Blackberries!

Man, it is hot. Our projected high temperature for the day is 106 degrees. After missing out on two planned outings with friends, I promised Ace we would visit our favorite farm "as soon as his throat stopped hurting". And today was that day, regardless of the scorching temperatures.

We headed out pretty early and picked quickly once we arrived. Then, we ate our homemade ice cream in the shade at 10:30am and ate our picnic lunch in the air-conditioned car on the drive back. The consensus? We love our berry farm in the Spring and in the Fall. Not as much in the Summer.

Daddy Rocks!

The buddies made these cool "Daddy Rocks" for their dad and gave them to him this morning.

And their daddy does rock. He works hard all week long and still finds the time to coach their t-ball team, take them to the swimming pool (alone, so that I can get a break!), mow the lawn, and take me on a date.

As is our tradition, the boys helped me complete their Daddy Questionnaires this week and we presented him with their answers today. Ace's answers are in blue; Ben's are in red.

How old is Dad? I don’t know. / I don’t know. (actual answer: 36)

But take a guess. How old do you think he is? 46! No, how about 56? / (after Ace’s answers) 66! Then, from Ace: He’s much older than you and me and Benny too!
My dad has no / black hair. (actual answer: brown, though not much of it)
My dad has green / brown eyes. (actual answer: a lovely and unusual shade of green-ish, blue-ish, gray-ish)
My dad loves to tickle me and then I want to tickle him /play!
I love it when my dad hugs me and puts me to bed with a ride /tickles us.
My favorite thing to do with dad is race – I ride a scooter and Daddy runs! /play the get-you game.
My favorite game to play with my dad is Duck, Duck 123 /Candy Land.
I like it when my dad sings the Ace and Ben song / ABC’s, but Grandpa sings the wrong numbers, like this 123-20.
My dad makes great eggs /music.
When I’m sad, my dad tickles me /snuggles me.
I like to get a piggy bank / race cars with my dad.
I love my dad because he coaches my t-ball team /because he tickles me and that’s what he really wants to do.

Happy, happy Father's Day to all the wonderful daddies in our lives...especially our own.

Texoma Trip #2

The buddies and I are home after a week with my folks at their lakefront home. It was awesome and fun and we'll go back for more soon since it is the perfect place for wild boys. Here's a run down of what we did while there:

Pretended to be pirates...because it's their new thing and Grandma ordered cool pirate hats.


Had fun in the "pirate ship" (aka the tree house). One afternoon, while I was hanging out in the tree house with Ace, he ran to the garage refrigerator to grab himself a Gatorade and hoist it up in the bucket on a pulley. Half way back, he yelled, "Hey Mom! Would you like a beer?" I didn't really but since he offered, and that was kind of cool, I took him up on it. He brought it from the garage and hoisted it up in the bucket for me.


Went on lots and lots of boat rides. Grandpa let them drive. Ace was pretty good at it!

Ben prefers to drive the golf cart (and does it really well!) but he also drove the boat a few times.

Fed horses at Mr. Cleo and Ms. Loretta's house.

Swam and shot water guns...

Mostly at Grandpa. Because he splashes back and makes a big production of it.


Tried to ski...unsuccessfully. We figured out that it is going to take 4 adults (5 if we want pictures and video) to teach 4 year olds how to water ski.

Monkeyed around at a few parks and a really cool pool.

Picked berries at Grandma's blackberry farm.

Ben picked a lot but had an empty bucket at the end of the outing. The owner (a super-nice guy), looked at his tongue while we were checking out and let Ben know he was onto him.

Fed the catfish at the berry farm pond. Grandma taught them to yell, "Here kitty, kitty, kitty" as they tossed the food in.

Went on a hay ride at the berry farm.

Played lots and lots of frisbee. Until Ben missed one headed right for his face and caught a bloody nose.

Jumped off Grandpa's boat dock. Lots and lots of times for Ace. Ben said it was too scary but scared us to death by running around like a wild boy inside the boat dock.

Visited the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville with the Super Grandparents. It is a nice little zoo.

The best part was the public giraffe feedings at 10:30am.

Pushed a tired Grandpa in a hammock. It probably wasn't really that relaxing.

Went on a train ride at the McKinney Flea Market.

It was a full week! It is taking the buddies days to catch their daddy up to speed on all their adventures and even longer for me to fully recover.

