More Swimming in February

We are LOVING our new indoor pool! Since our debut, we've hit the water once a week and are having a ball. (The frog in the picture above isn't sad...just cold. The pool's heaters were on the fritz today, but that didn't stop us.)

Mardi Gras Party

This morning, the buddies and I joined our friends for the second annual Mardi Gras Party and Play Day. Sadly, our New Orleans friends were unable to host this year, due to a lice epidemic from their youngest daughters pre-school class. But, Fat Tuesday must go on, so we made a last minute change to a cootie-free location.





We dined on authentic red beans and rice and King cake. Then, we tossed beads from the top of the play scape, but that only lasted a minute before one of the kids got hit and cried. The buddies decided to decorate "floats" for a parade and convinced some of the other kids to join them. We had cars, lawn mowers, scooters, and ride-ons jazzed up Mardi Gras style.









We'll continue our celebration tonight, with a big pot of gumbo. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

You asked, so here goes...

A few of you asked just what was so eventful about last week that kept me from blogging. So here goes. I'll try to keep it short.

On Tuesday, after a very fun swimming play date, Ace stuck a raisin up his nose. And then pushed it up so far that he lost it and told me it "went into his chest". After much blood, drama, calls to the pediatrician, and a trip to the ER, Steve met up with us, looked up his nose and announced he could see the raisin. So, we left the ER, drove to a grocery store, bought a pair of tweezers, and Super Dad yanked the offending raisin out. Here they are, right after. You can see the relief in Ace's eyes.


The next day, we met some neighbors at our neighborhood park for another play date. We discovered the play scape in this condition:


And that really ticked me off. Vandals had torn huge sections down all over the play scape leaving screws, bolts, and splintered wood within reach of small children. The screws pictured above were about chest high on the buddies. The Mad Moms united and Operation Save the Park was formed. I took pictures of everything and emailed our elected MUD officials. My awesome neighbor got our HOA involved. The next morning, the play scape was repaired in record time! Since then, I've been in contact with the police and am setting up a little neighborhood watch program among the families that frequent our park. There seem to be some kids in our area that have a little too much free time and could benefit from some court-mandated community service. I hope we catch the little sh!ts.

Country Boys

After quite an eventful week, we slowed things down, county-style, by stopping to take pictures on a tractor for sale on the side of the road. Enjoy!

Me Mom's Visit

We are coming off of a 3-day visit from one of the buddies' favorite people: Me Mom. Ace held his hands high over his head and jumped up and down when he awoke to find her in the playroom on Saturday morning. Ben was excited too.



We packed in loads of fun stuff during her brief visit. The buddies invited her to help them pass out Valentines to our little neighbors on Saturday morning. Then, we made our debut at the new indoor pool at our gym. I haven't seen such big smiles on two wild boys, since our last swimming trip many months ago. We also spent lots of time riding bikes around our neighborhood and even showed her one of our favorite evening activities: making smiley face pizzas.


Today was her final day with us and we took her to visit the Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown. The 100 million year old limestone cavern was a cool place to visit, even if a lot of the coolness was a little lost on two wild boys. We'll have to try it again in a few years, after I recover from today's excursion.

After a quick lunch at Rudy's and ice cream and play time at McDonalds, we drove Me Mom to the airport to send her back home to Philadelphia. And now the buddies are chattering constantly about our annual summer visit to Me Mom's house. They can't wait to see her again!

Valentine Play Date

I've been running a Valentine card sweatshop in our house for the last few weeks. Between two parties and valentines for our little neighbors and friends, the buddies needed to make a little more than 60 cards. We started in mid-January and still have a few more to make before our next event.





Thanks to a great idea from my cousin, we melted bits of crayon in heart shaped molds and created heart crayons for our friends. Then. the buddies glued them onto foam hearts and added heart stickers. Later, I attached notes to each of their friends. Ben chose, "Have a happy Valentines Day for 'crayon' out loud". Ace liked, "You make the world colorful".




This morning, we squeezed into our Gap Kids Valentines shirts (for the third year!), packed up 34 of our handmade Valentines, and headed to Miss Annie's house for our twin & triplet playgroup Valentine's Day party. We also brought Baked (with love) Ziti, using heart shaped pasta for the delicious and festive potluck.



Each kiddo created a cute bag for their valentines. The buddies both chose pink bags but decorated them with manly train stickers (of course!). Then, the little friends stuffed them with valentines and other goodies.


After several hours of fun and way too much good food (and punch for Ace) we said our goodbyes and headed home.
View the rest of our pictures here.

