Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day, we took advantage of the long weekend and headed up to Dallas to spend some quality time with GG, Pop Pop, Auntie, Uncle Ty, Julia and Carter.  The kids did great on the drive up, but man, it was a long one!  Lots of people apparently had the same idea!

We arrived and got settled while the girls ran around squealing and playing happily.  This time there was an interesting shift compared to other visits - a welcome shift!  Usually, Lia and Julia are the ones playing together primarily and the battle of the first born children is a matter of time...  Elizabeth and I both noticed that this didn't happen this trip - ever.  I think it is because the play was more evenly distributed among the 4 girls - so if there was an issue, it was easier to just move on to something else than duke it out.  Could also be that they are growing up!  There was a time when Julia, Erin and Halle were playing quietly together upstairs and Lia was playing with Carter.  Totally awesome to see those things happen.  :)

Saturday we risked the unpredictable weather and headed to the Dallas Arboretum.  I'm so glad we did because it was so much fun!!!  They have a new children's area we had wanted to go to for a long time and I'm so glad it worked out.  This place is incredible and HUGE!  We didn't even get to see everything in the several hours we were there.  The kids had a ball and perhaps learned something as well!

Elizabeth purposely just brought the single stroller for Carter to avoid having tons of kids piled on the double stroller.  Well... you can see how well that worked (Erin is hanging on the back too!)

The highlight of the entire day was the face painting.  This crew was stationed in this little garden and they were simply working for tips.  All the kids were ecstatic and chose their own design.  Halle surprised us all with her choice of the HULK.  She was steadfast in her decision too - no degree of princess tempting from the other girls was going to sway her.  Love that.

The lady doing her face paint asked if she could make it a "sparkly Hulk" to which Halle readily agreed.  So, it was a touch more feminine and totally awesome.

I think she was a little shocked when she first saw it.  Ha!  I would be too!!  

Carter is a puppy, Erin has a heart crown, Julia is a cat, Halle is the Hulk and Lia has a purple mask.

The kids were completely exhausted from a fun day and had a little movie time when we got back to the house.  They loved splashing around in the play pool GG and Pop Pop got for the kids and easily fell asleep early that night!

Pre-bedtime wind down.

Sunday the weather was less than ideal so we didn't really venture out.  The kids enjoyed just being kids and playing around the house all day.  They got a bit stir crazy, but powered through.  During a break in the rain, we took the kids outside to ride bikes and play in the culdesac area in the front yard.  The girls eventually gave up the bike riding and played for easily twice as long with their baby dolls.  It was pretty stinking cute, I have to say.

We were also celebrating Pop Pop's birthday and GG made special cakes for the kids to decorate for him.  They were happy to oblige!

GG was helping each kid individually get their icing ready to go with the right cap and showed them how it works to squeeze it out to make a design.  They were all being so patient - it was awesome.  Julia was the last one GG was able to help and we were all impressed she waited so quietly and nicely for such a long time.  It wasn't until I saw this picture that I realized why Julia was so hopped up on sugar after the cake decorating!  That kid bit the foil seal off the icing and was over there sucking it out of the tube!!!  Can't say I blame her though... it was a long time to wait and that icing is delicious!!!

Look at that face - determination!!

That evening, we had a big family dinner (well, as family as it can be with 5 needy kids...) and gave Pop Pop his cakes.  Each kid got to say happy birthday and help blow out a candle.  It was pretty fun to see them so proud of their creations.

About the top inch of that mound is strictly sprinkles...  She opened a container and shook it - expecting it to be like a salt shaker - but the entire bottle of sprinkles emptied on her cake.  She was a little shocked, but then shrugged her shoulders, giggled a bit and moved on.  She grabbed another bottle of sprinkles and the same thing happened again - except this time I have a feeling it was a little more purposeful!

One thing that was so interesting is seeing the difference between Halle's cake and the three other girls' cakes.  Julia, Lia and Erin's cakes were piled high with icing and assorted sprinkles.  They were having a total ball experimenting with the different materials and wanting to try everything available. Halle's cake was comparatively bare.  She was very methodical and she concentrated the entire time to place each individual red hot candy exactly where she wanted it.  Each little dab of icing was on purpose.  It was so fun to see the difference in her personality really shine through.

We were up and out the door Monday after breakfast so we could beat the traffic out and have some down time before the week begins.  The ride home was awesome and was almost a full hour shorter than our drive to Dallas - which was a welcome relief.  Traveling two weekends in a row resulted in more laundry than I could have ever imagined, but it was so worth it!!