Pumpkin Patch and Other Adventures

The past week has been busy around the Neal household. It began last Wednesday with Gabe and I driving to Houston to the U2 concert. The 3 hour drive in traffic was long but we were excited about seeing U2. The 20 minute walk from a parking lot wasn't bad. It could have been further and we were almost there. Getting to the gate and realizing we only had 1 ticket for 2 people was heart sinking. Conversation as follows:

Gabe: Ok, I've got my ticket, do you have yours?
Stacy: (Shocked) I gave you both tickets. Are you joking with me?
Gabe: You only gave me 1 ticket.
Stacy: (panicked) No, I gave you both tickets when we got out of the car.

We start emptying our pockets, hoping to magically find the ticket but no such luck.

Stacy: (upset, all most in tears and trying not to curse at myself for loosing a U2 ticket that my brother-in-law gave me) We'll have to go back to the car. Maybe it's in my purse.

In an almost sprint we got back to the car in record time and greatly relieved and excited to find the other ticket still in my purse.

Oddly enough after being almost an hour late to the opening band we were still able to get floor spots about 50 ft away from the outer stage. We had a great view of U2!

Stacy's lesson learned: Gabe should always ask if I gave him both tickets.
Gabe's lesson learned: Stacy should always give me both tickets.

Well Maeve is protesting with tears and crying that it is time to eat so I'll cut this short.

Other happenings: on Thursday we had a house guest move in. An intern with the Navigators on campus. On Friday my parents came in for the weekend. On Saturday we had a garage sale and made way more than I expected. On Sunday we drove to Austin for a team meeting for our up coming trip to East Asia.

Pictures at the Pumpkin Patch

Evelyn blessing Maeve or casting a spell on her with the piece of straw she found at the Pumpkin Patch.

Maeve staring off into the distant wishing she were somewhere else.

Evelyn likes to pick objects up, put it next to her ear, and pretend she is talking on the phone. She couldn't pick up the pumpkin so she leaned over and started talking.

Evelyn with shampoo in her hair, on her hands, on her clothes, on my couch. She was having a good time rubbing shampoo on the sofa.

New photos of Maeve

I finally was able to take some more photos of Maeve. I just don't have the free time like I did with Evelyn. Below are some from my impromptu photo shoot. I even got a few of her laughing.

Maeve about the same age and pose as the picture of Evelyn below.

Funny Face

Showing some leg

No more pictures!

Zoo Pictures

I thought there were more pictures of us at the zoo but I guess we took more video. Here are a few good ones.

We had a wonderful weekend with Gabe's parents who drove down to see the girls and celebrate Evie's birthday. Evelyn had a blast playing with the their two dogs and loved the attention from GiGi and Poppy.

Evelyn brushing the goats.

So Maeve is laughing and smiling now, she just stops when I pull out the camera. I captured a little smile here.

Evelyn and GiGi walking the dogs.

Evie's 2nd Birthday

Video from Evie's birthday and our trip to the zoo. It's about 10 minutes long. And yes she is crying in the first clip. She stuck her finger in the candle as soon as I put it in front of her. We got off to a rough start on her big day. Pictures to come soon.

Sweet Moments

Our neighbors were so kind as to give us a camera they were not using so below is my first attempt at taking a video of Maeve. It is almost 2 minutes and she really doesn't do much. It is mainly for the grandparents. I know they want to see how she has grown.



It makes me so happy when Evelyn actually does something nice out of her own free will. This morning after I gave her a cup of milk that she was asking for she said "Thank you mommy" and smiled. I didn't even have to prompt her.

A Few Random Pictures

This was sometime in May or whenever it started to get hot. We spent at least one day a week with friends playing in the water. None of them knew how to use the slip' n slide but they had fun getting wet.

Evelyn preferred to drink the water from the slip'n slide

For about a month we went to the park every morning to play before it got too hot. She fell asleep while I was pushing her.

First day of Gymnastics-She was supposed to run around the circle and sit down. Once she finally understood what to do she didn't want to sit down and ran around a few more times. That's her at the top of the picture standing with her teacher telling her to sit.

They're Back

So we've lived here about 3 years now and I should know better than to go to the grocery store the Sunday before school starts, but against my best judgment I went anyway. I will never make that mistake again. I did go with the expectation that things would be crazy so that helped. And I normally don't like to take kids shopping with me but this time Evelyn helped me score the "Parent with child" parking spot. HEB was swarming with people. I felt like I had to wait in line just to get some milk. Not only did you have to navigate through packed aisles, but you also had to work your way around the workers who were re-stocking the shelves. It wasn't even the end of the day and they were already running out of things. Many of you know all this and stayed away from the stores this weekend...in the future I will too.



More pics to come of the kids soon.