College Friends

This evening, we had a rare opportunity to reconnect with some of my college friends who are in town for the weekend. Though our lives are very different now and it has been over 10 years since we last got together, we picked up right where we left off. And the buddies loved horsing around with their gorgeous daughters.

We spent three wonderful hours catching up and getting to know each other's kids. The buddies were their rowdy, but well-mannered selves and said they had a great time at the "party". Hopefully, it won't be another 10 years before we get together again.

Soccer for Small Folks

After four practices and three games, we are finally starting to enjoy three year old soccer. For the first few weeks, Ben told us he was scared to play and sat in my lap. Ace would actually get out there and try, but would eventually cry and say all the other kids were faster than him. They aren't, but when other kids are ahead of him and he can't catch up, he assumes it is because they are faster. We spent much of the first few games and practices trying to convince two buddies to play.

Today's game was much better. Our boys took turns playing, so it was like having one full-time player. Woo! Ben scored two goals and Ace scored one. Best of all, they had FUN! We may just survive the season after all.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Over the weekend, we attended a Chinese New Year festival with some good friends. 2009 is the year of the ox, which symbolizes prosperity through hard work. We're ready to work hard and be prosperous!


At the festival, the buddies and their friends made cool Chinese kites and also enjoyed some time in a bounce house. We ate lots of authentic, tasty Chinese food - Ben and I really liked the green onion pancakes and Ace and Daddy enjoyed the freshly made egg rolls. Yum! We sipped some tea for good luck and headed on our way.

Later that day, inspired by the holiday, we all learned how to write our names in Chinese. Well, we learned how to use an English -to- Chinese tool online and printed our names. The boys pasted theirs on construction paper, added their English names and hung them in their room. I think they look cool!

Today's Historic Events

Today, I watched the first African American president of the United States take his oath, while snuggling on the couch with a slightly feverish and very sleepy Ace. Politics aside, what strikes me most about today's historic events, is how different the world will be for my children and their generation. A black president will just be another part of their landscape and that makes their world a little less racist than the world I grew up in. And that gives me hope.

My favorite quotes from the day:

From Barack Obama's Inaugural Address:
"This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed...and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."

And from Joseph Lowery's (slightly Seussical) Benediction closing:
"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around — (laughter) — when yellow will be mellow — (laughter) — when the red man can get ahead, man — (laughter) — and when white will embrace what is right."

Here's to progress and to a new era! Now, if I can just get the buddies to say our new president's name correctly and consistently...

"Barack Obama" is kind of hard to say

MLK's National Day of Service

This morning, the buddies and I decided to take our president-elect up on his call to service by cleaning up one of our favorite local parks. We donned gloves and carried garbage sacks throughout the grounds and cleared out every speck of trash that we could find. It was fun!


Afterward, the buddies rewarded themselves with juice boxes and some fun on the playground. But, I think they enjoyed their service project even more than they enjoyed their reward.

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”

–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Action Painting!

This morning, our play group met at Abrakadoodle for an action painting class. What's action painting? Imagine 20 preschoolers flinging paint from brushes, balls, fly swatters, and big rubber fish. It was awesome! Clearly, this wild boy craft was right up our alley.






It was noisy and messy and loads of fun. Jackson Pollock would have been impressed, I'm sure. And at the end of the play date, each child had a framed masterpiece to take home. We can't wait to find a special spot for them.

A Manly Tea Party

In an effort to get to know the kids the buddies will attend school with in 2010, we have started a small neighborhood play group. This morning was our second play date and we have many more on the schedule in the coming months.

Ben came up with the theme for today's event. He said, "I know! How about we have a tea party with hot chocolate!" I like how he thinks! So, we donned our best tea party clothes, set up a table-clothed kid table, made pipe cleaner flowers, and got to work making dainty food. Ace made the mini blueberry muffins mostly by himself.

And then we discovered that none of our pretty girl neighbors could join us. Four wild boys sat around the table, sipping hot chocolate "tea" and eating finger sandwiches. And then they ran upstairs and happily played with trucks and trains.

The Cameron Park Zoo

The buddies and I needed to get out of the house today so Daddy could paint their bedroom. So, we arranged to meet some of our Dallas friends halfway between our homes, at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. This 52 acre, natural habitat zoo was the perfect spot for our day trip.





We followed the winding paths through the zoo grounds and saw monkeys, lions, tigers, flamingos, giraffes, American buffalo, rhinos and more. Play areas are scattered throughout, including a cool underwater slide through the otter tank. We especially enjoyed the aquariums and their air-conditioned buildings on today's unseasonably warm day!

But most of all, we enjoyed the great company of friends that we just don't get to see often enough. Perhaps another room will need a fresh coat of paint soon and we'll be able to convince them to meet us for another fun outing.

