We have a tendency to gather at the table for activities some evenings. Max prefers to create art through the use of crayons, markers, scissors, what have you. Owen's medium is, typically, chaos.

Other ingredients include hats, cheese, and stickers.

So...many...stickers...

I also mentioned Owen's LOBSTAH CLAW recently, so I figured I'd give everyone an idea of what that looks like when he's not a blurry mass of energy and oven mitts.

This is mere moments before he charges me.

We can't seem to plan a weekend without some kind of conflicting event, which ended up being a school party for Max. He didn't want to miss it because it was a birthday party for his teacher.

Good times.

Once he was finished poking at his food and not eating a whole lot, we piled the kids into the car and got them on the road to Houston. We did make a quick stop on the way for some sandwiches, which somehow ended with a new costume for Max.

The shirt color matching was unintentionally perfect.

After a little time playing with Emma and RyanPaul and a little bit of sleep at my gracious aunt and uncle's place (Thanks again!), we hauled ourselves back over to begin the weekend in earnest. As far as weekends go, I'd call it a learning experience.

We learned that Owen really likes Emma.

We learned not to goof around on the diving board.

We learned that Owen will not appear to have fun in the pool if a camera is pointed at him.

We learned that we can break that rule by putting Emma near him.

We learned that Max loves spraying people in the head with water guns.

We learned that a hat can really bring an outfit together.

We learned that the kids really, really want to come outside.

We continued to learn that Owen likes Emma.

We learned that RyanPaul is a photogenic cutie patootie (okay, fine, we knew that already).

We learned that it does not matter how many times you say, "Feet first!"

We learned that Owen is probably going to have a bounce house at his birthday party this year.

We learned that I am a horse.

We learned that scrapes, cuts, and bruises won't deter him from something he really loves.

And finally, we learned that being in a pool and a bounce house and a wet bounce house can really wear some kids out.

Yes, I'm going to address the giant welt on my son's head. Max had a couple of perfect jumps off the diving board under his belt and got a little excited about everything. The next time he got on, he was a little more bouncy on his approach to the end of the board. His foot slipped and sent him off the side of the board into the wall. He had pretty decent scrapes on his ankles, legs, and belly, and thankfully that giant red spot on his head settled into a very minor bruise that's just barely visible now. It's one of those lessons you don't want them to learn the hard way, but it inevitably happens from time to time.

All of that was just Saturday. It was a bit of a crazy day, but everyone had a great time and we got some good quality time with our niece and nephew.

You know, this little guy.

Even Owen found him very interesting.

If I had to guess, he doesn't realize that he was treating the baby about the same way his older cousin Blakeley used to treat him. Not exactly rough, but not as gentle as we'd like. If I recall correctly, Owen wasn't a big fan of that treatment when it was happening to him. Thankfully RyanPaul was pretty laid back about it.

When morning came, we all got dressed up and headed out to church for the big event. I was a bit occupied with handling both of my kiddos so we didn't wind up getting any photos of everyone in their Sunday best, but rest assured everyone looked very nice.

The weekend ended well, with an uneventful car ride home, a surprisingly easy dinner out with the boys, and an unsurprisingly easy bedtime (those boys were TIRED).

Typically this is where I close things out and tell you to click here to see the rest of the photos, but as I mentioned in the intro I have some moving pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Bouncy

Like I said, this is an essential for Owen's birthday. For the sake of comparison, we couldn't get Max into his second birthday bounce house without turning it into a ball pit.

Baby Cousin

Both of the kids were messing with him, but this is the best video we caught of it.

Turns out it's been nearly 6 months since we posted any of those. I should probably get better about that. See you next week!