Wedding Weekend

We spent our Labor Day weekend in California celebrating my cousin Ellen's wedding.  Just a little note - my Chinese wedding was on the same weekend.  So were my brother's and sister's wedding. I guess we love to get married on Labor Day weekend.

It was so great to see my family that I don't see often at all.  My Auntie and my cousins from Australia made it out here. It was really fun.

All three waiting to board...

These two wanted to show me their mad faces.

Matthew has anxiety whenever we fly anywhere so he likes to sit next to Daddy when he can.  

Sometimes these two are so sweet to each other.  Other times, not so much.

The wedding was on Saturday and it was a beautiful day for a beautiful wedding.

We only took this one to the ceremony because the other two wanted to stay home with my brother.

Mark and his favorite Auntie.

After the ceremony, they had an ice cream bar.  Mark thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is one of my favorite pictures-the bridal party with all the boy cousins from Australia and Mark.

Props were set out for the photo booth.  This guy chose to go with the  thug life....

Silly kiddos...

Silly Daddy.

First Game a Success

Mark played his first team sport ever and it was a riot! Imagine a bunch of 3 year olds on a mini soccer field tripping all over each other to get the ball.  Then imagine half of them crying because they either can't get the ball or they don't want to leave their mammas on the sideline. Funny stuff.

Mark did awesome though. Once he got the hang of it, he was a goal scoring machine.  My proudest moment was when he showed kindness to one of his teammates.  The little boys was afraid to leave his mom to go in and play.  When he mom finally did get him on the field, Mark saw that he was upset and passed the soccer ball to him to kick.  It was so sweet.

I can't wait to see him play again in a couple of weeks.  So much fun to watch!

This is my baby trying on his gear before game day.  No pants is the way to go.

Before games, we get half an hour of skill demonstration and time to practice as a team.  I have to say, Mark paid attention the whole time during the demonstration.

Then it was time to practice some skills.  the kids did really well.  Better than I thought they would...

Big brothers had some fun out there too.

Game time!

 He ran over to the sidelines for a drink - right in the middle of the game.

He got a little rest.

 Taking a knee during halftime. This is when he told his coach that his name has M, A, R, K in it.

Of course, there's the obligatory snack after the game.  Game #1 is in the books!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  I'm linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea for Friday Favorites this week.  It's been quite a busy week, but we had fun!

{One}

Seeing these little guys go off to school was one of my favorite moments this week.

{Two}

I have been waking at 4 in the morning for the past few days and haven't been able to fall back asleep so I get up and get my day started a lot earlier than usual.  Side effect - longer quiet time in the mornings.  It's nice and peaceful to sit at my desk with my favorite coffee cups.

{Three}

Mark's class read "The Kissing Hand" at school on the second day there and they made this. Definitely one of my favorite gifts.

{Four}

Our new house is undergoing some major remodeling before we move in.  This is one of my favorite things I picked out for our kitchen.  We are using these marble tiles as an accent for the backsplash behind our stove. Our contract was adamant about not using Carrera marble as countertops, but I love marble so much that I wanted to incorporate it into the design some how. 

{Five}

I'm volunteering to run the Spirit Shop at Matthew's school this year and I love receiving our inventory of Dragon gear to sell.

This tank is one of my favorites. I texted this picture to my friend and co-chair when the tank arrived because I was so excited about it.

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First Day of School 2015

It's that time of the year again!  Before I go any further, can I tell you how nice it is to have a clean house for at least half of a day? And now that Mark is in school, I can pick up in an hour rather than spend the whole morning doing so?  Loving it.

The boys had a great first day.  All three of them! Michael will not admit it because nothing is good nowadays in his tween years, but there was no whining so I choose to take that as him having a great day.

This was Mark in his Dragon gear after Meet the Teacher. So excited to be a Dragon like the bo-bos!

Big,

Middle,

 And Little...

All three of my babies.  I heart them so much!

I walked Mark to the cafeteria to meet all the other pre-schoolers.  He made a friend pretty quickly!

After waiting 30 minutes in the pick-up line, we headed to Central Market for lunch and to pick up some grocery for dinner.  All smiles.

Progress

I just wanted to share some remodel pictures as of yesterday.  This is the kitchen - it's been gutted.  That old cabinet there use to hold the range that we are replacing.

Here's another part of the kitchen.  This is where we are moving our sink and dishwashers.  They have to dig up a trench to move the plumbing.

This is the breakfast nook (do they even call it that anymore?) connect to our kitchen.  It's currently used to house debris.

Our dining room and entry looks like a tornado has been through...

This all looks pretty disastrous, but it's progress.  So looking forward to it being done and moving in.

Summer Splash Soccer Champions

Phew! It was another soccer-filled weekend.  Michael and his team walked away champions, but the last game was a nail biter to the very end!

They won their game Friday night, tied the second game and won their third game to advance to the semis.  Then the team they were suppose to play forfeited because they couldn't get to the game in time.  What?! So his team advanced to the finals on Sunday night. The boys played so well.

They scored and held on to the lead until the game was almost over.  Then the other team scored to tie it up.  After the score remained the same for the next ten minutes of overtime, it was time for PKs.  It was still tied after one round of PKs so they went on to sudden death PK and finally finished with the win!

He was happy to be at the game for like 2 seconds...

Then fell asleep halfway through.

This one found lots of friends to play with and had a great time.

We were waiting for the semifinal to start only to learn that the game was forfeited.

These boys were happy to hear that they will be playing in the championship game.

 Of course the final game was delayed an hour.  So Mark found some boys to pass the time with.

We were treated to an exciting game!

Sweet victory!

What a great soccer weekend! Way to go Texans!