my girl" she'll reply "so happy you my mommy."

Naps:

Still napping some but lately reports home from school say she's resting but not sleeping on many days. Daniel had stopped napping well before his 2nd birthday so we're just glad to still get naps out of her at all this late in the game, but I'd bet she gives up the nap by year's end. Which may prove convenient for travels including one special birthday adventure we have planned...

Sleep:

She has been able to crawl into and out of her crib for months now but still likes to sleep in it and does more nights than not. In fact, there have been several nights she fell asleep in the full size bed in her room (the guest bed) but in the morning we discover her in the crib, having woken up and moved during the night. She enjoys the company of a full menagerie of stuffed animals but her beloved pink bunny lovey is the favorite.

 

She does enjoy sleeping in our bed sometimes, and we let her and Daniel take turns falling asleep in our bed. When I come to bed and hug her she'll immediately turn to throw her arms around my neck and cuddle.

Potty-training:

She's been in panties during the day since a little before her 2nd birthday but we hadn't tried potty training at night till just a few weeks ago. But now that she's sleeping in our bed regularly I thought we better take care of night potty-training while she still liked her crib and accident clean-up wouldn't be too bad. So imagine our surprise when we put her to bed in panties one night hoping for the best...and she stayed dry that night, and the next, and every night after! 

And with that, our family is officially done with our diapering days (well, for this stage of life). So I sorted all of our diaper stash and gave it all away to the Rebecca Foundation, a nonprofit that collects used cloth diapers, repairs them, and then passes them on to families in need. It was nice to know that after all the years of use we got out of them, now they'll go on to bless another family. And nice to know we have no more diapers to change ;) She has accidents sometimes during the day, mainly when she gets too busy playing and doesn't want to stop to potty, but she does pretty well most of the time.

School:

She returned this fall to the toddler class where she started in February and continues to enjoy it. She is proud to show off her works when they come home and seems to be learning well. She and Daniel are enjoying Soccer Shots and TOT basketball extracurriculars together and Rebecca will try ballet next week (figured she would benefit from having something on her own apart from big brother).

Over the summer the teachers started putting her hair up in pigtails for her and she loved it and looks like such a big girl with them. I try to do her hair sometimes but she informs me that "Miss Maggie" does a better job. I guess I'll need to watch some Youtube videos to improve my technique!

Sibling relations:

For the most part, Rebecca and Daniel get along well, enjoy each other's company, and play together. But being siblings they do of course fight and get on each other's nerves sometimes too. Sometimes Daniel is the dominant one-no surprise, as he's older and bigger- but Rebecca asserts herself pretty well on occasion. Case in point: there was a weekend night that we let them both sleep in our bed, but when we came up to go to bed we found she had captured the whole bed and Daniel had retreated to his own room. Not sure what transpired from the time we put them to bed to the time he left, but she seems to have had the upper hand.

One thing I love to see is how empathetic they are to each other. If one is hurt or upset the other will generally run over to console (assuming they didn't cause the crying in the first place). One day at school Daniel tripped and fell in the playground and was crying when he got up. Rebecca went over to him even before the teachers got there, and if the situation had been the other way around I'd bet he'd have done the same for her.

"Mimi Mouse":

Rebecca LOVES Minnie Mouse. Loves her. Always wants to wear a Minnie Mouse shirt (in her favorite color purple, preferably) and requires not one but 2 Minnie dolls to keep her company at night. Often covered with a Minnie Mouse blanket too. I've been known to use a Minnie Mouse voice (or my best approximation of what that must entail, since I don't think I've ever heard her voice) to get Rebecca to use the potty in a public place...Mommy asks and gets no response but Minnie asks and suddenly it's a different story. She refers to her as "Mimi Mouse" which I assume is a conflation of Minnie and Mimi, what the kids call my mom.

On a related note, we took the kids to the Sea Life aquarium a few months ago on a holiday weekend and commented as we were leaving how crowded it had been and how much more enjoyable it was to visit on off days. By the time we had reached our car, the conversation had morphed into a plan to take advantage of our last year of not having to worry about a school calendar and take the kids to Disneyland during the offseason. 

And so it is that Rebecca will celebrate her 3rd birthday in unforgettable fashion: at Disneyland with Minnie Mouse! We're all excited and eagerly looking forward to it and the kids already ask several times a week if today's the day we go to "Dis-a-ney-land."

Needless to say, when I asked her what she wanted to dress up as for Halloween, her answer was as immediate as it was predictable.

Rebecca has such a fun, funny, sweet personality, and it's fun to see that personality take shape more and more as she gets older. We love our sweet girl!

