{Five on Friday // 1 Second, Instagram, Big Rocks Park}

Happy finally Friday! I say that with mixed feelings. I do not want to wish away summer one bit, but covering for 2 co-workers is for the birds! Bring on the weekend!!!

{O N E} // Posts from the week

Monday > Weekend Wrap-up
Tuesday > New Orleans day 3 re-cap
Wednesday > no post
Thursday > Confessions

{T W O} // 1 Second Everyday App

Do any of you use this app? I know my friend Meghan does! I started it this month and pray that I can keep up with it. I know the end result will be so sweet. It's challenging me {and reminding me} to take video every day {even if it's mostly been karate, lately}. I am usually terrible at capturing video. My goal is to capture video for a year. With the app you can string together any combination of video - a specific event, a few days, a week, a month, etc.

{T H R E E} // Instagram Stories vs Snapchat

While we're on the subject of apps - are you team Instagram Stories or team Snapchat? I haven't even had the time or energy to care this week. On IG stories can you send to only 1 specific person like you can on Snapchat? Or is it there for all to see? The only thing I like about it so far is being able to see stories from people that I don't follow on Snapchat. I guess I am nosey!

{F O U R} //  Big Rocks Park on the Paluxy River

Yesterday in my confessions post I mentioned we were going on a fun adventure on Saturday after the back to school fair! We are taking Mason to Big Rocks Park in Glen Rose and maybe to Dinosaur Valley State Park! We are ready to explore and adventure!! I've posted about this place before, here.

{F I V E} // My Angler

My sweet man has a strong obsession with fishing! I've enjoyed spending nights at the pond, creek, lake, etc watching those amazing Texas sunsets and snapping pictures. This is one of my favorites so far.

Hope you all have an amazing weekend!

{The Race is On // No more training wheels}

Just 2 days shy of Mason's 6th birthday he learned how to ride his bike without training wheels!! We had talked about teaching him several times, just never fell through with it. The only concrete we have on our property is our driveway, and while it's pretty long, it's still not a ton of concrete. Anyhow, we had just bought a GoPro camera the weekend before and Nate mentioned it would be cool to video Mason learning. The rest is history. ha.

Nathan helped Mason for maybe a total of 10 minutes before Mason was riding on his own! He fell a few times, but didn't get hurt. And he would get right back up and try again. Before long he was riding like he had been riding for years. The next evening he rode for over a mile.

          

Nathan hooked the GoPro up to Mason's bike the whole time he was learning and got some awesome footage. If you don't want to watch the full video skip ahead to 6:22 for the funniest thing! Mason was talking to himself, "Ahhh, I wish I could trick ride" - just minutes after learning how to ride on 2 wheels. hahahaha. Love this kid.

Learning to ride bike with no training wheels - 1 from Crystal Hall on Vimeo.

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.

~ John F. Kennedy

Do you remember when you learned to ride with no training wheels? I still remember like it was yesterday and it was many, many moons ago.

{Weekend Wrap-up // Birthday lunch}

Happy Monday!

We had a really great weekend and I am sad to see it go. It was the perfect mix of resting and playing. Friday was all about resting and being lazy since Nathan and I were both still not feeling 100%. Nathan actually ran fever on Friday. We grabbed a late supper and just relaxed at home.

Saturday was a day of celebrating our sweet boy! Nate's parents wanted to take him to lunch since his birthday falls on Wednesday this week. Mason loves Babe's so we took him to the one that my cousin works at. Her location is close to Nate's Grandma so we were able to pick her up as well. It was a really nice time. Mason got to wear a funky chicken hat and beak and flap around like a chicken while the waitresses sang happy birthday to him. He was precious!
  

This Babe's location is in an old {but revived} part of downtown Arlington right next to a still operating Opry-style theater. It's so neat! Another part I love about this location is the turquoise Babes bus they have parked out front! Mason and I went to check it out and take some pictures!!!

     

I need a turquoise bus in my life!

After lunch we went back to Nate's parents for Mason to open gifts. He was totally spoiled with a Batman mask that converts your voice to Batman's, a Batman action figure set, Batman gloves, a Batman towel, a Batman book, a Batman pocket knife, swim trunks and a rash guard, and an outfit. I think there was more, but that is what I remember.

       

So much fun!!

That evening we ate supper and went to Academy to get Mason some new tennis shoes. Then back home to get ready for church the next day.

Sunday was church and my brother in law joined us! It was so nice to introduce him to our church family and to have him in service. After church we came home and ate lunch and then Nate was off to mow. Mason hopped in his little truck and went to his Nana's saying, "bye mom, see you later, I love you". I got a little glimpse of my future and I don't think I liked it. I just pray that when he's 16 and hopping in his truck to leave that it's to go to his Nana's still. One can pray.

