Buffet

This is what happens when your kids see you cleaning out the refrigerator - snack time becomes a full on smorgasbord of everything you've pulled out.  The upside is that it helps to empty a few more tupperware containers in the process!

Fish Fry

My Uncle Jack is a rather prolific fisherman and needed an excuse to clean out his freezer, so we jumped at the chance to escape to the country and headed out to my Uncle Weldon's house for a fish fry this weekend. It was fun to see aunts and uncles and cousins and 2nd cousins (in the case of my kids).

While we enjoyed fried redfish and more thoroughly enjoyed the blackened redfish, the kids played in the treehouse - here they were pretending it was a boat and Lincoln was busy catching more fish...

chased the dogs - and each other - around the yard,
ate ice cream,
jumped in the bouncy house that my cousin Alison so thoughtfully brought down,
and, finally, collapsed from exhaustion.All in all, it was a wonderful day!

Children's Day Take 2

Since Leah had her camp last week, she wasn't able to go to the Art Park with us so we decided to go again this week. Besides, this week Miss Staci was performing and she is another one of our favorites!

Of course, since Leah was running the show this week, we had to get faces painted - totally worth it if you can get in line before they run around the block.

We also took a trip to the Children's Museum in the afternoon. The nice thing about the museum this summer is that Leah and Lincoln are old enough to go do their thing and just check in periodically... so I only have to keep track of the two littles.

Peter is easy since he is pretty much content to play with trains the entire time!

Now if they would only move the train table a little closer to the Tiny Tots Corral so I could watch both Eli and Peter at the same time...

Fine Arts Day Camp

Leah has spent the last two weeks going to a day camp put on by some of the ancillary teachers at her school. She did week of half day activities in each of music, literature, and art.

The first week she had music in the mornings and was able to try out several different instruments, including the drums and guitar - and she learned a couple of songs on a recorder that she was able to bring home! In the afternoons, the school librarian helped them have some hands on book experiences. They made Thunder Cake, rainsticks, and put on a puppet show of Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.

The second week they had art every morning and their main projects were:

an animal maskand clay cutout sculptures

Children's Day Art Park

One of our favorite summer activities is the Children's Day Art Park - a free concert series put on by the Austin Symphony. They have an instrument petting zoo so they kids can try their hand at playing different instruments. Before the main attraction, the kids are introduced to the instrument of the day and hear a quartet play a classical piece.

Even though it gets pretty hot even in the morning, we try to go to see our favorite children's artists - like Joe McDermott, Staci Gray, and the Biscuit Brothers!


This week was Joe McDermott - who has an awesome new greatest hits album out! Lincoln was especially excited to see him and even got to wear his sunglasses and take a picture with him in the art tent after the show. He asked me, "Mom, is that the real Joe McDermott?" Hopefully he's always as cool at his house as he seems to be at ours. Even Eli got into the groove...

After the concert, we made our way over to the art tent to play with clay and color and eat popsicles (Blue Bell is one of the sponsors, so sometimes they have free ice cream afterwards!)

5 Years Old

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

It was so fun to have Grandma and Papa and Uncle Brent come up to celebrate with us!

Everyone enjoyed the Diego cake

We all helped open presents - Leah made a special crown for the birthday boy.

And we had a fun time at the park...


...where Brent treated our newest 5 year old to a popsicle - tamarindo con chile?!

We finished off the day with a trip to harvest some more plums and zucchini
and dinner at Chick-Fil-A!

Everyone returned home thoroughly worn out and ready for bed.
Thanks for giving us a reason to party Lincoln!
We love you!

Farm Fresh

Some friends of ours asked us to take over the harvesting of their garden while they are out of town - we gladly agreed and here is the result of this morning's work...

Looks like we'll be making some plum jam soon... and lots of zucchini muffins for the freezer!

See How She Grows...

Remember this little girl?

Well, here she is nine months and two teeth later...

She had a wonderful year thanks to two great teachers -
Ms. Arispe and Ms. Chandler!

She now reads like nobody's business and writes complete sentences and can tell time!

Goodbye Kindergarten! You taught her well!


Look out First Grade! Here she comes!!!