Sea World!!

About a week and a half ago Derrek and I took the kids to Sea World San Antonio! We went with our friends the Smiths and my friend Courtney and her kids met us there too. This marked our 2nd annual SmitheRouax family vacation (last year we went to Port O Connor). With two consecutive years of vacationing under our belt it has now officially become a tradition :)

Walking in from the parking lot.

Anywho, back to our trip. We went the Thursday before Spring break and it was WONDERFUL. The park was not crowded at all. Parking was awesome and there were absolutely NO lines for any of the rides. This was the absolute best way for all the kids to experience Sea World for the first time and they all had a BLAST!!

The entrance

The LeRouax clan

As we came into the park we headed over to see the dolphins. The kids were so excited to find out that they could feed the dolphins. So we bought some fish and let them do it.

Here are the boys leaning over the side checking them all out and getting ready to feed them.

Mason and his dolphin

We then headed over to see the sharks and the coral reef exhibit. We saw stingrays, sharks and all sorts of fish in the tanks. This was a huge hit (which was not a big surprise) b/c Mason LOVES looking at aquariums and this did not disappoint.

After the sharks we headed over to our first show of the day. The Sea Lion Show. Mason LOVED this show and was hootin and hollerin the whole time.

Mason and the Smith Family caught up in watching all the action :)

This silly sea lion spit water out at the crowd. We made it a point to not sit in any of the wet zones :)

The culprit was discovered at the end of the show. Mr. Walrus!

After the show we headed over to the kid friendly section with all the small rides for the kids. The big boys wanted to ride everything! Robyn and I were the good sports that got on everything with them.

The Ferris wheel with egg shaped pods. haha

Us waving at the Smiths from our egg :)

This one lifted and dropped multiple times and surprisingly enough I thought my tummy was feeling a bit woozy after it :)

The third ride Derrek wasn't so sure the boys would be up for but they proved him wrong and it was among the top 2 that they liked. It went back and forth and spun in large circles.

Ms. Robyn getting brave :)

We also rode the carousel and the Shamu roller coaster. Roller coaster definitely was #1 on the boys list of rides. We ended up riding it like 4 times :)

Mason, Robyn and Barrett

Dr Rog and Hunter

Courtney and Claire

Me and Mason on the roller coaster

A shot of me and Robyn. The kids had to sit on the inside so we never got a good picture of them on it.

After we did all the kid rides Robyn and I decided (after lunch of all times) that it was our turn to have some grown up fun.

Here we are right before getting on the steel eel

A shot of the highest point on that ride

And here we are two tough mama's after the ride

Both big coasters were super fun and the boys did ask if they could go on them haha. Luckily (from a mommy perspective at least) they are not quite tall enough for that big time fun yet :) After all of our roller coaster fun we headed over to the big daddy show of them all SHAMU!!!

Here we all are waiting for the show to start

This really was an amazing show, and the whales are just beautiful. For the 30 or so minutes that you are watching you completely forget that they can be dangerous animals. The kids were completely enthralled by this show and watched the entire performance.

Overall we had an amazing time. The park was only open until 5pm that day but that was perfectly long enough for us. By the end of the day the kids and us parents were pooped. We were so glad that we went though and sharing it with friends made it all the better.

We hope that everyone had an enjoyable spring break.

Opening Day!

March 5th 2011, the day we had been waiting for since signing Mason up for t-ball in December. OPENING DAY!! We were so excited for this day to get here and we were so proud of Mason. He did such an awesome job! We got to the park at 8 am for the parade of teams at 9am. The forecast for the day was not pleasant, cloudy with a 40% chance of rain. :( We were pretty bummed about this but we headed out to the park anyways. The day started out cloudy and sprinkling and a cold front blew in as well. All of the poor kids on the team were pretty miserable by about 8:30am but they hung in there.

Here is my little ball player all suited up

2011 ITB Cardinals

After the parade and the announcements Derrek took Mason back to the car to warm up and I set out to set up the booth that our team was responsible for which was the bean bag toss. Luckily Samantha was left at home with Mamie. This turned out to be a great thing b/c it was cold and sort of gross out and it would have been very difficult to man the booth and keep up with her as well. Thanks Mamie!! Anywho, opening day consisted of lots of fun food, games, raffles, silent auction baskets (which were so awesome) and of course the ball games. It really was a fun time!

After my shift at the booth Derrek and I got Mason some tickets and let him play the games. Since our game was at 1pm we also got lunch and went to the car to eat it and warm up a bit. At 12:30 we headed to our field for our game. I was a little worried that he may not want to go out on the field and play (keep in mind that Mason is the YOUNGEST player on his team by 5 months). There are kids on his team that are about to turn 6 and even though he is close to turning 4 he is still only 3 yrs old. Well my worries were silly b/c he didnt even hesitate to get out there.

Here they are warming up before the game

The first time they took the field Mason was at short stop

How cute is he I ask you? Full on in his little baseball player stance and everything.

Out on the field he did great. He stayed at his position and ran to the ball when it came to him. He got to bat 3 times and hit the ball on the first try every time he got up there and he remembered to drop his bat before running to 1st base.

Here he is on 3rd base with his old man as the 3rd base coach

Here he is running in for the score

He also got to play at the pitchers position

Derrek was worried about him feeling to much pressure at this position but he did amazing! He picked up two grounders and threw both to 1st base like a pro. Had we been keeping score our team definitely would have won BUT the important thing is that all the kids had fun!! We were definitely some super proud parents. He looked like such a big boy out there and he really enjoyed himself and that is what matters.

