Horseback Riding...Belated Birthday Trip

We were finally able to take Little Miss A and Mr. D on their birthday trip horseback riding. It was so wild to see how many places require their riders to be 8 years old! We found an amazing place in the Hill Country and will definitely be going back in the summer to enjoy the rest that the place has to offer! :)

The both had the most amazing time!!!! As soon as our ride was over, they both began asking when we were going to go again. Little Miss A thought we'd be able to go again the same day...sweet girl!

Little. Miss A and Carmel

Mr. D with Tony

Unfortunately, we weren't' able to take our phones or cameras on the ride, since they scare the horses, but as the trail caboose, I had a vantage point of the kids at the front of our family line and they just looked SOOOOOOO incredibly grown up. They both did an amazing job with their horses...turning them when/where they needed to and pulling up their heads when they stopped. We crossed through some of the most amazing sections of the hill country across several streams and creeks. It was amazing!!!!!

We are already so excited to go back this summer to experience all that the resort has to offer including additional horseback riding. :)

Six Years Ago Today...

6 years ago today our lives were changed forever in the most amazing way!!! I can't believe that our sweet little punkins are six!!!!! Where does the time go? Although, having said that, I think back and can't really even remember what our lives were like before their arrival November 3, 2004.

Little Miss A is the sweetest girl. Always so caring of others, super kind and considerate. She loves to take care of her family and friends...wanting to make sure everyone is happy all the time. She is so thoughtful and always wants to do the right thing. We are so lucky to have her!

Mr. D is our little funny man...he has the most amazing sense of humor. He loves to laugh and make others laugh as well. His laugh is contagious...completely infectious! Like his sister, he loves for everyone to be happy and is more than willing to share his laugh and silliness to make people smile. We are so lucky to have him!

I am happy to report that the bug they had yesterday was completely gone by the afternoon so they were able to spend their special day as we regularly planned. We had an early release day at school, so the kids had the best of both worlds...school with friends and a nice long afternoon of fun as well.

The kids woke up in the morning to the traditional birthday song. We learned when we split them up to their two separate rooms when they were 2, that we needed to sing loud and have them both come to the great room for presents together. (Not quite the same as my childhood where the whole family walked into my room singing the birthday song carrying presents, but we can't be in 2 places at once.) After a shower of gifts, the kids began to get ready for school. I headed out to Starbucks for our traditional birthday morning pick me up...hot cocoa. A little bit farther drive in the new house, but a tradition we can't possible give up. :)

At school the kids had their names called on the announcements...birthday wishes from the principal. As all of my students heard their kids names, they came to my class passing on birthday wishes, some of them even made cards for them...how sweet is that? Little Miss A and Mr. D thought that was so cool! They were both line leaders for the day sporting their birthday crowns from their teachers for the day...

The kids picked special cupcakes to share with their classmates:

(Princess)

(How to Train a Dragon)

We celebrated both birthdays in the cafeteria as one great big group. Which meant the boys in Little Miss A's class were able to enjoy dragon cupcakes/rings and the girls in Mr. D's class got to have princess cupcakes/rings. :)

With an early out at noon, I took the afternoon off to spend A & D's special day with them doing something exciting and fun! After a few changes in plans, we ended up at the Main Event. (A fun indoor play land.) We ironically bumped into some of our old playgroup friends, so we were able to join lanes and bowl together. :) After a few hours of bowling, the kids and I headed to the arcades to play some more. What a fun afternoon.

We left the Main Event and met Daddy for dinner...A & D's choice our old traditional Mexican favorite. I think we've celebrated their birthday dinner there for the past 3 years now even though we've moved. :)

In maintaining that tradition, the kids fell asleep (AGAIN) on the way home and we ended up having birthday cake the next day instead...

What a great day with two AMAZING kids!

Happy birthday "babies" we love you!

Early Birthday Dinner

Grandma and Grandpa decided to take the kids to dinner for their birthday at their favorite restaurant...Benihana!!! :) What a fun treat! We LOVE that place!!!!!!!

Birthday with Daddy...by Jamie

Ok...so here it is: My first post on the kid's blog! I've finally cracked thanks to the relentless "encouragement" from several family members! :)

As you can probably tell by the title, I got to spend my birthday at home with the kids. Stef had to be at some work thing all day, so I stayed home and planned a couple of things to do to keep the kids entertained.

First thing on the agenda was to get breakfast ready. Then we watched cartoons (Scooby Doo is the best) for a little while and I was ready for a nap...what can I say, I am getting old!!

I made our lunch and we headed off to Zilker Park for the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, so we picked out a spot and had lunch on the ground under a tree. Well, I guess I had lunch on the ground...the kids wanted to have their lunch IN the tree. All was good until a couple of ants crawled them and then they were back down on the ground with me.

We finished lunch and headed over to the playscape. Then it was off to the train. It was all fun and games until D got mad that A and I saw a turtle in the water and he didn't (everything is a competition). So, we took a walk down the trail and found some turtles laying out in the sun and everyone was happy again.

We met mommy at home and went to Benihana's for dinner. The chef did the obligatory "toss the shrimp trick" and I didn't catch it in my mouth. To my apparent lack of coordination, D proceeded to say, "Daddy, why do you always lose?" Nice. :)

I had a great day and could not have asked for a better birthday present than spending the day with A and D.

