June

Howie the Artist

This month Howie enjoyed some en plein air painting. Was his subject matter outdoors? No. Is a four year old with acrylic paints far too messy for indoors? Yes. Howie had lots of fun painting a picture of a dragon for his room.

A Trip to the Theater

We went with some friends to the Magic Theater, a downtown theater that does children's shows, to see Freckleface Strawberry. This was the first time I have taken the boys to a live performance, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that both boys loved it. It was short, full of music and dancing, and there was a concession stand with popcorn. At the end, Howie said," Is there another one coming on?" He thought it was like cartoons on TV. After the performance we had a picnic lunch and played at the park. A fun outing for all!

Howie and Henry with their friends Maya and Carla. Yes, my boys are the crazy ones making dinosaur faces.

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

Well folks, this month we crossed another item off our Texas bucket list by going to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. It is somewhere between San Antonio and Austin, and on our many trips between the two cities we have seen many billboards advertising this place as a "Safari--Texas style". This month we decided to give it a try.

At the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch you drive your car around the ranch and feed wild animals. They had Longhorn cattle, ostriches, lots of deer and antelope species, emu, buffalo, and zebras. They also had a large giraffe exhibit and petting zoo. The boys had a lot of fun watching for animals and throwing food out the window. 

I think the best part was watching the car full of crazy teenagers in front of us. They were feeding the ostriches out of their hands and the ostrich was sticking its head all the way inside their car. When Howie saw them he said, "Roll up the window Daddy! I don't want an ostrich in my car!" The only thing we were brave enough to feed out of our hands was a deer. Here is a video of Matt feeding the deer. That is Henry laughing in the background.

After enjoying the safari, we went to the petting zoo. Henry loved feeding the goats. He is not afraid of them at all. He walked around patting their backs and feeding them out of his hand.

Rockport Beach

This Saturday we decided to take the boys to the beach so we drove to Rockport (near Corpus Christi). This was the most fun the boys have ever had at the beach! Henry was old enough to play in the water and sand. Howie was old enough to not be scared of the water and waves. The water was shallow and warm so we could walk out a long ways and Howie could still touch. Howie walked out until the water was up to his neck! (Before we could hardly get him in water higher than his ankles.) He played in the waves, and we pulled him around on a boogie board.

After playing for awhile, we took a break for some lunch. As soon as we opened our cooler and pulled out a loaf of bread, the sky was suddenly full of seagulls. They hovered overhead and slowly circled Henry, guessing correctly that he would be the most likely to drop his lunch. When we were done with lunch, the seagulls disappeared. Later in the day we saw them swarming around another family and we said, "Oh, they must be eating lunch."

After a few hours on the beach, we cleaned up the boys, got some ice cream and headed back home. It was a long day and a fun day.

Other Random Awesomeness 

We fed the ducks at Brackenridge Park.

We rode the train at the zoo.

Matt celebrated Father's Day with a nap, bike ride, balloons, and cherry pie.

Howie rode his bike around the park and we had a picnic.

Howie discovered the Lego Store at the mall. He was in heaven--or he would have been if Mom had let him buy out the store like he wanted to.

We enjoyed some tasty BBQ. Howie and Henry are rather obsessed with creamed corn.

Henry decided that he is too big for a high chair or booster seat. He will only sit  at the table if he can sit in a chair like a big boy. And now for some reason, I seem to be cleaning up a lot more food messes. I don't understand it.

We put up a birdhouse. In less than one week the food was gone, thanks to a hungry squirrel.

Howie wrote his own name!

Howie's New Bike

On Saturday Howie got his first big boy bike! He loves it! And I love that he loves it! He test rode a couple of bikes at REI. In the end he chose a Novarra Stinger because "this one goes so fast!" (That's my boy!) He rode so fast that he got kicked out of the store and had to finish his test ride outside. Outside on the sidewalk, he was going up an incline to the store. He said, "This is a big hill! I got this!"  Howie was so excited to bring his new bike home and has been enjoying riding around our neighborhood.  It is so much fun to see Howie enjoying bike riding!

Howie and his new bike

Howie had fun decorating his bike with the stickers that came with his bike.

And here is a video of Howie's first ride around the neighborhood, which also happens to be a video of Howie's first bike crash. Thankfully Howie was a uninjured and eager to get back on the back, although he now goes a little slower on sloped driveways now.

