First Beach Day of 2015

Rylee has been begging to go to the beach for the last two weeks, so we finally made it over to Galveston for the afternoon on Saturday. And when I say afternoon, I mean our crazy family left Houston at 3:30pm! We only had a couple hours on the beach, but it was perfect!

She wanted to sit on her chair for the longest time! Then she finally
gathered the courage to walk around on the sand.

Throwing sand, a favorite toddler past time.

Ryan and I are really small children and spend the majority
of our beach time playing in the sand.

Eating strawberries.

Cheese! Apparently my baby bump only is showing when I stand up.
I'm going to need a maternity swimsuit for the summer!

Strawberries and the beach, two of this kid's favorite things.

My sand creation...not sure what it is!

Rylee finally warmed up to the idea of getting into the water. And then there was no stopping her!

Chasing seagulls was fun for her!

Most likely yelling "I running! Ocean!"

I think this wave was a little larger than she anticipated, so she
hightailed it and ran away!

Love.

We were so proud of her that she finally started to play in the water!

We grilled hot dogs, collected shells, and attempted to fly Rylee's kite. The sun finally set and fell behind the condos, and it got cold fast. All of a sudden Rylee was covered in goosebumps and was running out of the water yelling "Mommy! I freezing!"  We packed up the car and headed to Rita's for some italian ice! 

Rita's is Ryan's favorite, and the closest one is in Galveston.

We ended up leaving Galveston at about 8:30. Little chick fell asleep in the car, but we were all wiped by the time we made it home. A good start to the 2015 beach season!

Easter 2015

We moved into our new house Easter weekend, so things got a little crazy! But we still had time to do Kool-Aid dyed eggs, an easter egg hunt, easter basket scripture scavenger hunt, and a ham dinner! I'm one impressive woman!

These were Rylee's favorites!

The kool-aid eggs were fun to do.

First family picture in front of our new house!

Rylee really got into the Easter egg hunt this year and it was so much fun to watch her and help her find all the eggs! In her basket she got the Sound of Music(which she loved), chalk, two books, PJs and a swimsuit(that I had already gotten her, but still had the tags on, so why not?), and a little toy Nemo(her new favorite movie). Dinner consisted of Slow Cooker Maple Brown Sugar Ham, Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes, peas, and rolls. Considering the fact that we were living out of boxes, we had a pretty good Easter and first weekend in our house!

A Star Wars Birthday!

On the weekend of Rylee's birthday, we took her to the Houston Symphony for a Star Wars Concert. She loved it!

She thought the real live Storm Troopers and Jedi were amazing!

The concert was awesome and she loved the music and the conductor,
who was dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

For her birthday party we had to continue the Star Wars theme! Ryan made these adorable invitations!

Artwork from this incredibly cute collection of art at this site

 I borrowed lots of Star Wars toys for decorations. For food we had Tie Fighter Pasta Salada(with bow tie pasta), Boba Fett Bruschetta(this recipe), Yodamole and Scooper Troopers, Ewok rolls(this recipe), Princess Lays chips, Jedi Dip, Vader Veggies, Obi-Wan Kabobies(fruit kabobs), Lightsaber Pretzles, Wookie Cookies, Nutrient Capsules(little smokies), and of course, cupcakes! Drinks included Yoda Soda(lime sherbert punch) and Wampa Water.

My mom made adorable food signs for all the snacks.

Artwork for cupcake toppers and invitations found here. I used this  Vanilla Cupcakes recipe and my favorite chocolate cupcakes recipe

We had the just the right amount of games for such little people!

Pin the Lightsaber on the Jedi

Lightsaber training. They had to use their lightsabers to keep balloons up in the air.
I used this lightsaber tutorial

I found the cutest coloring pages! It was the perfect activity while taking turns in
the photo booth.

She did not like the flame on the candle.

Yes, she got real cake this year!

She loved the Star Wars blanket I made her.

Opening presents!

Her favorite present: a Star Wars card that played the theme
music. She thought it was amazing and ran around opening and
closing it saying "Star Wars!" and then would giggle. She was done with presents
at that point.

We had a little photo booth with props and costumes. Some of the littles loved it, others were kind of nervous about the huge Darth Vader and Storm Trooper.

Rylee would only take a picture with me.

Daddy was a little scary with the Darth Vader mask.

We love our little Jedi! We are lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family that love us!