T-ball Trophies

This morning was our last game of the Spring t-ball season. We don't keep score and there is no such thing as an out but I'm pretty sure our awesome team won the league. We certainly had the best coaches, but I may be biased.

After the game, we held a little awards ceremony and cheered for each of the players as they received their trophies. They were all so proud. Then, the team presented the coaches with some much-needed whistles, for next season. We ate a quick snack, had one more team cheer and then headed off to a fun end of season party on the patio at Waterloo. It was a big time.

Go Hooks!

Cousins!

What could be more fun than a whole crew of cousins coming to visit? It was a quick visit, but we packed a lot of fun into it. I wish I could say that we showed our cousins a good time, but the truth is, they showed us a good time. They showed up with presents for the boys and kolaches for everyone. Then, they took us out to dinner at Rudy's. Yum!


The next day, we took advantage of their museum memberships with free admission to the Austin Children's Museum.

After a few hours of fun, we walked a few short blocks to take a peek at Lady Bird Lake.

As my cousin explained to her boys, "Cousins are kind of a cross between brothers and friends". So true.

Earth Science Lessons

It has been a tough month for nature around here. I'm afraid all of our recent outdoor earth science lessons have had tragic endings.

It all started earlier in the month, when we went to our little pond to check on our fish, which have lived here long before us. Wilbur and Charlotte were gone! We don't know what ate them, but he sure wasn't very nice.

A few weeks after that, we discovered one golf-ball sized green tomato growing on our lone tomato plant. We were very proud of ourselves for growing something. That we could eat! A few days later, we went to check on its progress and to our surprise it was gone. Ace cried a few crocodile tears and said, "But I thought it was for us!"

Then, we were very excited to discover a mama bird in a nest in our front yard. Our older neighborhood friends ran home to grab their handy "Birds of Central Texas" guide. We compared and compared but our bird didn't look like any of the birds in the trusty guide. So I told them, in all my infinite wisdom, that she was a dove. Whew! Good thing it was a bird that I know. A few days after that, the neighbor boys nearly beat down our door (at 8am on a Saturday - we were all still in our jammies) to tell us that the eggs had hatched and we had baby birds! We quickly dressed and went outside to check them out. Steve got out the ladder and all the kids took turns peering at the little birds and their mama. It was all very exciting.

We took pictures.

And then, each kid took some pictures.

And then, they started snapping pictures of us from above.


Then, we took the camera away.

The next morning, the same neighbors beat down our door again, this time, to tell us that mama and the babies were GONE. A coyote had eaten them, according to the neighbors. Oh, the horror. We'd been able to work through our grief over the fish and then the tomato, but not our baby birds too! At least we hadn't given them names yet...

So, to all the birds and tomatoes and fish, we bid you a fond farewell. Perhaps next Spring, we'll have more time with your friends.

A Day Outside the City Limits

We love living in the suburbs and all of the conveniences that go along with it, but sometimes wild boys need to get out of town and run around in wide open spaces. So, today we did just that.

We began our day with a play date with our new friends at their home. They live outside of town, on 5 1/2 acres. It was practically a vacation for us! The buddies ran around outside with another set of 4 year old twin boys and got dirty from head to toe. We explored their pond, played with their dogs, rode ATV's and bikes, and played on their playscape.

After lunch and several hours of fun, we moved on and drove another 60 or so miles to Brenham, Texas to tour the Blue Bell Creamery. Our first trip to the little creamery was nearly 2 years ago and today's trip was a whole new experience with my older, wiser, and calmer boys. They did such a great job on the tour and really enjoyed seeing how their favorite treat is made. Their contained excitement about all things ice cream was a big hit amongst our fellow tourists. Then, at the completion of the tour, we each chose a free serving of Blue Bell homemade ice cream and licked the bowls clean.

Butterflies!

Today we met our playgroup friends for a field trip to Wild Connections, a cool butterfly farm in Southwest Austin. It is a place that has been on our list for years and the buddies are finally the right age to enjoy it. The 56 acre, family - owned farm is a place where kids can run free and explore nature.

We began our outing by exploring a few fish ponds. Ace was miffed that he couldn't go fishing and Ben got in trouble with his mean mama for throwing rocks in the pond. This was not the lake!

