Silly Bowls for Silly Bands for Silly Boys

But perhaps I am the silly one for buying silly bands in the first place. The buddies have caught on to the fad and love collecting and wearing their silly bands (or rather the cheap knock-offs from Wal Mart or CVS). The problem is they take them off and leave them all over the house. Everywhere I turn, there is a little pile of silly bands.

So, we made bowls out of glue and yarn and call them Silly Bowls. A place for everything...

Point Venture

What a fun day! We joined some Dallas friends at the lake house they rented for the week and had a blast playing in the water. Point Venture, population 506, is a beautiful peninsula on Lake Travis.







Even more amazing is the crazy, mutant school of catfish that lives near The Pier restaurant at the tip of the peninsula. I've never seen such big fish, never mind how many there were! It's a great spot to take the family to enjoy a beverage and adult conversation. The kids were totally entertained by the fish.

Adventure Monday #10, Part II

Since I wouldn't dare take the buddies to a long and hot motorcade and call Adventure Monday over, we stopped off at a few more fun places. First up, swimming at Deep Eddy!

The cool spring water felt so good after hanging out in the sun on a 100 degree day.


After a few hours at the pool, we met some Dallas-friends at the newly opened Austin Lego Store.
It was super-cool to see giant Buzz Lightyear and Woody, built entirely out of legos.

Adventure Monday #10: Presidential Motorcade

This morning, we took part in a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the President of the United States drive by in a motorcade. Our friends invited us to join them with the Travis County Democrats and we jumped at the chance. Here is the crew we gathered with:
Before a few of you roll your eyes (you know who you are!), there were a few Republicans in the crowd and I was impressed with the interactions between the two groups. We witnessed a few Democrats approach a group of Republicans and express their thanks for them being there, despite differing opinions. And a kind man with a "NO-vember" sign offered us extra bottled water for our kids and dog after we'd drained our supply.

And how cool is it that the buddies got to SEE the president! Sort of, anyway. His bullet-proof black limousine darted quickly by, amidst a swarm of secret service cars. Several people around us saw Obama waving through the window (including my friend) but we missed it. But, the security teams, police, swat, bomb-sniffing dogs, helicopters, and secret service were impressive and we enjoyed that.
After welcoming our president to Austin, we were off to lunch and frozen yogurt (which some people thought was the best part!).

Naegelin's Bakery

After our adventurous trip down the river, we decided to reward ourselves with some baked goods from the oldest bakery in Texas. Naegelin's Bakery has been "keeping Texas sweet since 1868". And they sure seemed to know what they're doing. We sampled cookies, creme cones, and kolaches, and also brought home cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. It was a sweet end to a fun day.

Adventure Monday #9 - Tubing the Comal

Well, that was an adventure alright. It's been years since I've tubed a Central Texas river. What I remember are slow-moving, bottom-dragging, lazy floats, where the biggest recreational activity was beer-drinking. Parts of the Comal are just so, but not all, as we learned today.





We tied our 6 tubes in a nice, big circle and headed out, lazily enjoying the ride. About a half hour into our trip, we noticed signs overhead directing non-swimmers to exit and walk. We're swimmers and the kids were in life jackets, so we trudged on. As we neared the chute, the two lifeguards stood up, watching us anxiously. Our tube configuration, though awesome, wasn't quite wide enough to get us through the narrow chute. The swift waters squeezed us together, causing Ben and his friend Rip's tubes to smoosh together on their sides, with both boys holding on for dear life. Seriously! I had my arm stretched out to hold Ben in as we shot through like a rocket. We cheered and laughed when it was over, thinking we'd survived the most eventful part of the river.

And then we saw more signs. And more lifeguards, this time four of them, who stood up on alert as soon as they saw us. We braced ourselves (for a waterfall this time) and managed to go over at the exact worst spot. My friend Traci and I were tossed from our tubes while our three children miraculously stayed afloat and continued down the river without us. We swam like mad and caught up with the kiddos, who laughed at us and cheered about how awesome it was. Thanks boys.

Luckily, the rest of the trip was uneventful. We floated for another hour or so without incident and the buddies declared it the best Adventure Monday ever.

The Buddies and Coach Steve

This season, we decided to forgo the individual pictures and just get a group shot of our three boys. Because we already have albums full of t-ball pictures with this being our 7th season and all. Aren't they cute?


Of course, they would have looked even better had they worn this season's uniform and matched the rest of the team. Now that we have seven sets of these uniforms (most in varying shades of blue), it is easy to be confused. Whoopsie!!

Music Under the Star

Tonight, we picked up Dad from work and headed downtown for Music Under the Star at the Bob Bullock Museum.

This is the star we are talking about. Not the cute one in front, but the big bronze one in the background.

We danced to some tunes from Omar and the Howlers.

