Summer Reading

No...the buddies can't read...yet. But, they have made great progress this summer and it will only be a matter of time. Luckily for us, several of our local summer reading programs allow non-reading pre-schoolers to participate. Over the last few weeks, we've logged the books we've read and this morning we sent our lists off for some cool prizes. Now we just have to wait anxiously for them to arrive in the mail over the next 3-4 weeks!

New Braunfels Railroad Museum

This afternoon, we met up with some fellow train-enthusiast friends at the New Braunfels Railroad Museum. Our party of 8 filled the tiny former railroad passenger station to near capacity. Especially since 5 members of our crew were excited, train-loving, wild boys.



The kids barraged the patient volunteer curator with loads of questions about model trains and enjoyed watching them travel around and around the cool layout. Also, during our visit a train blew past on the active Union Pacific main line tracks and that was a real highlight. Ben held his ears and said the train was "too noisy" but didn't take his eyes off it until it was gone from sight. Ace loved every second of it and didn't care how noisy it was.


After we spent a couple of hours watching the model trains, we went outside to explore the restored steam engine and caboose. It was a great activity for a hot summer day. Check out the rest of our pictures here.

More Krause Springs Photos

I am almost always the one behind the camera during our outings, so it is rare that I am actually in a picture. What a treat it is to receive a whole slew of pictures of the buddies goofing off with me from my friend this morning. Thanks, Traci! This one is my favorite. We all three love playing in the water.


Check out the rest, here.

A Field Trip to Krause Springs

This morning, a friend and I decided to be adventurous and take our boys to Krause Springs, a cool swimming and camping site in the hill country. The property boasts 32 natural springs, many of which feed into both their natural swimming hole and man-made pool.






At the advice of the friendly owner, we eased our crew into the chilly waters in the shallow areas of the natural swimming hole first. We splashed around, tossed some rocks, and swam under the water fall. In an attempt to entertain the buddies and *try* to be a cool mom, I gave the rope swing a couple of tries. It was not as easy as it was 13 years ago, which was probably the last time I attempted such a thing. I didn't hurt myself, which is really all that matters.




After swimming for some time, we made our way back to our picnic area and shared lunch. Then, it was on to the man-made, spring-fed pool. Brrrrrrr! That water was refreshing, to say the least. Everyone from our party jumped in at least once and a few of us stayed in and splashed around for a while. After that, we let the kids play in the "Magic Tree", a cool, old, hollowed out tree that even I could stand up straight inside.

It was an awesome day-trip! Check out the rest of our pictures here. And check back again tomorrow to see my friend's pictures.

International Space Station Viewing

Early this morning, I learned that the International Space Station would make a pass over Texas at 9:17PM today. So, I sent a quick email to our neighbors and rallied a group of space enthusiasts to join us for the event. We gathered at 9:00 in the cul-de-sac and began scouring the night sky.






After several false alarms, and at exactly 9:17pm, Steve spotted it. We watched it, for nearly the full five minutes, as it quickly made its way across the sky above our rooftops. Too cool! We love space exploration!

Lakeside Fun

Closed Captioning:
Ace: Ben, that was fun! Ben, let's do that again!
Ben: I don't think so, Ace.

Independence Day

We had lots of fun over the holiday weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house on the lake. Lots of "firsts" took place:

1. The buddies bought their first fireworks. Grandma went to the local stand the day before and picked out exciting crackers for each boy and left them with the owner in bags with each boys' name. When we arrived, she handed Ace and Ben $10 each and drove them to the stand. They held out their bills and said, "I'd like to buy some fireworks, please. My name is Ace / Ben."

2. Daddy lit his first fireworks (really!). We can officially call him a Texan now, after 13 years in the state.

3. The buddies played with their first sparklers.

4. They caught their first fish - two perch from inside Grandpa's boathouse. Ace stuck around to catch four more and then he and Daddy set them all free again.

5. I water skied for the first time, post kids. It was awesome! Steve skied too, also his first time since the buddies joined our family.

6. The boys participated in their first turtle races, a family July 4th tradition that probably dates back 25 years. They named their turtles "Michael" (Ben) and "Tree" (Ace), although we tried to convince them to come up with more turtle-ish names. Neither of our turtles placed but it was fun nonetheless.

7. Ace took part in his first grape spitting contest.

8. Ben helped out in his first flag raising ceremony with Grandpa. He also jumped off Grandpa's dock into the lake for the first time. During our last trip, that was "too scary" for him, although Ace must have jumped off 25 times.

It was a big time.

We also took part in the 5th annual Buncombe Creek Independence Day Parade and Party. The buddies decorated and rode their scooters, but pooped out in the 100+ degree weather after a short while and hopped on the golf cart "float" with Grandpa and I. They tossed "sucker pops" at the spectators and Pop and I tossed Nacho Cheese Doritos (of course). And, we enjoyed a neighbor's fireworks display on Friday night but missed out on our boatside show when bad weather thwarted our plans.

Check out all the pictures here.

Asthma Woes

What a week we've had and it is only Wednesday. About 6 weeks ago, we took both boys off their daily asthma maintenance medication, just to see what would happen. Well, what happened is Ben caught a nasty virus, went into respiratory distress, and ended up in the hospital for 24 hours. But, doesn't he look cute?

The picture above was taken the morning of his release, after several rounds of Albuterol and a hefty dose of oral steroids had a chance to kick in. He was feeling much, much better. We checked out around noon on Monday and scheduled our follow-up appointment with our pediatrician at 8am the next morning. Of course, that next morning, Ace was wheezing and struggling to breath, so we brought him with us as well. Our proactive pediatrician wrote oral steroid scripts for both boys and saved us from another trip to the ER. We love her! And our former pediatrician called us from Plano when he heard about our woes and gave me his thoughts on our treatment plan (which confirmed what I already knew: that the buddies are receiving excellent care). We love him as well! It is good to have good people on your side.

This afternoon, everyone is breathing fairly normally and we just have a few more days on the oral steroids. Which is good really, because a mom can only take so many days of juiced up kids. But that's another story...