Explore UT!

Today was "Explore UT" day at the University of Texas and we brought the kids to check it out. The kids had a really good time - we made personalized buttons at the French department table, did a cookie walk, ate at the student union, saw the UT tower, listened to the Longhorn Singers and saw a gorilla skeleton (just to name a few of the things we did)! We also went to the Texas Capitol and walked up lots of flights of stairs to look down from near the top of the dome. We definitely got our exercise today. Hopefully, we can do this every year. (Considering that UT is where James and I met, I have my degree from UT, James has three degrees from UT and both of James' parents teach at UT we do have a connection to the place!)

Spring in Texas

We have had some lovely weather lately here in Austin. 60's and 70's during the day (some chillier than that but mostly not). We try to enjoy it as much as we can before the long days of 100 degree weather during the summer get here. It can be brutal in the summertime! A couple of weekends ago we went to a local park and rented a kayak and played at the park. The kayak was okay, but we did get a little water in the boat so we had to cut it short. Luckily, there was this playscape nearby that helped my pants dry off before we got back in the car!

Anybody see a resemblance?

We got a new scanner (finally) and I am playing around with it. I found an old picture of me (not sure how old I am in the picture) and thought it kind of looked like Mia. Of course, I know we don't look exactly alike or anything but I'd thought I would see if anybody agrees. (I'm on the left, Mia's on the right.)

Mia's haircut

Mia has needed a haircut for awhile, but I kept putting it off. Partly because she has such pretty hair that I liked it long, but also because I didn't think she would sit still for a good haircut. The problem with the long hair, though, it the maintenance! She had to be in just the right mood for her to let me brush it completely and usually I put it up into a ponytail for preschool, etc. so it didn't get in the way. So a few days ago while she was taking a bath I brushed it all out, put it into a low ponytail, and chopped it off! Unfortuately, I didn't make the cut straight, but you can only tell if you look really closely! Maybe I'll take her somewhere to clean it up a bit in a couple of weeks. (I did save the ponytail, by the way. EIGHT inches!)

Scooby and Clifford

One day the kids found some Halloween costumes that my friend Allison's sister had given her (and she had loaned to us). They looked so cute, especially while crawling around trying to look like real dogs.

Playing catch up...

I'm going to post some random pictures from the last couple of months because I've hardly posted anything on here.

So, here is a picture (from January 9th) of Aaron's music class right before his "concert". They sang some cute songs and even had some dance moves to go with them. I could tell they practiced a lot and they all seemed to have a good time!

Aaron's birthday party...way back on January 17th...

I made a goal over a month ago to do better about posting to this blog...see what happens when I make goals (hehe). Here is a photo from Aaron's birthday party. He's six! So hard to believe. He had fun bowling with his friends. For some reason I didn't get a picture of the bowling, but I may have some video that I'll try to post later.

Mia finally had a party!

Mia's third birthday was on Wednesday and today we finally had a bonafide birthday party for her. Five of her friends came over for pizza and cake and ice cream and Mia had a great time! (Aaron did too!) Her friends that came were Gracie, Jacob, Benjamin, Macy and Jack. (Plus Granny, Granddaddy, Jay, Allison and Shannon). The kids had fun running around the backyard and playing with toys. With Christmas and birthdays so close together, you can imagine that we are pretty stocked up on toys and stuff to do!

Happy New Year!

Well, I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but I do hope to do better at posting on this blog in the coming year! We had a pretty nice Christmas. My parents, James's parents, James's Aunt Barbara and Uncle Sam and cousin Mike all came for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner. We all had fun watching the kids open their (many!) presents. We also had fun bowling, golfing and playing tennis and baseball on the new Wii! It's pretty nice to find a video game that almost anyone can play! Mia even tried to golf...pretty funny.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice holiday season and I hope you all have a great new year!

Breakfast with Santa

Aaron's school had Breakfast with Santa last week. They had breakfast tacos, donuts and hot chocolate and got to sit in Santa's lap. There were also some booths so the parent's could shop for gifts. The kids had fun.

You might notice that Aaron is holding a stuffed fish in his lap! He was "Guppy of the Week" at school (his class is the "guppies"), which means he got to bring the guppy home and take pictures of the stuff they did with it. There were some other fun activities at school too. Aaron really liked being Guppy of the Week.