Aggie football weekend

I've been to dozens of football games at Kyle Field but the one on September 12, 2015, will always be special. Not because the game was competitive; it was out of reach by the end of the first quarter. Not just because it was the first game in the new and improved Kyle Field, $485 million later. Since before Daniel was born I've looked forward to taking him to a game there and that day, I did.

I hadn't planned on taking him this year. I had been thinking maybe next year. But when we went to College Station last month he seemed so excited about exploring campus and seeing a game that I decided to look into tickets for this year. I knew the early non-conference games wouldn't be competitive and tickets and hotel rooms would be easier to come by and sure enough, I was able to land both.

Better yet, one of my best friends from college, Crystal, and her 8 year old son Zephyr, decided to join us. Football, friends, mom-son bonding time, what's not to love?

We arrived in Aggieland mid-afternoon on game day and walked from our hotel to campus in time to catch the Corps of Cadets march-in. Daniel enjoyed seeing the Corps outfits all march in and hearing the band. Afterward we met up with Crystal and Zephyr to explore the MSC and eat dinner. Then, it was time to take our seats in the newly opened South End Zone.

By the end of the first quarter I think the score was already 27-3 or something so the only question was when the backups would come in. The boys were excited to see all those touchdowns though and to hear the Parsons Mounted Cavalry cannon boom after each one. They also loved to watch the Aggie Band perform. 

Not only did they make it through the full game, but they wanted to see the Yell Leaders get dunked in the Fish Pond afterward so we walked over to Sbisa to see that. Afterward they had so much energy they ran sprints back to Crystal's car (a pretty long walk), stopping at every driveway or stop sign till we caught up. Oh, and catching crickets. Zeph showed Daniel how to do that so he was pretty excited about that.

We learned that another college friend, Amar, was also in town that weekend too and since we, with kids, couldn't go out to Northgate afterward to party we invited him to come to our hotel to hang out there. The plan was that we'd put the boys to bed then visit out on the balcony but the boys were still full of energy, and we had gotten them some ice cream, so it was after 1 before we all finally called it a night.

The next morning, unsurprisingly, we all slept in then went for breakfast at Taco Cabana where as a nice surprise I ran into my cousin's husband, Michael. After breakfast and coffee we went to the Bonfire Memorial. Daniel was affected seeing it last month and was this time as well. 

After that we visited the Former Student Center with its giant replica of an Aggie Ring, walked around Northgate, toured all our old apartments, then had lunch before beginning our respective journeys home.

Our first trip to an Aggie football game was one of the most fun weekends we've had in awhile. It was nice to get so much one-on-one time with Daniel and show him around a place that means so much to me. It'll be fun to take solo trips with Rebecca when she gets older too. Daniel also loved spending time with such a fun big kid and keeps talking about Zephyr and wanting to see him again. We're talking about making it an annual tradition and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Family wedding weekend

This weekend we went to College Station to celebrate my cousin Paul's wedding. Daniel family weddings are always fun opportunities to catch up with family members but I was also looking forward to this weekend as the first time to introduce Daniel and Rebecca to the city and university I called home for 4 years.

Friday after a 3 1/2 hour drive to get there our first order of business was a quick swim in the hotel pool to let the kids burn off some energy before dinner. Afterward as we were getting ready to head out to dinner we noticed several other members of the big extended Daniel family had checked in and asked around to see if anyone wanted to join us. 

My cousin Paul (not the one getting married), his wife Tarsy, and their 2 kids Becca (14) and William (11 1/2, as he proudly noted), were staying right next to us and decided to come with us so we enjoyed a fun evening of catching up with them over an Italian dinner and a few glasses of wine. Their kids were so sweet and engaging with my kids-those fun, cool "big kids" that little ones just adore. I remember at our wedding 8 years ago Becca was one of the little girls who were enchanted with the bride (me!) and little William was the little boy rocking out on the dance floor wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck!

Saturday after breakfast we went over to campus to look around. Kyle Field, the football stadium, has undergone some significant upgrades (still in progress) so we started by walking around to see the exterior changes. One of the new additions is a sculpture of a group of students sawing the horns during the Aggie War Hymn. I don't particularly care for it myself (the people look weird to me) but Rebecca was downright scared of it and cried and clambered to get away (probably not the response the artist was looking for!).

After that we explored the MSC (Memorial Student Center). The kids liked the flag room and the wall of wooden carvings of A&M's history. I was impressed to see all the renovations that have been done since my time there.

