A goalkeeper cannot win a game, he can only save it.

For the second year in a row the Texas Fire Fighter Games was in Conroe. Tess hung out with my parents while I hung out with Clayton. 

It was a hot couple of days. There were 3 Houston teams again this year and they had to combine the Division 1 and Division 2 because they made an over 35 Division. This caused some confusion for day 2 when games were changed and led to Houston playing Houston for 3rd place in Division 1 even though there was only 1 Houston Division 1 Team.

The last game was not a good game for Houston but the two days overall were fun. Clayton and I had fun on our mini vaca in Conroe. 

Summer...

We have had a pretty busy summer, it seemed to pass us by and in no time it was time for school to start again. Tess had to go to the Doctor for her 4 year old check-up. We really like her Doctor and the nursing staff. She had a lot of energy that day and was bouncing off the walls and the nurse didn’t miss a beat. I am pretty sure everyone could hear her outside our room and the doctor walked in and got her to calm down a little bit but not much. We had to get shots this year and she was not happy, we got ice cream after and everything was fine. These shots must have hurt because she walked a little funny for a couple of days after but she never complained.

One of the things that filled our time was field trips at school, in Tess’s new class they take trips outside of the school. She went on her first field trip this summer, it was to CiCi’s Pizza but she thought it was the coolest thing ever.

We have played Dress-up, she randomly comes downstairs in different outfits and wants me to either take pictures of her or to help her complete her outfit. She loves her dress up clothes and we sometimes add different items like wands and tiaras to the pile.

We also have spent time playing around the house dancing and singing. I try to be sneaky and record Tess without her knowledge but she always catches me. She doesn't shy away from the camera when she catches me, she always performs more and asks me to either record her and then show her or take a picture and then show her. I don't think we will have to worry about her being shy. 

One evening our little girl had some extra energy and we were looking for something to do so we and some friends took our little girls to visit Chuck e Cheese for the first time. When they walked in and realized they could play all the games it was like Christmas morning. Ivonne and I also had some fun playing some of the adult games. We will definitely have to go back and let the kids and adults play more games.

Clayton and I went to a concert one night and Tess spent the night at her Oma and PawPaw’s house. She was ready to go and took her back and started walking to the car. She now constantly asks when she will be able to spend the night at her grandparent’s house. This is something that I really never did so I am glad that Tess has the opportunity to do often with both sets.

We also did some fishing with Tess’s new fishing pole. We did more avoiding turtles than catching fish but Tess enjoyed the time spent with her Daddy and eventually she will catch a fish on her pole.

We have also rode our bikes, Clayton and I gave Tess a new bike for her birthday. We have spent some time teaching Tess how to ride the new bike. We did not have the best luck the first couple of times but we realized she liked riding her bike more if we were riding ours so we made it a family event.

And last but not least we of course of gone to some Astros games. Tess has started to learn the game of baseball, and she can instantly recognize the Astros logo. She likes to walk around the stadium and play in the kid area. We will have to wait another season to root on our boys.

This summer was fun and exhausting at the same time.  

Turning 4 Round Two…

 Round Two was another party using the blow up water slide but at our house with mostly friends and my side of the family. We had a lot of people in and out of the house and a chaotic week leading up to the party. We decided to put in a back porch which was wonderful for the party but stressful leading up to the party.

Tess went to school on her actual birthday and wore a special birthday girl shirt. We ate donut holes that morning and brought cupcakes for her class to eat for snack.

Her class sang Happy Birthday to her, she loves the birthday song especially when they are singing to her.

We had a ton of people over for her party, and we made it pretty easy on us this year. Food to snack on, tray from Chick-fil-a, veggies, and fruit. It worked pretty well and was really easy which was needed since we had two parties this year.

We had another cookie cake and Tess loved that this one just had pink and purple on it, her favorite colors. We got the biggest cake because we weren’t sure how much we were going to need. We ended up sending some cake to the fire station.

Tess got a lot of presents and she was so excited when she saw them. My sister got the whole opening presents experience on video and everyone at the party thought it was hilarious how excited she was for every single present. They call it the Tess Experience. She is so innocent and I love that even when she received the same toy twice she was just as excited the second time as the first time and exclaimed she could share it with her best friend Kayla and Anthony.

She had a good time celebrating her birthday (twice), this year we started to a process that she needs to clean out old toys before she can put open up and put away her new toys. We then donate her old toys. This helps us keep her playroom clean but it also helps us teach her that its always good to help those that may need it more than we do. 

Turning 4 Round One…

We celebrated 4 twice this year, once in Bedford and once in Cypress. Granny wasn’t able to travel so we brought the party to her. The party was mostly family and Tess had a lot of fun. We came in Thursday night and celebrated Mona’s birthday on Friday. Tess and I took her to a ceramic painting place where you can also mosaic. I didn’t get a picture of her masterpiece but fun was had by all.

From the moment we arrived Tess started getting birthday presents, to say this child might be a little spoiled by her grandparents is an understatement. She loved that her presents were spread out and she had time to play with each one before opening the next one. This year she really got into the presents, making a list of her own and she lit up when she saw something that she had put on her list. It was really neat.

Aunt Alicia and Cody fishing pole, which she had been wanting for a long time. We met them at a stocked lake that night to test it out. We had been out to this lake with them before but Tess now had her own pole to test out and she was super excited. Tess didn’t realize the patience required for fishing. She also didn’t realize how slimy fish were. 

Alicia caught a fish on her pole and let Tess reel it in, once she got the fish in she dropped the pole and ran. We have used the pole at home but she has informed me that if she catches a fish daddy will have to take it off the hook.

Saturday was party day, we brought our blow up water slide with us and as usual it was a big hit with the kids. The kids played, and ate and played some more. I think they were all pretty tuckered out by the end of the party. 

Its nice that even though Tess doesn't see her distant cousins all that much she still gets along with them really well when they are all together. 

We decided to go with a cookie cake this year, Tess loves cookies and it worked out pretty well. We ate cookie cake and ice cream, opened presents and then said our good byes. We cleaned up the house and everyone had rest time.

We of course had to get our dog picture before we left. We had a good first party, round two was the following weekend.