worrell wanderings

lucky number 7

August 18, 2013- This guy is 7 years old.

Yep, hard to believe.

He celebrated with a shark themed pool party on a marathon birthday weekend.

We feel pretty darn lucky to call him ours and can't wait to see what the future holds for him.

August 2013- Only 16 more days until school starts and this momma couldn't be more ready for the day to arrive because I really need some time to get things done around here. There are closets to clean, toy boxes to purge, floors to mop, a slew of overdue blog updates, a mountain of receipts and papers to file, an office to organize and soooooooo many more things. Besides that there's plenty of personal 'me time' things like that stack of photography books and tutorials I've yet to even touch, not to mention my summer reading list that I did not read. Like everyone else, I never have enough time to get it all done, but when the boys are back in school {I'm hoping} at least I'll have a few days a week to make a better attempt to cross things off the to do list or maybe even find out who I am again. Mary Poppins failed to show up here saying "Hey Mom, I know what you really need is some time without the kids to get stuff done, why don't you let me take them for the day (or week!)" Therefore, their return to school is the light at the end of the summer tunnel.

Don't get me wrong, this summer has been fun; full of play days, travel, activities, art projects and much, much more. My Instagram profile is solid proof. But I can see the boys are getting less and less stimulated with my attempts for educational opportunities. They need school as much as I need time here at home. We have two weeks left which will bring friends, family, the fair and a birthday celebration so I'm certain time shall pass quickly. And I know there will be a point in my life when I look back and wish I could have more time with them, but for now they are home {or in the car} with me every day and that's just not ideal for getting many things done...or having a chance to just be me for a moment. Yes, I have plenty of help from Casey when he's home, but let's be clear, there's no perfect situation, and the one I'm in is a bit off balance. Sure I get the benefit of spending every day and night with them building a bond and a childhood full of experiences that I pray is enough. I am fully aware that I am in a position many can only dream of. And I'm very thankful for this blessing. But everyone needs a break- from work, travel, play, kids- whatever it is, everyone needs a break from time to time. It's true that you can have too much of a good thing. So with that, I am ready to say goodbye to summer 2013 and a few of those tears you see on my face when I drop them off the first day of school will be tears of joy.

who goes to Iceland?!?!

April 2013- Who goes to Iceland?! That was the exact question I posed to my college girlfriends when the prospect of doing just that was first mentioned. I consider myself semi-informed and knowledgeable when it comes to traveling but I didn't even know that you could travel to Iceland or would travel to Iceland considering the possibility of turning into a popsicle. In my mind it belonged in the same category as traveling to Antarctica: something that shouldn't be done. I'm a beach kinda girl. Park me on a lounge chair in front of the waves with a cold drink and a good book and I'm good to go.

But look, here I am in Iceland. That's a volcano behind me. It is not covered by snow. That would be a glacier.

Here I am again with a glacier behind me. We hiked {a very small portion of} that glacier with the best guide in all of Iceland.

Yes, I'm referencing Iceland which is located {almost} at the top of the globe. I was shocked to learn it was not in the Arctic Circle because in my mind there couldn't be anything colder.

But since several people have asked me how and why I went to Iceland I thought I'd share a little of that story here. Once a year for the past few years I've selfishly indulged in a yearly girls trip with some of my college girlfriends. However, we don't normally trek across the globe. Our routine is usually to pick a weekend that we can manage to all get together somewhere that is relatively easy to book a flight, stay 2 or 3 nights and have as much fun together as we can. During last year's trip to Portland, Oregon, Laree asked if we would ever want to go to Iceland. She knows someone that traveled all over the world and said it was his favorite and the first place he'd go again. Jamie was also well aware of this destination as a travel hot spot based on the endless travel blogs and magazines she reads. And they've never steered her wrong. I apparently need to expand my knowledge base beyond what it takes to raise my two young boys because I was clueless as to why anyone would ever go to Iceland. But here's the deal: I'd go anywhere with these girls because as cheesy as it sounds, it really isn't as much about the destination as it is about spending time with them. And for the record, I was totally wrong about Iceland. Everyone should go to Iceland.

Did part of me agree to go with the idea that it would never happen because A- who goes to Iceland? and B- how would we ever manage to afford such a destination? Yes, I admit that I did. Keep in mind we normally travel on award miles, share a hotel room and generally keep it low cost so we can do it again the next year. I never thought a trip to the edge of the Arctic Circle would meet those parameters. And besides, I'm a stay at home mom with a semi-part time gig as an associate with a communications agency. Do you really think I would spend a few thousand dollars on a trip to Iceland- or anywhere else for that matter?

As we started to talk about this year's trip, which had a strong possibility of Montana as a destination, the subject of Iceland came up again. Then Jamie found a travel deal to Iceland from D.C. that included round trip flight, hotel and a tour (i.e. glacier hike) for less than a thousand bucks. Wouldn't you know the dates offered worked for us and by the end of that week I was booked on a trip to Iceland. Award miles got me to/from D.C. and voila, that's basically how I ended up in beautiful {and not too cold} Iceland.

