Our Adventures with Ryan and Riley Cate

instagram: may edition!

(left to right, top to bottom):
*one of riley's favorite things to do right now, is to play dress up!
*love this vinyl birthday banner I ordered for riley's birthday party.
*this picture is why I love cell phone cameras, caught this moment of riley cate wearing some of meems costume jewelry rings I chose for her.  I will treasure this picture, and it has nothing to do with camera quality.  I would not have captured this moment with my "big" camera.  one of my sweet friends pointed out that her hands are folded over her heart.  not posed.  love real life moments.
*wearing "aunt" katy's mickey hat at cousins madi and jack's birthday party.
*I was in the playroom playing mario with ryan, love this sweet boy!  and love playing mario with him, even though he is schooling me about it, not the other way around. ha!
*riley cate with a day off from school and lunch with pawpaw!
*with the kids help, made these "name" paintings for the playroom.  LOVE the way they turned out!
*sweet riley and one of the hello kitties napping on the couch.
*ryan loving his cereal in his "straw bowl" on an early morning before school.  he almosy can't eat cereal from another type of bowl these days. 
*ryan's "pete the cat" drawing from school.  he did an AMAZING job on this cat, it was a freehand drawing. 
*riley cate in front of her new big girl kitchen, which was her 4th birthday present.  she loves it!
*celebrating ryan's graduation from kindergarten with some fried catfish and shrimp!  seafood and mexican are food groups around here.

love capturing the small moments!  sometimes they are the ones with the most memories!

kindergarten graduation

ryan graduated from kindergarten last week, and we were happy to spend the morning celebrating him!  where has the time gone?  I read something recently that said, "the days are long, but the years are short", and with a kindergarten graduate and my "baby" turning 4, I have definitely been feeling that way lately.

ryan missed the graduation portraits a couple of months ago because he was out sick, so I took a few portraits of my own!  at least that way I can make sure he didn't have lunch on his face, right?!

ryan had a cheering section at graduation...

and look who is ready to have her turn at kindergarten graduation...

don't rush it riley, I am sure it will happen soon enough!

congratulations to our sweet graduate!

the graduate

our sweet ryan will graduate from kindergarten tomorrow morning at 8am!
and his daddy and I could not be more proud of him!

more to come from the graduation ceremony!

olympic field day {ryan, kindergarten}

today was an olympic themed field day at ryan's school, and I attended and managed to snap a few pictures.  his class was representing the coutry of italy, and they might not have looked italian, but they had a nice flag and represented well!  and after all, italian food is ryan's favorite!

they placed 2nd in the baton relay, which ryan was super-excited about, and he ran very, very fast, with a stick baton in his hand.  funny thing about that:  as the instructions are being given, ryan says (really loudly), "but I am not allowed to run with sticks!"

olympic procession:

running with sticks:

long-jump:

love this one, definitely a new favorite:

basketball:

water relay (his favorite, since the cup had holes!):

(look closely, the tongue sticking out is helping with his focus):

sizing up the tug-o-war competition:

had a good day with my long jumping, fast running special little guy!

teacher appreciation week {2012}

may 7-11th is teacher appreciation week, and I have lots of great ideas for ways to appreciate the favorite teachers in your life!  (here is my post from teacher appreciation week 2011).

we love teachers around the bledsoe house (and we now have a daddy-teacher to appreciate as well!).  I am helping to plan events for teachers at both schools this year, and have found lots of great ideas on pinterest.  teachers love good food!  chickfila for breakfast!  yes!  catered lunch!  yes!  sonic drinks!  yes!  Any of those things are good ideas, especially if you are helping to plan for a group of teachers.  

Source: skiptomylou.org via Kimberly on Pinterest

  

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

Source: thecraftingchicks.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

 

 

Source: therachelberryblog.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

 

If you are strapped for time, pick them up a giftcard to sonic or chickfila (or something universal that everyone loves, or that you know they love in particular). 

And most important of all, YOU and YOUR CHILD tell the teachers in your life how much you appreciate them.  we did personalized cards this year with photos of the kids for teacher appreciation week expressing our thanks, and I love the way they turned out!

happy teacher appreciation week (may 7-11), now take some time to go appreciate those teachers!

summer is almost here!

the last few weekends have been just beautiful!  we have tried to spend as much time as we can letting the kids play in the backyard and coak up the sunshine, before the temperatures top 100 degrees.

(sidenote:  yes, ryan has an angry bird tattoo.  no, it is not real.  or so I thought.  it said "temporary", but lasted one week with us SCRUBBING it every night.  lovely.  guess who else had one?  yes, the sister.  yes, it was also an angry bird.  after the tattoo was applied, she decided she wanted to wear sleeveless dresses all week and she looked like a cross between TLC's toddlers and tiaras and miami ink.  it was delightful!)

shortly after that last picture, the water hose came out!  davon had promised them some sprinkler fun, but they love just spraying the water hose too!

we are convinced ryan is part primate or spiderman.  he cam climb anything!  including the swingset.  wet.  it is a talent we are sure will come in handy one day.

check out riley's pose in this next picture (her hand is on her hip although you cannot see that part of her arm).  she walks around with her hands on her hips 80% of the time lately.  she acts like she is rocking a beauty pageant runway even though she has never seen one.  some things are innate I guess.  although the only runway she will be rocking is the pretend one at home, it is fun to see her be so "dramatic".  my sweet girly girl!

another shot with her hands on her hips (and the fading angry bird tattoo)...

they had their first taste of summer, and they loved it!

easter at the lakehouse

we celebrated easter at the lakehouse this year, and while there was definitely a cloud of sadness from losing our meems, we enjoyed being together as a family for the long weekend.  being at home would have been more sad, and it was nice to be in a place that she had loved.
I did not even take out my real camera over those few days, but captured some instagrams!

