Haley's school program and a look back

On Tuesday my mom drove the kids back from Galveston so Haley could attend her end of the year program at school. I can't believe it has already been an entire school year! Since Haley was 1 when the school year began, she is in the Toddler Ones class. Her class is all kids that turned 2 before January so she is with kids her same age, which is nice. For the program the Toddler Ones and Younger Ones (those that turn 2 during 2010) sing 3 songs together. Haley did great at the Christmas Program but this time we didn't have as much luck. She already had a busy day and I had a feeling the no nap was going to catch up with her, which it did. Needless to say, Haley screamed the entire time, "I want my mommy". And of course she was right by the microphone so that was pretty much all you heard!! I should have known that would happen when she came home and told me, "Grandma told me to take a nap, but I didn't." Oh well, we are still very proud of our little girl and everything she accomplished this school year.

Let the tears flow...

The entire group

And we are still crying even sitting on the teacher's (Ms. Amy) lap :(

Although the end of the year program didn't go as planned, Haley had a great school year. Here is a look back courtesy of pictures her teacher took throughout the year

MW Toddler Ones Class

Making Christmas Tree Cones

Yum, M&Ms

When it is cold or rainy they have playtime in the gym. Of course Haley would pick the purple car

Or the Harley!

Going fishing with friends

Cowboy Cookout Day

Easter Egg hunting. This picture makes me laugh so much. Haley found one glove that morning when looking for shoes and said, "Oh, my glove". She then proceeded to wear it ALL day. When the teacher asked her why, her response was, "cause it matches my shoes!". Love it!!!

Yes, the glove is still on!

The school has lots of activities planned for the kids. A horse even came one day!

Haley giving it kisses

She LOVES to play outside

These last couple of weeks they have learned about safety. The fire department came and the kids got to check out a fire truck. It was a different dept then the one Jackson was born at. The police also came and the kids got a tour of the police car.

What great memories! Thanks to her teacher for trying to capture some moments with the kids.

Vacation...for the kids

Last Friday my mom and aunt took both kids plus my cousin's twin girls to Galveston for the week. So far they are having a blast. Haley doesn't like the waves hitting her but loves the swimming pool and just hanging out with the girls. Jackson took his first dip in the swimming pool and LOVES it. I figured since the little guy goes crazy with excitement as soon as he hears the bath water starting. He is going to be a fish just like Haley.
It's been quiet at our house but Matt and I are trying to stay busy taking care of things we can't do when the kids are around. On Saturday we finally painted Haley's room purple. She is going to be so excited when she gets home! She picked out the color from several swatches and so did I, not knowing Haley picked that same color :) While we miss the kids terribly, it's nice to have some couple time. We haven't had this much couple time since Haley was born. Good thing we get a teaser tomorrow and get to see the kids at Haley's end of the year school program. I'm not sure if it's just my personality or being a parent, but I'm nervous to watch her on stage! I want her to do so good and not be afraid when she is up there. She did wonderful during the Christmas program so I shouldn't be so nervous.

Here's a few pictures from a couple of weekends ago...

Haley getting on her glasses to help Daddy in the yard

Ready to help now Daddy

Silly girl

Jackson loves eating lately. Here he is gobbling down some carrots. Yum Yum.

Fun times, Vara style

Finally, I'm happy to report we are all 100% healthy again! Jackson had a nasty stomach bug for over a week. Poor guy ended up losing 1/2 a pound but now is quickly gaining that back. He has started sleeping through the night again too. I'm happy about that because it was extra hard getting up at 3am to feed him since he had been sleeping good prior to the bug. While Haley came down with a fever she never got the dreaded bug. Whew.
Now on to fun stuff. A couple of weeks ago we did our annual pictures in the bluebonnets. The patch we always hit up in Montgomery wasn't quite as good this year but we can't complain. Jackson was still under the weather so he didn't want to participate much as you can see from the pictures.

Haley holding Jackson while he is deciding which flower to eat

Pretty Princess Haley

What a big girl

Haley had fun playing in the stream holding her beloved Tiger hostage. Not sure what he did to deserve this threat but he came out dry :)

I pulled out Haley's old walker and Jackson has taken a liking to it. He loves to chew on the toys. It's so funny. He'll eye the bear, have a stare down with it, then try to eat it. He can really get the walker to move on the wood floors.

