Excuses, excuses

I seem to have a run on excuses.  I have excuses for why I haven't started exercising more.  I have excuses for why I didn't cook a proper dinner.  I have numerous excuses as to why I haven't posted in two months.  Here are a few:

We have been settling into our new house in our new neighborhood in a new town in a new state which is in a new time zone.

Frisco is full of neighborhoods.  We love ours.  We've met awesome neighbors and as much time as we can playing with them.  We made sure to be around for the neighborhood 4th of July parade.  Kids decorated wagons and bikes to be festive and celebrated at the pool with sno cones.  Someone in our family had four of them.

We chose our neighborhood, Heather Ridge Estates, in part because it had a community pool.  The boys and I love to spend the hot, hot mornings there.

Because it's over 100 degrees in Frisco now, we headed back to New York for three weeks.  This gives me the excuse of being way too busy and having way too much fun to post.  Seriously.  I have mentioned it no less than 10 times over 20 days.  My sister, who also visited Lake George mentioned it at least twice.  My mother was almost too busy having a blast with the boys to mention it, but she did manage to find time to bring it to my attention that it's been over two months since giving her new reading material.  Fortunately for her and for our boys, she  has the luxury of living it rather than reading about it.

We had a week of bonding time with cousin Elizabeth.  She loved Thomas and Thomas loved her.  He was an ideal baby distractor.  While Erica was away for a quick weekend getaway, I managed to teach Baby Elizabeth a thing or two too.

Most important lesson: how to make s'mores

We hit up all the hot spots.  We did a kid's theme park called Magic Forest, ponied up and hit up Six Flags' Great Escape, had a VIP ride on the Minnie Ha Ha, visited the local park at least four times a week, took a scenic ride with Nan and Pop's friends Kevin and Rose, and had a blast playing in the lake at Nana's beach.

Loving the train with Aunt Barb

Basketball at the park was a favorite past time

We celebrated Ryan's 2nd birthday while in Lake George.  He loves everything.  Tractors, Bob the Builder,  baseball, Sesame Street characters, tennis, and anything Thomas does.  After much deliberation, we settled on a Cookie Monster cake and Sesame theme.

Of course, while we have been in LG, we miss our friends from Texas.  Carter and Hazel from down the street, Hayden and Grayson from the pool, Aariv and Mary from our days at the apartment.

Excuse after excuse after excuse.  You'll have to pardon me, as we've been busy enjoying this wonderful ride of life with children.

Howdy, Partner

We have nearly officially moved to North Texas.  At the end of February, Mike had had enough of the traveling cross country on a weekly basis, so he packed up the Rav 4 and headed to Plano, Texas, home of Learfield Sports and his new office (when he isn't traveling to the West Coast).  The boys and I stayed and weathered March.  At the end of the month, I packed each of us a suitcase and the boys and I flew to Dallas.  We've be enjoying life in a furnished apartment there for the last seven weeks.  Thomas has really come into his element.  He loves meeting new kids.  Every day, we traipse to the courtyard area to see who is out.  In an incredibly diverse area, Thomas is one of the few kids whose parents are from the US.  He loves hanging out by the pool with his buddy Arif and playing ball.

Hanging at the community pool

Playing in the driveway

Thomas and his buddies at the square.

 Thomas has found friends everywhere we go including the National Scooter Championship qualifiers that were in our area.  All four of us loved watching the teenagers scoot.

Playmates at the World Scooter Competition

 Maybe all this diversity is opening a door for Thomas' taste buds! 

Flat Chinese noodles?

We didn't meet any friends at the bowling alley because, as Thomas would say, we were busy doing a pattern: bowl, eat, bowl, eat, bowl, eat.

Ryan nearly beat me and he actually beat Thomas!

 We have hit up local libraries during story time.  It's a great chance to get out and see other kids and do something academic, especially since Thomas hasn't been to preschool since March.  The boys love to hit up the computer section.  Every time we go, Ryan calls Aunt Erica on a computer mouse.  I wonder why she never answers?

Curious George came to Frisco's library!

We had the special treat of attending a Frisco Rough Rider baseball game.  They are the AA affiliate of the Texas Rangers.  It was superior family fun.  The boys got to throw balls in the outfield before the game, we had free food, saw some baseball, and even went to a playground within the park!

 Mama's favorite spot is an indoor trampoline park.  We went once with Nana Honey and Papa Bear when they were visiting.  I love it because it's cheap, Ryan loves it, Thomas loves is, and I get to jump around on trampolines too!

 We have finally found a house.  In the second hottest real estate market in the country, it's not easy to find a house that isn't gobbled up within a day of hitting the market.  On June 1st, we will land at our new house in Frisco, which is about 20 minutes north of Dallas.  It's home to about 140,000 people and growing like crazy.  Many corporations are headquartered in that area and the schools are rated among the top in the state.  We think our neighborhood is going to be fabulous.  We grabbed sno cones with some soon to be neighbors and thought that we'd made a pretty solid choice.

Until we are able to move into our home, we are always looking for things to do outside of the apartment.  One Saturday, we visited the Perot Science Museum in Dallas.  Very cool hands-on things for us to play with and figure out.

How waterways work

Little Drummer Boy

Putting an organ system back in may be a few years beyond Thomas' reach

Even though we moved a thousand miles away, we are still up to the same shenanigans.  Thomas still works hard, Ryan still does whatever Thomas does, 

 And well, I may have turned over a new leaf...

Eating a chip and guac out of his hat