Preschool Graduation

Williams preschool graduation was perfect.  They sang a few songs while various preschoolers cried, flashed the audience, hit each other, forgot words, screamed and waved at parents. 

singing

Will and his best mate Trace

I can't believe William is going to kindergarten this year.   I'm so old!

5 months already

first i was like

 then i was all...

Baby Elise is now on the move! she can army crawl and roll anywhere she likes. Her current nick names include, luna, hunna-chickens, lee-see, lou-ka-choo, bumby, baby e, lee-see-luna-ko-ka-chew-na and luce.  Elise can say Mama and I'm totally going to claim she knows what she is talking about and not just babbling.  She laughs all the time and is very smiley.  She loves to be held so she is facing the world and really likes it when her brothers play with her.  We love our baby elise!

Graduation

Sean is a Doctor or an OD (he can't put both by his name its illegal). Anyway HE IS DONE!!! no more late nights at the library, no more driving him to and from school, no more finals weeks, no more board exams, no more slave labour, and no more teachers dirty looks. I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to the actual graduation ceremony because they are boring, it would mean that we are officially adults (you'd think the kids would do that but they didn't) and they are really boring. I dragged the boys and elise along so we could make a quick exit after Sean got his hood and diploma. Then we waited forever and then we went and ate as many mini desserts as we could then headed off to a restaurant. We ended up at the rainforest cafe, Seans fave (not really, it was the only one that didn't have a ridiculous wait time, we didn't think about making reservations like all the other graduates and prom celebrators at the galleria) turned out to be pretty good food and the kiddos were entertained the entire time.

what will did to entertain himself during the ceremony

zac playing with knives proving that i really am the best mother ever

sean and grad cake and zac trying to blow the candle out

we are all very proud of sean and got a kick out of telling people he did graduate optometry school with three kids.  I never really realised that was such a big deal because we have so many students in our ward with families but it really is a huge deal.

Ballet

Going to the Houston Ballet has been on my list of things to do since I found out that it doesn't stink. I mean its nothing like the Russians but who can compete with them?  BUT it turns out I am cursed.  Really, cursed.  Any time I tried to go to the ballet they were performing a show that I hated (the nutcracker) or you know I had to do things like feed babies and couldn't take a night off to go to the theatre. I have had two chances to go see them perform, once in the woodlands but after driving all the way up there I found out it was cancelled because it was too cold for the dancers.  My second and final chance came, the Houston ballet was performing at miller outdoor theater for free! and it was Giselle, winner!  So I went and lined up to get the free tickets in the morning since it was 80% chance of rain I wanted to sit in a seat under the roof not on the lawn.  I got tickets and we were able to score some pretty good seats.  Then the thunder came and we mostly ignored it because its Houston and the weather is crazy.  The thunder got louder and the lightening a little scarier. during the first intermission they announced it would be a good time for just to go to our cars since the storm was coming.  I didn't move because I was determined to see Giselle and we were under cover so the rain wouldn't get to us.  Ha! what an idiot.  Half way through the first act of Giselle it started sprinkling and then it poured. it was dry to soaking wet in a about a minute and I'm not exaggerating. then the wind picked up.  it was freezing.  I really wanted to stay but avey was with us and it was getting really cold. so we decided just to run to the car since we were already soaked.  this is how i looked when i got home.

So I think I'm done with the Houston Ballet. I dont' even know if they kept dancing in the rain.  probably not, broken ankles can ruin a career.

Lost!

Guess who lost a tooth?

William

how many nights did he have to wait for the tooth fairy to come? 

Seven

when did the tooth fairy finally come?

during the day

 where did mummy leave the memory part of her brain?

??? probably hiding in the same place as sleeping through the night.

Did William figure out that the tooth fairy was fake?

yes.

Sani-ann-toe-nee-o

The Berensen family reunion was held in San Antonio this year and we had lots of fun returning to our old stomping grounds. I didn't take many pictures so that kinda stinks.

