Warning...this post contains nudity!

At Grandma and Grandpa's house last week, there was a lot of this going on:


It was perfectly acceptable, wild boy behavior at their lake front home. Why bother to go inside when there is a perfectly good deck with perfectly good bushes below to pee upon? Plus, it was great entertainment for the grown-ups. Those little bottoms are so darned cute! So, what is the problem? Since we've returned home, the buddies have whipped it out (or tried to):

1) in our driveway, onto our neighbors' lawn (said neighbors also happen to be HOA board members and the neighborhood busy-bodies)
2) at the YMCA pool
3) and our neighborhood pool
4) at Symphony Square, during Art Park
5) and at two of our favorite parks

If you live near the Austin area, watch out for the peeing bandits!

A Little Bit of Culture for Two Wild Boys

I'm trying, people. Austin is such a cool town with so many educational and cultural offerings for little people. Yet, most days, you'll find us running, jumping, playing, climbing, swimming, or just generally causing a ruckus somewhere. Today, our weekly play group decided to branch out and explore Children's Day Art Park, an educational program developed for kids by the Austin Symphony.

We paid our $.50 entrance fee which gained us access to a crowded concert by local musician, Aunty E. We enjoyed the music and then followed the crowd across the street to Art Park, where the buddies took their turns creating wind catchers and coloring trumpets. We danced on the lawn to the music of 5 members of the Austin Symphony. Both boys like the tuba the best. And, as a special treat, they got to meet Ronald McDonald and get his autograph and coupons for free apple dippers.

After two hours of fun, and as I was hauling 105 pounds worth of kids and wagon up a very steep downtown hill in 100 degree weather, I asked the buddies if they enjoyed Art Park. Ace said, "Mommy, that was NOT a park". I'm certain we'll return to our usual routine of running and jumping and playing and climbing and swimming tomorrow.

Dino Park

This morning, we visited The Dinosaur Park, a little place for BIG imaginations. What fun we had! The buddies and their friends walked through the nature trail with life size dinosaur replicas three times and couldn't get enough of the cool creatures. They cheered as they discovered each one and listened attentively as we read the information plaques to them. Many of the species, including the huge Tyrannosaurus Rex, once lived right here in Texas.





In between nature trail walks, the buddies and their friends played on the play scape, enjoyed a picnic lunch under the cool misters, dug for dinosaur bones, and climbed inside a T-Rex head. They also played dinosaur games inside the Dino Store and made crayon rub drawings of their favorite prehistoric animals. It was a terrific, educational outing and we'll have to return soon!

Road Trip to Texoma and Kingfisher

After almost a full week on the road, we are home and back in our routine. We had an awesome time catching up with family, both at Grandma and Grandpa's house on the lake and in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. It was the buddies' first trip to Kingfisher. I have such fond childhood memories of this gorgeous little town and I loved showing it to my kids. We took them to two parks that I played at often as a little girl: Shaw Park (near my paternal grandparents' house) and Kingfisher Park (just over the railroad tracks from my maternal grandma's house). And they loved swimming in Granny's fancy indoor pool during morning water aerobics. We even met up with dozens of relatives at Eischen's Bar (Oklahoma's oldest) for chicken and beer.


It was a special treat to have Uncle Jeff along during all of our road trip adventures. We just don't see enough of him and the buddies are big fans. For those that don't know, the song playing on our blog is an Uncle Jeff original, written in honor of the buddies' second birthday.




We're wondering if Uncle Jeff is still talking like the buddies now that he is home on his island. Throughout our visit, we caught him saying things like, "I'm larry larry firsty. I need some water please. RIGHT NOW!" In Jeff's defense, he did make an effort to teach the boys to say, "just whenever you get a chance" in place of "RIGHT NOW!", which is a new (and rather irritating) piece of language in their vocabularies. I'm hoping it catches on.

View all of our pictures here.

Hello from Kingfisher!

The buddies just wanted to send a quick hello to their daddy, who didn't get to join us on our road trip. We're enjoying ourselves!

Exploring Aggieland

The buddies and I took a quick road trip to College Station to pick up Uncle Jeff and bring him back to Austin with us. We were thrilled at the opportunity to explore my old college town and spent the night so we'd have plenty of time. Ahh, College Station. Just driving in on Highway 6 brought back memories. For a brief moment, I even felt that exhilarating "whole life in front of me" feeling that everyone must have during their college years.

