St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon...

It was the annual St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon at Gateway to Learning this weekend.  Erin was able to exceed her donation goal.  If you gave, we really appreciate it.  She was able to raise $400 dollars.  That's enough to feed 2 families of 4 for a week while they stay with their child getting treatment.

She outgrew her other tricycle and hasn't got the pedaling down on her bike so we bought her a new pink Radio Flyer tricycle this week.  Okay - I bought her a new pink Radio Flyer tricycle this week and Tommy put it together!  She loves it.  We got it on Wednesday so she didn't have much time to practice.

Erin has a hard time getting the pedaling down and you just can hardly teach that.  She started out the Trike-a-Thon on her scooter.  There are a variety of different bikes, trikes, scooters and riding toys there.  Each kid brings the one they want to ride from home.  We brought 2 because we knew she would want her trike, but maybe not at first.  True to form, she hopped on the scooter first.  Once she saw the other kids on the trikes and bikes she wanted her tricycle.

Pawpaw followed her closely and she was watching the other kids and got the pedaling down.  The only problem was that it was wet on the track so her feet kept slipping off the pedals.  If only it would have been a pretty day I think she would have gotten it all together.  She kept getting frustrated that her feet were coming off so she jumped off the trike and declared she was done.

She's at Gram and Pawpaw's this weekend and they took the Radio Flyer with them.  They are going to work with her on it and the neighbor's granddaughter will be there on her trike and she's the same age.  Hopefully Riley can help teach Erin how to ride.

We have the perfect cul-de-sac to learn in but she has so many toys that she gives up easily on the trike and moves on to something else.  We go outside after school and play and end up with the Strider balance bike, the tricycle, the bike with training wheels and the electric Mustang car.  It's a work out cleaning up after she's gone thru all of them in an hour!!

Here are some pictures from the day.  Erin is going thru a phase where she absolutely will not look at the camera when I ask her to.  So these are a bunch of the back of her head!!!

Trike-a-Thon Update...

Erin has reached her goal on donations for the Trike-a-Thon after Tommy and I make our donation.  Thanks to all that contributed.  We appreciate your generosity.

If you want to contribute, it's not too late.

Erin's St. Jude Page

Thanks for your help!

Another Fun Weekend...

We had another impromptu trip to the weekend this week.  Mark and Steph went up Friday night with Jake and Luke so we decided to join them Saturday.

The weather wasn't as pretty as the last time, but we still had a great time.  We fished for a couple of hours and the kids played on the swing set and slide.  I caught the only fish in our boat and it was a fluke.  I was reeling in and caught him on the way up!

It was a "eat what you catch dinner", so we had to fish hard.  Luckily Stephanie had caught some white bass in their morning trip out and Mark caught a catfish on a jug line.  It turned out that we had plenty of food.  It was a team effort cooking dinner and cleaning up.  Team Mize Rocks!  And Mize girls are awesome fishermen! (fisherwomen!)

I brought my camera but didn't end up taking many pictures.  I was too busy watching the kids have a good time.

Jake and Luke took turns riding in our boat when we went out.  Erin was with us both times, but the boys had to take turns.  Three Mize kids in a boat is way too much to handle!  The river took two prisoners this weekend. We sacrificed Erin's pole and Jake's pole broke as well, but he managed to hang on to it.  Erin's went into the river and sank before Tommy could get the boat turned around.  We had a weight on it and the pole was so short it didn't take but a second to sink.  She cried and carried on for a long time.  It was pretty sad.  Barbie is now dressing up the bottom of Chalk Creek.

The good news is no one went into the drink and no one got hooked.  How no one ended up getting hooked is completely beyond me.  Jake had a real lure on his pole and was slinging it all around.  Erin kept touching and grabbing the extra poles in the boat and both of them got a hold of Tommy's huge tackle box.  They were pawing thru it and I thought I was going to have to give Tommy oxygen to calm him down.  He was so stressed that they were going to hook themselves and most of all...get his lures out of alphabetical order by the Dewey Decimal System.  (Can you say OCD???)  Seriously, he was more worried about them getting hooked.