First stop was Sun Harvest! it is now sprouts but it looked the same inside.  Yes, I do have a thing for grocery stores.  We lived right next door when we were living here and i used to walk there all the time.  Sean was getting hangry so we didn't stay long, which was perfect because we ran into one of the coolest ladies I know in the parking lot! it was awesome! see grocery stores are cool.
The next stop was the house we stayed in. the boys were thrilled to have a backyard while we waited for everyone else to arrive.  So with 14 adults and 6 kids we went to golden corral.  the berensens apparently have a love for buffets, I think that if you are paying someone to make your food they should bring it to you.  maybe i'm a snob or just lazy.  that concluded day 1

Day 2
Sea World! Sea world was very sea worldy. the boys loved the little rollercoaster and all the other little rides. I didn't get a chance to go on any big kid rides not that it bothered me. We saw lots of talented animals and their trainers do some pretty cool stuff. however, the best part of the day was getting a lemonade slushy!!! let me explain, we came to seaworld while i was preggo with zac and I really wanted on of those but since we only had a few dollars to spend I decided that I'd be kind and share a dippin dots ice cream with sean since he was very excited about dippin dots. little did I know that he had already eaten dippin dots earlier in the day. what a stinker. So I'd been craving a lemonade slushy ever since and i finally got one 41/2 years later. it was worth it. these are the measly pics i took at seaworld.

Day -3
We went to church in our old building.   We didn't really get to see our friends from our old ward because they were at stake conference. 

Day - 4


San Antonio Zoo.  I'm not sure why I never took the kids while we were living here because it is a really nice zoo.  The boys favourite thing was this beach thingo they had in the kiddie part of the zoo.  Being the great mum that i am I didn't bring any towels or extra clothes so they had to air dry for the rest of the day.  they didn't seem to mind.  we did have to cut the day short because zac had an accident while we were looking at the hippos  but i think by that time we were ready for a nap anyway. 



Day - 5
The Alamo and River walk.  Every time I go to the Alamo it seems different.  We didn't spend much time in the Alamo because well the garden outside is much more exciting to 4/5 yr olds.  We played while the museum readers read everything and then we walked down to the river walk for some lunch.  It was a little strange to see the river walk so empty, I guess not very many people like to party on a tuesday afternoon.  We got to eat a delicious lunch and then said goodbye to everyone and made the journey home.

aunty bethy

Aunty Bethany came to visit. We played dance central, baby elise discovered the iphone and bethy found a beautiful dress at the old lady shop.  We only hope you can come visit us again before you leave the country.  fyi that isn't trash in the background of the pic i actually got to sort through some stuff since beth was here to keep little hands out. bruce, if you want me to take the video down I will.

Old!

Sean turned 30 this past March and we didn't really celebrate at all but I figured that I should at least mention it on this blog.  Happy Birthday Sean.  I'll throw you a party if you read this post.  It really wasn't my fault!  his birthday was on a Thursday which meant that he had to work late then play basketball.  We did go out to lunch at Jerry Built 

William was the photographer.

Sean decided that he wanted a Baked Alaska for his birthday cake but then changed his mind after I told him it was going to be time consuming and he'd have to watch children.  So a couple of weeks after his actual birthday aunty bethy was here so we made a cake and sang happy birthday.  William was the photographer again. 

And that concluded the birthday festivities for Sean.  wait, he did see hunger games by himself the monday before his birthday too.  I know this is probably the best 30th birthday ever.

Sean,

when you are 30

you still spend hours playing xbox,

and basketball,

you are nearly a Doctor,

weird,

you are a great dad,

baby E already has you wrapped around her little finger,

the boys think its fabulous when they get to play monster/superheros/cars/xbox/bike riding

and when you go swimming with them

you shop online for cars all the time

you still eat disgusting fast food at midnight

and you watch as many basketball and football games as possible