Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade

This morning's holiday outing took us downtown for the Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade. The hour-long parade down Congress benefits Operation Blue Santa, which delivers toys and food to needy families in Austin.

We arrived early and scored prime front row spots near the Capital building. The buddies kept busy with games and snacks from "Mommy's bag of tricks" as we waited for some friends to join us and the parade to begin.

It wasn't long before we were enjoying sights of firetrucks, marching bands, old-time cars, ponies, unicyclists and jugglers, drill teams, and giant inflatables. We chuckled at some of amateurishness of a few of the floats - the Macy's Parade, this is not - but had a great time.

And best of all, at the conclusion of the parade, volunteers removed the road blocks and invited all the children to deliver their gifts to the toy trucks stationed throughout the parade. It amazes me how quickly the trucks fill to the brim.

View the rest of today's pictures here.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This morning, we joined some friends (and 13,000 other racers) at the 18th annual Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot for the 5 mile run. It was only our second Austin trot experience, but most people know we are long-time trotters at another race. The buddies spent parts of the trot in our double jogger, but also spent a good amount of time running, skipping, and hopping alongside us. A big highlight was when they sprinted across the finish line with their friend, Mia, shouting, "I win! I win!" all the way. Here we are, after the race, in all our glory:

A few minutes after we took the photo, the MC announced that the last trotters had finished the race. He wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving and then helped his friends haul off the audio equipment. We've never witnessed the end of a trot before, so I guess we were pretty slow this year. But, it was worth it. Before long, we'll be trying to keep up with the buddies instead of them trying to keep up with us.

It was a good thing we all burned off a lot of energy this morning, because this evening, we filled our tummies with lots of this:


And then some of this:


During our meal, we discussed what we are thankful for. The conversation went something like this:

Daddy: I'm thankful for Mommy and Benny and Ace.
Mommy: And I'm thankful for Daddy and Ace and Ben.
Ace: I'm thankful for swimming.
Ben: And I'm thankful for candy and toys AND swimming.

We are thankful for food and remember the hungry.
We are thankful for health and remember the sick.
We are thankful for friends and remember the lonely.
We are thankful for freedom and remember the enslaved.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving Week Play Date

This morning, the moms and kids in our playgroup took some time out from our busy holiday schedules for a fun and festive play date. The kids made Native American headdresses and then wore them while they played. It is amazing what construction paper, scissors, and a little bit of glue can do to transform an otherwise ordinary day!

Eagle Heart and Walking Bird at the Thanksgiving Feast

Earlier this month, the buddies excitedly came home from school one day, and informed me of their new names: Walking Bird (Ben) and Crazy Horse (Ace). Ace said "Crazy Horse" in a wild, throaty voice and clearly loved the name. But then, on the next school day, he came home and said, "Cooper really wanted to be Crazy Horse, so I chose Eagle Heart." He was a little sad about it, but quickly embraced his new name. And of course, he received lots of praise for letting his friend have what was clearly the best name. Perhaps Eagle Heart does suit my sweet boy.




After weeks of preparation, today was the day of their school's Thanksgiving Feast. I attended with the other moms and listened to the kids sing cute Thanksgiving songs and parade around in their Pilgrim or Indian get-up. Ace couldn't stop waving and smiling at me during the performance.




Afterwards, each class sat together around a blanket and ate a "feast" of turkey lunchmeat, apple slices, cheese cubes, and pumpkin bread. It was a fun activity!

Last T-Ball Game

The buddies played their last t-ball game of the season today. Well, sort of. Ben refused to get out of the car because it was cold and windy outside. So, Ace played in his last game and Ben and I sat in our warm car and watched "Magic School Bus". Until snack time, when Ben decided it wasn't too cold to eat cookies and drink a juice box. He has his priorities after all.

After the game, the team had an end of season party on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants, where it wasn't too cold to eat ice cream. Again, priorities!

Go...

Seadogs!

Our Nature Collage Play Date

The buddies and I met our friends at a park this morning to play and to make nature collages. After some fun on the playscapes, we read "Leaf Man", a lovely children's book by Lois Ehlert. Ace loved all the photographs of creatures made out of leaves. Ben wanted to run around on the tennis courts but obliged me by standing at the back of our group until the end of the story. When we finished the book, each child received a brown paper sack and set off for our nature walk. They collected leaves, sticks, small stones, and feathers.

Heavy winds prevented us from creating our masterpieces at the park, so we packed up our nature treasures, construction paper, glue dots, and googly eyes and created our projects at home. It was our first play date where the kids took home "homework". :) Ace and Ben's nature collages turned out great!




Ben's nature collage ----->

I like how he covered his twig with googly eyes. It's kind of creepy.








<---- Ace's nature collage. He chose a more traditional eye placement.

Happy 80th Birthday Granny!!

My beloved Granny is 80 years young today. The buddies will gladly serenade her in person this weekend, but until then this will have to do:




This was take 7 of 10. And now I need a drink. We tried. :)

Happy Election Day!!

Don't forget to vote! Or, if you're too young, just eat some patriotic cookies and vote for your mom make them again some time.

"Happy Halloween! Happy Halloween! Happy Happy Halloween!"

3 1/2 may be the perfect age for trick or treating. The buddies were able to walk to each house, determine whether or not the porch light was on, walk to the porch by themselves, decide whose turn it was to ring the doorbell, and then be absolutely delighted by whatever they received in their pumpkin buckets. And then Ben would sing at the top of his lungs, "Happy Halloween! Happy Halloween! Happy, happy Halloween!" They were big hits in our neighborhood.

Also, for your enjoyment, I've included a video from their preschool Halloween parade. The kids sang songs for all the parents, led by their music teachers. As you'll see, the buddies were really into it this year. I only caught half of this song on video, but it was clearly the best one.



Now we're ready to move on to our next holiday. 'Tis the season! Already!