Tyler's First Round of Golf

Scott had today off, so he took Tyler golfing.  This was Tyler's first round of golf.  It was a 9 hole, 3 par course, so not too bad for his first time.  They had a lot of fun.  I sent them with a camera and told them they had to take pictures. 

Getting ready to tee off on the first hole

 

 

The lake where Tyler lost two of his balls

Father, son selfie!

Texas Bluebonnets

The bluebonnets have bloomed earlier this year and are just beautiful. I took Molly out this evening to get some pictures.

Molly likes this one because her hair is shiny

 

 

I love this one, I wish I have been more careful with the sun on her face

 

 

Girl's Night Out

This past Monday night, I went out with two of my good friends, Rachel and Debbie.  I met Rachel the beginning of last school year when Molly started that home school preschool.  Her son, Payton was also in it.  Since then we've become really good friends.  We get along great, have fun together, and can just be ourselves. It's great that Molly and her two kids play so well together.  Payton really thinks Tyler is cool too. Their family came over the past two Christmases, we've gone camping once and have another camping trip planned in April.

I met Debbie at the pool a few years back and would say hi and chat a little.  We'd sometimes see each other at the park or grocery store, but we never hung out.  Her and Rachel were good friends, since she has a son the same age as Payton.  Through Rachel, I've become good friends with Debbie too.

Rachel's husband, Matt is in the military, so they just got orders and are moving the end of May.  I'm so sad! When I told Molly, she cried and cried.  We'll just have to go visit them in TN and spend lots of time together until then.  That is why we started planning our girls night out to make the most of our time.  Last month we just did dinner and shopping, which was so fun.  Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures.

This past Monday, we went to dinner again and then to Painting with a Twist.  I had done it before, but neither of them had.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures.

Debbie is in front and Rachel has the blond hair.  Just so you know who is who.

 

 

We had to get some dessert afterwards.

In April we're all going camping; Debbie this time too.  In May, we're throwing Rachel a baby shower and we have another night out planned to make something at a pottery place.  We'll continue to have weekly play dates with the kids too.  Luckily, Molly and Payton see each other 3 times a week at preschool. 

Weekend in Houston

Two weekends ago, we went to Houston to see Scott's parents.  The kids always enjoy going to the lake, playing in the spa, reading with Grandma, and this time, playing cards with Grandpop.

My nephew, Kaleb, is doing a Flat Stanley project.  He sent us Flat Stanley and we have to take pictures of him doing things with us.  He went to the lake with us, layed out, and played in the spa.

 

 

Molly reading her books to Grandma.

Molly reading to Jet.

Tyler and Grandpop playing black jack.

We also went to Top Golf.  Mary loves watching the kids hit.  This time, they showed her all the games downstairs and challenged her to a few games of washers.

All About Tyler

Tyler is now a little over 8 1/2 years old.  He's in 3rd grade and doing well.  His favorite subjects are science and history.  Tyler still loves Minecraft.  I'm always impressed at the cool things he builds and the big cities him and his friends build together.  He has tried to teach me how to play, but I just don't get it.  He also enjoys playing football and golf games on the Play Station 3 with Scott.

 His two best friends are still Colby and Kyle.  Colby and his family are moving this summer though-still in TX, but about an hour away.  They're buying land, so out in the country. They're both over at the house quite a bit.  Today, I got roped into a dart gun war with them-the 3 of them against me.  It actually was pretty fun. 

Tyler isn't on any sports teams, but he does enjoy sports.  He likes to go to the driving range and him and Scott throw the football a lot.  He likes to make different pass plays. He's getting into running and actually wants me to run with him, but I keep having knee trouble. (I'm getting old)  I got a bike for Christmas, so he's looking forward to biking together.

If you remember from Christmas, Tyler go an autographed Creek Stewart photograph.  Creek is a survivalist.  He used to have a show on Fat Guys in the Woods.  Tyler liked watching it and learned a lot of neat tricks for surviving in the woods.  Tyler bought his book Bug Out Bag-it's about making a 72 hour survival kit.  We started making one last week.  We have more things to add, but we have a good start.

 

Tuesday, Tyler was going outside and I said-what are you gonna do outside, it's super windy and chilly.  He said-I know, it's a great time to practice making shelters in the wind.

 

Tyler loves to hike, camp, and fish.  We're camping again the end of April.  He found a cool youtube video about making these straws-you cinch one end, fill it with something, then cinch the other end.  To cinch it, you burn it, then clamp down on it with pliers.  We've made lots of these for camping and to have in our survival kit.  We have salt, sugar, pepper, garlic salt, cinnamon, matches, and Vaseline rubbed cotton balls-they are a fire starter.