Once most of our little friends and their grown-ups arrived, we headed to the butterfly house to explore. The 2000 square foot greenhouse housed hundreds of butterflies, as well as some fish and turtles. Our short people were pleased to discover that the mama turtle had not one baby but two - twins! One of the owners let our children hold sticks with caterpillars and fruit with butterflies perched atop. Ben said the butterfly house was "magical" and I have to agree.



After our picnic lunch, we explored the pink and yellow hiking trails. The kids got a kick out of searching for "clues" (rocks and tree branches painted yellow or pink). Our diligent little friend, Caroline, took note of each clue in her trusty notebook along the way. After our hike, we explored the butterfly house one last time and then hit the road with tired, happy kids.

More pictures here!

More T-Ball Video

We are in the midst of our third season of t-ball. I took some video and thought it would be interesting to compare with their very first at-bats, almost a full year ago. The biggest change is the buddies have learned to run to first base (and stop) after a hit. Next season, we'll move up to the 4-year old league (which I hear is not much different from the 3-year old league).

Four Year Stats

4 years!! How can it be? Nevertheless, here are our stats:

Ace:
height: 43" (95th percentile)
weight: 42 pounds (95th percentile)

Ben:
height: 41" (75th percentile)
weight: 35 pounds (50th percentile)

Both are following their normal growth curves and are happy, healthy boys. Ace earned a visit to the optometrist when his left eye scored a 20/40 during his eye exam. Ben's eyes checked out fine and he made the nurse laugh during his eye exam. When she asked him to read the 20/10 line, he said, "No. I can't read that one because it is too small."

And... 4 year olds do NOT like vaccinations. Ben was so mad about it that he refused to pick a sticker out of the sticker bin. He also refused to eat his McGriddle from McDonald's. He eventually came around, and luckily, his twin brother was nice enough to share his stickers.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

The buddies and I joined our friends at the Rowdy Girls' house for a Cinco de Mayo play date this morning. What fun! We dined on enchiladas, tamales, and "Rowdy Girl Root Beer" brewed up by their brewmaster daddy.

The buddies spent some time on their play scape and in their sand pit and just generally caused a ruckus. Then, the kids took turns whacking the pinata and stuffed as much candy as they could into their little pockets.


Viva la Mexico!

Buddy Day

In honor of the buddies' fourth birthday, Steve took the day off from work and we declared today "Buddy Day". The entire day was spent at buddy-friendly places doing wild boy activities.

We began our morning at the Austin Children's Museum. This season's feature exhibit, "All Systems Go" was right up our alley. The buddies love all things transportation and enjoyed exploring the trains, buses, and the control centers that run everything. We also enjoyed the usual permanent exhibits. ACM is a cool place!


When we'd had our fill of the museum (and just as the limit on our parking meter was expiring), we headed out and onto our next stop: Chuck E Cheese's. Ace has been asking to go for months, thanks to the commercials on PBS, and a few weeks ago, he used the birthday angle on us. It worked. Even Ben said, "We're going to Chuck E Cheese's because it is Ace's birthday!" when we arrived in the parking lot. We spent several hours eating pizza and spending our 65 tokens. The favorite games this time were skee ball, which Ace calls "roly ball" and roller coaster simulators, which were even fun for Steve and I.




To top the day off, we headed to our favorite indoor pool for some swimming fun, which is always better when Daddy comes along. Ace said several times, "Thank you for taking us to the swimming pool! It was super-fun!"

Our Un-Birthday Party

This year, we decided to forgo the usual hectic, mind-numbing, kids' birthday party in favor of a relaxed day of family fun (coming soon!). However, a few of our very good friends insisted that we celebrate with them. Our three families met at Phil's Ice House, a very hip, Austin neighborhood burger and beer joint, that comes complete with outdoor seating surrounding a fun play scape. The kids had a blast - and so did the parents!

Pre-School Spring Concert

The buddies' school's Spring Concert was on Friday. During the 45 minute program, Ace turned around to smile and wave at me at least 25 times. He was so excited that I was there to watch him sing along with the rest of the school. Ben never even noticed that I was in the audience. Enjoy a few songs (sorry in advance for the poor quality of my home movies).

Road Trip, April '09

This is just a small taste of what we've been up to over the last week. Details will follow soon...

My Three Boys

Steve and I spent our anniversary (7 years!!) today the way any couple would want to spend it... at a softball game. Of course, his 7:30 game (so he thought) was actually an 8:30 game, so the buddies and I just hung out with him for an hour or so and then left before the game started. It was still quality time, right? :)