Check out the rest of today's pictures here.

Bowling!

We took the buddies on their first trip to the bowling alley this morning! They were so excited to get there, put on cool bowling shoes, and learn the game. Dart Bowl, an Austin institution, was the perfect place to learn, during a quiet weekday morning. We might as well have had the place to ourselves.



The attendant set up gutter bumpers for the buddies and brought them a 6 pound ball to share. Steve taught them how to roll it with two hands, granny-style. Both boys thoroughly enjoyed the first game. Ben, like his mom, didn't really care much about playing a second game and gave up half his turns to either Daddy or Ace. It was a fun outing!



Our scores:

Game 1:
Daddy: 187
Mommy: 98
Ace: 67
Ben: 49

Game 2:
Daddy: 182
Mommy: 110 (woo hoo! triple digits!)
Ace: 47
Ben: 52

Click here to see the rest of today's pictures.

Happy 2009!

After 10 years, Steve and I traded in our annual New Year's Eve Party for a family-friendly New Year's Day Party. We borrowed a bounce house from a friend, set out juice boxes and beer, bloody mary's and minosas, and served black eyed peas for luck.

Our guests brought contributions for our time capsule, which we'll bury in the back yard, later today. Then, next year, we can dig it up and remember the fun times we had and see how much we've all changed.

Happy New Year to all! Here's to a prosperous 2009!

Hill Country Christmas at Schlitterbahn

This evening, we took the boys to explore the Schlitterbahn Hill Country Christmas. For those that don't know, Schlitterbahn is a huge water park, built on a natural river. It has been voted the best water park in the world and for good reason - the place is amazing. In a few years, we'll likely be frequent visitors during our hot Texas summers, but today we enjoyed the wintertime festivities.


On the advice of friends, we high-tailed it to the Bobsled Racer when we arrived as the park opened, before the lines grew long. Our fearless duo climbed to the top and raced down the 4-story chutes on their mats without skipping a beat. Ben got stuck midway on his first run and then demanded to ride again so he could get it right. Sound like anyone we know? Fearless Ace shot down the hill like a rocket both times.

After that, we explored the rest of the park. We enjoyed bounce houses, a carousel ride, lots of amazing light displays set to music, a festive play area, a merry maze, and real snow blowers. Another highlight was our trip to the miniature train display. The very sweet train engineers would stop Thomas in front of each child and ask the child to tell Thomas to "go!" and then start him up again. Ben had a conversation with one of the engineers about the track set up that I'm sad to say went over my head. After that, the engineer clearly understood Ben's passion for trains and stopped Thomas in front of our sweet boy several more times.

We had a fantastic time tonight and it is thanks to my wonderful grandparents and their Christmas gift to us. Instead of giving us more stuff, which we have too much of to begin with, they gifted us with this awesome event and we'll treasure the memories forever. Thanks, Grands!

Check out the rest of our pictures here.

The Miracle on 37th Street

Last night, we took the buddies to explore what has come to be known as "The Miracle on 37th Street" in Austin. For the past 20 years, residents on this small urban street show their holiday spirit with a level of enthusiasm that would awe and inspire even Clark Griswold.





The creative residents don't hold back with their displays. They adorned their homes, vehicles, trees, shrubs, toilets (yes...toilets), and sidewalks with thousands of lights. There were even a few homes with lights running over to their neighbor's houses. This year, several residents chose to make political statements as well.




Steve and I enjoyed admiring the creativity and community spirit as we strolled the street. The buddies just enjoyed the spectacularness of it all, and quite enthusiastically. One passerby stopped to sarcastically ask if we could please try to get our boys excited about the lights.

View the rest of our pictures here.

The Walkway of Lights

This is our third Christmas in Austin and we still have not explored the famous Trail of Lights at Zilker Park. It runs for just 10 days, right before Christmas every year and we've just never been able to squeeze it in to our busy schedules.






The aforementioned Trail concluded on the 23rd, but today we explored a much smaller version in Marble Falls, Texas, just 40 miles from our home. The small hill country town is also home to our favorite berry farm, so we've come to know it well.






The Walkway of Lights, on the shores of Lake Marble Falls, was perfect for our buddies. We strolled the pathways, enjoying Christmas music and hot chocolate, and took in the 130 sculptures lit with over a million twinkling lights. It was certainly a wondrous site, especially to two 3 1/2 year olds. We had such a good time that we walked through a second time before leaving.




Perhaps next year we'll make it out to Zilker Park for the acclaimed 1.25 mile Trail of Lights. Or, perhaps, we'll avoid the crowds and traffic and just go to this sweet little light display instead.

Either way, "Merry Texmas, Ya'll".

More pictures here.