And enjoyed some free food from Rudy's, free popsicles from Good Pop, and free ice cream from Blue Bell.
Then, a quick (and free!) tour of the museum, four more Good Pops, and we called it a night.

The Blue Hole

The Blue Hole in Wimberley is just the kind of summertime adventure that the buddies and I like. We packed in a picnic and just enjoyed swimming and playing in the clear blue waters for the afternoon.


A few of us were brave enough to try out the rope swing. Another declared that he needs to be "at least 6 or 7" before he tries.


We ended the outing with a sno-cone, as is our cousins' tradition. Ben chose "Worm Guts" (of course), Ace went with Rainbow, and I had a Mocha (for obvious energy-depletion reasons).

Wimberly Glassworks

Today we enjoyed yet another field trip with our fantastic cousins. And it was another full day of adventure where I didn't have to plan a thing and didn't even have to drive. Early in the morning, we piled all 7 of us in her car and headed to the hill country.







Our first stop brought us to Wimberly Glassworks for a glass-blowing demonstration. We arrived early and spent some time oohing and ahhing over the merchandise. They had some really lovely glass...all way out of my budget.







Then, we watched with interest as our two friendly glass-blowers pulled oozing glass out of 2000 degree ovens and shaped it, blew it, cooled it, added colored glass to it, dipped it again, shaped it some more, until they'd created this beautiful fluted lampshade. Amazing!

Museum, Museum, Museum

We hit up 3 local museums with our cousins this afternoon. Here are the reviews, based on the Buddy Rating System:

Texas Music Museum - two thumbs sideways

Texas Natural Science Center - two thumbs up

Austin Children's Museum - two thumbs WAY up


All in all, it was a fun and educational afternoon!

Lost Lagoon

Adventure Monday #9 brought us back to Sea World, this time to explore the water park. The buddies rode everything available to them and loved it. I loved it too, aside from being the primary tube carrier (x3) up the 48-foot towers. We also managed to catch a few shows, including two that we hadn't seen before: Sea Lions Tonight and Cool Vibrations.

No pictures today...we were too busy having fun!

Uncle Jeff and Aggieland

Uncle Jeff spent last week in College Station for fire-fighter training. Because when you are super-cool like Uncle Jeff, being a Chemical Engineer living and working in the Virgin Islands isn't enough. You have to fight fire too.

We toured campus, starting with a climb up the Century Tree.


Then, the buddies placed pennies at the feet of Sul Ross for good luck in kindergarten. And then they knocked a bunch off climbing around and had to put those back too.


We made a special stop by Uncle Jeff's freshman dorm and even knocked on the window that he used to climb in and out of.


There were a few scuffles over who got to walk next to Uncle Jeff. Apparently, his right side is the best place to walk.


It was hot, so we headed to the hotel some pool time.

And that turned into a chicken fight.

And finally, the buddies left their mark at Freebirds (with a little help from Uncle Jeff).

Pretzel Rollers

A few of the buddies' friends joined us for the afternoon today, so we decided to try out the pretzel-rolling skills we learned while in Pennsylvania. Some of the kids were really into it.

Others looked at me like I was crazy in the head. What do you mean, you want me to roll a pretzel? When is my mom coming back?
But, our efforts resulted in lovely, golden, delicious pretzels!

And you can't beat that! Except maybe by rolling around on the floor and eating them.

I doubt this is what Pottery Barn had in mind with these chairs...

Adventure Monday # 8

This morning, we decided to head back to the place where Adventure Mondays were invented. Krause Springs! It is definitely our favorite natural watering hole in the area. Though we shared the place with what seemed like half of Austin today, we sure had a good time.







It is impossible to be in a bad mood in such a setting. We swam under the waterfall more times than we can count, watched the big kids swing from the rope (Ben says he'll try it when he's 7. Ace, when he's 6), picnicked, jumped off the cliffs in the man-made, spring-fed pool and visited what the buddies call "the magic tree".

PVC Project #2

Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

During our shore trip, we took long walks along the beach, combing for sea shells. And then, we sorted through them and picked the best ones to bring home with us. Today, we picked out the ones that had broken during our travels and the rest were free for painting.




I love creative art projects that look good displayed in the home! And now, I'm going to go dust that lamp.

PVC Project #1

My boys (all 3 of them) have several PVC projects on their summer to-do list. First up, Skate Trainers! We saw a version of these at the roller rink earlier this week and wanted some of our very own.

The great thing is, they work a bit like training wheels on a bike. They give the boys just enough balance to learn how it feels to be up on skates. We're hoping that after a few sessions with the trainers, they'll be skating solo and we can pass the trainers onto two of our little friends.











And yes, we know one should wear a shirt when inline skating. He would have been out there in his underwear if we would have let him.

My 6:45am Wake-Up Call

4 wild boys
2 HESS trucks each
All 8 trucks in desperate need of fresh batteries. Immediately.
(at least they let me put on a pot of coffee first)