Framily traditions...

What started off as a way to add less to our to do list (and toy pile) has easily become a day that I look forward to most each year. We've gone from juggling car seats and diapers to managing six extremely eager bosses helpers. 

Each year we fill our buggies with the same essentials from the list of needs but our conversations grow in depth and meaning. The kids have filled backpacks stuffed with food that some of their friends take home on the weekends. While they don't know what it feels like to wonder about our next meal, there is a very real possibility that they know someone that does. 

We load up our car and head to the Brazos Center to make our donation to the annual Food For Families Food Drive. They obviously compete to see who can lift the heaviest bags and fill the cart the fastest. And I try to etch each and every second of these moments into memory.

I hope I never take these moments for granted. I hope that as they continue to grow older and time gets shorter and lives get busier that we still find the time to do what counts. I hope that the memory of this tradition matters more than the memories of what Santa leaves.

And I hope that when they have kids of their own, they continue the tradition of giving back and paying it forward. 

Tuesdays...

Tuesday has become everyone's favorite day in the King household. We don't have any major plans or commitments except for Emersyn's art lessons with Anna right after school, which means that Tuesday's are spent with the besties. 

Emmy and Anna come home either hiding their latest work for a future surprise reveal or telling us all about the new technique they learned. This week they came home with butterfly tattoos hand crafted by their gifted and creative teacher. Tuesdays are their favorite by far. 

Radley and Caroline are often attached to a screen sitting next to each other either creating videos or forming clans (I think).

Landry and Millicent are usually playing school, being mommys, or jamming out to their anthem. 

And the actual mommys get to spend time solving all of the world's problems. 

Sometimes we even manage to feed them a home cooked meal. 

All of this on a Tuesday. 

Tradition of giving...

The time finally arrived for one of my favorite holiday traditions - I can't believe that it's been six years since we started this doing this and I think I may love it more and more each year. 

I love that this crew is just as excited as we are about this night. 

I love that they know why we are purchasing groceries.

I love that they ask if we can put "one more thing" in the basket. 

I love that they can read the list all on their own. 

I also love that they're still little enough to want to stop and be silly in the middle of paper towels. "Look, it's a bench! We should stop and take a picture here!"

Oh. Okay.

We added a few more items in the basket and headed to check out... 

and then I told the guy in front of us that 

1. I needed to take a picture of his "items"

and

2. That I may need to follow him to wherever he was going

(which was hunting so then I had to let him know those two things maybe don't mix).

Instead we loaded up our cars with all that precious cargo for an extra special delivery.

They all insisted on getting out in the cold rain and load up the carts to get all that food ready for families that need it. 

I wonder how long we will get to do this with them. I wonder if this is the memory that will stick with them. I wonder if they will do something with their own families 20 years from now. 

I know that it's one of my favorite days each year. I know that years from now, these are the moments that will matter most to me. I know that I am grateful for the friends we call family and the memories we make together. I know that when those six are grown up and have families of their own,  once a year I'll still wander through HEB, gather items on a list and end the night eating some "fancy" dinner at the Cracker Barrel. 

Back to School...

The time had finally arrived and the Wee3Kings were heading back to school. Sometimes I'm good and remember to recreate pictures of each of the kiddos for a major milestone and the night before kindergarten picture may be the best compilation series I have thought of. (Ok, so I feel like this is the only example of me doing that but whatever). (Also, I was really into "A Beautiful Mess" in my early instagram days). 

The next morning they were up, dressed and ready to go before 7am! 

I'm pretty thrilled that they are all on one campus this year and for much more than just the selfish reason of one drop off and one pick up. 

(But let's be honest, that's a pretty awesome perk!)

I'm excited because these are their people. Whether they know it or not... they will have for the rest of their lives. Siblings. No matter how bad they annoy you they are simply your...

beginning... 

middle... 

and end. 

Ryan and I are the bookends to their story... the cover really and we all know that you lose that silly ol' cover at some point. It gets wrinkled and ripped and lost along the way... but those pages on the inside are filled with the goodness and grace of the chapters of your life. I am so thrilled that they get to be here for the beginning of Landry's journey and the ending of part of Radley's. 

We made a "drop off game plan" the night before that included walking Radley to his classroom to drop his stuff and snap pics with his teachers. I can't even begin to express how pumped we are about these two women. Their teaching philosophy, their enthusiasm, their commitment to these kids.... just praying they stick around for four more years so all three kids get to benefit from their love!

Next up, we dropped off Emmy's things and snapped pics with her teachers. She and Ms. Gonzalez are kind of my favorite pair to watch - Ms. G knows how to handle the sass of Emmy! We have heard nothing but shining things about Mrs. Brenner and it turns out she went to high school with my DZ lil sis and her brother! Small world! 

Then it was finally time to drop off our big new kindergartener. She was all smiles posing with her new teachers, hanging up her backpack and getting settled into her desk. 

I don't think any of us really wanted to leave her there... she's not just my baby... she is OUR baby and in that moment of watching Radley and Emersyn be filled with pride for her and be proud OF her, well, my sappy momma heart almost lost it. 

And then we had to walk away and I didn't let her see me cry... not when she was wearing that giant smile!

The plan was to walk the bigs back to their classrooms,  but Radley was pretty over us by then and just wanted to head down the hall alone. So I of course made him take a picture with me and then gushed about how much I love him. 

We are such fantastic parents that we dropped Emmy off in the wrong classroom. (In our defense, the list switched since meet the teacher.) 

And then the waiting... A&M was still closed from Harvey and UPS is clearly not operating in Houston right now, so Ryan and I had a day to get stuff done. My list included a movie, a puzzle and blogging... his list included working outside, running errands, car repair and boring things. Then it was finally time to go get them and I am so glad that we were all there together. We got to hear about their day, their favorite subjects, their new friends and their teachers. We just got to be and that's not something we do enough. 