we cooked the best crawfish ever (thanks dad!),
dyed easter eggs,
rode bikes,
played many rounds of mario memory,
hunted easter eggs,
ate popsicles,
dressed like princesses,
and the easter bunny brought too much loot again. 

he has a very giving heart and a weakness for mario and hello kitty, that easter bunny!

easter parties {2012}

easter parties this morning were a smashing success!  eggs were hunted, cookies were decorated, donuts and kolaches were eaten, and everyone came home with too much candy!

and here is a picture of riley's entire 3's class:
(l-r):  luke, sarah, ava, riley, brandon, grant, eva, jack, jake

wonder what riley cate is doing in the second picture?
she is bunny-earing HERSELF!  hahahahahahaha!

friday ramblings/confessions

Thought everyone might love a little random rambling on a Friday:

• Riley's birthday invitations came in the mail this week, and I LOVE them!  So excited about mailing them in a few weeks!  I will post one on the blog after mailing and closer to her party, but don't want to spoil the surprise before then!  We are planning her party at a local waterpark, and she is so excited about it.  It is going to be all things fun in the sun with lots of aqua colored items and red and white polka dots.  Hosting an outdoor party always leaves room for a little weather related nervousness, but I am thinking good thoughts about the weather on Saturday, May 19th!
• Related to Riley's birthday, I took some pictures of her in her birthday party swimsuit to use on the invite.  Yes, I have already ordered her a birthday party swimsuit and staged an outdoor photoshoot of her in it.  No, I have not caught up on my laundry yet.  Here are a few pictures I LOVE, but are not being used on the invite itself.  I couldn't wait to show these!

• update:  since I mentioned the germs at the fair, ryan has had tonsilitis and now I have a stomach virus.  coincidence?  I think not.  maybe next year I will see if the kids will agree to wear gloves to the fair?!  or maybe I will see if I can just give them the "fair money" in cash.  I am kind of kidding.
• Ryan had another stellar report card today!  We are so proud of him!  Grades of 98, 99 and 100 with S's and E's.  Love that boy!  He is excited about adding another mario game to his collection.  That is his reward of choice!
• I ordered some presonalized labels from erincondren.com (with my finely honed internet-flash-sale-couponing-skills of course!), and I am loving them!  I am planning to use some for Riley's birthday party (on plastic cups or favors maybe?), some on meals I deliver to people in the disposable foil containers with lids (who have babies, illnesses, or just because!), and some on birthday gifts in lieu of a separate card.  I love them all!

• we have ordered the recently introduced pizza hut "big box" at least once a week in march.  it is $10 (or $11 if you get cheesesticks instead of breadsticks) of deliciousness that feeds my WHOLE family!  cheaper than grocery shopping!  it has 1 medium one topping square pizza (although it seems larger than a medium with 8 square pieces), an order of breadsticks/cheesesticks and cinnamon sticks.  deliciousness in a box!  I feel one headed to our house sometimes this weekend...

• Lowes has a 1 year plant guarantee on plants you buy from their nursery.  I have a feeling they are about to start losing money with their guarantee where I am concerned.  
  One dead plant is already headed back their way this weekend.  Hopefully no more "returns" to come...

south texas state fair {2012}

we had a great time at the fair yesterday!  it was 80 degrees and felt like at least 95 on the concrete, but a fun time was had by all!  the adults enjoyed the food (crab burgers, shrimp on a stick, pork kabobs, ribbon fries, oh my!), while the kids enjoyed the rides (super slide, bumper cars, ferris wheel, and lots of others!). 

riley cate loved riding a pony (ryan declined the offer because "ponies stink"). 
it was $5 per ride, so I wasn't going to try and talk him into it!  haha! 

mimi and pawpaw came with us and rode all the rides that davon and I do not like to ride! 
(anything up high or that spins around in circles!).  pawpaw went through tons of "fun", "mirror" and "obstacle course" houses (ryan's favorite), even one with a tiny tunneled slide at the end (clautrophobia much?).  we spent about 4.5 hours there, and it really was a fun time!

now, keeping it real:  the pony mulch and extreme heat gave davon a migraine, I was also feeling sick after we walk/ran at least a mile to the car with the kids almost immediately after eating all the fair food (to get davons migraine medicine that was in the glove box), we made it home, davon went to bed and I took the kids to sonic to get a cold drink.  I agreed on a chocolate milkshake for ryan since I had said no to ice cream at the fair.  he took 2 slurps out of it, and then tripped in the garage and landed on TOP of his milkshake.  the milkshake didn't make it, and ryan was sobbing uncontrollably ("MY ICE CREAM...").  ryan got in the shower to wash off the fair dirt and now the chocolate milkshake (still sniffling), riley and I went back to sonic to get ANOTHER milkshake (sonic employees are thinking I am REALLY hungry at this point).  all was then well (with the kids, davon still in bed), and, in normal mommy of the year fashion, I allowed the kids to watch tv from 5:00pm until bedtime, with a short break for a cheese, crackers and fruit dinner and another bath.  whew. 
the upside:  everyone slept all night long.  we were all exhausted. 

the germaphobe in me is a tab bit concerned that one (or more) of us will come down with strep throat or pink eye (or heaven forbid something worse!) this week, because of all the germs and touching of objects and rides at the fair, but I am trying to let my kids "live outside the bubble".  most of the time. 

all in all, I would say a really good time.  after sleeping all night, no one even remembers any of the "unfortunates" from yesterday, they can only talk about how much fun we had.  and that was the whole point!  thanks to mimi and pawpaw for coming with us, and embracing the "crazy" that is sometimes our lives!  I wish I had some more of that fair food today...