After that we went to the Bonfire Memorial. I've been to see it a few times and it's always a moving experience. The collapse happened my junior year and as it happens, I was on campus that very night, camped out along with a group of friends waiting to "pull" our tickets for the annual rivalry game with Texas. It's been nearly 16 years but a sad, surreal experience I'll never forget.

We explained it to the kids in a very simple, age-appropriate way: some boys and girls were working building a project here and a terrible accident happened and people got really hurt, and this memorial remembers the bonfire tradition and the people who were there that night. Rebecca was too young to take anything from it but Daniel was very affected by it. 

As we walked around looking at the portals honoring the 12 victims he asked more about them and if they were all better. We told him that these people whose pictures he saw had gotten hurt so badly that the doctors couldn't fix them and they had died and gone on to Jesus's house (a topic we'd talked about a lot last year when our old cat, Todd, died). He asked if they had moms and dads and if they were sad. He saw a bunch of bikes in a nearby bike rack and asked if those bikes belonged to  the people who got hurt. No, I said, this was a very long time ago, those are other people's bikes, as I thought how within a few years, the students riding around campus won't have been born yet when the Bonfire fell. He wanted to see pictures of the bonfire both aflame and after it fell and grew quiet when he saw pictures of the collapsed pile. 

Sunday night as we lay in bed he said we needed to go to the police station and show them that picture and make sure they knew about this. I told him that the police and firefighters had gone out there and helped (I heard the sirens myself) and lots of people had done so much to help. (Update: tonight, Tuesday, he brought it up again as we lay down and asked to see pictures. We watched a Youtube video/slideshow with images very familiar to me but new to him.)

After our morning exploring campus we went to Aggieland institution the Dixie Chicken for lunch. Gotta start 'em young, right? ;) Then it was naptime for Rebecca so Kevin took her to the hotel and Daniel and I went souvenir shopping (dress for Rebecca, mini helmet for Daniel), got him a milkshake at the Chik-Fil-A he had seen and begged to go back to, a stop by a local running shop, and a grocery store run,then it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for the main event.

Here we are all dressed up:

Before the wedding started Daniel told Kevin he wanted to give Paul and his bride Haley a message. He dictated and Kevin wrote, then Daniel signed. Here, his sage advice:

Where we were sitting we didn't have a clear view of the happy couple during the ceremony itself but once Daniel finally saw the bride he said "wow, she's so beautiful!"

Then it was on to the reception. We weren't sure how long the kids could hold out, so we just planned to play it by ear and stay as long as we could. Turns out we've got some dancing fools on our hands! The moment the dance floor was opened up to guests Daniel was ready to head out, Rebecca hot on his heels.

Every chance he got, Daniel wanted to dance with "Ms. Haley" in "the beautiful white dress." He asked if he'd get to see her again after tonight and I said yes, I'm sure we'll see her at the ranch and other family gatherings. He was disappointed to hear she wouldn't be wearing the beautiful dress though, and on the drive back to the hotel he said he was sending her an email on his LeapPad to make sure she got beautiful clothes!

When he wasn't busy pining after the bride, Daniel managed to get a few dances with the flower girl and even granted Mommy a few dances. Rebecca was a pretty enthusiastic dancer too and kept Daddy occupied. We managed to sneak one dance for just the two of us while our little dance partners were otherwise occupied.

All told, we didn't leave till 11-way past the kids (and my) bedtimes! We had a great time and I know the kids will be disappointed that we don't get to go to a big party like this every weekend.

The next morning we all slept in-I was the first one up at 9:30 and finally had to wake the others up so we could get out to brunch to see family again before we all headed our separate ways. How did I entice Daniel to leave his comfy bed? I mentioned that a certain bride was going to be there!

After brunch it was time to go home and we all slept well in our own beds that night. It was a fun weekend and the first of what I hope will be many times to take the kids to Aggieland. Yesterday he insisted on wearing his Aggie jersey to school :)

Every time we get the chance to spend time with my extended Daniel family I think how lucky I am to have such a big, close extended family. But this weekend it occurred to me that luck was only part of that, it also took a lot of people making the effort over the years to keep everyone connected. I want my kids to have the same experience I've had-to go to family reunions and run around with cousins (1st cousins, 2nd cousins, it's all the same to us) and to know those names on the family tree not just as people they happen to be related to but these wonderfully warm, kind, fun people whose company they enjoy. Looking back through years of family reunion and wedding pictures it's fun to see that the faces and fashions change but there's always that group of little kids playing together, a group of older kids doing their thing, and the adults visiting. Most of my grandparents' generation has passed on now but I like to think they'd be pleased to see the legacy living on.