Another postcard sighting

Addison received her second postcard the other day and she was really excited!  This one came all the way from Slovakia.  It traveled 9,076 km and took 12 days to get here.

Again, I highly recommend clicking here and checking out how postcrossing works.  It is a wonderful opportunity for your children to learn more about our great world and correspond with people from every walk of life!

Happy Postcrossing!

Will the craziness stop?

I am currently being swept away in a tidal wave of my own creation!  I have not had time to blog, let alone come up for air and I'm ready for the madness to end.

What am I speaking of?  My teenager's schedule!!!

I know, I know...I am the parent.  I could have said "No," to the competitive cheerleading and to the High School cheerleading, but I am such a sucker!

How can you say know to a face like this....

Or this.....

Coach Piggee was the one who made it all happen this year!

So, here we are...Year 2 with Prodigy All-stars.  6+ hours a week at the gym and 6 hours with school cheer and Avery is loving every minute of it!  Plus, Avery and I get a lot of bonding time when we go to the out-of-town competitions.  That in and of itself is PRICELESS!

Love us now! Hate us never!  We are P-A, Always and Forever!

Little Artist

I have always said that my children need to be involved in something outside of school.  I think that it helps keep them busy and out of trouble.  It also gives them a sense of belonging.  My oldest daughter has tried a lot of different things.  She's done dance, horseback riding, and cheer.  My youngest has also tried several things, but had never really found anything she liked until recently. 

She has always loved drawing and is pretty good at it.  A friend of mine told me about an art school called The Artist Within.  Her son was taking classes there and really enjoyed it, so we went to check it out. 


Right away I knew Addison would like it!  Everywhere you looked there were paints, paintbrushes, and pencils.  

I was ready to jump in and start painting just seeing all of this artistic goodness!


The owner/teacher, Tom, is great!  Addison, being my anxious kid, felt right at home.  She has been going now for two months and she has already finished 4 paintings.  I love to see the progression of her artwork.  

Here she is working on her coral snake.  She was inspired by my friend's corn snake, Maisy!

The class that she is in is two hours long and they even provide a snack for the kids! :)  

Spider Man watches from on top of the book shelf!  He's pretty cool!


Here are the paintings Addison has done so far....

This one is my favorite!  


The Artist Within is located in Cypress on Grant Road.  If your child loves to draw, I would definitely encourage you to check it out!  Tom even has a $20.00 one time try-it class!  He also has classes for adults.  I plan on giving that a try in the near future!