The Belated Birthday Trip

Six Flags

We began our adventure Saturday afternoon and headed to one of the kids' favorite towns...San Antonio. Six Flags had a wonderful Christmas set up with amazing lights, trees, wonderful characters around the park to take pictures with, cookie decorating stations, a wonderful winter wonderland to visit with Santa and even a snowy hillside to do some holiday sledding!!! This was obviously unlike any other visit to Six Flags...Fiesta Texas at night was so fun. :) We had an amazing time!!

Our hotel was on the river and had an awesome view of the Alamo...which we all absolutely loved!!! The kids loved that the river actually runs right through our hotel!!!! :)

View from our window

Alamo lights at night

River walk lights at Christmas are the BEST!!!!

View from our window, take 2

Carriage ride around town

Sea World

Like Six Flags, Sea World was totally setup like a winter wonderland. With all new exhibits and fun new shows as well, the Caswell kids had a great time. We started our afternoon with the Sesame Street Christmas show. Little Miss A and Mr. D both loved it...especially the "snow" at the end. :)

I think the flamingos are still one of the kids favorite stops...they didn't want to leave. :)

This was the picture of the kids before Mr. D got "lost".

As Mr. D and Little Miss A were playing in the nets, Daddy told the little man we were heading to the show and that he needed to come down. When Daddy lost sight of Mr. D, he went up into the giant nets after him. As Daddy was up in the nets, Mr. D came down and couldn't find Daddy and started to panic. As he was crying, Daddy saw D at the bottom and was trying to make his way back down, not an easy feat when there are other parents in the net tunnels going in opposite directions. Meanwhile some very sweet people found our little man and asked if he knew his phone number. I knew he knew it, but had no clue he knew what his area code was too!!!! (We is constantly amazing me.) Anyway, we got home to hear his message since it was obviously our home phone number...now it's time to learn my cell number. It was the biggest relief when Daddy was reunited with Mr. D...SCARY!!!!

The 4-D Polar Express show...

The show was worth the entire trip!!! A very condensed version of the DVD my kids have already seen half a dozen times already this holiday season. My expert viewers were alerting me to every "skip" of the movie. :) They loved the vibrating seats when the train rumbled, the air blasts with the whistle and were wondering why the boy was "off the screen." I think their absolute favorite of all was the snow at the end. Mr. D replies as we were leaving "It's okay, it was just bubbles Mommy."

After the Polar Express, it was off to see Shamu. The new show was phenomenal. Christmas carols, snowflakes every where and tons of Christmas lights. :) Shamu was actually doing FLIPS...that was a first. The kids thought that was super cool!

The ride home was quiet...the kids fell asleep almost as soon as we left the park. What an amazing birthday trip!!! (Better late than never, right?)

The Caswell Kids Turn 5!!!!!

Where do I even begin???? The fact that my "babies" are 5 just blows me away!!! Where does the time go?

The kids had a great day today!!! Having grown up with the birthday song first thing in the morning and loving all my family bringing in presents, I knew that was one tradition I had to keep with my little ones!!! But how do you do that when they're in 2 different rooms you ask? We sang the birthday song from the living room and each of them RAN down the stairs like it was Christmas.

We had a present pile set up for each of them in the family room and took turns opening presents. It was hard to leave for school...they just wanted to play.

Once we got to school, the kids walked into their classroom to a class full of students and teachers singing the birthday song. (You know it's going to be a great day when you've had 2 birthday songs all before 7:30.) They had their birthday broad casted to the school over the P.A. during the morning announcements. After a morning of fun festivities including a craft of party hats, I brought the birthday snack to share. Little Miss A chose butterfly ring topped cupcakes and Mr. D chose blue frosted cookies to share with their friends at school. Daddy brought lunch to school which was an extra special treat and we all ate together with their class.

After school, I picked the kids up early and headed straight home so they could play with their toys they had to leave behind for the day. With a couple hours of play time before we had to leave for dinner, A & D seriously played with EVERYTHING!!!!

Then it was on to dinner. When we started talking about a special birthday dinner a few weeks ago, Mr. D said he wanted to go to my favorite that had the "swords". (These would be chopsticks.) So I asked Little Miss A if she wanted to go to the restaurant where they cooked in front you and she replied "the place with fire? YES!!!" So it was off to Bennihanas. YUMMY!!! (Everyone wins!!!) With a later reservation so Daddy wasn't put too far behind at work, and virtually no nap to speak of, the kids were just about to fall asleep at dinner. They brought out ice cream and sang the birthday song at the end of the meal which perked them up for a bit, but poor D was so tired he didn't even take a bite. As you can probably imagine, the car ride home was the end...they both crashed out in the back seat. We got home to 2 zonked monkeys and as we were picking them up to carry them into the house, they both (independently of one another) remembered the puppy cakes. "We need to have puppy cake!!!"

Against everything that I believe in...you MUST have cake on your birthday, I figured the cupcakes, cookies and ice cream from the day would substitute since they were SOOOO tired. So, we waited until they would really enjoy/remember the beloved puppy cakes...we had them the next night. They were so much more fun...can't you just tell by these silly pics? :)

Can these teeny tiny babies really be my Allie and Drew?

Allie

Drew

My sweet little angels,

It's so hard to believe how much you've grown. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for you. You are the best "babies" any Mommy could ever ask for! I remember the day you entered our lives and have wondered every day since how we "lived" without you. You bring such joy to every day. Your laughter is contagious, your whispered secrets are so sweet, your kisses and hugs are priceless!!! I love you so much!!!! :)