While the boys were gone I played on snapchat cleaned the inside of the house and did laundry for a couple of hours.

But, then I started missing my boy and walked over to get him, He held my hand as he drove back on his little truck and melted me. Just before he took off to play with the neighbor girl. sigh. {you can see the whole thing on my snapchat story!} They drove their little power wheels, played on scooters and watched the crop-duster fly over our house.

       

Then Nate, Mason and I loaded up and went fishing {more on this later}. We had such a great time.

How was your weekend? I hope it was a beautiful one!

{Oh Hey Friday // Kinder program // New hairs // Vacation}

Oh hey Friday, hey! I am so glad it's the weekend. It's been one long and tiring week. I can't seem to shake this darn virus. Just when I am feeling better and think I am on the mend, it comes back with a vengeance. It's been real fun. ugh. And now Nate is running fever and has a sore throat. Praying that it totally passes our little man! Anyhow, I am so glad it's the weekend.

Time for Oh Hey Friday! It's been a pretty uneventful week for us of just resting at home and trying to get better.

{O N E} // Posts from this week. Only two...womp, womp. #thanksagainvirus

Weekend Wrap-up // Spring Bucketlist Update

{T W O} // Mason had a little Kindergarten Music program before pick-up yesterday! It was so cute. And of course one of the songs made me cry...something about it's been a great year, but we're moving on. How are we 8.5 days away from being done with Kindergarten??? So dang bittersweet.


Kinder Music Program from Crystal Hall on Vimeo.
{T H R E E} // I finally got my mullet cut and highlighted. And I'm not lying when I said mullet. The back of my hair was growing faster than the sides and it looked awful. It's been needing done for a while, but if y'all remember my hair dresser is like 1 hour and 15 minutes away. Well, I have a cousin that has completed cosmetology school over 9 months ago and has been working at a high end salon in the metroplex for a while. She has done several family members hair and they have been ranting and raving over her. So I messaged her and asked if she would want to do my hair. She came to my house Wednesday evening!!! And she did amazing. She uses a really high end product that restores the oils that the bleach normally pulls out. My hair was left feeling so soft and in much better shape than before I highlighted it. And for the cut, we just evened everything out and cutoff the dead ends. I want nothing more than for my hair to be long again, but a cut was necessary.  Maybe my thyroid will get in check and my hair will actually grow. One can hope! Also, I am so embarrassed that I am showing a before picture. ha.

{F O U R} // I've been collecting books for Mason's Kindergarten graduation. They don't have a graduation per-say, but we will celebrate. On our last Scholastic book order form this book was suggested as a graduation book:

Oh my word! I haven't even made it through the whole book yet. It is so freakin' sweet and makes me so weepy! If you don't have this one, I recommend you getting it. Yes, even though I haven't finished it I am recommending it. I also got "Curious You, On Your Way" and "The Little Engine that Could" which both have good messages. Any others you recommend?

{F I V E} // We finally nailed down our vacation for this summer and we are so excited. We will be traveling for 10 whole days. We are starting off with a weekend in New Orleans and then driving to Panama City Beach for the rest of the time! We've never been to either place. So, if you have any tips or places we must go please share!!!

That's all I've got! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

{Spring Bucketlist Update // Bike Rides, Park Dates and Flying Kites}

We have checked off several more things from our spring time bucket list! Summer is knocking on our door, so I am not sure if we will finish these last few things or not. If not, we'll just carry them over to our summer bucketlist. ;)

We have actually snuck in a few park dates this spring! There is an elementary school around the corner from us and they actually have a pretty decent park. One day on the way to pick up Mason from school I started thinking that some time outside was very much needed. So, I dropped in the dollar store by his school to grab a few outdoor things to bring to the park with us. I bought cap guns, wooden airplanes, finger kites {because I couldn't find one single full size kite}, silly string, a frisbee, etc. We had so much fun! Another time we went we grabbed some snowcones before we went. We should have done that in reverse to cool down after the park, but we weren't thinking right.

This is one that we are going to have to keep working on! One evening we decided to ride over to my in-laws house on our bikes. It's exactly half a mile from driveway to driveway. No big deal. However, we didn't take into account that it's harder on a bike with training wheels on the uneven roads we have in our neighborhood. There were times Mason would get high-centered. And his little legs were working in overdrive. He got tired on our ride back and Nate ended up pulling his bike while I walked him on my bike. We were a hot sweaty mess!

Another thing we've recently checked off our spring bucket list is spring cleaning! There's nothing like expecting visitors to make you clean your house really good! ha.

We are 65% done with our list. I hope to check off a few more, but if not, I am okay with that. We've done a lot and have had a great and busy spring.

Did you make a spring list? Are you close to being done?