Adventure Monday After Dark

In an effort to avoid the Memorial Day crowds, we opted for an evening Adventure Monday. Our first stop brought us to the Frigid Frog for shaved ice. Ace chose the Spider Man. Ben opted for the Tweety Bird.


Then, we were off to our main event: a visit to see the Congress Avenue bats, the largest urban bat colony in the world. The bridge serves as a summer home to an estimated 1.5 million Mexican Free-tailed bats. And every evening, just after sunset, the bats emerge to fill the night sky, and feast upon 20,000 pounds of insects. We arrived early and read up on the winged mammals.


And then, the buddies goofed off with a bunch of other kids with various games of tag and other silliness.


Dusk hit and we settled down onto our picnic blanket, ready for the spectacular show we've been hearing about. We waited. And then, we waited some more. Some of us patiently; some of us not so much.

At 9:30pm, a full hour past sunset, the bats finally emerged. But unfortunately, it was a little too dark to see them. Thanks to the spotlights of a bat tour boat, we caught a few glimpses of the creatures. We'll be back for an encore visit in August, which is supposed to be the best time to view the bats.

They no longer call me "Mom"

These days, I'm known as "Zoo Keeper". How appropriate is that?

Preschool Graduates

No, I was not one of the sobbing moms at pre-school graduation this morning. I was too busy being proud of the buddies as they marched up on stage after their names were called and accepted their "diplomas". Ms. K, our fantastic teacher introduced the buddies with the following descriptions:

Ace's favorite part of school was our "big underwear" unit. When he
grows up, he would like to be a grandpa.

Ben also enjoyed our "big underwear" day. When he grows up he would like to be a firefighter. (although Ben edited this today and told me he wants to be a paleontologist and hunt for fossils).

Though we will miss our wonderful pre-school of 3 years and we will especially miss our most-wonderful teachers and friends, the buddies are excited about Kindergarten. And I am excited about spending the summer with them, nearly schedule-free, so that we can pack in loads of adventures.

Adventure Monday #1

It is not yet officially summer, but the buddies and I decided to start our favorite summertime tradition early. Adventure Mondays are here!

Adventure Monday #1 took us to Sea World. It was our last opportunity to hit the park before the school-age kids are out for the summer. We had the place nearly to ourselves. And because of that, we decided to say, "Meh" to the shows and focused mainly on the rides. The hands-down favorite was the Texas Splashdown, which we rode 6 times in a row, once without even having to get out of our log.

9th Street

Several weeks ago, we stumbled upon 9th Street (as the local riders call it) while driving home from the Children's Museum. This downtown BMX track has been hand built and maintained over the past 20 years by the local riders. The place is a gem!







We had the park to ourselves for much of our visit and the buddies loved riding over the smaller hills and around the bigger ones. We also got the opportunity to watch a community-member ride up on his dirt bike, jump a few hills, and then pick up a shovel and work on a hill for an hour. It was an awesome outdoor adventure with a lesson in community service. It just doesn't get any better than that!

What Happens in Luckenbach...

Stays in Luckenbach.

Our encore visit to Luckenbach, TX brought out the sillies in two boys that I know.

Pedernales Falls State Park

The Muddy Buddies and Mini Muddy Buddies and Mini Muddy Buddy Chaperons (the dads) hit up Pedernales Falls after our race. It felt good to rest our tired "dogs" in the water.

Of course, before too long,we abandoned our relaxing foot soaks and took the big kids on a semi-treacherous hike through the creek beds.

It was the perfect ending to a great day.

Mini Muddy Buddy

Why do the mud pit just once, when you can do it twice? With your kids! Of course, the Muddy Buddy race had to have a Mini Muddy Buddy, to give all the kids in the crowd a chance to participate. Our crew was definitely the best dressed, in their custom Mini Muddy Mueggs t-shirts.

They were excited too. At the horn, Ben darted out into the mud, ready to conquer the mini obstacles and crawl through the mud pit. But, before he could make it to the first obstacle, his shoe got stuck in the mud and came off. And that made him cry. And, I wasn't close enough to help him because Ace's shoe was also stuck in the mud a few paces back. The MC started hollering that parents needed to stay with their kids, as I fished out Ace's shoe and raced toward Ben. Once we remedied all our technical difficulties, our race was on. Ben cried through the whole thing and Ace just beamed.

Neither of the buddies really wanted to crawl through the pit, so they mainly just walked and ducked under the flags.

But, they got plenty muddy anyhow.

I heard lots of, "I NEVER want to do that EVER again!" But, they loved seeing the pictures and can't wait to wear their race day t-shirts to school on Tuesday and tell everyone about it.

Muddy Buddy Ride & Run

Team Muddy Mueggs (that's my cousin Halie and me) completed our first Muddy Buddy and we are hooked. It was hands-down the hardest 5.7 miles of my life, with narrow dirt roads, tough hills (including one nicknamed: "the hill of death"), rocky hazards, and 5 obstacles throughout. The race works like this: teams of 2 take off from the start, one running and one biking. After about a mile, the first teammate (the biker) encounters an obstacle. The biker, drops the bike, completes the obstacle and then takes off running. The runner completes the same obstacle, grabs the bike and rides the next leg. So, the teams leapfrog each other, switching off at each obstacle. The final obstacle is a giant mud pit, that you army-crawl through together and then race to the finish line. Costumes are encouraged and each teammate receives 2 Redhook beers at the finish line.

We completed the race in 54:46, which put us in 9th place out of the 60 competitors in our age bracket. Not bad for a couple of rookies on a rickety old bike with bad gears!

All fresh and sparkly at 5am.

Beginning our crawl through the pit.

Emerging from the pit, victorious!

