Our 3rd Annual Playgroup Halloween Party

Our twin and triplet friends met us at our neighborhood park this morning for our annual playgroup Halloween Party. For a few of our friends, this was the third time they've attended. It is such a joy to watch our kids grow up together.

Our party began with lots of play time in our costumes at the park. The kids took turns making cool spiders out of cardboard egg cups, black paint, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. It was a simple craft, save for the black paint around everyone's costumes just a few days before Halloween. Let's hope it really is washable! Sorry Moms!


After a potluck lunch, complete with spooky cupcakes and punch with frozen creepies, the kids lined up for our costume parade. They proudly marched in line (well, sort of in a line) around the soccer fields. Each child chose a prize for participating in the parade and then we bribed them with candy to get everyone to sit for a group picture. Most of them did!



As things were winding down, we had a special story time with our favorite Halloween book, "Ten Trick or Treaters". The kids helped me count down from 10 to 0 as we read and then sang along to a couple of Halloween songs. Ace and Ben even participated for a little while, though story time is not their favorite thing.

Check out the rest of today's pictures here.

A Busy Half Birthday

The buddies are 3 1/2 years old today!!! I've always thought it would be a fun day to celebrate, but because their day falls during Halloween week, I am usually too busy preparing for parties and putting finishing touches on our costumes. I'll be busy tonight...

After a fun morning at school, the buddies came home to find a half cake for each of them. We took turns singing to each buddy and then they blew out 3 1/2 candles each. They loved the celebration but barely touched their cakes.

Afterwards, we headed to our driveway for a fun and educational activity - ice treasures! I learned about this activity from the blog of an over-achieving mom and knew we had to try it. I worked on our ice treasure for a week, freezing small toys in layers. The buddies were very excited to test out several different excavation tools: spray bottles with water, salt, and toothbrushes. Ace even decided to try his own excavation tools: the wheels of his tricycle and his toy dump truck, but that made Ben mad. They worked long enough for me to plant a yard full of pansies. Hooray!

Sadly, all of that effort only yielded them one monkey and a cheap toy car, which snapped in half when they yanked it out. Ace almost freed Shrek, but gave up before his backside was released from the ice. When they'd had enough, I popped it back into the freezer for another day.

PS - Go Phillies!!

Super Buddies to the Rescue!

We took home the trophy for the best family costume at our friends' Halloween party yesterday. We have three more Halloween events this week, so you'll see these outfits again. Check out the rest of our pictures here.

DinoLand

This morning, our play group met at the DinoLand Exhibit at the Zilker Botanical Garden. It's an exhibit that's been on our to do list since it opened last month and we were thrilled when our friends planned the outing.

The buddies and their friends loved checking out the scientifically accurate dinosaur models. Ace commented that a particular herbivore looked "grumpy". It was probably because he was stationed right next to a carnivore who looked hungry.

We explored the exhibit twice before calling it a day. Since the buddies did such a good job listening and following directions during the outing, we made a special trip to Hey Cupcake!, a popular cupcake stand in the trendy SoCo district, for dessert. Ace and Ben both chose Snowcaps (chocolate cake with vanilla icing) and I opted for the popular Michael Jackson (chocolate cake with cream cheese icing). Yum!

View the rest of today's pictures here.

Softball Fans

The buddies had a great time cheering for their daddy this evening during a rare pre-bedtime game. The Hitmen won, 13-11, with the game ending on a spectacular play by our very own short stop. Of course, we missed it, because I was too busy lining up the buddies and their friends for pictures.

"Take these home. They're much quieter than the real Ace and Ben."

That's what Miss Heather said to us at our pre-school Open House this evening. Ha ha, Miss Heather. But seriously, aren't they funny? I've laughed just about every time I've walked past these life sized versions of the buddies this evening. You can tell that the pictures were taken around the start of the school year, both by the shorter haircuts and the dazed expressions.

Tonight, we learned that Ace and Ben are both doing very well in pre-school, but we really already knew that. Ace proudly showed me all of his artwork and Ben walked me over to the class calendar and said, "It's not September any more. It's Soptober!" Good times.

Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Oh happy day!! There just isn't a place we'd rather be on a sunny Autumn day than Sweet Berry Farm. It is our favorite place!

