DinoLand Exhibit

We spent Sunday morning at the DinoLand Exhbit at Austin's Zilker Botanical Garden. Olivia was never "dinosaur-crazy" like some kids her age set and younger are, but she does know a few of their names and has a couple of plastic toy dinosaurs that she plays with on occaision. Eve likes to run around the house wearing a dinosaur costume I picked up at GoodWill several years ago, and she can say "I-NO-saur" (her favorite word, "No" is in there!), so both girls are somewhat interested in dinosaurs. Of course, the park is outdoors, so naturally, THAT held their interest too.

Thursday Date Nights

In September, we started up Thursday Date Nights where each Thursday of the month we have special family time with one another. My good friend, Elizabeth, gave me this idea several years ago when her oldest daughter started school; it was a way for them to reconnect as a family because sometimes even the weekends can be hectic with activities.

The plan goes like this: The first Thursday of the month, Olivia and I have a date and Eve and Brian have a date. By "date" I mean one-on-one time doing something as simple as going for a bike ride or something a little more extravagant like going out to eat together. The second Thursday of the month, we switch so that Brian and Olivia have special time together and Eve and I get some time too. The third Thursday, Brian and I get to go on a date (We have started a date exchange with our friends Constanze and Markus, so they can go out one night a month too.), and the last Thursday of the month is Family Night, where we do something all together.

So far, the plan has gone really well, and we are always looking forward to Thursdays! Eve hasn't caught on too much yet because to her it just seems like one of us is gone with Olivia, but as she gets older (and stays up a little later), I'm sure she will think of Thursdays as a special day too.


On our first Thursday. Olivia and I went to The Ceramic Mug and painted pottery. She had never been to one of these places before, so I kept it as a surprise because sometimes new things make her "grumble". She didn't want to go in at first and stuck behind me, but as soon as she saw all the paints, she was so excited. She asked excitedly, "Are we really going to make pottery?" :) She picked out the pieces to paint, and for herself she picked a nice coffee mug, and for Momma, she picked a spider! I asked her if she was sure she didn't want to do the spider and let me paint the coffee mug (please, pretty please), but no this was the way she wanted it. In the end, I painted the spider for her and made it a "Groovy Spider" painting on fingernails and long eyelashes. She picked two different shades of blue and a black for her coffee mug, and was so excited when she mixed the black and blue and made a navy color. It was hard for her to wait 5 days to pick up the fired items, but it was a good lesson in patience. The owner even gave her a tour of the kiln and showed her the firing process since they were not too busy during our visit. Afterwards we went out for ice cream before heading back home for bed and bath. Olivia got her favorite scoop, mint chocolate chip. Eve and Daddy read books (Eve's favorite activity), and she "hit the hay" early as usual.



The following week, Brian and Olivia went to Main Even and went rock wall climbing. They had a blast and Olivia made it up to the fifth row of rocks. She fell a few times, but after Brian showed her how to fall backwards and not lean forwards, she seemed to not be as afraid. Unfortunately, the camera was forgotten, but not too worry, Olivia is already asking to go back! Eve worked on her new favorite activity....locks and keys... and read some more. :)

We missed our date night on the third Thursday because I was sick with a BAD virus, but Constanze has so thoughtfully let us take a raincheck on watching the kids, that Brian and I will have our date night and on Wed. and all of us will have our family night on Thursday. I'm not sure what we will do yet, but it will be so nice just to be all together.

Belated Birthday Wishes!

We are a little late but are sending birthday hugs to Grannie Jean and Aunt Sharon this week.
We got together with Corby, Megan, and the kiddos on Sunday to take Grannie out to brunch to celebrate her birthday. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera! We had a nice time visiting and the kiddos did great even with a one hour wait for a table at Kerbey Lane. The food and company were well worth the wait, of course! We were hoping Geff and his crew would have been able to come but they were dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

To Aunt Sharon we wish you a very happy birthday too and are sending you our love across the ocean. We hope you had a big piece of Tiramisu to celebrate!

Our love to you both!

Baby Love!

Who knew? Eve is the mothering-type. We should have guessed when she spends much of her time at meals feeding us rather than herself. We kind of thought she just liked watching our mouths chew, but we were wrong! She's a little mother in the making. Olivia never played with dolls. She cried when she saw a doll with a face (ones that were faceless never bothered her for some reason), and the only two dolls she was interested in were because they could preform some bodily function that she was fascinated with at the time...you know, the peeing and pooping kind of dolls. Eve has latched on to one of Olivia's cast-offs (if you can call a doll that when it's only been played with twice), and feels compelled to feed it and talk to it. She threw a tantrum yesterday when it was time to put the doll and spoon away. I don't know...maybe she will make a great chef some day, or a great mother, or a great chef and mother, or at least the mothering-type.

Always in the Ice Cream Zone

The Kona Ice Cream man has started visiting our neighborhood on Wednesday evenings, and as soon as the kids hear his tropical music playing, they come running into the cul-de-sac. Olivia's current favorite is a cherry-blueberry combo snowcone, which is a concoction created by her cousin and neighbor (how lucky is that to have your cousin also be your neighbor?), Elena. Eve hasn't had the opportunity to try any yet, but maybe next spring....

A couple of weeks ago, the ice cream man got held up, and didn't arrive until 1 1/2 hours after he usually visits. It was so funny watching the kids scooter by in the cul-de-sac; they looked like little ants scurrying to find The Great Picnic! Someone would bike past and say, "I think I hear his music," but, alas, it would only be a teenager's car stereo. He came by after the kiddos were already in bed, so Brian went out and told him he missed the big scoop by coming late. Last week he was early, and the kids had sweet, sticky faces at bedtime. :)

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Sending you love and hugs on your birthday, Grandma. Hope you have a wonderful day.
Here's a Happy Birthday Song just for you!