Team Picture Day

Today was team picture day. Not many of the kiddos smiled for the photographer. But, they all smiled for our impromptu "hats on backward" photo.

Five!!

Guess "how many" the buddies are today!?

That's right...five! We started the day with chocolate chip pancakes. Some of us were so excited that we felt the need to protect our heads while eating.


Then, there were cupcakes and special ribbons at school, followed by an early pick-up and picnic with Mom, some playground time, and a quick trip to our gym where our much-loved kid's zone staffers doted on the buddies even more than normal.

But the best part was a night out at a "real" restaurant.

Ben did a happy dance at the front door.

And Dad pulled himself away from work to meet us!


Happy, happy birthday Ace and Ben!!

A Little History Lesson During Today's Bike Ride

It's always good to stop and read the "hysterical markers" (as my Pop calls them). Especially when they involve trains. This is a cool one and if you are inclined to read more about it, you can do so here.

You Know Your Kid is Hard Core When...

Ten minutes into a bike ride, he takes a header into the creek (bike and all). I fished him and his bike out, wrung out his shirt, picked the algae out of his spokes and asked him if he wanted to ride the 1/2 mile back to the car and go home.


"No Mom. I want to ride some more." And so we did. For two more hours.

Luckenbach, Texas

Luckenbach, Texas
Where Everybody's Somebody

Today's adventure took us to Luckenbach, Texas, a tiny town made famous by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. The little town, population 3, is nothing more than a general store, an outdoor stage, and a dance hall. Blink, and you'll miss it. And don't rely on road signs to direct you there - they are stolen all the time by ornery tourists.

The buddies and their cousins enjoyed exploring the wide open spaces, throwing rocks in the river, climbing trees, and our picnic lunch. We ended the day with front row seats to Thomas Michael Riley and Mike Blakely's Cowboy Sunday. The music was great and we listened and clapped and danced until our little folks lost interest and ran off to chase a rooster.

More pictures here.

Canoeing

Today was free paddle-boat day at our local YMCA. I surprised the buddies with a trip down to the pond to take one out for a spin. But, the nice camp leader filled us in on the scoop. Apparently, the ducks spent much of the winter season in the paddle boats and they didn't think to check them earlier in the week. Shoo-wee! So, they offered us a canoe instead. Even though it has been years since I've rowed anything, we decided to give it a go. Luckily, it was just like riding a bike. We paddled around the pond with ease. The buddies mainly used their paddles to splash me.

Strawberries are here!

After a long, unusually cold winter, we are officially declaring Spring's arrival. Because for us, it isn't really Spring until we had a chance to pick berries at our favorite farm.

Today, as usual, the buddies quickly became the filthiest children there. They were covered in dirt and strawberry juice as they raced from row to row, collecting the ripest, juiciest berries. Someone even managed to SIT on a strawberry, reaching new levels of griminess.


But, I received a friendly tip from a woman in the check-out line who marveled at our grubby clothing. Just dip the clothes in boiling water and the strawberry stains lift right off. It worked like magic!

More pictures here.

The Capitol 10,000

12 weeks of training. 135.5 miles logged. All to be ready to race a fun 10K in a tutu with one of my favorite cousins. The results? 58:42 for me and 57:56 for my faster cousin, who left me in her dust at mile marker 5. The best part? High-fiving our five kids a few yards short of the finish line.

Bluebonnets

Thanks to heavy Fall rains, the wildflowers in Central Texas are spectacular this year! After 2 amateur photo shoots and 137 photo attempts, these are the best. We may try one more time...

Happy Easter!

We've been up since well before dawn. The ten eggs that the Easter Bunny hid in the playroom to buy some extra sleep time for the parents didn't last long. And we've already had a bloody nose all over one of the fancy new Easter shirts so dressed up pics will come later. Until then, here's the one photo I snapped of the buddies before they pulled everything out of their baskets.


And the baskets, minus one chocolate bunny:

Anotther Sea World Adventure

We spent the day with some good friends at Sea World, celebrating the buddies' friend's 5th birthday. Along with the entire San Antonio population on this beautiful Saturday of a holiday weekend. Woo-wee, it was crowded!

We hit our usual line-up of shows and rides and also cooled off with the penguins.


Next trip, we're wearing our bathing suits. Spring is on the way out and we're ready for summer.

Bunny Cakes and Tea Parties

These days, when I know there will be a holiday party sign up sheet at our pre-school, I find myself rushing to get there early to have first dibs. Because, who would want to bring grapes or baby carrots or juice boxes when you could do something like this:


It's even better that the buddies can help me create the goodies. We happily spent our afternoon today listening to music while baking and decorating bunny cupcakes.


We ran out of time to make dinner so we had an impromptu tea party dinner on the back deck. Both boys told me the tea (a root beer from waaaay back in the fridge) was yucky and requested water and milk.

Eggs

A few eggs were dropped, and then very quickly peeled and eaten, during our dyeing process. So, not quite a dozen for each boy. I bet we'll have even fewer left come Easter morning.

