March Showers

Today was not rainy - in fact, it was perfect weather for a garden party! Aurora and I planned and put on a baby shower this weekend for our good friends and neighbors across the street. They have a little boy just a few months older than Clark and are expecting a sweet baby girl in a couple of months. 

One of my best friends, Amelia, is having a baby shower next weekend and I can't wait - she's going to be a great mom. She threw my shower for Clark and I have to admit, I stole some of her ideas for today's party! It was so nice having friends, neighbors, and family together; talking, playing, and sharing advice. I'm looking forward to April's parties and showers, though I'm hoping it doesn't rain - for Amelia's shower or Aurora's birthday!

Catching up

As predicted, this week has been a busy one - catching up at work, catching up with friends, and catching up on chores.

We've been food shopping together every Sunday and the kids are finally starting to enjoy the routine. They're good little helpers, but they're in such different stages. Aurora puts away her own laundry and Clark cheers after throwing things in the trash. He says goodbye to his toys when he puts them away, and after saying goodbye (to anything) he usually says "See you tomorrow!" (which sounds like "seeouamowwow"). He's got several new teeth coming in just as Aurora has three wiggly teeth getting ready to come out. She just got her third report card and is exceeding expectations in nearly every category. She brings home reading practice books every week, but at bedtime we've been reading chapter books together. We've gone through several Ramona books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and just started Harry Potter.

Now that we're all caught up, the next month or so is going to fly by. We have all sorts of plans, parties, visitors, and activities on the calendar. I can't wait... and I wish I could slow down time!

Back to Reality

It was such a nice week and weekend. We closed out Spring Break with good food, outdoor fun, and some quality family time. We went to the Zilker Botanical Gardens woodland faerie trail with my parents and attended two nice birthday parties.

We ate at Chuy's and Mangia Pizza (yum!), then finished off the weekend with food shopping and home cooking to prepare for the week ahead. Both kids have been so sweet and loving, but it helps that I've been relaxed at home. Now we're back to rushed early mornings and short evenings together, and I expect we'll all be pretty busy until June, when I'm planning our next chunk of time off. Of course, we'll continue to pack lots of fun activities into our weekends, but I'm already looking forward to our summer stay-cation...

Spring Break

I wasn't going to post again until Spring Break's over, but it's simply too much action (and too many photos) for one blog! We've been having a great time and I'm really happy that I took the week off. Right now I have a couple quiet hours while Aurora plays at her friend's house (whoo hoo!). So, here you have it. The main highlights of our Spring Break (so far):

Bumper cars! Seriously fun.

Skee Ball at Gattitown.

Flower craft at the Library.

Giving my parents a tour of LIVESTRONG HQ!

Mom & Dad @ LIVESTRONG.

She's my butter half (or maybe I'm hers...)

Les Claypool playing a kid's show at SXSW.

Concerts + Crafts + Spring Break = Awesome!

Taking Care of Business

It's Spring Break! While Aurora and I are having tons of fun, I'm saving all that for later in the week and focusing today's post on some of the more serious aspects of our break. I mean, if I'm going to take time off work, I may as well take care of business. You know, like getting my oil changed, shopping, preparing for our tax appointment, and taking Clark in for his 18-month well baby visit.

Yes, he's actually 19-months old - but he did great! Clark's gaining weight and getting taller (22.5 lbs, 32" tall), and he got one vaccination which he handled like a champ. I also got a haircut:

We cleaned the house, baked cupcakes, had my girlfriends over for the season finale of the Bachelor, and tomorrow both kids will be in daycare so I can go to a few meetings and hopefully meet up with my folks. After all the errands, chores, activities (and considering the time change), taking time off this week has been way more exhausting than working, and we're only 2-days in!!!

On Stage

After a busy week at work and school, we kicked off spring break by celebrating my dad's birthday. Aurora and I baked a bundt cake, we had a nice family dinner, then my folks stuck around to babysit so Chuck and I could go see WICKED! 

It was our first time seeing a play or musical like this and it was spectacular. I'd say it definitely lived up to all the hype! This morning we took the family downtown for a little taste of SXSW. HBO has a Game of Thrones exhibit which is free for all ages and includes a bunch of props, outfits, and cool displays from the show - including an iron throne.

