The Beauchamp FamilyYes, we really are this geeky…

My good friend, Julie, lives out in “BFE” – and they have a yearly Oatmeal Festival there in early September (yes, I realize I’m behind on photo sharing and blogging. What else is new). I love small town festivals. I know that makes me weird, especially because I don’t like living in small towns (although I do believe that Austin is the biggest small town in the US, everyone seems to know everyone else around here or at least someone that knows someone you know). ANYWAY… my other good friend, Ellen, and I took pity on our husbands and drug ourselves out there and let the husbands have a play date.

It was SO much fun. We made it just in time for the pet parade (which is what the kids were looking forward to the most), where our friends were showing off their prize winning chicken (it had the most spots). Then the real parade and then we went over for lunch and carnival activities. That part was a little small and underwhelming, but it was still a lot of fun (and the kids didn’t notice, I just hate carnival games)

The best part according to Jamie was being with his friends and Cassie said it was getting rained on by oatmeal (a little crop plane flies around and dumps oatmeal on you. Heh)

I definitely think we’ll be going back next year! Here’s some photos to share – you can always see more by visiting my flickr (badge on the right). The lighting was great out there that morning… I, on the other hand, am an idiot and forgot to charge the camera so we ran out of juice just before Mr. Oatmeal came! Darn it!

The teacher walk was Thursday. Our school is so freaking cute. The teachers come and knock on your door and that’s how you find out who you have. (Yes, you could look 2 hours earlier when they post them at the school, but the anticipation is fun). We are happy with both kid’s teachers, of course (thankfully). Cassie will be absolutely fine. I just hope Jamie’s teacher is able to be stern enough with him. She’s really really really nice. Hopefully it’s a facade and she can turn into super-bitch-teacher-from-hell and keep Jamie in line.

This morning, we picked up supplies from the cafeteria (we always buy them from the school) and took them to their classrooms where they got to see where their room is and where they will be sitting. They are excited and ready to go back… I just took a quick pic of them, see how happy?

In other news… Tom got a new grill. He wanted a searing-something-or-other and his old grill, one of the burners went out and whatever, so…

Cassie and 2 of her friends had a sleepover a couple of weeks back because one friend started school early (alternative school), so they had one last hurrah..

Leo thought the popcorn kernals they left all over the floor might be edible so made a rare appearance.

Speaking of the dog, he is driving us all crazy. He barks when anyone walks by the kid’s rooms and doesn’t stop for a while. He runs away from Tom and I (although not as badly now). He’s driving us CRAZY.

And he is stupid. No really, he is, in the words of my friend Elaine, as dumb as a box of rocks. He’s been with us for what? 2 months? He STILL hasn’t figure out how to use the dog door, so Julie will go out and he’ll stand there. I’ll get up to open the door for him and he run away barking and won’t come back until I close the door again. Tom has to get the kids to catch him so we can take him outside (which he likes).

Moronic dog.

Every Summer we do something that makes our neighbors think we are crazy. I just know they have to think we are insane…

This year we bought a new water slide. With 2.5 slides. The lady behind us gets extra water for her lawn (err.. or maybe mud), our neighbors send their kids to wear themselves out. For the record, the old slide lasted 2 years and was used a LOT, so I figure we got our money’s worth. I also don’t like to use a lot of camps or daycares so I figure I’d be spending the money there if not for something to keep them busy while I work. That’s my own little way to make it “okay” in my head. LOL… so here ya go…

Yes, it’s huge.

Cassie INSISTED that she be the first to come down the slide.

But Jamie wasn’t too far behind!

While we were on vacation last month, we visited the Rockport Aquarium. Yes, that little town has it’s own aquarium. It only had a few tanks, but it was worth stopping in (it’s free and the volunteers there were SO nice). I only got one picture that was worth keeping, but that’s okay, we had a great time!

Marie and Cassie wanted to make faces at the camera. I, of course, obliged. They had a great time and it was a great way to blow off some steam after a hectic vacation day!

We had a short little walk from where we were staying on vacation last month to “shell beach”. I don’t know that I’d actually go swimming there as the waves break pretty hard, but it seemed to be where all the shells dumped on to. It was a great place to take the kids after dinner… we went several times actually…

I snapped a few photos, of course…

Jamie didn’t pick up just any shell, he had to analyze which one he wanted and why.

Cassie, on the other hand, grabbed any shell that got her fancy. We later went through them and made her narrow down her choices. No need to take ALL the shells from the beach, other families will want some too. (hey, whatever works, she’s 6)

The had a great time!

Just a few more of the pool… I’m behind, as always, in going through photos. Trying to get better about that

This is my nephew… He looks pretty serious about that water cannon!

Cassie just hanging out…

Tom and his sister doing the sibling thing… I had to get the kids out of the way… Tom is brutal with a pool noodle!

I found some more photos from the vacation… this is a visit to the beach we made with Tom’s sister, her 2 kids and his mother.

There were tons of marine hermit crabs. The kids wanted to bring them home because we have land hermit crabs, but I had to explain that they really aren’t the same thing (and even if they were, um… no). Anyway, they collected 9 or so and then we released them before we left. We had to play with this little guy quite a bit to get him to stick his head out…

Jamie was busy being a bit of beach bum. He’s also going through a little emo-esque phase. You’ll see we managed to not only find a black swim shirt, but it has a hoodie. SCORE!

Marie loved the beach and would have gone every single day if we had let her!

Cassie was just a cheese-girl!

My sister-in-law and her youngest…

… and her oldest…

The kids are loving the pool. We like to take them when it starts to get dark so it’s not so hot and there’s less chance of getting fried out there in the sun. The kids are having a blast!

The first beach we went to was Rockport Beach. Tom and I really like this beach. There are just gentle waves, the sand is real sand (with a little gravel mixed in). There are little “tiki hut umbrella” things to sit in the shade and the kids have to walk through grass to get back to the car (no sand in the car!). What a great little beach park for kids!

This trip is from last week, we went with our housemates – you’ll see J and Marie (our niece) playing as well…