A Firefighter's Diet

After our egg hunt and park play date this morning, the buddies and I stopped off at Subway for a quick lunch. You can't beat a foot long sandwich, on freshly baked whole wheat bread, with extra veggies, for $5, that can feed all three of us! As an added treat, during our meal, 3 Round Rock firefighters stopped in to have lunch. I pointed them out to the buddies as we ate and the firefighters stood in line at the counter. Our conversation went something like this:

Ben: Firefighters! I didn't know firefighters ate lunch!
Me: Of course they eat lunch! They're people, just like us.
Ace: Yeah, Benny. They usually eat lunch at a meet.
Me: A what?
Ace: You know. At a meet. When they get together to learn about safety or talk about the rules or watch a video.
Me: Oh, a meeting. Yes, sometimes they eat together at the station at a meeting. But, I bet these firefighters were out on a call because their truck is in the parking lot.
Ben: Do you think they ordered extra vegetables for energy?
Me: I bet they did. Definitely. Firefighters eat lots of growing foods.
Ace: Do they eat candy?
Me: Well, sure. I bet they do sometimes. But, mostly they probably eat growing foods.

And on and on...

Then, as we were leaving:

Ace: Look Mom! That firefighter is getting water!
Me: He sure is. Water is good for us.
The firefighter laughed and waved at us.
Ace: Do you eat candy?
Firefighter: What?
Me: He wants to know if firefighters eat candy.
Firefighter: (laughing) I eat candy sometimes. But, when I do, it's just a little. And, I always brush my teeth afterward.

And then we left. Because it just couldn't get any better than a firefighter telling my boys to eat just a little candy and brush their teeth.

Easter Egg Hunt #2

We met our playgroup friends this morning for our 3rd annual Easter egg hunt. Some of our hunts in the past have been free-for-alls, with the moms evening out the baskets once the kids had lost interest. Not so this time. Most of the kiddos carefully counted out 12 eggs for their basket and then stopped collecting. No crying, no whining, just shear joy in the completion of the task! It makes me sad that this is our last hunt with this group.

Happy Easter Week!

Visit with the Easter Bunny - check!
Annual Bunny Breakfast with balloon animals, face-painting, egg hunting, and crafting - check!

Now we are ready for a week filled with egg hunts, pre-school parties, egg dyeing, and bluebonnets.

Rodeo

After a fun birthday party this morning, the buddies and I decided to hit the Austin Rodeo, on its last weekday of the season. Today was "Farmer Day", which meant if you dressed in overalls, your entrance fee to the fairgrounds was waived. You can bet your boots that we wore our overalls! I even donned my GAP overalls, circa 1994, after I discovered they way in the back of my closet.



Our adventure at the fair began with pony rides. But, Ben wouldn't ride because he had a tummy-ache after eating too many Skittles at the birthday party. Ace chose the biggest pony of all and trotted around happily. After that, we watched a Western shoot-out between two outlaws and a sheriff. Good prevailed and we they even slipped in a little lesson that even a blank can shred an aluminum can. Ben perked up after the show, once there was talk of ice cream. And then, we were off to see a real milking show. The boys said the show had "too much talking" but they liked the milking demonstration. At the end of the presentation, Ben said he had a question (we're really into questions these days) and asked the dairy farmer, "What is strawberry milk?"



Then, we discovered the real highlight: the Turbo Jump. For 7 bucks each, the buddies got 2 minutes of flight time. A bit expensive, yes, but totally worth it to see their smiles. After that, we took a quick trip through the petting zoo and then a buzz down Livestock Lane to see the farm animals.








All in all, it was a great outing. Next year, we'll be back for the carnival rides.

Arrowhead Ranch

This morning, we visited Arrowhead Ranch with our playgroup friends. The owners call the ranch "a li'l bit of country, right in the neighborhood". What that means is, this working ranch, which has been owned by the same family since the 1940's, has slowly been surrounded on all sides by suburban neighborhoods.

For just $5 per kid, the buddies rode their first full-size horse (albeit a slow one with arthritis), fed goats, pet bunnies and a donkey, and got a balloon at the end. What a bargain! Of course, all of that took about 20 minutes and then there wasn't much else to do.

But, the owners couldn't have been nicer to our rowdy bunch. We'll visit again, when we're in the neighborhood!

Barton Creek Greenbelt

One of our favorite working-mom friends took the day off yesterday and invited us out on an adventure. We hiked Barton Creek Greenbelt on a lovely Spring day. The last time we visited, the creek bed was dry but yesterday the water gushed. We marveled at the waterfalls and the buddies and their friends enjoyed throwing rocks and sticks into the creek. The water was still a bit cold for wading so we climbed trees and rocks and even explored a cave.

Ben, climbing.

Ace, posing.

The mama's (thanks to Ace for snapping the photo).

Saint Patrick's Day Play Day

Gone are the days where we celebrate Saint Patrick's Day at crowded block parties or Irish pubs. However, now I always have at least two handsome guys by my side.


Plus, lots of their little friends.


These days, instead of parades and pub-crawling, we celebrate with scavenger hunts and games of pin the shamrock on the leprechaun.


Yet, some things haven't changed all that much. If you look closely, you might find this:

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!