We met our weekly play group there for a special pumpkin patch field trip this morning. The buddies went on their first ever hay ride (ahh-choo!), painted pumpkins, enjoyed a picnic lunch with our friends, and then ate ice-cream and Miss Annie's cupcakes. And they spent a lot of time exploring pumpkins - they sorted them, tossed them (and got in trouble for it), rolled them, climbed on them, sang about them, walked on them, sat on them, and painted them. They each brought their painted creations home and I picked a lovely Queensland Blue pumpkin for our kitchen table.

The buddies also enjoyed seeing the the berry crops, our favorite reason to visit the farm, covered for the upcoming winter. We'll be back again in the Spring, when they're ready to pick!

View the rest of today's pictures here!

Happy Columbus Day

The buddies had a school holiday today, so we invited our favorite triplets over for a Columbus Day play date. We celebrated exploration!


When our friends arrived, we made binoculars out of toilet paper rolls. Everyone enjoyed painting their creations, but before long, the four boys lost interest and scampered off to play t-ball and frisbee and "kickedy - kick ball", leaving our little Kylie all alone, happily painting.

Once the binoculars were dry, each kid received a map of the backyard, with directions towards the first letter of their name. It was so much fun that the kids traded maps and hunted for each other's letters too. Then, they used their binoculars to search for other fun things. They discovered squirrels, trees, ants, pond fish, clouds, trees, and grass.

A highlight of the play date (for me, at least), was that Miss Annie brought along two extra adults with her crew. So, for the first time since we started meeting for play dates over a year ago, we almost had a 1:1 adult to child ratio. Thanks for joining us, Miss Kay and Mr. Brent!

Hairy Boogers

I was giving Benny a quick snuggle as I wrapped him in his towel after his bath tonight, and he looked up my nose and said, "Hey Mom, do you have hair in your boogers?"

Hmmpph! It's ragweed season in Austin. And yes, my nose hair is probably a little denser than the average girl's. I just didn't expect my sweet 3-year old to point it out to me.

One Last Swim for the Season

Today we met some friends at our favorite local lakeside beach for one last day of fun in the sun before the weather turns. The local pumpkin patches are set up for business and the weather is slowly cooling, but our lake waters are still 80 degrees and we took advantage of it. You have to love Texas - swimming in October is a rare treat for most.





Our buddies had a blast horsing around in the water with their friends and the daddies. Ace even swam the entire length (about 75 yards) of the swimming area (with his life jacket, of course). He was so proud of his accomplishment.

A Message for Me Mom

The buddies wish we were able to visit Me Mom after her emergency appendectomy yesterday. Since we can't see her in person, we're sending our well wishes here:





We love you and hope you have a speedy recovery.

T-Ball Fans

The buddies had a few extra fans on the sidelines at their t-ball game this morning. Grandma and Grandpa drove down to catch a game. As luck would have it, today was also team picture day, which meant our crew stayed at the fields for nearly three hours. It was exhausting, but fun.




The buddies loved showing Grandma and Grandpa their stuff. They had a blast batting and fielding but the highlight was huddling up for their cheer at the end of the game. Go Seadogs!

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Technically, his birthday was yesterday, but since the buddies were in school and Steve and I had our monthly date night, there wasn't much time to celebrate. So, we made our cupcakes on Thursday and frosted them today.

So, how long does it take to make cupcakes with two little helpers? About three times as long as it normally takes. They took turns helping me measure and dump ingredients, blended it all together with the hand mixer (and licked the beaters), and then scooped the batter into our cupcake pans. Their excitement when Daddy arrived home from work was worth all the effort. They nearly tackled him, shouting, "Daddy! We made cupcakes for you!".

Museum Day

Today was Austin's 11th annual Museum Day, a free re-discovery of Austin's museums. 32 museums participated and opened their doors free to the public. We explored four of them today.

Our first stop was the LBJ Library and Museum on the University of Texas' campus. The museum docents couldn't have been friendlier as our two wild boys excitedly ran through the newest exhibit, To the Moon: The American Space Program in the 1960's. The buddies flew flight simulators, looked at rocket replicas, and posed in front of replicas of our first 7 US astronauts. Then, we sat through a 15 minute laser show set to popular 60's music. It was a great exhibit!

Our next stop was the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. This was our second trip to this outdoor museum but it was very different from our first. Today, over 25 sculptors set up booths with their artwork and gave demonstrations. And the buddies got to try their hands at their own sculpture creations. They found the stiff clay more difficult to work with than their usual play- doh, but enjoyed themselves nonetheless.