The boys were excited to see Uncle Jeff, who came to Texas for fire fighter training. We went to lunch with the crew from his brigade and then went off on our own to explore campus and Northgate. The first stop on our tour was the famous Dixie Chicken and it smelled even worse than I remember. We checked out the rattlesnake inside, bought a t-shirt, ran through Bottle Cap Alley, and then continued on our journey. Our next stop was Loupot's for a few gifts and then on to campus. The buddies enjoyed splashing in Fish Pond, checked out Sul Ross (Ben tried to swipe his pennies), walked underneath the Century Tree, and just generally ran around in the wide open spaces before the 100 degree weather pulled us back to the hotel pool.


Later, after a quick nap, we met Uncle Jeff's friends at Gattitown for a fun night of pizza and games. They were all very sweet to forgo the many better restaurants and spend an evening with our buddies. It was a fun, quick trip and now we're resting up for a full week of fun with Uncle Jeff.

Vacation Highlights

In the interest of cyber safety, I opted not to post any of our vacation entries until after we returned home. I've finally sorted through our 500+ pictures and completed the recaps of our adventures. To view them all, you'll need to scroll back several entries.

And for a pictorial look at our two week trip (including many park visits not previously posted and pictures from the buddies first fireworks show), follow this link.

Here's a taste of what you'll see:


And, a story that is just too funny not to immortalize:

Mid-trip, while staying at Granddad's house, Ben excitedly ran out of the bathroom shouting, "Hey Mommy! I flushed my underwear! I flushed it down the potty! I did it!" I could have died. So, off I marched, to find Steve and Stan, and relay the message. Lucky for Ben, his granddad is quite handy and didn't seem overly worried. I grabbed the kids and ran to a neighborhood park while Stan and Steve went to work taking apart the pipes in the basement. Stan built a handy net contraption, wedged it in a pipe, flushed, and then plunged the toilet. The underwear came shooting down and caught in his trap. Voila! We had our Thomas pants back and escaped an expensive plumber visit.

The Buddies Explore 6th Street

Yes, you read that right. Today, we took the buddies to not just one bar, but two bars on Austin's popular 6th Street. Yep - we're good parents.


Our day began with an 8am t-ball game. Following that, we met an out-of-town friend at Opal Devine's, a former Shiner brewery turned restaurant / pub, for brunch. Then, we walked across the street for our main event, Little Lounge Lizards at Momo's. Little Lounge Lizards is a dance party for kids ages 10 and under and their adults. It was started by three hip moms looking for a more alternative family outing that is fun for both kids and adults. Steve and I don't experience Austin's nightlife very often, so it was fun to catch a glimpse of it, during the day, with our kids.


The club was outfitted with snacks, waters, books, toys, bubbles, temporary tattoos, and loads of toys and musical instruments for its little patrons. And a highlight for me was a chance to dance with the two most handsome boys in the house. Steve and I sipped a few beers, caught up with a few friends, enjoyed the music, and cringed a little as we watched our kids tumble around on the filthy bar floor. We enjoyed the rooftop deck, overlooking the Austin skyline and spent a lot of time up there, despite the 100 degree weather.

As we were leaving, Ace said, "Maybe I can come to this party again some day!" Sure Ace, but "some day" may be 18 years from now, when you can get in on your own.

Free Slurpee Day!

The buddies and our triplet friends missed each other during our "European - style vacation where we were gone for a month" (as their mom put it), so we spent the day with them today to catch up. Since today's date is 7/11 and that means it is free slurpee day, we met at our local store and let the kids each have their first slurpee. They all loved it!




After that, we headed to the YMCA for some swimming fun to let the kids burn off their sugar highs. That was followed by a Sonic lunch and then quiet time at our house, watching Bee Movie. Quiet time didn't end up being very quiet with our 5 kids, but it was fun nonetheless.

A Quick Visit

Thanks for visiting us, Katie, Erik, Noah, and Zach!!

Home At Last

2 weeks.
5 states.
2860 miles traveled by plane.
1445 miles traveled by car.
Too many memories to count.

