Little Helper

I used to volunteer all the time. Back when I was an instructor with the Red Cross I got the idea in my head that I'd like to be a volunteer coordinator, and look at me now! I'm lucky enough to work with volunteers everyday, but now that I have two little kids and no free time it's pretty hard to actually get out and volunteer myself. Until now. I decided my sabbatical would be a great time to get out and volunteer with Aurora! We spent our first few days helping others, and I'd say Aurora enjoyed it as much (or more) than anything else we could've come up with.

Over the weekend we baked cookies and Monday morning we brought them to our local fire department. It turns out, one of the firefighters on duty was one of Aurora's Kindergarten teacher's sons. They were so nice to her, and she loved going up into the fire truck, trying on their gear, and even spraying the fire hose! They seemed pretty happy about the cookies, too.

Then we went to my office (yes, I went into work on my first day off) and met up with a colleague for our regular Meals on Wheels route. Aurora was an awesome helper. I thought she might just want to stay in the car and observe, but she got out at every house and delivered the cold bags of milk and fruit. It was pretty much the best thing ever...

Today we went to a local mission called El Buen Samaritano and worked in the food pantry. We just opened boxes and organized food on the shelves, but it was way fun. Aurora never complained or asked to keep anything, she just emptied boxes like a pro.

We brainstormed other ways to help out and ended up picking up trash on our street and writing letters to troops. Phew! It may seem like a lot but these are the only service projects on our June calendar. We've also been getting out and enjoying our summer! Going to the splash pad and eating ice cream were big priorities and those have already been checked off the list.

We found the food pantry volunteer activity through a local organization called Little Helping Hands. Their opportunities fill up fast, but it's such a cool concept and I'm so glad we've been able to get involved. We also just picked up our Big Night In box, which is a fundraiser for LHH. It included a gift card for dinner, some drinks, snacks, a game, and a volunteer project to do at home. Believe it or not, the at-home project ended up being... baking cookies to bring to the fire department!!! What!? Well, I guess we jumped the gun on that one, but it sure was a great idea. 

Kick off

We kicked off our first weekend of summer with a summer reading kick off party. It's amazing how many free activities our library offers, especially during the summer. Yesterday's celebration included jumping, miniature horses, art projects, and a kid's rock show with the Sugar Free Allstars. Chuck just looked around at books and DVDs. I'd call that something for everybody!

Yes, that's a mommy/daughter bungee jumping duo pictured above. If I ever do that again, I'll leave my sunglasses off and attempt some spins. Afterwards we headed to the Wildflower Center for Aurora's last Girl Scout Meeting of the year. It was so nice, but in general I'd say the girl's prefer kicking things off to saying goodbyes...

We may be done collecting Daisy Troop badges for the year, but we're just starting our summer reading log AND summer volunteer-a-thon worksheet. More on that next time!

Last Day

It feels like Aurora just stepped onto the school bus for her first day of Kindergarten. I got a little emotional this week dropping her off, knowing it was her last. This has been such a wonderful year of growth, reading, writing, learning, playing, friendship and FUN.

Yesterday was her class party and she came home with all her artwork, notebooks, and this awesome memory book full of pictures, projects, poems, and sweet words from her teacher. Today's her last day - and it's also my last day! No, I'm not quitting... I have been fortunate enough to work at a job that I love for nearly 8-years, and one perk of being with the Foundation for so long is that I get to take a sabbatical. Aurora and I will be spending the next month together going on all sorts of fun adventures around town - sort of a mommy summer camp stay-cation extravaganza. I'm afraid that my blog is about to turn into a super braggy "fun things to do with your kids in Austin" blog, but... eh, it's sort of been serving that purpose for awhile now. Regardless, if you want to know what we're up to, this will be the place to come. I'll be taking a break from social media so that I can focus on just being present with my kids, but I'll keep taking pictures and will post updates here regularly. This won't be my last day on Facebook, but if all goes well you won't see me there for the next month or so...

Exploring

This weekend was full of adventure. We didn't have much on the calendar so I decided we'd try geocaching. I really didn't know what to expect, but it's a strange and wonderful concept. There are hidden treasures all around, you just have to know where to look! We found our first in the trails behind the library, which wasn't too hard. The next was at a nearby cemetery. Both caches contained little toys and jewelry - so, we took a necklace, left a bracelet, signed the log book and moved on.

Aurora said geocaching was her new favorite activity in the whole world! Until our third attempt, which was unsuccessful. Oh well. Afterwards we headed to the Farmer's Market where we found another strange treasure; among the fruit and veggie stands was a weird little play area! The kids loved it.