This year we're bringing date nights back and taking advantage of the cool things Austin has to offer - with or without kids. We aren't quite ready for big family vacations yet, and we do try to avoid the crowds, but we have a fun spring break planned and I'd say it's already off to a pretty good start.

Leaping

I lied. It's winter again. Yesterday was gorgeous and today started out around 70 degrees - but now it's 30 with a chance of precip. It's crazy how we've been alternating between flip flops and boots this year, but either way you can find us making ice cream and leaping around on sidewalk chalk hop scotch boards in the driveway. We've also been enjoying our neighbor's swing...

The main highlight of the weekend was our sweet neighbor Will's birthday party. He's a leap year baby so we couldn't actually celebrate on his birthday, but he made it another year so I say he turned two. For those interested, that's mom & dad's new car - which is actually large enough to carry passengers and home goods! I'm not sure if it had my folks leaping for joy, but they seemed pretty happy with the purchase. I'm sure they're less happy with today's weather. Oh well!

Signs

Now that Aurora can read and write, we've entered an era of sign making. She made a reversible sign for her door that says "Come inside! You are welcome to!" and on the other side, "Please ask to come inside Aurora's room!!!!" So, she can write and she can act like a teenager. This morning she (quite appropriately) made this sign: "Clark's Not In the Mood to Hug."

In case you can't see it, that's Aurora on her knees saying "Hug" and Clark's responding "Noooo." Indeed, now that Clark can talk and express his own opinions, he says "No" quite a bit, and hasn't been in the mood to hug or kiss or be held for the last few days. He wants to run down the driveway on his own, get his own snacks, turn the TV on and off himself - basically, he wants to be his own independent little man! This is the phase where meltdowns and power struggles start becoming a regular part of life, which is a bummer, but we still manage to have our share of fun (and hugs).

Summer in February

I guess winter's over! Highs were in the 70's and 80's this weekend and we took full advantage of it. Saturday morning Aurora had a Daisy troop meeting at the lake. The girls were learning how to be compassionate and caring, and they made dog toys out of old clothes to give to dogs who don't have homes. We played at the park, ate outside and played checkers, blew bubbles and colored with sidewalk chalk, and this afternoon we went to another park with our new canopy and watched the boats go by. I can only imagine how hot summer is really going to be - and I imagine we still have a rainy season to come - but this was pretty darn perfect.

Kid's Stuff

It seems like just about everything I do outside of work has to do with kids. I go to birthday parties, play at parks, watch kid's TV and read children's books. This week I've felt like such a grown up. I had Monday off while the kids were at school and it was glorious. I jogged around Town Lake, got a pedicure, and had a lovely lunch with my parents to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary!

That night, mom and dad watched the kids while Chuck and I went out. We've decided that this year we're going to make monthly date nights a priority, and we kicked it off with a concert at the Moody Theater. We saw a band called Neutral Milk Hotel and it was pretty awesome.

Today we met with our financial advisors, I went to the chiropractor, Chuck set a date for jury duty, and lately I've been setting tons of appointments for things I need to take care of during spring break. You know, getting our taxes done, an oil change, and Clark's well baby visit. Okay, so in some cases the kid's stuff is way more fun than the grown up stuff, but I sure did enjoy everything about Monday... so much that I already have tickets for next month's date night. I can't wait!

Super

This weekend was filled with great weather and super fun activities. We started out with a birthday party at Peter Pan Mini-Golf. My mini golfers were adorable and got lots of holes-in-one. Of course, Clark just held tight to the club and dropped the ball into the holes...

Afterwards we met up with Grandma & Grandpa and headed out to Zilker park, which was as crowded as I've ever seen it. We played, took a ride on the Zilker Zephyr, had snow cones, then headed to Chuy's for a super delicious dinner.

Today was a super hero birthday party for our friend Melody. Aurora dressed as "Love Hero." Her super power was that if anybody needed love, she'd give it to them! Fun times at the Thinkery.

Tomorrow is President's Day, which was supposed to be a school holiday - but, thanks to the wintery weather, it's a make-up day and both school and daycare will be open as usual. Interestingly, my work will be closed soooo... super mama gets a day off! What!?