Mrs. Bingaman's 7th Annual Ice Cream Social

Ryan and I were able to attend one of his teacher's ice cream social.  For some reason, we were' able to make it the years Kyle was in that teacher's class.  

It was so nice to be able to attend together!  

Helium Voices

Some of Ryan's birthday balloons lasted a LONG time.  The party was on April 7th.  It was finally time to put them down on April 24th.


Stephen loves to use the helium to talk in funny voices.




Ryan got so confused that he forgot which grade he is in.






By the time Evan got out of the shower, the helium was mostly gone.



They all had fun, making memories with Dad.

Pinewood Derby

Thankfully Stephen was off work to help the boys with their Pinewood Derby cards.  

The only mistake was accidentally attaching the bazooka to Ryan's car instead of Kyle's

Kyle wasn't the happiest, but he got oner it.

Both Kyle and Rya one first place in at least  one of the many heats.

Neither of the boy won first place in their den or in th whole pack.  Kyle won most innovative.  Ryan won toughest car.

I'm glad another year is done.

Green-ish Thumb

I am loving working in the yard this year!  These beauties are kind of like my babies.  

I'm trying to work on my black thumbs, and it's kind of working out okay. 

Washington on the Brazos

Kyle FINALLY got to go on the 4th grade big field trips.  (They'd both been postponed for various behavior and/or scheduling issues.)

The whole fourth grade took a trip to Washington on the Brazos.  

Kyle said he loved it.  I'm so glad he likes his teacher and classmates.  

One thing Kyle talked about was how it was in "the olden times."  Looks like he could survive, at least we know he can conquer games that don't require a screen!  

They ate lunch and walked around the place a little more until it was time to come back home. 

This was a great field trip for Kyle.  Maybe this summer we can all go back, and Kyle can lead us all in a tour1

While We Were Vacationing

While Stephen and I were in Atlanta, Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Hubba helped out with the boys.

I'm sure they had lots of fun!


I did get a few photos that made me smile while we were away.

Brothers hanging out on the slide:

Watering the grass is fun!

Ryan FINALLY got his tres leches cake!!!

I'm so glad we didn't have to worry about these crazy boys while we were gone!

Going Home?

It had been a busy and wonderful trip to Atlanta.
We bought city passes and went to ALL the sites, even the ones that aren't technically included but have coupons for extra tickets.
Then, we went outside the Clipboard of Fun for even more places to visit.
When we travel, we try to see it all--we travel hard.
Except when it's a vacation for relaxing.  Then, we relax hard.

We got to the airport early, so we had enough time to turn in the rental car and find our gate.

All was going according to plan until we changed gates.  Then, we were delayed and delayed again.  Finally, our flight was cancelled, due to mechanical issues.  We had to wait in line--no calling SWA or going online to book another flight.  By the time Stephen reached the counter, we could only get on the last flight of the day.  So, after already waiting over an hour for our first flight, we now had to wait  another ten hours for the last flight.

We grabbed some lunch, and I tried to take a nap.

A little while later, I woke straight up, thinking, "I need some peanut butter M&M's."  Random, I know, but I felt like I needed to go right then.  I didn't even tell Stephen where I was going.  As, I walked up to the store, I saw Auntie Deb in line!  Had I not gone to that store, right then, I would have missed her!  So amazing to run into her, right there, in the HUGE Atlanta airport.  That was a bright spot to our travel day.



We tried to waste time by going to a sit-down restaurant.


It was FINALLY time for our flight.  Nope, it was delayed.  And again!

"WE ARE NEVER GETTING HOME!," we thought.

We landed and THANKFULLY, our luggage was waiting for us.

We got our car (Stephen had forgotten to lock it!) and headed to Cypress to pick up the boys.

We ran into some ridiculous road construction, for which we had no warning.  If there would have been a sign to exit, we wouldn't have been trapped in 30-45 minutes of back up.  This was just adding time to our already early morning trip.

We had originally planned to pick up the boys, drive to Dallas, and stay with Bando and Julia to attend a concert Saturday night.  With all the craziness of our travel day, we changed that to just picking up the boys and going home, then driving to Dallas on Saturday.  With the reality of arriving at 2:00 a.m., we crashed at Hubba and Rebecca's house and drove home before the Barbara Bush funeral procession.  Then, we unpacked and crashed and decided to give up the concert, as we needed rest and to work on the 14 loads of laundry that had piled up.

The trip was amazing.  The journey home was not.
But, we were so glad to see the boys again!

Field Trip to Dewberry Farms

Of course, Evan had his first big field trip when Stephen and I were in Atlanta.  

Thankfully, his amazing teacher sent me photographic proof that he loved it all.  

What a wonderful experience that I missed out on!  I'm glad Evan had fun without me.  

Atlanta Day 6: Fernbank, Zoo, Braves v. Mets

We slept in today, which was much needed!  We brunched at Folk Art Cafe, which was AMAZING!!!

Stephen had a shrimp omelet with bacon, cheese, and green chiles!  I got the chicken and waffles with peach composite and an amazing syrup.  Sleep and good food was just what we needed to begin the adventures for the day, our last full day in Atlanta.  

At the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, we really had no idea what to expect.  

We found lots of cool stuff: dinosaur bones and other fossils, a trek through all the creatures who have made the Georgia area their home over the history of the earth, and outdoor walking trails.  

 We found rocks for Meow-Meow.  All from the region.

This hawk with a snake caught me off guard.  

Learned a new word: MEGAFAUNA.  

The special exhibit was on micro-organisms.  The good and the bad about them.

Here's just a section of the outdoor walking trail.  This part was the Art Walk.  

I enjoyed this, and the weather was GREAT! 

Next up: Zoo Atlanta

These twin pandas were adorable.  

I love the elephants, but these ones needed a bath!

There were LOTS of gorillas at this zoo!

Just chillin' in a nest.  

Following the prints.  

Lions and Tigers and bears, oh my!

Stephen loved the roadrunner.  

I loved this little guy who kept talking to me.  

Then, we went to the Capitol Building.

I loved that there are cannons guarding the doors.  

We learned at the Fernbank that the gold for the roof was found in Georgia.

Fittingly, there is a Jimmy Carter statue.

We also found the Hank Aaron Home Run wall.  

Then, it was on to one of our favorite meals of the whole trip, Bocca Lupo.

I had the pappardelle bolognese, and Stephen got the tasting menu to share.

It had ravioli with cheese and ramps topped with a pine nut pesto, greens, asparagus, and carrots.  

Next came a red snapper in a spicy red sauce, greens, and saffron pasta.

The main course was a ribeye rubbed in porcini mushroom power, sums vide overnight and then grilled.  That was placed over gnocchi, rhubarb, and spinach inside an onion ring, topped with an amazing balsamic vinegar.  SOOOOOO GOOOD!

Dessert was a lemon pound cake with strawberries, fennel, and a vanilla bean gelato.  

We loved every bite.  

We had to rush on to the Braves game that night, but had a much easier time with parking and transportation to the park.  The shuttle shaved off so much time we had a few minutes to explore the stadium more.  

We had great seats this night.
Stephen kept trying to capture a video of the players coming back into the dugout.  He kept getting the "COLD BEER" guys yelling into his ear or other photo bombers coming in front right as he was taking the videos. FINALLY there was a successful, uninterrupted one.






There weren't as many awesome moments for this game.  We did see a home run and lots of great fundamental baseball, which led to a 12-4 win for the Braves!!!!

This night was chilly, but lots of fun.  And, Stephen FINALLY got to see his braves in their home field.