My cute new pink pole was a dud.  I ended up buying a left handed reel instead of a right. It was a reel like I've never had before and I was holding it upside-down when I was picking it out.  (I don't feel so bad since Tom was with me and holding it upside-down too!)  We're not complete morons, it's more logical to have the reel on top of the pole instead of on the under side.  Anyway I borrowed Josh's lucky pole and caught Billy Bass.

Here are the pics:

St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon Time Again...

It's St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon time again at Erin's school.  They raise money for St. Jude and have a great time on their bikes, scooters and trikes.  I'm not sure which Erin will ride this year.  She has a bike, a Strider bike, a scooter and a Plasma Car and loves to ride all of them.  She's still learning on the bike, but loves it.  She's getting the Strider bike down too.

The Gateway to Learning School goal is $14,000 this year.  I've set Erin's goal at $300.00.  I think we can reach that.  I set up a St. Jude's web page to make it easier to give.  They also take cash and checks.  There is also a $1.00 raffle for a $50.00 Mastercard gift card this year.  Last year it was a big screen TV.  I guess we didn't get the big donation this year!

Saying all this...I'm hoping to get some donations with this post.  This cause means a lot to me.  I love the fact that no one ever pays at St. Jude and the treatment for these kids is free.  I have been so blessed to have a healthy happy child that my heart goes out to the parents with kids that need treatment there.

Here's the link to Erin's page if you're interested.  Either link should get you there.

Erin's St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon Page...

http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Trike/Trike?px=2577696&pg=personal&fr_id=14249

Thanks in advance if you decide to donate.  If you do give, please email me your address if I don't already have it.  I'm teaching Erin to write thank you cards when people do/give stuff to us.  I write the card and she "signs" them.  I let her pick out the color crayon she wants to use and I put the card in front of her and ask her to sign it.  She knows to "write" her name and "Love Erin".  It's so cute!

Over the River and Thru the Woods...

We celebrated Spring Break with an impromptu visit to the Mize Camp in Trinity at the Trinity River.  Way before I joined the family Grandpa Mize bought the camp and moved up there.  He passed away but the camp has stayed in the family.  It's just a little trailer with some out buildings - not an outhouse.  Tommy's cousin Roy brought another trailer up there so they parked them to form a sort of courtyard in between them.  Both of them have covered patios.

The kids absolutely love going up there.  Jake and Luke have been several times, but this was Erin's first trip.  Tommy had been fishing the weekend before so he left his boat up there.  Josh, a family friend, went with us.  We got a late start, but it turned out to be a good thing.  It was pretty cool up there until we got on the water around 11:00.  Once we were out there the sun came out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

It's white bass season so they were really biting.  We were out for a total of about 3 hours and caught 32 fish.  28 of them were keepers.  We only had Erin out there on the boat for an hour.  She found out Luke was back at the camp instead of being in the other boat and wanted to go back.  Roy and Mark made a little play area for the kids and I think the thought of Luke having the playground to himself was just too much!

While we were out on the water we had Erin's little pink pole.  She loved reeling it in.  In fact, she refused to leave the lure in the water and just kept reeling it in as fast as I could get it back in the water.  I was afraid she was going to drop it several times, but we managed to come home with it.  The only mishap was when she hooked my foot.  I had on my tennis shoes so it got caught in the shoestring and the mesh on the top.  It took a pair of pliers and about 15 minutes of Tommy's elbow grease to get it free.

Erin loved "petting" the fish.  Our girl loves her pink and glitter, but when it comes down to it she's a tomboy at heart.  It reminds me so much of me at that age.  I would have been all over those fish too.  She "measured" one of the fish we let go and she helped Daddy put it back.

