St Patrick's Day Green...

The Bakers want to wish you a HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!  

We love St. Patrick's Day around here! They didn't have a shirt that matched for Eli so poor guy got stiffed.  I may have higher enthusiasm for photos than the kids, but they are good sports.  Dora hates being barefoot on grass.  Emmy insisted on socks.  Sheesh.  

 I am LOVING Tessa's face here!

Her face here is pretty cute, too! If only Dora didn't look so pained! 

 My little princess!  So so so cute!

 Isn't Emmy beautiful!?! Her hair is getting so long!

 Love those dimples!

 My fair haired, blue eyed angel!

 Aren't they the most beautiful girls you have ever seen?!?

Strawberries at Froberg Farms!

On our way home from Galveston, we passed a place we went last year--Froberg Farms!  They let you pick strawberries there yourself.  We decided to stop so we could get out and stretch our legs.  Tessa was tired, but she wasn't sleeping in the car, anyway.  Everyone was happy to be out.  

 Eli was my best picker.  Emmy just wanted to get "baby ones", which were frequently green.  Sheesh.  Dora was too afraid to break any of the plants!

 Tessa was really good.  My mom watched her most of the time, but she was pretty happy to be out and about.

 Eli is such a handsome little man!

 Look at Tessa walking around until she saw a strawberry she wanted and then she'd make grandma pick it!  It was really cute.

 Here's our haul!! We had so much fun.  Again, only better if dad had been along!

 Love my two little twinners.  They are getting to be friends, which is SO fun to watch.  Emmy just adores Dora.

Galveston Day Two-Mardi Gras Parade

On Saturday morning, we had a lovely morning!  Eli and Emmy woke up early and we played in the babies room while Tessa slept in the bathroom and Dora and my mom slept in the other room.  We ate bananas and smiled and laughed.  It was fun!  

Then we had a wonderful breakfast there at the hotel, french toast and eggs, and bacon and toast and so on.  Then the babies went up to the room to rest (Tessa needed a nap) and Eli and Dora and I headed down to the heated hotel pool.  Sadly, it didn't open until 10!! Foiled!  

So we walked across the street and played on the rock wall!  We found live anemones, a dead seagull, barnacles, lots of beautiful granite and quartz, and two colors of algae!  We had a great time until Dora slipped and scratched her poor baby leg.  That was sad.  Dora was cold, so I donated my coat.  It was actually nice within minutes, though, so I didn't miss it.  

 Love what close friends these two are.

 On top of the world!!

 This is a BEAUTIFUL girl!

 Here we are waiting on the parade.  We waited about 30 minutes.  The babies were really entranced once the parade started.

 They threw a lot of candy this year.  It was also a much smaller parade.  Like 45 minutes instead of hours.  Eli was sad, but I will be honest--I was glad it wasn't as much junk or as long as before!! The last thing we need is a bigger pile of beads, but don't try telling the kids that.  Haha. Dora had made this purple plate bead catcher in pre-school.  Kinda cute.

 Emmy got into the waving by the end. Eli was the best though.  He'd go right out and wave and yell!

Galveston Beach, Day One

We went last year to Galveston for Mardi Gras and liked it so much we wanted to make it an annual thing.  Unfortunately, this year, Whit had to work so he couldn't come.  Good news, my mom and Tessa, the two who "sat out" last year, both came!! Hooray!  We stayed at the Marriott and had a lovely time!  The weather was beautiful!  I thought it was too cold to swim in the ocean on Friday, but I was WRONG as you will see! 

Here we are leaving the hotel for the beach... 

 Tessa hadn't been at a beach since June 2013.   She loved it!

 Oh, our hotel was across from the SeaWALL, not the beach area.  Bummer!  We had to get in our car to go down to the sandy portions of the beach.  So we parked across from the IHOP and played at the beach until we were hungry!

 This is where we left the Marriott's seawall and headed out the SAND.  Tessa LOVED it!

 My miscalculation was that I didn't bring everyone in swimsuits!  Actually, Eli and Dora were the only two had swimsuits on, and only because they changed into them while I was dealing with the babies and I didn't feel like MAKING them change back!

 I love when you can see what great friends they are!

 Emmy had a BALL, too.  Everyone was happy.  It was just hard keeping them from going too far out in the waves because I lost my voice (cold) and couldn't call out, and they wanted to just walk right into the water! I had jeans on and didn't want to run out after them!  Oh well, everyone was safe and had fun.

 Tessa did this hilarious thing--she backs down stairs--she's super safe.  Anyhow, because the water was down an incline, she would turn around and back down to the water backwards.  So funny and cute to watch!

 Another little water/sand baby!

 All my kids!  I am a little embarrassed that Dora's wearing this swimsuit! I thought the top would meet the bottoms (it did on the model) but she's SO tall and so thin--the bottoms were so big they kept falling down.  Ick.  We will have to give it away, but I didn't think we'd really swim so I just brought one.  It was 63 degrees outside--no idea how cold the water is--it made my feet numb!  The kids didn't even care!

 Love this angel baby!

 Crawling right into the ocean!

 My little sand turtle!

 GORGEOUS!!

 Eli had so much fun!

 I am in a coat.  My kids are all wet and I am in a COAT!  Haha.

 Emmy the Bemmers!  She was so independent, not clinging to me or my leg or anything!  It was strange, and sad and exciting all at once.

We went into IHOP--and washed up in their bathroom--so white trash! But we had a fun time and if we annoyed people in IHOP, I bet it wasn't the first time.  Then we went back to the hotel, improvised a bath, put the girls to bed, and watched Frozen on the iPad with the big kids. Fun fun day!