Chalk on the House

A while back, we let the kids play out front. They enjoy "chalking" on the sidewalk and driveway. Well on this day, that was not good enough. I left them unsupervised for a few minutes...and boy did we pay for it. I'll let the pictures explain...

We laughed about the mess and tried our darndest to scold the kids in between our own giggles and smiles.  It was hilarious.  I was taking the kids out of town for the day for a baby shower the following week.  I asked Sam to have it gone by the time we returned from our day trip Although it was still pretty chilly outside, he hauled out the hose that had been put away for the winter and got all the chalk off the siding.  Surely our neighbors enjoyed our artful display for the week though...right?

Eva's Big Girl Bed

Sissy has been doing LOTS of growing up in the last few months.  She has moved from her crib to a big girl bed.  She inherited the mahogany bedroom suite I used as a girl.  It belonged to my great-grandmother.  It's beautiful, although it shows a little wear.  Eva adjusted beautifully with no troubles.  She loved it right away.  Below are a few photos of her first night.  Eva is adorable, as per usual.

Proud Eva Girl

Patrick joined her for a minute to make sure her new digs were comfy. :)

Poor Libby got the royal treatment from Eva...doesn't loook like she minded too much though!

She is also wearing big girl panties these days, but I won't share photos of that.  She is very proud of being a big girl and we're equally proud of our little turkey.

Mother's Day 2011 (The Prequel)

On the night before Mother's Day, mom made dinner for us.  Yummm...anyway, I ended up spending the night.  I stayed up in the loft.  As you'll see in the photos, the kids were so sweet to come and wake me up.  They brought me a gift and then mom made a butter braid and scrambled eggs.  The kids helped make scrambled eggs with MawMaw.  Awesome morning!

Photos  

Mother's Day 2011

This was a GREAT Mother's Day.  We celebrated with my mom on Saturday night.  We had an awesome dinner at their house: marinated chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots, and wonderful green beans...completed with a homemade blackberry pie.  Yummm.  We were having fun, so I just spent the night in the loft there and the kids stayed in their usual spots with MawMaw and Doo Dah.  Mom made a tasty pastry this morning and scrambled eggs.  Thanks for making the morning special mom!

Then we met Nana and Emily at Lowe's and the kids helped me pick out new flowers for the front landscaping.  From here, we went home and got cleaned up and gathered Sam.  We met Em, Steve, Gigi, and Nana at Julia's for a late lunch.  We had a great time and took some good photos. 

After rest time at home, Nana came over and helped me and the kids plant my new flowers.  Sissy wasn't feeling so well today, but she made it through.  Overall, lovely weather, lovely family, awesome day.  Thanks to all the "mom people" in my life.  I couldn't do this without you all.

Zoo Trip, May 2011

So I've got lots of blogging to catch up on, but I've got to start somewhere.  I'm going to start in the present and work backwards until our fans know all the fun stuff we've been up to for the last few months!

Last week, Patrick's pre-school class went to the zoo.  Patrick and I rode the bus over to the zoo with his classmates and teachers.  This brought back lots of "fond" memories for me, but Patrick seemed to enjoy the novelty of it. 

He and I had a few hours there on our own checking out the bears, zebras, lions, tigers, and the American Wild Ass.  I made the mistake of giving Patrick the correct name of this animal...I just couldn't leave it at donkey.  He spent the rest of the day interjecting "ass" into the conversation.  :)

Anyway, my mom and dad brought Eva over and we had a picnic lunch together.  Then we saw the monkeys, gorillas, chimps, rode the carousel and the train, visited with the penguins and puffins, and spent some time looking at the flamingos, ducks, geese, etc.  We had lots of fun.  The weather and the company were great!

See photos of our day here.

Long Time, No Blog...

Ok, so I've been a very bad doggy and haven't kept up on the blogging.  Lots of goings on in the Hooligan Household.  Most significantly, I made the decision to leave real estate.  I won't use this fun space to bore you all with the details.  It was the right decision for our family right now.  Anyway, so for the time being, my days are filled with all the things I was doing before, just not quite the break neck speed.  We made it through the seemingly unending winter and are looking forward to being out of the house this spring. 
As you'll see in the photos, we had fun sledding with our neighbors/friends up the street Nick and Emma (and their moms).  The kids also made snow cones with Sam made from sleet from the back deck at our house.  The kids were made with V-8 fruit juice and Sam's was made with Tarantula tequila.  There are several miscellaneous photos: fun day at MawMaw's, Story time with Nana, Libby sleeping with Patrick, and so on.

Patrick is finishing his last weeks of preschool.  I cannot believe he is growing up so fast.  I can still remember Sam and I trying to decide if we were ready to have a baby...seems like maybe 6 months ago.  Patrick is doing well in school and we are so proud of the awesome little boy he is becoming (and he's so handsome too). 

Eva is getting sassier by the day and is already riding a bicycle (with training wheels).  She is wearing big girl underwear part of the time now...we're still working on the potty training.  She got a big girl bed a few months ago and is doing very well with it.  She is 2 and a half already.

Hooligans Turn Texan

A few weeks ago, all four of us went to Dallas to visit with Sam's friend Shawn, and his family (wife Sherry and 3 year old daughter Kiera).  We had lots of fun!  We spent a few days at Great Wolf Lodge (a kid-centric resort with an indoor water park and other fun kid stuff).  The kids also got to ride the pony at Shawn and Sherry's house. 
Eva and Patrick were great on both flights.  Patrick called the runway the "run road."  They each had their own suitcase to carry on.  Eva was so cute walking through the airport with the suitcase following behind in one had and the other hand on her hip.
Below is a link with LOTS of photos of our trip.

Click Here for photos of our trip!