Still excited!

Enjoying our refreshments.

A few funny things that I heard during the race: "Biker on your left! And I'm out of control!" From Halie, while buzzing past me on our bike, "The first partner across the finish line gets to drink her partner's beers!" "If you trip and fall in the woods, but nobody sees it, does it count?" "Only if you fall in the mud. Because then there is evidence." "My partner is a drill sargent... in a tutu."

Omar the Octopus

This week was "O" week at pre-school. The buddies learned about oceans and oysters and otters and ocean life. And the octopus. "O" yes, the octopus. Their fabulous teacher "went fishing" (ie. she went to the Asian fish market) and caught a real one and brought it to class. He was very real, though thankfully, no longer alive. When we arrived, she pulled me aside and asked if we would like to take Omar home with us at the end of the day. Of course we wanted to!









I spread the word among our neighbors and invited them all to come over this afternoon. We had 9 takers show up at our door and marvel at our sea creature. They explored his tentacles and suction cups. Ace and Ben pointed out his mouth and his eyes. And, luckily for us, our final visitor took Omar home. It is "bring something from the ocean" day at her preschool tomorrow and we all agreed that Omar would like that. (And, to be honest, I'd rather Omar spend time in her freezer, rather than ours, before the next trash pick-up.)

Cousins

We enjoyed a lovely visit from some special family members this afternoon. Two of my dad's cousins (including one double cousin, actually) made a special excursion just to visit us. The buddies loved showing off for them.

Ace really likes Ginny, because she's good at puzzles.

Ben enjoyed chatting about Nascar with Orlene. She told him he needs to check out demolition derby.

It was a lovely visit that ended just a little too soon.

Happy Mother's Day

We enjoyed a lovely Mother's Day brunch with our neighbors at the University of Texas Club (sorry Pop).


Then, spent the early evening in our backyard with a few of our favorite families. Our new zip line, which was a birthday present for the buddies, was the MVP of the party.


Happy, happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our life!

5 year stats

Ace:
height: 45 1/2" (97th percentile)
weight: 44 pounds (75th percentile)

Ben:
height: 43" (50th percentile)
weight: 40 pounds (50th percentile)

We have two happy, healthy boys who are ready for Kindergarten!

Mother's Tea

Ace and Ben's pre-school class treated all the moms to a Mother's Tea this morning. The buddies served up strawberries (which they then ate off my plate), grapes (which they also ate), powdered donuts (yep, they ate them), and banana cake (I actually got to eat this!) and raspberry tea.

There were also a few songs, a story, and gifts for all the moms. But the best part was guessing which of the two portraits were me and hearing what the kids all had to say about their moms.

My Mother
by Ben

My Mother has brown eyes and black hair. She is 35 years old. My mother is prettiest when she wears pink. When Mom has free time she likes to work. Mom is really funny when she says silly things. I love when she cooks chicken marsala, but I don't like chewy meat. She likes me to help her build with legos. I love her very much.

My Mother

by Ace

My Mother has brown eyes and black hair. She is 16 years old. My mother is prettiest when she's cleaning. When Mom has free time she likes to sweep. Mom is really funny when she makes silly faces. I love when she cooks spaghetti and meatballs, but I don't like chicken marsala. She likes me to help her cook. I love her very much.

I love my boys!

All three of them! They brought me this (plus a cup of coffee) in bed this morning:

Big Top Candy Shop

A morning errand took us to South Congress Avenue (or SoCo, if you are a hip Austinite), so the buddies and I decided to check out Big Top Candy Shop. Since we've lived here, I've heard many people talk about this old-fashioned gem and was surprised to learn this morning that it has been an Austin fixture for less than 3 years. You sure wouldn't know that by the looks of the place.


Walking inside is like stepping back in time. Old-time poster prints and antique instruments adorn the walls above row after row of nostalgic candy. Treats are displayed inside pretty urns or rusty old wagons beside a real old-fashioned soda shop.

I told each buddy they could pick out one treat - anything they wanted. Ace immediately went for a giant lollipop. Ben wandered the by-the-pound candies, changing his mind with every new candy he spied. He finally settled on gummy chicken feet. I ate one, because he offered, even though its grotesque shape made me gag a little.

After we paid for our treats, we window shopped with our sugary stash. Ace delighted in showing his giant lolly to the diners at all the restaurants we passed. And, this evening, when Ben's chicken feet were long gone and Ace's giant lolly barely had a dent in it, Ace asked Ben, "Don't you wish you'd picked this one instead?" Ben said, "No. I just should have scooped more gummy chicken feet into my bag."

Ace and Ben's Camp Out

The buddies decided on a camp-out birthday party this year and each invited 5 friends to our backyard.

And told their grown-ups to drop them off and go home.


We began with a scavenger hunt. The kids hunted for snakes and geckos and crayons and pencils and bubble gum.

Next up, was a water bucket relay race. Ace's team won, and they were very excited about it.

Then, it was time for a snipe hunt with Super-Grandpa. He took the kids on a hike in the woods behind our house and taught them his classic snipe call. It goes something like this, "WAH! WAH! KEE-KEE-KEE-KEE-KEE!" The kids called and waited excitedly to catch the snipes in their paper bags, but alas, the snipes escaped them. Luckily for the kids, they managed to scare the snipes into our backyard, where they scattered candy and then escaped before their return.

After the snipe hunt, everyone was hungry and thirsty, so we had a snack.

And then roasted marshmallows for s'mores (highly supervised, of course).

Then, there was singing and cake.

Twice...
And some camp-out favors for our little friends.


After two hours of fun, the parents returned to pick up their kiddos. And the four responsible adult chaperones collapsed. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for helping us host the party today!