May is for Mothers

(and other family).  Here are two random family moments of the past couple of weeks: Hadley helping Daddy wash the car and Owen combing Hadley's hair in the morning. Sometimes he likes to do that, and I think it's very sweet.

May is usually a spring-y month, perfect for celebrating moms with flowers.  Hadley and I go to a weekly playgroup when Owen is in school.  This is the same group that went trick-or-treating at the nursing home at Halloween and made Christmas care packages for the men's shelter.  Over three weeks for Mother's Day, we decorated (Week 1), planted (Week 2), and delivered (Week 3) flower pots to a local women's shelter.  The kids enjoyed all 3 phases, and the women at the shelter were moved by the gesture.  It's so nice to have a playgroup with a purpose!

 Mother's Day also fell on my birthday this year, so we had extra reason to celebrate.  Which means more cake!  Thanks for my homemade cake, dear.  

Kids are ready for cake, can't you tell?

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  I appreciate you and all that you do.

  I love these kids, too!  :)

So long April!

As we were settling back into our routine and unpacking from our awesome trip to Texas, it snowed the second day we were back!  Owen was pretty excited to break out the snow shovel again before school.  And of course, little sister had to follow suit.

But it warmed up the next day, and it all melted away again thankfully, so that we could continue our bike rides (the kids love to use the crossing flags to cross the street).

Did I mention that Hadley has been dressing herself for a while?  We call this her Punky Brewster look, but she does the whole caboodle solo down to her shoes on the wrong feet 95% of the time.  When should we start to be concerned about left and right?  Haha.

Our bike rides often take a detour to the playground.  Hadley is a good climber and pretty independent on the structures.  She figured out how to do the curlicue all by herself, too.

It's also another crowded birthday season with one every weekend since we've gotten back. Hadley got to go to Abigail's ballerina party.  This definitely answered the question of gymnastics or dance next year for us.  (Gymnastics!)  Hadley wasn't sure of the tutu and sat on the side for the first half of the class/party, but she eventually warmed up to joining the older girls. (She's in the purple shirt.)

The boys joined us back at the house for presents and cake.  These two are such good friends!

Another party was space-themed, and the kids got to shoot off bottle rockets!  They loved it, but I didn't get any pictures of that, unfortunately.  It is fun to see Hadley participating with the older kids now and realizing that she can do some of these things too.

Guess what.  The zoo is open for the season again!  So here's the standard sit-on-the-tiger pose to mark the occasion.

We've still been going to Kindermusik, too.  Usually the kids are bouncing around and making lots of noise during class, but every class also has a quiet song or rocking song to bring in some calm.  I had to take a picture of these two being sweet to each other during the quiet song.

Owen's First Tooth

First in, first out.  Owen lost his first tooth today!  I wasn't expecting this to happen until he was closer to 6, but the tooth had been wiggling for weeks already.  Unfortunately, he swallowed it with a bite of bagel at breakfast, but the tooth fairy was understanding and appreciative of his hand-written note. :)  

It was also a big weekend because he played his first outdoor soccer game (though it was more of just practice) and enjoyed his first real sushi (salmon sashimi).  He's growing up!

(All of the under-5 soccer teams doing a group warm-up.)

Spring in Texas, Austin Return

Our return flight was out of Austin, so we headed back there on Saturday to spend our last 30-ish hours in Texas near our old home.  Our first stop was at the Tylers' house to recreate this picture from 2 years ago, this time outside with Juan.

It was a little chilly and overcast, but the kids had fun playing outside and inside together.  

Our kids are pretty close in age, but opposite genders.  Calvin was a little shy, but enjoyed sharing his cars with Owen.

Maria had at least 3 wardrobe changes while we were there, as you can see in the pictures.  :)  Sometimes I wonder if Hadley will be influenced by princess dress-up or if she will be a tomboy in order to follow her big brother around.

Just outside their neighborhood was a beautiful patch of bluebonnets, so we pulled over for a few minutes to frolic and photograph.  I love spring in Texas!

Then we headed to West Austin to meet up with more college buddies, the Franklins, and their son, Liam, who is just a few months younger than Hadley.  At both of these stops, I noticed that our kids did not have any reservations about walking into someone else's house and finding/playing with their toys.  Either they're not shy or they were starved for toy variety by this point in the trip. :)

We also tried out Hat Creek burgers, which had a perfect outdoor playground/patio set-up so kids could play and parents could visit.  Idaho needs more of these!  Of course, Hadley may have tried to imitate the older kids by walking along the border fence, and she may have fallen off...  Maybe it'll be really perfect in another year.

Then we took a lovely hill country drive through some of our favorite scenic spots in town (360 bridge, Mt. Bonnell, Mayfield preserve, greenbelt) back to our hotel for the night.

Our flight out wasn't until early afternoon, so we had all morning to find something to do. Luckily, things don't shut down on Sundays in the big city.  We decided to check out the kid's museum, The Thinkery, before heading to the airport.  It's located near Mueller Park, which is actually the old Austin airport.  Now it's a serene green space with a pond, which was eerily misty that morning.

Due to some computer issues, we got into the museum on a donation basis.  Score! The Thinkery was pretty awesome.  The kids had a great time, and I think it was an ideal place to go on a misty morning for a few hours before travel began again. Owen enjoyed the building area, which had all manner of straps, bars, shapes, and pegs to connect.

That area didn't hold Hadley's interest for nearly as long, so we split off and she painted on a glass wall. The kids could subsequently paint, spray with water, and squeegee it clean nearly endlessly.  We stayed here for quite a while.

Then we found the light/dark room, which had lots of giant Lite-Brite walls and tables, along with other experiments in light, shadow, and color.

In the meantime, Owen had discovered the glider launching area.  There was a table with various plastic animal/shape frames into which you could slide different foam tails and wings and then launch them with an air cannon.  Oh boy!  That was fun for both.

A quick brain break with physical activity outside on this huge playscape made mostly of rope and then back inside and upstairs.

 ...where they had a huge farmer's market, chicken coop, and kitchen set-up.  Hadley went into cooking mode, and Owen demonstrated some before-unseen OCD trying to sort out the different food bins.  Don't know where he gets that from!  Ha ha.

 The last thing before we left was a gymnastics room and a parachute activity.  Win-win!

One more thing before we got in the car.  This beautiful, shimmery, tiled sea monster!  So cool!  And there was a huge playground behind it that we just didn't have time for. All evidence confirming the need for a children's museum in Idaho Falls.

After the kids' museum, it was time to head to the airport for check-in.  Austin's airport has local eateries in their food court, rather than the usual chains, so we took advantage of one more place we don't have in town before boarding.

The kids were perfectly happy sitting by the window discussing all of the busy people they saw getting the plane ready for flight.  Owen was helping Hadley learn what all of the jobs were; it was a sweet moment.  

The seats on the return flight were 3 on one side and 1 on the other.  Guess who got stuck with both kids?  Nope, Daddy!  The museum tuckered them out, and all 3 of them slept. So cute!  And I got to read a magazine.  Gasp! Thanks Texas for another great trip!  Until next time!

P.S. The fight attendants were not a fan of this pose...  :)