Brittany's Parking Spot

Every year the Heath girls basketball program does a fundraiser where they sell parking spots for the juniors and seniors to paint. The kids love getting to design their own spot as well as having a guaranteed parking spot each day instead of having to fight the near 3,000 other students also wanting a spot each morning.
This is Brittany's spot for senior year. On the left is the word Rejoice in eight different languages in honor of the Bible verse Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in The Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!"

Reese "volunteered" to help paint - more like Brittany made him. The compensation for helping paint was that Reese was allowed to paint a small Pikachu popping up behind one of the petals (bottom left corner).

Below is the inspiration behind her spot. She found it on Pinterest.

Misty's New Car

About 6 years ago we purchased a new Chevrolet Suburban for Misty.  After about 170K miles, the Suburban (named Sally) finally gave up.  It was time to retire her.  We needed a new car fast.  After searching and test driving about 8 different cars, we settled on a 2012 Audi Q7 with 19K miles.  It is a terrific car.  It seats 7 people, looks like new and is fully loaded.  Below are a few pictures.

Brittany's New Car

Brittany needed a new car.   After looking around, we landed on a Volkswagen CC.  This is a cool car.  I did not know anything about the CC before we started looking for Brittany.  It is the big brother of the Passat.  It is a little bigger and sportier than the Passat.  But after doing some research and driving a few cars, Brittany and I really liked this car.  We got a great deal on a 2012 model, with about 25K miles that is fully loaded (two-tone leather seats, navigation, sunroof, etc.).  It is a great, German engineered car that looks like new.  Below are a few pictures.

Josh 5th Birthday

Today was Josh's 5th birthday! He really wanted to play mini-golf. So we went to Shenaniganz and played glow miniature golf. Noelle won with 19 strokes.
Below are a few pictures from his party.

Josh with his gifts

The table right before the party

Birthday decorations

His baseball cake with 5 baseball candles

Josh celebrating hitting a bomb

Helms Family Staycation 2013 - Day 4 to 7

Our staycation continued Tuesday through Friday.

Day 4 - Tuesday - Triniti's Day

The fourth day of the staycation was Triniti's day.  Triniti has some practical plans for the staycation.  She wanted to get her new bedding and paint Shawn Jr's room - which will become her new room.  She then wanted to eat and go see a movie.  We got everything done except the painting of the room.  We did the following things on Triniti's day:

• Had breakfast at la Madeleine


• Went home and started cleaning out Shawn Jr's room


• Went to Bed Bath & Beyond and purchased her bedding.


• Eat lunch at a burger restaurant called Mooyah.


• Went to a drive-in movie theater and saw The Smurfs 2 and Turbo

The day started with breakfast at la Madeleine

We then went to Bed Bath & Beyond to purchase Triniti's new bedding.

Below is a picture of Triniti's new bedding.  (That is a stock picture - not really her room).

Josh and Skylin were having fun at the store.  Skylin was in jail and Josh was the prison guard.

We had lunch a Mooyah.  It was great.

Here is a picture of Sky at Mooyah.

We then went to the Galaxy dive-in movie theater in Ennis, Texas.

This is a picture of the screen just before the movie started.  Very cool.

Unlike the old days, when you had to use a scratchy box to hear the sound, they now broadcast the sound via a FM radio station.  Our screen was 88.3 FM.  The sounds was perfect.  

Here is a picture of the big kids in the back of the Suburban (which we call Sally).  

Here is the rest of the family sitting outside in chairs.

We saw The Smurfs 2.  IT was a solid movie.  Better than I expected.  I think the kids really enjoyed it.

Everyone was super tired when the second movie - Turbo - was about to start.  However, this was the movie that Triniti really wanted to see.  There was a heated discussion as to if we should stay to watch the second movie, starting at 11:00.  We eventually stayed.  I am glad we did.  The movie was good and I think the kids enjoyed it.  But, as a result, we rolled into our driveway at just before 2:00 am.  I felt bad for Brittany who had to get up early the next day for a school event. 

It was an exhausting but fun day.

Day 5 - Wednesday - Josh's Day

The fifth day of the staycation was Josh's day.  We got everything done that he wanted to do.

• We stayed at home for breakfast


• Josh played Wii (Super Mario Brothers) with the girls


• Had lunch a Chuck E. Cheese's


• Played a family (4 vs. 4) baseball game


• We then went home and swam in the pool


• Everyone got ready for bed and Josh played Xbox (Call of Duty) with his big brother

Josh started his day playing Super Mario Brothers for the Wii.

We then had lunch at Chuck E. Cheese's

This place was crazy.

Josh was bent on trying to win tickets.

Triniti was good at the basketball game

Here is a video of Reese winning the top prize - 50 tickets - on the Deal or No Deal game.

Here is Reese with his haul of tickets

A picture of Josh and Triniti.

Josh loved the shooting games

This is the load of tickets the kids accumulated.

We then played a family baseball game.  I think the game ended in a tie.  As you can see, the family likes the Rangers and the Yankees.

Josh ended the days playing Xbox with his brother.  

He loves to play Black Ops II with Shawn Jr.  I can not believe we let him play a shooting game.  I have always been against giving my kids any guns - even toy water guns.  Now I let my youngest play a violent first person shooter game.  I am certainly becoming soft in my old age.

Here he is, happy as can be playing Xbox.

Day 6 - Thursday - Brittany's Day

The sixth day of the staycation was Brittany's day.  This day included the following

• Breakfast at Chiloso in Rockwall


• Six Flags all day


• Pick up Chili's To-Go and eat at home

Breakfast at Chiloso.  This is Brittany's favorite restaurant.  It is a mexican place, but they have great breakfast tacos.  

We got to Six Flags over Texas at about 2:00 in the afternoon

Here is the Helms Family inside the park.

Here is the entire crew (minus Misty who is taking the picture).

Triniti and Josh on the carousel.  

Triniti, Sky and Josh on the Loony Tunes roller coaster.

Triniti, Sky and Josh on the Texas Tea cups.  Get it?

Here is josh trying to ring the bell at one of the carnival games.

Sky and Josh riding the Spirit of St. Looie airplane ride.

Here is Josh and Misty on one of the rides.

Skylin and Josh cooling off.  Sky is so dramatic.  

Here is Brittany and Shawn Jr. getting ready to ride the Titian.

Here is Josh contemplating his future as the next Batman.

Here is the crew in line to ride Judge Roy Scream - a kids roller coaster.

Here is the Judge Roy Scream sign.  This was a smaller and older wooden roller coaster.  But, I must say, it was real.  That thing was fast and jerked you around a bit.  I was nervous for Josh and Skylin.  This was their first real roller coaster.

Here is Sky and Josh after riding Judge Roy Scream.  They look happy but it was a bit scary for them.  I must say they were pretty tough.

The final ride of the day was the Texas SkyScreamer.  

Here it is as we were getting ready to get on.

I broke the rules and took my iPhone up on the ride.  This is the view from the top.  I must say, Noelle was more calm then I was.  Kind of scary.  

Here is a picture of Looney Tunes USA on the way out of the park.

We ordered dinner at Chili's on the way home and picked it up.

Everyone chilled out the remainder of the night and went to bed fairly early.

Day 7 - Friday - Shawn Jr's Day

The final day of the staycation was Shawn Jr's day.    We did nothing.  Seriously.  Nothing.  I guess we went shopping to buy Shawn a pair of Nike shoes and had Papa John's pizza for dinner.  Oh well. At least he brought the family a new expression during the staycation - "it's Gucci." That means - it's good. Funny.
Overall it was a very nice staycation.