Unlike Grandma's walker built for giants, Jackson can actually reach the ground in this one.

Sometimes you just have to get out of the house. We took the kids to Market Street one day after work. We sat out at the fountains and enjoyed Pot Belly, yum yum. It was a little cool this day but Haley didn't mind. Jackson was checking out the water too....


You knew what was going to happen next! Jackson got a mouthful.

Most weekdays we find fun things to do around the house with the kids. Haley loves to go to the park or swing in the backyard. Haley found some of her older ride on toys and the perfect racetrack! ZOOM ZOOM

Switching out cars, same result...lots of fun.

To burn off extra energy she pushes me around.

While Haley is racing down the hall upstairs, Jackson is busy in the game room working on sitting up. Not bad for just turning 5 months old.

And when he's tired of sitting we work on tummy time...

and carpet swimming

After all that workout Jackson needs a snack. I think roasted duck is on the menu

Every once in awhile I start to feel crafty. This weekend I took the kids to Hobby Lobby. I'm making Jackson a sign for his room and I let Haley pick out whatever she wanted to paint. She picked out a birdhouse. She also picked out all sorts of colors to paint it. So off with the clothes, covered the table outside, and I let the artist come alive. She is very careful painting.

This was about two seconds before she started to paint her hand with all that blue paint on the brush. I couldn't figure out why she painted her hand then remembered all the art projects she does at school with her hand print. So off to the water hose we went for a scrub down.

Her finished product. Beautiful! It's perched on a tree waiting for it's first visitor.

Haley and Matt also had their first dip in the pool this weekend. It was quite cold so she didn't last long. We turned on the spa and she enjoyed that much better. Can't wait for it to warm up a little more. Have a great week!!

Easter 2010

Easter festivities started off with a bang this year. On Wednesday Haley had an Easter Egg hunt at school and had a blast. Fast forward to Friday. Wouldn't you know I work for the only bank in the US that has to work on Good Friday but that's ok. Matt did some much needed maintenance work outside on his day off and we had our furniture delivered! Our house is starting to look more and more like a home finally. We decided to get in our Easter service early by going to the Friday evening service. Prior to service they had a large egg hunt for the kids. Haley was excited to get her hunt on and this was Jackson's first.

Haley planning out her strategy


Mommy and her precious babies


Jackson excited to get his hunt on (or excited that he just spit up?)


They split the hunts off by age group which was nice. Haley and Jackson were together in the birth to 2 year old group. Haley took full advantage of being on of the older kids for once.
Ready, Set, GO!!!

Jackson getting in on the action.

The Vara Family Easter 2010

Haley was very nice to fill Jackson's basket too! Grandma and Uncle John joined us for the hunt and service and afterwards we went for dinner. After a nice evening we had a big day planned for Saturday. Just when you have big plans something happens. Turns out I got food poisoning and was SICK in bed all day Saturday. I'll spare all the details but I've figured one way of shedding all the baby weight is to just get sick. Matt had double kid duty all day but luckily I started to feel better by Easter Sunday. On Sunday we were invited to another egg hunt put on by the neighbors at the park followed by an Easter Brunch at a neighbor's house. It was nice to finally get to meet everyone!

The Purple Slate kids lined up by age getting ready to get the eggs. Haley was first

And their off...

Haley's trying to figure out how to get an egg at the top of the rock wall

Jackson was just watching this hunt

The Easter Egg Hunt Kids

We then headed up to Grandma's for Easter dinner with the family. Grandma had Easter baskets for the kids and yet another egg hunt for Haley. Yes, that is #4.

Uncle Mark helping Haley with the egg hunt

After finding all her eggs Haley wanted to go swimming. It was quite cold but that didn't stop her.

Kendall stopped by to say Hi. Haley LOVES Kendall and got so excited when she got there. When it was time to leave we told Haley to give Kendall a hug goodbye. Haley made her stand in the water first then gave her a hug.

After a delicious meal we colored Easter Eggs.

I'm so glad my mom had Easter eggs to color and baskets for the kids. Since I was sick on Saturday I didn't get around to doing that this year with the kids :( Who says you can't get an Easter basket after Easter? Maybe it will be a, "YAY it's Springtime" basket instead. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.