Tommy and I both caught some and let her reel them in.  She loved it.  She wanted to go fast in the boat instead of trolling, but we never really did that.  I got some great pictures of her in the boat and the kids playing outside.  When I tell you Erin was covered head to toe in dirt and fish, I am not lying.  She was filthy, but she had so much fun playing with the boys.  She follows them around like a little puppy dog and tried to do everything they do.

Granny and Peepaw came for the day too.  We went back out on the river after lunch, but Peepaw sat this one out.  Mark and Steph were in Mark's boat and Tommy, Josh and I were in Tom's boat.  Tommy and Steph were having a fishing contest.  It turns out that me and Stephanie caught more fish than the boys!  Girl Power!  Granny and Peepaw offered to stay with all 3 kids when we went back out.  They said the kids were great, but it wasn't long after that that Granny and Peepaw left!  I think the kids wore them out.  Hmmm.

On the way home Tommy asked Erin if she had fun.  She told him yes.  He asked if she liked going in the boat and she told him yes, but she really wanted to go swimming!  Erin is a mermaid at heart!

Here are several pictures from the day.

Praying Together...

We love Erin's Day Care.  Gateway to Learning has turned out to be a great thing for Erin.  She goes to chapel every Wednesday and they learn Bible stories in class every morning.  They teach the regular Day Care things as well, but she's learning stories from the Bible and prayers while she's there.  It's great!

At lunch time they take turns saying the prayer.  It's the same prayer repeated everyday, but it's still so sweet.  So, at supper Erin likes to lead us in prayer.  Sometimes we get to do it, but most days Erin takes the lead.  With this being said, the same thing happens at bedtime.  The only funny thing is that it's the same mealtime prayer we do at bedtime.  Sometimes she throws in people to pray for at the end.  Sometimes it's her "friends", sometimes it's her "family" but most nights it's "the whole word".  We also like to mix things up by calling roll with her friends and family.  Everyone will be included and it's a lengthy list.

She always ends her prayers with "Amen" followed by "Love Jesus".  It's like a varsity team cheer.  It's precious.

For the last couple of weeks we've been doing the Lord's Prayer as well.  She knows the whole thing and it's so cute to hear her little voice saying it.  She stumbles over some of the bigger words and kind of wings it with her own version, but it's mainly sticking to the Prayer.  She likes for me to say a line, then she says a line.  It's so heartwarming to hear her saying it.  She learned it at school because I thought she was a little young to memorize it completely.  They must say it every day.  I think I'll teach her the Affirmation of Faith next.  It's much longer and a lot more complicated, but I think she can do it.  (Now I just have to practice reciting it from memory in little bits and pieces!)

Thanks Gateway to Learning Baptist School we love your day care.

8 Seconds...Let's Rodeo

Aunt Mimi, Gram, Pawpaw and me took the kids to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo yesterday.  We did it last year and they had so much fun we decided to make it a tradition.

This year William was tall enough to ride more rides so they rode their little hearts out.  We actually ran out of tickets and had to buy more before it was all over with.

Erin was so excited to go.  I made the mistake of telling her the day before and that's all she talked about.  She wanted a piece of candy after breakfast yesterday and I told her no.  I told her we were going to eat a bunch of junk at the Rodeo.  She promptly told Tommy that we were going to the Rodeo to ride ponies and eat junk!

The Petting Zoo is always a big hit with the kids.  Erin was actually a little intimidated when we got in there.  There were a ton of kids running around and too many animals in my opinion.  They were fairly aggressive about the feed cones too.  At one point I looked up and a goat had his front feet on Gram's chest trying to get to the food.  It was too funny and I wish I had been fast enough with the camera.  William found 2 baby goats in a corner so the kids bothered them the rest of the time.

It was pretty cool because they had a momma goat in there that had had a baby the day before or that morning.  The baby was tiny and so cute.  There are also one in there ready to pop any day now.  She looked miserable, but seemed to enjoy the snacks.

Here are a couple dozen pictures of the day.  I took over a 100, so I pared them down for you!  LOL

 

 

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