After a few fun-filled days in Houston, we finally made it over to San Antonio. I think Theresa was a little horrified that we would be in Texas for almost a full week before we made it there. But I did plan more time with them to try and make up for it! (Also, this is a super long post because it was a fun-filled time!)
Anna convinced Nonni to play cards with her as soon as we got there. I'm not sure who was more excited about it - Nonni is a bit of a card shark. And you can just barely see Meredith in the background - she adopted a new hobby of wearing socks on her hands. I kept thinking I was misplacing my socks the whole time I was there, turns out she's a bit of a sock thief!
We went to Anna's cheerleading practice Saturday morning and neither one of us got any photos because the other 4 kids were running all over the place. Luckily there were a ton of empty fields for them to stretch their legs in, but it was all hands on deck for containment. James' birthday was right after the practice, but we ended up arriving a little late. Rachael planned the party at the children's museum in New Braunfels and the kids were so excited when we got there! But since we were late, the boys only got to play for a few minutes before it was time to eat. They could not be convinced to take their astronaut costumes off to come in to the party room (hey - at least they came)!
James had a lot of help blowing out his candles... Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind! And once my two realized there was cake involved, they let me take the costumes off long enough to eat some cake.
Literally long enough and no more. While everyone else hung out, my two were back at it. There were space ships to land!
And of course, there were ambulances to get to the hospital! I was actually born (prematurely) in New Braunfels and took an ambulance shortly after over to McKenna Hospital, so I thought this ambulance was pretty darn fitting!
Thomas insisted that I sit in the back on the stretch so he could take care of me. He carefully gave me several shots (also fitting giving the whole rabies debacle that was coming...). Henry more just ran up, hit me with the reflex hammer and ran off. Gentle, he is not!
Except with the baby dolls! This kid loves playing with the baby dolls. He carefully feeds them and carries them around. I guess he's still trying to prove he would take care of the baby sister he keeps demanding from me. (Side note to clarify - there is no baby sister on the way, but one of his friends at school has a baby sister and he points it out *all* the time!)
He finally put the baby back down to sleep and wandered over to try out a high powered banking job. (It did not last long!)
Thomas was over in the grocery store trying to figure out why his register was out of tape. Ha - I have no idea if he knows what goes in there, but he clearly knew something was missing!
Nonni was on re-stocking duty. Thomas looks like he is comparison shopping on some canned goods. Probably mimicking how his mom is always checking the sodium levels on the canned beans. We use the heck out of canned beans in our house, but I try to not buy the total sodium bombs... "/
It forever to convince one of my boys to go outside and Henry was the first to grudgingly go out there (I may have carried him out). I'm not a mean mom, there was super fun stuff out there. And Henry realized that pretty quickly!
The water gun required a separate knob be held down, so I'm doing so fun gymnastics to help him shoot the targets while getting a photo of him. But he actually managed to get it in the hole to spin the disc while I was getting photos. Go Henry!
Then he started climbing up this big tower of wire mesh and giant plastic discs. I tried to go with him, but the route he chose was pretty impossible for an adult (apparently my mom found a different route later and went up to the top with him!). Thankfully Anna was more than happy to help boost him if he needed it.
Henry's bravery inspired the birthday boy to give it a go as well! James wasn't too sure about it until he saw someone else his size try it. It is a pretty big & intimidating tower!
Thomas was still inside playing with a new blower. This one had a separate craft area where you could cut up a paper cone to see how well you could get it to soar upwards and not to brag, but I made the best one there. Thomas was wowing all the other kids with how awesome his cone was. I made another one to show him the difference in how you cut it can be dramatic. It flew pretty awfully and he told me I should just throw it away. Such a sweetie...!
Finally I convinced Thomas to go outside and he was up the tower with his brother in no time. And just like Anna, was giving Henry a boost when he needed it. It's awesome when the kids work together so nicely! :)
The kids were finally all worn out, so we left the museum birthday party and headed to Rachael's house for birthday party, round 2! All of their extended family came into town, so they hosted a dinner and play time at their house. We have been super excited about visiting them (again!) ever since Justin had sent us a video of him and James tractor racing. Of course, Anna knew where the tractor was, so she got the first ride!
Thomas was happy enough to settle for pushing the toy lawnmower until he got a chance to ride. We obviously don't have a big enough lot for a riding lawnmower, so he knew the push mower was just like dada's!
After patiently waiting, Thomas got his chance on the riding mower. And he took it very seriously! He was a little jerky on the power at first, but he was soon tearing around the yard. (There may or may not have been a near collision with his momma when I was trying to get a video to send to Matt). You can see Henry in the background is headed to check out the recently abandoned push mower.
Except the toy push mower wasn't good enough for Henry. He instead tried to use the real tractor... You can see how excited he is thinking he is going to go for a ride. Sorry little man - you would be too dangerous with that much horsepower!
Finally it was piñata time! And since it was a Cars themed birthday, it was a Lightning McQueen piñata! The birthday boy obviously got the first go at the piñata. He got a few good whacks in - he must have done this before!
Thomas definitely knew what to do with the piñata - they have had them several times at school parties. The first time I saw him with one, he was super upset because all of the big kids knew things would fly out and Thomas didn't, so they beat him to the goodies. But this older kid in his class gave him stuff when he realized Thomas didn't get anything. So sweet!
Know he has figured out how to hit the piñata hard and run for toys. Smart guy!
Henry clearly had no clue what he was doing. He was swinging the bat one handed and the piñata came back and hit him. Henry was not impressed...
Wallace had absconded with one of the push mowers and was happily "mowing" the front yard until he finally noticed it was piñata time! James nicely handed over the bat after his second turn, so Wallace would get a chance to help out in the piñata beating. :)
Anna was the first one to knock it down! We actually went through a few more rounds after this - it was one stout piñata! But once Anna knocked a decent sized hole in it, James got a chance to finish it off. The benefit to being the birthday boy!
And once there was enough candy on the ground, the parents decided it was probably safer to take the bat away. There were a few near misses with kids lunging for candy while other kids were still whacking the piñata. So Justin ended up dumping out the rest of the candy for a candy free-for-all.
But where is my candy hound?
There he is! He had taken off to go claim the tractor once he decided piñatas were not for him. But once he realized there was candy on the ground, he came running back at full speed!
Which is the exact opposite of his brother! Thomas picked up a partial cup of candy, threw it to me and then took off for the recently vacated tractor. He was in such a hurry that he ran over & smashed a can of coke (on foot!) and didn't even seem to notice. I'm pretty sure if Theresa had been sitting one more foot to the left, he would have bowled over her as well. He only had eyes for the tractor!
These two clearly need a toy tractor. We did discover shortly after this photo that the weight limit on that trailer might be less than they weigh, but no one was injured in the derailment... Whew!
Thanks for having such an awesome birthday party, James! :)