Here's to an exciting baseball season. GO CARDS!!!

The Houston Rodeo

Let me start by saying that I am a born and raised Texan. With that being said I have a confession to make that may make some of you gasp so here it is, I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO THE HOUSTON RODEO!!! dun dun dun!! I know I know its shameful BUT I am proud to announce that NOW I HAVE!!! Wahoo!! Some friends and I took our kids for a day trip to the Rodeo last thursday and we LOVED IT!!! Oh what a blast we had. We went to the petting zoo, saw some pig races (loved this!! did you know that pigs eat oreos?? I had no clue and this is what the pigs raced for haha), we saw some muttin bustin (so adorable and when I asked Mason if he wanted to do this next year he quickly answered "NO") and we went and looked at the live stock animals. This is something we will definitely start doing yearly. Maybe next time daddy can go with us.

Here is Mason Petting the pot belly pig

Samantha was not having anything to do with the petting zoo

Not the best shot but here we are waiting for the pig races

The oreo cookie that the pigs race for

Mason got chosen as the team 4 cheerleader for one of the pig race rounds

This nice man let mason touch one of the baby cows in the livestock show

All the kids together. Hunt, Madeline, Brock, Samantha and Mason.

Thank you to my friends for convincing me to go with them. I wasn't 100% sure I could do it alone with the two kids but I am so glad that we did.

First t-ball practice

I started looking for an activity for Mason back in the fall because he is now getting old enough to play organized sports. Derrek and I went back and forth between soccer and t-ball for a long time. Soccer would be great b/c he loves to run and is getting pretty fast BUT we were worried that he may get upset over not getting to kick the ball. T-ball would be great b/c Derrek use to play baseball and could help him and teach him BUT we were worried he may get bored when he wasn't hitting. Anywho, we went ahead and decided to go with t-ball. I started looking for programs and was very excited to find that he made the age cut off to play in Pearland Little League (yes, that is the same little league that went to the LL world series last year). So we took the plunge and registered him. At registration Derrek came home with 2 boxes of chocolate and raffle tickets to sell. Luckily, we were able to sell all the chocolate and only have 4 more raffle tickets :) February 5th they held the draft and on the 6th we got the call that Mason had been put on the Cardinals. GO CARDS!!

Well we have jumped into this t-ball thing full speed ahead. I have become a co-team mom ( I have to admit I am so excited about it heehee) and practices have started. Mason missed the first 2 b/c we were out of town but he finally got his chance yesterday. HE ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! All those little boys are so cute! Mason is actually the youngest one (by 4 months) but he is about middle upper echelon in talent (which was a huge relief for me) haha :). He had never run bases before and he picked it up quickly. He was so funny when he hit the ball and had to run and he ran to 1st base with the bat. haha! When they huddled up he had no clue where to go and stood outside of it looking around at everyone. By the end of practice though he was an old pro :)

Here he is waiting in line (kid in all grey) for his turn to run the bases

And here he is on the go :)

All the kids have to wear helmets so I have also gotten to put my craftiness to use

Needless to say I will be doing this for all the kids :) I also got to make us some shirts

Now I realize that this is NOT about me, but I am having such FUN and so is Mason! All he can say is that he wants to play baseball with his helmet. I am hoping that this means that we made a good choice. Opening day is March 5th and that will be his first chance to play a real game. We are so excited about this new time in our life and we are looking forward to watching our little all star learn and grow.

Happy baseball season to you all :)

Valentines Day and other activities

Happy Valentines Day!! I hope everyone had a great one. Ours started out last week with a Valentine's playdate at my friend Jenny's house. Her daughter Bekah is alway the sweetest little hostess and they always have fun activities for us to do.

Here are all the kids decorating their heart shaped cookies

Samantha's cookie

Mason's cookie

This past weekend I rushed to get teacher gifts together b/c I had totally procrastinated getting them done and I came across a cute and quick idea on Lemon Annie's blog. Decorative hand sanitizer bottles. I mean what teacher would not appreciate hand sanitizer in a class with a bunch of little hands that want to touch everything. So my trusty cricut and I went to work and here are the finished products.

I really was very pleased with how they came out. The only thing I will think more about next time is the color of the tops. The orange top completely clashes with the pink and red. Oh well!

This year for Valentine's Day instead of Derrek and I going out to a romantic dinner where we would have both eaten way to much haha we decided to make it a family affair. The Chic Fil A in Pearland (which happens to be the most awesome CFA around) was doing it up romantic family style for this holiday. You could make a reservation online and you would get table side service :) so i made a reservation for 5pm and we headed over to the local CFA for our fancy chicken sandwich dinner.

How fun to have our name reserving our table.

And they even put table cloths and everything

All in all we had a great (and busy) Valentine's Day. I wish I had gotten a picture of us while we were there but oh well, coulda, woulda, shoulda huh?

Happy Love Day Everyone!!

Cupcake Love and my 100th post

I am happy to share with everyone that this is my 100th blog post. I am sort of shocked actually b/c I just realized that I have been blogging for over a year. Who would have thought that I would stick with it so long? When I first started I wasn't so sure about it but it looked like fun so I jumped right in. I'm really glad I did and I appreciate everyone who reads about Life with the LeRouax's. :)

Now on to the cupcake love. The pictures will explain it all.

Is that not one happy little lady?

Making sure she gets all the chocolate off her fingers too

Loving her cupcake!!

Stay warm and enjoy the rest of the weekend!