A Perfect Evening

Today was exactly the kind of day we moved to Savannah for....we started with a visit from old friends. Our family has been friends with the H family for several years now...since the kids were in Preschool...they have a boy and girl exactly the same age as Avery and Weston, and Avery and Faith are very close...definitely BFF's. They came up this morning, we enjoyed lunch from Sonic then spent the afternoon at the pool...the boys chased friends with water guns and the girls played dolphin...perfect.

Avery and Faith played soccer together for several seasons on the Ponies.

After we said good-bye to them and ate dinner, we went outside to play and hooked up with our "almost next door neighbors". One thing led to another and we all ended up at the tennis courts for several hours of "tennis". Doug played some serious tennis...we all played doubles with the kids which they loved...then we walked home and visited some more. We love this neighborhood... and tonight was the perfect example why it's perfect for us. We have great neighbors, a beautiful neighborhood and lots of reasons to get outside and play!!

The view looking over the lake towards the water park.
The tennis courts are right around the corner.

Have you ever seen a cuter face!! This girl has lost quite a few teeth this summer...leading to one of my favorite picture taking times---capturing all those gap-toothed smiles. While this picture only shows the top, she is also missing quite a few bottom teeth too. Keep smiling sweet sister!!

Sleepovers and Cranky Kids

This week-end was the perfect combination of kids and no kids. On Thursday night, Avery spent the night with Grandma Via while Weston went to a one-day Boy Scout Camp in Denton. Avery came home from Grandmas Friday evening, stayed for about 5 minutes and headed out again for a 5-girl sleepover with her friend C. They swam, watched Pippi Longstocking and stayed up till 3:00 am. It was so much fun they extended it for a day and Avery spent Saturday night there also. We took some flour over to them about 9:30 Saturday night because they were making cookies...5 darling girls all in their sweet pj's....so very cute!!
On Friday night, Weston took advantage of being sister-free and had his friend H spend the night. The boys swam, built of fort in the media room and stayed up half the night playing video games. On Saturday, H returned the favor and had Weston spend the night with him which meant....Doug and I were foot-loose and kid free for an evening. We rented two movies (The Eye which was great and Michael Clayton which we fell asleep during), ate chips and hot sauce for dinner and fell asleep on the couch!!! We actually made homemade salsa and it was great!! We also worked around the house, adding a border to our front flowerbeds and organizing the office.
On Sunday, both kids came home...the result of a week-end of sleepovers and sugar overload...two very crabby kids (especially one very sweet but extremely tired little girl). After several meltdowns, Avery was tucked into bed early and out like a light...followed shortly by big brother.

Sharkarosa

During Avery's first week of school, her class visited a local ranch/wildlife preserve called Sharkarosa. There were monkeys, kangaroos (including several rare albino's), Clydesdale horses and a whole herd of camels. We were taken by tractor trolley into a field to get up close and personal with the camels, some of which got way closer than we wanted. The kids screamed and screeched but had a great time checking out these huge creatures. I couldn't decide if they were gorgeous or gross!! All in all, it's a great place to visit and definitely a must-see if you're even in our neck of the woods.



Our visit also included a barrel train ride, the chance to pet lemurs and a baby kangaroo, and seeing the sweetest baby zebra ever. It was a great way for Avery to start off her first week, and gave me the opportunity to meet several moms from our neighborhood. We later found out Sharkarosa is owned by Scott Edwards, a classmate of Uncle Stan....small world!!

Summer time!!

I am a horrible blogger.....way, way behind!! Here's what's happened since we last "spoke". We've moved to Savannah (www.savannahdfw.com) a master planned community in Aubrey. We love this area and love our house...it's almost twice the size of our house in NRH and it has a front porch, office and media room....things we both needed and wanted. The community has a water park, miles of bike trails and quite a few parks and play areas, including a covered basketball court and lighted tennis courts!! Because we moved in April, the kids attended school here for the last 6 weeks. We weren't sure about moving that late in the school year but it turned out to be a great decision, allowing them to make new friends for the summer.

Since we've moved, Avery has started taking riding lessons. She loves it and loves Montana, the horse she rides. Miss Merry is wonderful and Avery is already trotting around the arena on her own. The barn also has Barrel Races each Tuesday evening and the kids have a great time watching the riders, playing in the tree house and pond on Miss Merry's property and getting really dirty. Weston attended a Sports/Vacation Bible School Camp last week and really enjoyed learning more about basketball and the Bible. We are still searching for a new church in this area and hope to find one soon. He's also joined scouts as a Webelos Scout and we've already had one campout, several pack meetings and an awesome trip to Frisco to look at the moon and Saturn courtesy of a local astronomers club. The campout was designed for the boys to "cross-over" a bridge and move on to the next leg of their journey as a scout. It was hot, hot, hot but the boys had fun and the smores were delicious.
My favorite Webelos scout, eagerly wearing his new uniform to the Tuesday night Barrel Race (he needed to practice wearing it...according to him) Our plans for the summer include a Patriotic Party here at Savannah on June 28th, riding in the Weston parade with Grandma and Papa Via, Golf Camp for Weston, Horse Camp for Avery, and lots of time at the pool in between.