Our Weekend

Hiiiiii.

I know it's been a little while since I've posted and I've got so many updates, new posts ideas and even a new design in the works to share on here. But lately it's been everything I can do to find five spare minutes to get anything done. And then I have to decide what is the highest priority at the moment and go with that. Kids, husband, deadlines for work, events and so the cycle goes.

I figured I'd jump back in with a quick weekend update, despite the fact that it's after midnight and now Monday, technically, and I really should be sleeping. You know, priorities.

Oh, and lest I forget...you can now follow Texas Tales on Instagram! I was on the 'gram awhile back when it first started becoming popular. But I had a few issues with privacy and some people stealing photos, so I deleted my account and stuck to my private social media outlets and the blog. I also started watermarking all my photos, which you've likely noticed if you're new here! Watermarking seems to have made a big (and positive) difference in the safety and ownership of my photos—something I take very seriously as many of my photos now include my babies! So I simply apply my watermark to my Instagram photos as well and you can now catch glimpses of our day-to-day life, plus a bit of creative home decor, recipes, outfits and other fun little details.

This weekend was both busy and great. We started off with a family movie night at home on Friday evening, complete with pizza and popcorn. The kids love it as much as we do, and this time we'd chosen The Lion King for our film. It was a library DVD, though, and the freakin' thing stopped working about halfway through the movie so we had to abort and go to Plan B. And that was basically two bonus episodes of Paw Patrol to appease the kids then off to a late bedtime. We'll have to wrap up The Lion King later!

Saturday morning we were out the door by 10am for a sweet second birthday party for one special boy at the park and enjoyed slides, cupcakes and a fun Mickey Mouse theme. Straight from there we met up with several girlfriends of mine and ate a delicious lunch and the kids ran around the house, played, colored, built with blocks and bugged me with 21 questions while I had static conversations with all my buddies while sipping wine. The husband even got to watch a little football, though no photos were taken as evidence.

sure sign of a good time at a toddler birthday party - multiple water bottles, the wife's purse,
at least one kid to carry, party favors and grubby hands!!

When it was time for my little crew to get home for dinner and bedtime, the husband graciously offered to take them himself so I could go with two of the girls for a couple beers and some dinner. We really enjoyed it but didn't get too crazy, calling it a night be 8:30pm!

Sunday morning we attended our church—we absolutely love it there and it was a wonderful service, as always—then took the lunches I'd scrambled to pack before we'd left the house and headed to the pool for the kid's swim lessons. We are very grateful to my former synchro coach, Patti, who is accommodating our crew for lessons in September. Not a strange thing for Texas as the weather is easily still mid-90s much of the time right now, though hopefully it'll be cooling off more by October.

In the meantime, the husband and I are so glad the quads are getting such expert instruction and more experience in the water! He and I both spent much of our time growing up around pools. Myself, especially, since I was a synchronized swimmer for the Pirouettes of Texas for 11 years. Then we both worked as lifeguards and swim instructors for many, many years after that. The water has long been a part of our background and we are so happy to pass that love onto our kiddos! They are thrilled every time they get to be in the water and have done great with their lessons as well. I'll actually be heading back to my old stomping grounds at the pool later this week for a masters practice (for older and/or retired swimmers) to see how I feel in the water, as I'm considering joining the masters team. But no one's jumping to conclusions yet, since I'm pretty sure my efforts at synchro will end up more floundering then flattering. It could be a toss up so I'm not holding my breath...unless I lose my nose clip.

I'm happy to report that the day got even better when the kids took a nice long nap and the husband and I sat on the couch and watched an entire movie before they woke up! Then we caught most of the Cowboys vs. Giants football game later and were relieved the Dallas Cowboys won—if only by a point! I'm in a Fantasy Football league again this year and now have a more vested interest in the sport, so I try to keep up. Ya know, in those spare five minutes I can find. ;)

our little cowboys fan in his jersey 

And that does it for our weekend recap. I'm off to get some shut-eye so hopefully I can get moving in a timely manner tomorrow. There's a trip to the gym and grocery shopping to be done, all with my four three-year-olds in tow, meaning it's both time consuming and tiresome but doable! Which is why I've already got my canister of grape-flavored Spark sitting on the kitchen counter to give myself an extra boost before I head out the door. That and the fact that I truly believe the kids are getting easier, especially these past few weeks and months. The husband and I have heard so many wonderful things about the magic age of four and as we get closer to our crew being three and a half, I can honestly say I think we're nearly there. I'll have to post an update soon as proof that miracles do happen. And that the "why" stage has also arrived. "Why are you doing that? Why are you sitting there? Why are you opening it? Why are you moving that? Why, why, why, WHY!?!?!"

We haven't decided whether it's effective to pawn off some of the "why" questions onto the other siblings, or whether that ultimately creates more "why's" all the way around. I've read snippets of articles that claim young children ask anywhere from 288 to 437 questions per day, making that anywhere from 1,152 to 1,748 questions for us as quad-parents to field on the regular. Yowza. Kinda feeling like that might be true right now! Whhhhyyyyyyy???

More answers to all your questions coming soon, be sure to stop back by later this week for some fresh new posts and don't forget to check out my Texas Tales Instagram page and you can also find me on Pinterest!