After that, we crossed the river and headed to the Austin Children's Museum, a must-do for any Museum Day goers with kids. It was a zoo. We stayed as long as Steve and I could handle it, which was about an hour and a half. The feature exhibit was "Play it by Ear", a very cool, hands-on music exhibit. Imagine 7,000 square feet of wall to wall children banging on pots and pans and that's just about what it was like. But the buddies loved exploring all the different exhibits, especially the train station and a very cool machine where they launched wooden balls down chutes and tracks.

Our final museum of the day was the Blanton Museum of Art, a very nice (almost too nice for us!) art museum on campus. I was a little nervous bringing two wild boys into a place filled with priceless art, but they did great. The museum did a phenomenal job making the event family friendly. Our boys made their own art at stations outside the museum and watched a music show, but skipped story time. Smartly, the museum stationed friendly docents near the modern art sculptures that looked very much like playground equipment, and engaged the kids, asking them what the art looked like to them (and reminded them that it wasn't for climbing). Our two explored ancient Roman sculpture, American and European paintings, and modern art (their favorite).

View today's pictures here.

School is Cool!!

The buddies and I are thrilled to be back in the swing of pre-school. We took our first day of school pictures this morning, despite it technically being the second day of school, since Ben stayed home sick on the real first day.

There were no tears at drop off, not even from me. They have a board-certified early education teacher this year and I happily left my children in her capable hands. I couldn't be happier with her credentials, especially when I learned she has a passion for reading. Bring on the books!


Today, the buddies made a special friendship snack mix. Each child in the class brought an ingredient which they mixed together and shared. Ace brought Chex. Ben brought goldfish, but somehow finagled his way into the coveted position of dumping the marshmallows into the bowl. They also went to art class, music class, played in the big room, and attended story time. When I picked them up, they were covered in marker from head to toe and smiling from ear to ear.

Camp Grandma and Grandpa

Last weekend, the buddies spent a couple of fun - filled days at "Grandma's House and Grandpa's Lake" while Steve and I traveled to Minnesota for a wedding. Our only request when we handed them over was that they spoil them lots bring them both back alive. I think they accomplished both goals.






On their first day, we heard that they were on the lake from 7am - 7pm, minus a couple of hours for Grandpa and the buddies to nap. They had their first root beers and orange sodas and Ben discovered the perfect breakfast food - Pop Tarts! Their second day was packed with activities: breakfast at McDonald's, church, a park, a quick lake trip, Chuck E Cheese, and Bass Pro. Grandpa even bought them a container of minnows and let them play with them. Most of them survived.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Two Young Chefs

This morning, the buddies and I invited our playgroup to Young Chefs Academy for a cooking class. It was a hoot! 17 of our favorite twin and triplet friends joined us for the session. Throughout the class, the friendly chefs taught our kids a little about kitchen safety, etiquette, hand-washing, and measurements.

For our main entree, our kids created "Piggies in a Blanket". They painted barbecue sauce on crescent rolls, sprinkled them with "fairy dust" (cheese), topped them with turkey dogs, rolled them up, and then sprinkled them with poppy seeds. Then, we popped the piggies in the oven for a quick nap.


While our piggies cooked, the kids all made tortilla cut-out cookies with sprinkles and practiced cutting the tortillas scraps with child-safe pizza cutters. Before long, it was time for lunch, which the kids really made themselves. The room was filled with proud smiles.

View the rest of today's pictures here.

Typical Around-The-House Shenanigans

Ready for the Holiday Weekend

For three years now, we've visited the Arboretum cows during the week leading up to Labor Day. I hadn't intended to make it a tradition, but I suppose it is now. It's a fun little outing and we weren't the only family with the same idea this morning. The buddies especially love the fountains but are always miffed that I don't let them splash in them. There are signs posted everywhere asking patrons not to, or I might. Today, we tossed pennies and made wishes. Ben wished to be able to run up the stairs some more. And then he did. Ace, as always, wished for ice cream. He's a kid after my own heart.

Hot Sauce Festival

We took the kids downtown today, to The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival. I love a good festival. I love the music, the food, and I especially love a good theme - and hot sauce is a good theme!. We sampled a few great salsas - Ace was not pleased by the habanero hot sauce, but Ben said he liked it.

The highlight for our boys was the chance to have their faces painted. They've been asking since our trip to the Philly Zoo earlier this summer. Both chose Elmo today, although I tried to persuade them towards other choices. You can never have too many Elmo's, according to our face-painter.

After a short while, the tasting lines grew a little long for the buddies, so we left the park, grabbed a quick lunch with our friends, and headed home.