Playing in the Rain

We got quite a bit of rain the past few days. Perhaps you heard about it? We made the national news! Apparently there was quite a lot of flooding in some parts of the city. My boys weren't too worried about the rain though. It all started when we were at the park, but it didn't stop them from having fun. They played and splashed while I watched from the safety of the picnic shelter.

It would appear from Howie's facial expression that Howie didn't like getting wet in the rain, but actually he just likes making funny faces for the camera.

Happy Birthday!

So, I'm a little behind, but two weekends ago we celebrated Matt's birthday! Yay! On Saturday we went to a family fun place called Malibu Castle. We played mini golf, rode go carts, and played arcade games. The go carts were a big hit with everyone. I have never been in a go cart before, and I was pleased to discover that my go cart driving skills are considerably better than my video game driving skills. Howie loved riding in the go cart. He had his own little steering wheel and loved racing all the other carts. According to him, we always won.  I won't disagree, but some of the other kids might.

The whole family had a great time that day golfing, playing race car games and skee ball, and riding the go karts. On Sunday (Matt's actual birthday) Matt enjoyed sleeping in, blueberry pancakes, eating cupcakes, and doing whatever he wanted all day!

Happy Birthday Matt! I love you so much!

Garbage Truck Races - 2013

It is time once again for the annual Garbage Truck races! I have two little boys who like to do nothing better than watch garbage trucks drive around. Especially if they are watching garbage trucks while also eating donuts.

Henry checks out the business end of a garbage truck.

It's like going to a parade!

Matt hard at work judging the garbage truck races. If you have to work on a Saturday, this is the way to do it.

Here comes the garbage truck!

Howie's New Friend

Howie loves plants. We took him to a cactus show at the botanical gardens. He loved it! He spent a lot of time looking around at all the varieties of cacti and succulents. Then he picked out this little orange moon cactus to bring home. He loved it so much he wanted to sleep with it that night. Since his new friend is covered in prickles, we convinced him to leave it downstairs for the night. I love my little boy who love plants.

The New Homeowners

Matt and I made great strides in the world of homeownership the past two months. We did the annual maintenance on our AC (by which I mean, we hired someone to do it for us). We fixed the toilet in the master bath so the chain doesn't catch (the lid was on wrong). We figured out how to restore power to the outlets in the bathroom when the breaker trips (this took three days and multiple google searches). We learned how to answer the much asked question "Do you have bermuda grass or St. Agustine?" (the answer being a little bit of both with a good mix of weeds).

Having tackled the basics of homeownership, we decided we were ready to tackle a bigger project: Re-landscaping the front yard. Why? Because we can.

Here is a before picture of the front yard:

There was nothing particularly wrong with the front yard, but we had an itch to do something different. Mostly, we wanted to have more flower beds so we had less grass to take care of. We also wanted more native plants that don't need much water. In short, we wanted to do a lot of work right now so we can do less work later.

We have spent a lot of time planning and drawing pictures of what we wanted to do in the front yard, but we weren't too sure what we wanted to do. Then one Saturday we were inside staring out at the front yard. We decided just to go crazy and do something right then. (This/ is how we end up doing most things.) So Matt grabbed a shovel and started digging up grass. I took the boys to Home Depot and bought supplies. I came back home and grabbed a shovel and dug up some grass. Matt went to Home Depot for more supplies. Howie looked for rolly polly bugs, and Henry played with sticks. Matt came back and installed metal edging. I started digging up plants. Matt went to Home Depot for more supplies. We both dug up plants and bushes and put them in plastic bags. Howie got bored of playing outside and went inside to watch TV. Henry fell asleep. I raked up our new flower bed. Matt went to Home Depot for more supplies. By 2:00 in the afternoon, the new flower bed was ready for plants and we were exhausted. We took the boys out to lunch and planned to call it a day.

But being crazy and re-energized by our tasty sandwiches and large quantities of Dr. Pepper, we decided not to call it a day after all. We drove to the nursery to pick out plants for our new flower bed. We kept the existing Mountain Laural (a beautiful tree that gets purple flowers that smell like lilacs) and bought another small one. We also got an agave, a red yucca, Mexican feather grass, and some little succulents of some kind.

Back at home we finished up our project. We planted everything and put down soaker hose and mulch. It was a long day and a lot of work, but the end result is beautiful. We are quite pleased with how it turned out. Here are some photos of the end result:

I don't think we are completely done with the front yard, but this was a good start. Later we want to do something with the island, and we are trying to replant the grass in the front yard to improve our grass to weed ratio. But for now we are feeling like proud homeowners.