We were visited by the Tooth Fairy last night

Aaron lost his first tooth yesterday! We were having dinner (crispy tacos) and Aaron said, "My tooth just fell out!" I had noticed that his permanent tooth was starting to come in behind the baby tooth but it wasn't really loose (that I was aware of) until yesterday, so it kind of came as a surprise. I took the kids out for ice cream after dinner to celebrate - the same place that I used to take Aaron as a reward when we were potty training! That seems like just yesterday...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

While James and Aaron were out on their adventure, Mia and I got to have a day just for us girls. It started off with Mia's very first soccer game! We signed her up for soccer at the YMCA and they had their first practice last Tuesday and their first game on Saturday!

I don't know how it happened, but it looked like a real game out there! The four year olds ran, dribbled and scored goals! Incredible! Of course, they also wandered off the field and asked for snacks in the middle of play, scored goals for the wrong team and fell all over the place...hehehe. It was quite entertaining.

Mia had a blast, though. She would run by me at full speed and turn to smile and wave! She did get to the ball and kick it toward the goal, in the right direction, even! She didn't score a goal, but I have no doubt she will eventually.

When I was a kid I was in soccer ONE season. I hated it!! A friend of mine reminded me (jokingly) to watch out for Mia staying at the back of the line to avoid the drills. Mia is totally the opposite of me. She wants to be first in line and would do the drills all day if she could. It was really nice to see her having so much fun. She is willing to try anything and I hope she stays that way throughout her childhood! We can try all the sports!!

Campout on the USS Lexington

Each year the Cub Scouts get to campout on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, TX. So, Aaron and James woke up at 5am last Saturday and headed down there along with Aaron's friend Griffin and Griffin's dad. They arrived in Corpus around 10am and then spent the ENTIRE day exploring the ship!

Aaron told me his favorite thing was playing on the guns (shocking!) with Griffin. The ship is huge and they were able to play on the flight deck and the bridge and all the other parts of the ship. They also got to see a movie about flight and eat their meals on the carrier. Lights out (with Taps) was at 11:30pm and James reported that Aaron fell asleep immediately after. They slept on the bunks that the sailors would have slept on back in WWII. James didn't get any pictures of the sleeping quarters though.

They woke up to Reveille bright and early and were home Sunday morning around noon. Aaron was exhausted! He even took a nap that afternoon, which he NEVER does anymore.

All in all they had a really good time!

Weather

I post so rarely lately that I thought I would make this an extra long post about the weather - maybe that will make up for it somehow...or maybe not....

Spring is about the only time of year when Austin gets interesting weather. When May hits, you can count on the meteorologists saying, "This week: Hot, Dry, Sunny". And that lasts until about October! So, when we get any kind of different weather we all get very excited!

Needless to say, last night was one of those nights. We had a hail storm come through and the kids were pumped! We were under a tornado watch so I had the local news on and this wound them up even more. Fortunately, there were no tornados, just extremely loud hail! A good amount of it was golf ball sized - the biggest I have ever seen in person. Amazingly, my friends who had to leave their cars out did not have any damage on them, although I know that many in Austin did have window and windshield damage.

Of course, James was out of town for this storm, as he was the time we actually had a tornado warning and I had to carry the sleeping kids down to the hall closet and the one time it snowed! Poor James, he missed out on all the excitement!

Hail!

Houston Zoo

We spent Spring Break in Houston this week and stayed with my parents. (James had to stay behind and work.) The weather was perfect and the kids had a lot of fun just playing outside and hanging out.

We also got to go to the Houston Zoo, which is a pretty nice zoo! I used to go as a kid, but they have really improved it since then. Spring is definitely the best time to go since it gets so incredibly hot and humid in the summer. I think the kids liked the giraffes and the primate section the best.

One of the highlights for Aaron was the ICE CREAM OF THE FUTURE!! I'm sure you have all seen these stands at your local mall, but Aaron had never seen it before and after he read the sign all he wanted was to try some. "Mommy, I want some ICE CREAM OF THE FUTURE!" Over and over. So, we got some and they enjoyed it. He said, I really want to come back here some day and have some more ICE CREAM OF THE FUTURE. He was shocked when I told them he could get it in Austin at the mall. Ha.

ACK! It's been over a month!

I don't know what happened the last few weeks but sorry for no posts! I'll get to that right now!

More Spruce Tree House

Click on any of these to see them larger!

Mesa Verde National Park

After skiing for two days, we wanted something a little different to do so we headed over to Mesa Verde National Park. There, you can see the Cliff Dwellings. We just had to drive about 30 minues west of Durango to the entrance of the park and then another 20 miles of winding mountain road to the actual Visitor's Center. We were able to catch the end of a Park Ranger guided tour of one of Spruce Tree House (one of the dwellings) .

Tired Kids