Camp Opa & Nana - Week 2

We continue to have fun at Opa & Nana's. We've had lots of adult help--Opa, Nana, Dad, Aunt Tracy, and Uncle Tom have all shared in the parenting. Here are highlights of the last week or so.

Tune in next week for "What I Learned About My Kids on My Summer Vacation."


Good friends, Maisie and Audrey, visited. With four girls, the screaming was ear splitting at times. They enjoyed a pillow fight with Spencer.


Lisa and Nana attempted to wrangle the girls for a photo, but this is as close as we got. From the left: Audrey, Squeaks, Maisie, and Kate.


We celebrated Father's Day with Opa and Uncle Tom. Opa enjoyed 3 of his grandkids romping on his lap that morning.


Kate, Claire, and Owen enjoy breakfast on the screen porch. Owen spent the whole weekend with us. It was really fun to see him interact with the girls. He especially liked watching and playing with Kate.


Opa & Nana have a huge covered area and garage on the first floor that we used for bike riding among other things. Here's Kate making a "road block" for the riders, Claire and Owen.


Claire can't reach the pedals, so she pushes with her feet. Very Fred Flinstone-esque. Owen can't reach the pedals either, so Opa pushes him.


Charlee and I are usually sideline observers.


We haven't had a lot of River time because it takes a man-to-man defense with the kids. On one of the River outings, Nana supervised the building of a dam. After Owen and Claire figured out that the object WASN'T to knock over the rocks, they were successful.


Our favorite cousins spent the day at the camp house (just a short walk or truck ride from Opa & Nana's house). We joined them for lunch, dinner, and some River time. Here's a photo of all the kids except for Charlee. It was quite a process to gather the bunch together. From the left: Cole, Claire, Camden, Owen, Grayson, Kate, and Blake (held by his Mom, Erin).


I have very fond childhood memories of stopping at Dairy Queen on the way home from the River. I took Kate and Claire there one afternoon for dip cones (served in a cup). It was MESSY but fun.


Charlee and I met my friend, Bita, for lunch at Tacodeli. Yummmmyyy.


Opa and Kate gave Charlee a bottle.


Nana has cooked lots of yummy food. Squeaks and Kate inhaled her angel hair pasta with tomatoes and basil.

Kate and Claire

I've decided that my concerns about privacy are overrated. From now on, I'll refer to the girls however I please!

Bean = Kate
Squeaker or Squeaks = Claire
Little Bit = Charlee

Happy Father's Day, Papou!

We couldn't be with Dad and Papou today on Father's Day. We gave Dad a gift yesterday, so this video goes out to our favorite Greek grandpa, Papou!

All Cattle and No Hat

There’s an old Texas saying about a cowboy who is all hat and no cattle. That is, he is all show and no substance. My Dad, Opa, is more all cattle and no hat. When he proposed we watch him move the cattle from one field to another, I immediately branded it a "cattle drive." Dad would never call it that.

I asked Bean if her Opa was dressed like a cowboy, and she said "Nooooooo. He doesn't have a cowboy hat!" Duh.

Opa is all substance and no show. Which is why we love him! The girls and I had a very fun time watching the cattle drive from the sidelines of the swagger wagon.


The girls chose their own cattle drive garb. Squeaks had a BIT of a wardrobe malfunction. :)


Waiting eagerly




Opa brought up the rear on foot


One of the young'ns


Moooooooo


Michael, who lives on the farm, was at the front with his truck honking the horn to attract the cows towards him. We held up a little bit of traffic on the farm to market road.



Opa brought along a trash bag and picked up roadside litter while herding the cattle. Great multitasking, Opa!

Little Bit Meets River

All of the girls received official foot dunkings in the San Marcos River. Here are all 3!


Little Bit's Dunking


Squeak's Dunking




Bean's Dunking

Camp Opa & Nana - Week 1

The girls and I are visiting Opa & Nana's new house on the San Marcos River. We'll be here for 3 weeks while I'm on maternity leave. I'm exercising my stay-at-home-Mom muscle, and the girls are enjoying summertime on the farm. Here are a few snippets from our first week.


Wireless headsets in the Swagger Wagon = less kid movie audio for Mom & Dad on the drive to Texas


Books with Opa & Nana on the screen porch


Everyone takes a turn entertaining Little Bit


A walk around the river bottom picking wildflowers. Squeaks fell asleep with a flower in each fist


After the walk, I unsettled a wasps' nest. They retaliated by stinging me and Little Bit. Her head swelled up some, but we were all fine in the end. It made for an exciting, but rough, first day at home with all 3 kids for me.


Squeaks and I enjoyed a little one-on-one time eating cookies on the deck


We had huge thunderstorms one night--what seemed like constant lightning and thunder from 2-10 AM. That afternoon, we played in the mud puddles.


We bought new galoshes for the girls to "protect" their feet. We needed full body galoshes.


Squeaks loves being naked. Here she's taking a break from swimming in the baby pool.


Opa was home with us for 2 days. He and Little Bit napped together a few times. I just missed getting a photo of him slumped over just like her.


Bean and Squeaker enjoy holding and talking to Little Bit. Squeaks makes funny nonsense noises at her, and Kate talks to her like a Mom would.


If you look closely, you can see Little Bit smiling at her sisters. She smiled at Nana, Mom, & Dad in the couple of days before this.


We visited a restored mill in Luling with Opa. Kate's sitting on their amphitheater looking at the rain swollen river.


Opa and I would like to try and visit all the nearby BBQ joints that we've never tried (because we're hopelessly loyal to Black's in Lockhart). We started with City Market in Luling. Squeaks liked it!