Is it REALLY Winter?!?!?!?

We go to the park a lot! Living in Texas we can almost go year-round!

We are very lucky to have such great friends who live close by that are able to meet us, almost on a daily basis, usually at the last minute.

I have been brainstorming of other fun places to go outside to let the boys run wild, so we have gone to Zilker (the big field where ACL is) lately to run around, play soccer, fly kites, climb on the rocks and trees and eat a picnic lunch.  It is also the place were Blaine proposed!  It has been a nice change or scenery for us and the boys have loved it.  With the warm weather we have been having, its been such a fun place to go hang out all morning!  It is amazing how little the boys need to have a good time, throw them outside and they have fun!

The boys have so much fun there that we went back with some friends.  

It started out all nice and innocent, until they found the water faucet in the sand and you can see the progression of the day and eventually how we ended up leaving....stripped down to underwear, very Austin-like:)

A little frisbee....

A little kite flying, or kite flying attempts...

And then they saw the sand....and the water....

The boys were full of sand and water by the time we left, but fun was certainly had by all!!!

Before we met our friends Melanie and Becca at the park, Blaine took Eli to get blood drawn for some tests and then took him to pick out a little car he had been wanting.  We ended up leaving quickly (when its time to go, its time to go!!!) and we left without his new car!   I felt so guilty for leaving without it, I even dreamt about it (Mother's guilt!!!) that the next day I went back to dig through the sand to look for it.  Would you believe that I actually found it?!?!?  It is amazing the things you do for your kids!  Not long ago, just when I had finished a run, I realized Owen had dropped his lovey, and being a mom means running two extra miles after your run is complete in 102 degree weather to desperately find the lovey your son dropped somewhere  on the trail.

Being a mom means sitting in a traffic jam when there is an alternate route just to see the look on your childs face when you drive past the fire truck and police cars on the side of the road.

Being a mom means giving up the crust on your pizza (my favorite part) because its also your sons favorite and you would much rather him have it (even though you really want to eat it!).

So, going back to dig through the sand was only natural and worth it to see the smile on his face!

We met up with a super old friend at Rollingwood Park this week trying to soak up all this wonderful weather.  Hannah's mom and and my mom met at the hospital when they were both having our brothers (they were born a day a part), and they ended up going to preschool together.  Hannah and I have remained friends, although we rarely ever get to see each other.  She lives in Canada now, and was in town visiting her parents and getting away from the cold!  We got to meet her adorable son Jake!

Of course a few trips to the trail to take advantage of the weather.  Owen, always eating.

 We even made a trip to the Salt Lick for a little BBQ...silly boys!

The weather has just been beautiful here!  It is amazing that its January, but we are taking full advantage!

Let's Celebrate!!!

Eli was really, super, excited about his birthday this year! It was such a different experience having a child who asks real, inquisitive questions about his birthday.  The morning of his birthday he woke up and was very confused about how he just 'turned' 4 over night...how did that happen? When exactly?  After his nap would it still be his birthday? How many birthdays will he have?  I answered birthday questions all day.  On the way to school he asked me why it was his birthday on this specific day.  I started telling him how on this day four years ago, Daddy and I went to the hospital because he was ready to come out of my belly and meet us and how it was one of the happiest days of my whole life.  He asked me why, and I had to hold back tears as I told him that on this day, he made me a Mom.  That holding my baby for the first time and to see his sweet face was a magical moment, and my life was changed forever on this day four years ago. I was not expecting to answer that question and it caught me off guard with how emotional I got.

Eli got to take a treat to school for his birthday and he chose donuts as his treat of choice.  So on his birthday morning we headed to a local donut shop called The Donut Hole to pick up some donuts for his class.  He asked if we could stay there and have a donut for breakfast. I would normally say no to eating donuts twice in one day, but since it was his birthday I gave in and let him choose whichever donut he wanted, of course he chose the one that had the most junk piled on top (yuck). But I knew he would only take a few bites before declaring himself done.

Birthday Donut

They were acting like total monkeys!

We took Eli to school and he saw his best buddy from school,  Ty, as we were walking in, which made drop-off extra easy, because they are equally obsessed with each other, not to mention that Eli was beyond words with excitement that it was still his birthday.

Eli and Ty

After school Rachel came over to take Eli to the store where she let him pick out any toy he wanted for his birthday. I have never seem him more excited, seriously.  This could have been the best moment of his birthday.  We stayed home and ordered pizza for dinner (Eli's choice) and just hung out and played with new toys before bedtime.
The idea of his birthday being one day and his party to celebrate his birthday was a little hard for him to understand.  "Which one is my real birthday?"  But once his party arrived Saturday morning he didn't really care if it was his real birthday or not!
He had been really into space and chose that as his theme.  Since he has a winter birthday, I felt like  I really needed to have it indoors, so we chose The Children's Museum.  It was easy peasy!
For the most part, the kids were running around like crazy all across the museum, so it wasn't easy to snap pictures of most of them, but we did out best to get some of the kids.