We OF COURSE couldn't finish the day without seeing the Munsons, especially since they are our Sonic soul mates. Alas, their school was having a fundraiser so they couldn't make it for Happy Hour, instead we went to see them, mainly so these besties could squeal and share all about their day. 

This six-pack is my favorite. 

Josh and Cindy had parent orientation so the kids twisted our arms to let the Munsons come hang with us that night and these babies convinced me that they needed a photoshoot with their cute faces and matching backpacks. 

Back to school, back to fun, back to learning... on to new things, new lessons, new memories.... these girls are going to bring such light to their classmates over the next 13 years... what an honor it will be to watch!

Friday Favorites: Time with Besties....

Summers were made to be simple. I feel like nowadays we have to force the simple - turn our head from all the distractions and focus on just being. As much fun as we have going to new places and seeing new things, my favorite times are the ones we spend at home. We've gotten lots of quality time with the besties the past couple of weeks and my kids have never been happier. 

Caro spent the night with us after Anna's birthday party and she just couldn't quit snuggling those kitties. "Zia, I think I get my love for cats from you."

Melt.My.Heart.

The following morning, Cindy and I headed to the lake for a birthday party and Ryan kept the bigs so they could finish Harry Potter and go swimming. Well, Texas had other plans and it rained which really just gave them an excuse to dance... 

And them an excuse to go to the movies, eat candy and drink soda. 

Is it just me or do they look seventeen?

The celebration continued at Spoons at our first attempt to get these girls some new holes in their ears. We still managed to get some froyo and Emmy gave Anna her custom gift with an invite to a "gal"lery day at our house. 

Monday brought us to the lake for Anna's actual birthday....

Tuesday brought Josh to jury duty which meant I got to hang with this crew + Rad while Caroline was at a friends (I know - they have OTHER friends). (Sometimes I feel like a FRIENDS episode when all 6 are sitting in Monica's apartment and someone knocks at the door and they're all "but we're all here... do you know other people?" That's us and the Munsons.) 

They made a killing at their lemonade/cookie/custom art stand and then moved the fun inside for some building... 

and napping. 

;)

We finally succeeded at getting their ears pierced...which concluded their WEEK LONG stint of seeing each other every single day. 

We didn't do anything major - just spent some simple days loving on our friends. But you know what? When they look back at the summers of their childhood, I hope they see long afternoons at the pool followed by short naps wrapped in towels. I hope they sing every word to their favorite song. I hope they smell sunscreen.

I hope the days spent from driving ALLLL the way to the north of town from the south to hang with besties, eating endless pb&js, watching late night movies followed by sugary cereal for breakfast bring smiles to their faces and remind them that sometimes, most times, the best things in life are the smallest.

Linking up  with Andrea, Erika, and Narci  today... 

Mom like a hurricane...

Per tradition, we headed to the water for Momma's Day, we just went a little further than usual. 

Cindy and I had toyed with the idea of heading to Galveston and on Saturday Ryan sent me a text, "Want to go the beach tomorrow?" SIGN US UP! We then hit the grocery store (again) and Sam's to load up on some essentials, got out the beach towels, found all the sunscreen, dusted off the beach chairs, and loaded up the car so we could leave early on Sunday. This guy may manage to annoy the heck of out of me... but he also just supports the heck out of all of my crazy whims. He really does make my dreams come true.

We spent the day exploring... 

building castles... 

flying a fierce kite... 

and hanging out with the ones we love. 

The kids were going CRAZY over all the creatures they found in the seaweed. 

Top right going clockwise:

Sargassum shrimp, sargassum fish, sargassum crab, sargassum slug all found in some sargassum seaweed. 

Here's a little slideshow from the Smithsonian if you want to learn more. 

Luckily none of these tiny creatures were harmful because the kids were playing with them and holding them and learning all sorts of things from Uncle Josh/the coolest science teacher around. Unfortunately, there were other creatures that were harmful hiding in those weeds and Caroline, Radley, Millicent and Landry became the victim of some jellyfish stings. Check out those welts on poor Lands. 

After the initial shock and tears, she handled it like a champ. 

Radley really really really really wanted to take this guy home. 

Instead, we let them keep the buddies they came with. 

Every year on this day we "get away" from the hustle and bustle and "stress" of it all. And I'm still not sure what "it all" really is. I am certain that I bring some of those feelings on myself and I'm challenged to get away more often. And maybe that doesn't always mean driving two hours to the nearest ocean (although that is awesome)... maybe it's leaving my phone in the car, putting my computer away, turning the camera off and just watching them. 

Motherhood is kind of like a day at the beach... in the middle of hurricane season with a side of tsunami. 

The gale force winds blow in disguised as homework, soccer, dance, PTO meetings and pretending to know what friend they are talking about. You get swept off your feet when they confide that they were made fun of at school or that one of their lifelong friends has been acting like a bully. You want to throw on a life jacket and make sure that they stay afloat, but at some point they have to buckle their own clips, stand firm, and take shelter

But then there are actual days at the beach, like when they do something for the first time and you know for certain what pride looks like. When one of them falls in step with you and grabs your hand. Or maybe when they just say, "I love you, Mommy" for no other reason than that they do. 

God's beauty runs deep in the love we are given as Moms. I'm grateful for the ones that call me Momma, the one that made me a Momma, and those that Mom (and Dad) right along with me in the trenches of the hurricane every single day. 

Never in a million years would I have predicted this life. But I wouldn't trade one messy moment of it for anything in the world. Including the mom-suit.

Happy Momma's Day, everyone!