 

 

Tyler's favorite book series are the I Survived books.  There are around 18 and we've read them all.  They are historical fiction.  The event survived such as the Battle of Gettysburg, Hurricane Katrina, The Hindenburg Explosion, San Fransisco Fire are true facts, but the people or family surviving it are made up.  He also likes the Disaster Strikes Series and we just started Race the Wild series .

Tyler new favorite show right now is North Woods Law..  The show follows wardens in Maine.  It actually is very interesting.  He just found out that they have a North Woods summer camp in Maine that the wardens help teach-they get to hike, kayak, fish, go on ATVs, do archery, rifle shooting, hunting, survival skill...he thinks it looks pretty neat.

Tyler found Scott's old baseball and football cards, so he's into that now.  He has his own binder and likes looking through the cards with Scott.  Scott bought him a few news packs the other day and it even had a card worth $8 in it. 

I think this about sums up Tyler for right now.  He's a pretty fun, loving boy.  

The Zoo

Friday, Molly and I went to the zoo with her friend, Evan.  It's been awhile since we've been and we had a good time.

 

This is a giraffe skin and skull they had out to show the kids

Molly petting the lion skin

Molly thought the goats in the petting zoo needed some brushing. 

Our annual pass expires on the 29th, so we'll probably go one more time this month.  Have to make sure we got our moneys worth out of it.

Miss Molly

We haven't been up to much other than our normal things, so I haven't posted much.  I've decided to do updates on the kids and what they're into right now.  First is Miss Molly.  Molly is just fun and pretty happy for the most part.  She does get moody when tired and she can get her feelings hurt easily.  Some days her and Tyler get along well and other days they bother each other.  That's just siblings, I guess. She is at a great age, loves to learn and be creative.  She still loves her preschool and our homeschool preschool on Wed.  She loves playing with friends.

Harry and Mary got her a subscription to Kiwi Crates.  It's a box that arrives every month with crafts and projects in it to do.  She looks forward to getting her box and has really enjoyed the projects.  The first was making a treasure chest and then drawing maps.  One morning, she must have drawn 5 or 6 maps.  Then we'd hide the treasure box and mark an X where we put it, then the other would have to use the map to find it.

This month was water and ice.  She shared with Tyler and they made crystal snowflakes.  We also tried to grow crystals, but it didn't work that great.  She made ice cubes and then saw what happened when she pour salt on them; mixed vegetable water with oil to see the bubbles float, and had a few more fun things. 

Molly still loves all her animals!  She plays with her dogs, but she is also into horses and unicorns now.  As soon as Christmas was over, she was ready to start planning her birthday party which is a Unicorn Rainbow Party.  Look for that in April! She also wants to take horseback riding lessons, but we decided she needs to be a little older for that.

Molly loves to dance around the house and most days is in her leotard.  She only has one, so for Valentines Day, she's getting another.  She has competitions almost everyday.  They're dance, flip, karate, running...you name it, she has a competition for it.  I have to watch and be the judge.  She'll be different people so I can pick a winner.  One day, it was her flip competition.  She was different people and then finally she was herself.  I say-introducing Molly Shobe.  She stops me and says-wait a minute, I have to get ready.  She takes a deep breath and says-the whole state of Texas is counting me. Ok I'm ready.  It was so funny! Another night, she wanted to pray for dinner.  This is her prayer-Dear God, please help me in all my competitions tomorrow.  Help me to drive safely to them. Help me not to get hurt. Thank you that Daddy got home early today.  Please help my competitions to be good tomorrow.  Amen.  She is a hoot!

Tomorrow she has a free trial class at a dance studio to decide if she wants to take dance.

These are her flips.  She sits on the back of the couch and then flips over.

Here she is roasting marshmellows in her leotard.

She loves to draw and paint.  Here are two pictures she made me this week.

The one on the left is her and me surrounded by balloons.  The one of the right is a garden.  The sun is on top and then there are rows of the flowers and plants. 

Molly loves to learn.  She's started sight words with me.  She has a few easy books she can read.  She knows her 0 and 1 addition facts and her doubles (2+2, 3+3) .  She also likes to do bar graphs and measure things.  Her writing is coming along too.  She is excited for kindergarten next year.

That is your update on Miss Molly!  She keeps life exciting over here.