Stay tuned. There's much more on my Icelandic adventures to come in other posts. For now, you need to be searching for one of those Icelandair travel packages.

work of art

June 2013- Pecos loves arts and crafts projects here at home so I was really excited when I found an art camp this summer offered by the Fredericksburg school district. And by some miracle it actually fit into our jam packed summer schedule!

The teenage helpers used pastels instead of sidewalk chalk to decorate the entrance to the building. So bright and pretty. No more sidewalk chalk for us, from now on we're using pastels!

He said this was his favorite project:

This was a canvas painting done with marbles. He said he painted the background turquoise for me since that's my favorite color. He sure knows how to make my heart swoon!

And then they peeled off the letters...ta da!

This one is a watercolor, but so vivid. Wish our Crayola watercolors turned out this way!

Here's the budding artist with all of his projects he made for the week. Brazos insisted on being in this picture. Don't you just love his expression?!

smile

June 2013- Brazos made his first trip to the dentist this week.

Ready to take x-rays. This was interesting. They have a flat screen tv mounted on the ceiling playing Nickelodeon which kept him very entertained. When they tried to put the x-ray films in and told him to bite down he did...but kept chewing like it was gum.

Showing off his polished pearly whites and his two stickers.

the baby burgs

June 2013- On my recent trip to NOLA (more on that in another blog post) I finally got to meet my my sister's twins: The Baby Burgs, also known as Maggie & Quinn Schaumburg! Brazos sometimes calls them Maggie & Ken or Max & Ruby, but whatever, I've called them the Baby Burgs since the minute I found out Emily was having twins. And I was secretly hoping they'd move out to the suburbs of NOLA so their birth announcement could read "Two New Burgs in the Burb", but I'm kinda dorky like that.

Here's the one I designed for them instead (I didn't take the pics):

I of course took my camera along on my trip and look how much they've changed!

So much fun spending a couple days with them and can't wait till they come visit me in Texas!

when we grow up...

May 2013-

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest one day and thought it would be a fun way to capture the kindergarten class and display at graduation.

I had another parent help me one day when the kids were in music class so we could keep it a secret from their teachers.

Each picture may have been a bit boring on its own.

But when I collaged them all together it turned out really neat, if you ask me.

One of the parents of a kid in the class has a frame shop and graciously printed them poster size at cost for us then mounted them to display at graduation.

Overall, I think everyone really enjoyed seeing them. I also printed a 5x7 for each kid to keep and an 8x12 metal print for the teachers end of the year gift.

If I can manage to hang on to the posters I'd like to display these again at their high school graduation. Not sure if I could get them to pose again at that age!

About Pecos' wanting to be a paleontologist...that was news to me since up to this point he's always said he wants to be a cowboy like his dad.

brazos' 3rd birthday bash {the after party}

May 2013- After the party there's the after party. As if a construction birthday blowout wasn't enough, Brazos woke up the next morning (on his actual birth day) to a pile of presents...because we really needed more of that.

For several weeks prior to his birthday he talked about getting a cement mixer truck. Pecos picked out this one for him and he loves it.

He also loves this book, Good Night, Good Night Construction Sight. It is very cute and rhymes and he memorized at least the first three pages within a week. I bet we've read it at least a hundred times.

MiMi made him beignets for his birthday breakfast.

From there it was a marathon Playdoh session with his new Playdoh construction toys.

Paw Paw supervised.

He finally took a break (and changed out of his new dump truck pj's) for MiMi to read a new construction book.

The birthday boy chose to eat dinner at Fuddrucker's (perhaps a decision influenced by PawPaw). While we were there we took a few pictures with the birthday boy.

It's just not a photo session with Brazos unless he sticks out his tongue. And of course he did.

For his final birthday request we stopped for ice cream.

With turquoise sprinkles.

Happy Birthday Brazos!

brazos' 3rd birthday bash

May 2013- Other than tractors Brazos is really into construction equipment, specifically front end loaders and dump trucks. So naturally, a construction themed birthday party was the perfect way to celebrate.

Here's the invitation (courtesy of Etsy).

I put this photo from his 3-year old pictures on the back of the invite. This is his tough dump truck face in case you were wondering.

Here is the inspiration that started it all. I saw this idea on Pinterest and from there it just escalated to a level that is typical for me when it comes to birthday parties for my kids...in other words probably too much.

Can't have a construction party without hazard cones and caution tape. Don't ask where these came from.

Here's some of the food set up.

I found these orange cones at Dollar Tree. So I just cut a slit in them and used them to hold pictures of Brazos that I took on some construction equipment at our house that was part of a landscape project.

If I had more time I'd put more pics into the little collages...

Construction Foreman ready to party:

Other than the tractor party for his 2nd birthday last year, this one may have been the easiest to decorate. Brazos has soooooo many construction toys. For the last several months I've made him keep the majority of them inside so they'd stay clean and serve as party decor. Always a method to my madness.

Party favors for the crew:

Safety gear that we absolutely did not need. Did I mention it rained 6 inches the day before and all day this OUTDOOR party was to begin? We even had a fresh pile of dirt (left over from previously mentioned landscape project). Plan B was not to make mudpies...we had to move the party inside.