Check back soon for all the details and pictures. This tired mama has a ton of unpacking to do (after a night out with girlfriends tonight!).

The Garden State Discovery Museum

This morning, we explored a new place to play, just across the Tacony Palmyra bridge between Philadelphia and New Jersey. The Discovery Museum had loads of fun areas for its pint sized visitors and our two, along with their cousins, Alex and Charlotte, explored them all.



Everyone loved fishing off a "real" boat at the shore and exploring the construction zone, complete with hard hats and safety vests. Ace loved playing hockey and basketball in the Get Fit area and Ben really enjoyed the Science Shop. There was even a mini diner with real menus where Me Mom and I were served a mountain of pretend food by quite a few excited pre-schoolers.



Other highlights were the Bubble Zone, where each of our tots stood in the middle of a big pit of suds and hoisted a hula hoop up over their heads with a pulley. The result was a kid inside a bubble. Ace also enjoyed exploring the News Room. He anchored, ran the camera while I gave the daily news and checked out the weather map. See our pictures from the day to check it out.

Fourth of July Party

Yesterday afternoon, we attended our third annual July 4th party at Steve's Uncle Walt's house. As usual, it was a fun, well-planned event. The buddies enjoyed a bounce house, a slip n slide, a pinata, way too much candy and treats, tons of lawn toys, and lots of attention from their great aunts and uncles.

The grown-up entertainment included a "Name that Theme Song" contest, Musical Chairs, and The Great American Candy Game, where 64 candies faced off, March Madness style. Hershey's was the big winner and we all enjoyed a nostalgic look at old favorites like wax bottles (yuck!), pixie sticks, Bazooka bubble gum, and Bit-O-Honey.

Best of all, we loved catching up with family members that we see just once a year. The buddies enjoyed horsing around on the lawn with their great uncles and Ben had a great conversation with Great Grandmom while she helped him open his juice box. We wish we lived closer to our fun relatives.

Check out our pictures here.

Philly Zoo

The buddies and their cousin Finn revisited one of our favorite Philadelphia destinations: the zoo! Since we didn't come close to seeing everything last year, we started at the opposite end and worked our way forward. We enjoyed all the animals, but the favorites this time were the hippos and the peacocks. All three boys had a blast chasing one slightly spooked peacock for a good while. And, lucky for us, the elephants were still waiting for one last visit from us before they move and we were able to check them out up close.

The buddies and Finn enjoyed swan boat rides, pony rides, and a train ride, all for free using Finn's family membership. Thanks Finn! And, the best $12 I've ever spent resulted in this:



All three boys loved their "funny faces". View the rest of our zoo pictures here.

Catching Up with Our Boston Friends

We just completed a two - night stay in Boston, catching up with friends.

We spent some quality time with Steve's former roommate "Schaff" and his wife and son in their gorgeous 100 year old home. They took us to Castle Island, a 22 acre urban park. Our kids enjoyed the play scape with views of the Boston skyline in one direction and the harbor in the other. Once we'd had our fill of the slides and swings, we took a walk up the Boston Harbor and watched the boats come and go. We also enjoyed a sandy beach where Ben and I jumped at the chance to stick our toes in the water.



Later that same day, our hosts threw a backyard barbecue and invited Steve's old crowd over to catch up. It's been more than 10 years since Steve lived in Boston and it was a treat to catch up with his old friends and meet their beautiful families. Oh, how everyone's lives have changed!

Follow this link to see our Boston pictures.

Knoebels

Granddad, Lisa and Lindsay took us on our second trip to Knoebels Amusement Park. It was even more fun than last year's trip. The buddies ran from ride to ride, barely able to contain their excitement. Both enjoyed the kiddie area, where we spent the bulk of our time last year, but it wasn't long before we figured out that they are now tall enough to ride many of the regular rides too.

They loved the log flume. I told them I thought it was scary but Ace assured me that it was not. And Ben yelled, "Let's do that again!" after every ride. We cut him off at three. Both also enjoyed the Tea Cups and lucky for Steve and I, Aunt Lindsay was willing to take them. They laughed and laughed as they spun around faster and faster.


After a long day of fun, we loaded up in the car and both boys drifted off to sleep for the night.

More pics here.