Today we stayed home practically all day cleaning and organizing. We went through all the closets and brought a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, which was a productive (and relaxing) way to spend our extra day off. Then we went to a friend's house for dinner, which was tons of fun. Aurora and Clark LOVE playing with their friend Austin!

I also spent some time structuring my upcoming sabbatical. This will be a busy week at work, but it's really just a few days before Aurora and I take a whole month off to explore and go on all kinds of adventures together! I told Chuck we probably shouldn't geocache without him, but he assured me that I'd do just fine without his skills, as long as I don't have to focus on Clark's high maintenance lack of skills. We'll see...

BFFs

Today was Cardinal Fest, Valley View's annual field day, and I volunteered to help at the obstacle course. I also got to enjoy some Kona Ice with Aurora and one of her best friends, Mia. The Kinders were all dressed in Hawaiian outfits, which was easy for us as we just had a luau! While we were walking around, Aurora said "Mommy, this is the best day I've ever had in my whole life!" That's really saying something.

There were lots of moms volunteering, teachers getting soaked in the dunk tank, and all sorts of activities. After school, we went to dinner with Aurora's other best friend, Presley. We stopped to shop and Presley bought them BFF necklaces! Do you remember having those as a kid?

With only one week of Kindergarten left, I know Aurora's going to miss many of her friends this summer. I'm looking forward to seeing what these silly 6 year olds write in their BFF's yearbooks! 

Get Going

Friday was LIVESTRONG Day, which seemed like a pretty good reason to kick off my training and fundraising for the Marathon Relay. The event will be happening over my birthday weekend again, in just 4 short months. Honestly, I haven't ran at all since last year's relay and haven't had much motivation to get started. So, on Friday I decided to commit to one mile for each $10 donation, and ended up running/walking 7 miles this weekend! Of course, it's really hard to get out without the kids so I decided to make it a family effort. I did a 2-mile run on my own Friday night, then Saturday we took a trip to McKinney Falls State Park for a 2.5 mile hike.

It was our first time to this (very nearby) state park, and it was beautiful. Aurora loved collecting seashells by the water (we had to take a rest at the halfway point!). I carried Clark most of the way, which I'm considering a full body workout. Afterwards we took a 1/2 mile neighborhood walk to play with friends, and this morning we headed out bright and early for a 2-mile walk/jog around Lady Bird Lake. I actually got Clark to run! All in all, a very active weekend. I feel like I never stopped moving, and yes - I'm a little sore today. Thanks to those who donated, for giving me the motivation to get going! Now I just need to keep it up...

Summer Plans

This has been a very busy week and a packed month as we prepare for summer. I just finished intern recruitment and orientation and it's going to be a big day at work on Friday before we head out for a staff retreat next week. I'll actually be gone for two nights, which already has Aurora feeling anxious. Clark's still such a mama's boy that I know that it'll be hard for him, too. Afterwards we'll have a long weekend off, another very busy week at work, and then... my SABBATICAL! What!? Have I mentioned that? After nearly 8 years working for the Foundation, I qualify for a month long sabbatical and I'm taking June off in order to spend part of the summer with Aurora. 

Summer's already in the air. It's been warming up and staying light later. Just a few weeks ago Clark couldn't climb up the play set on his own, but now he's a pro! Check this out:

We've also been enjoying evenings the library again. We've been going to pajama story time fairly regularly and just went to Crafty Crew for the first time in awhile. Clark loves the library and now he's big enough to do the craft projects! He sat still and did such a good job coloring. Aurora made a new friend and we all had fun decorating silly hats.

Once school ends and my sabbatical begins, the summer reading program will kick-off along with tons of cool summer programming. Our goal is to go on all sorts of different adventures in June, but I have a feeling we'll be at the library a lot...

Magnifique!

Well, it's Mother's Day, which means Aurora's spent pretty much all day (all weekend really) explaining to her daddy why she loves mommy more. Don't worry, she'll love him more on Father's Day. This morning I got to sleep in until nearly 7am, which is actually pretty good around here. We took advantage of our early morning and headed out before the crowds to Mimi's Cafe (no reservations required, we were like the 3rd ones there).

We had the same good luck when we arrived to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center a few minutes before opening. Parking and entry have never been so easy!

We got there before the crowds AND before the heat, and spent the morning exploring the brand new Family Garden. It just opened last weekend and the whole thing was beautiful, interactive, and so much fun. By the time we left the parking lot was full, but we had the place to ourselves for a good while. A few highlights included the human sized birds nests, peeling tree bark, petting and sitting on wildlife animal statues (seriously, that was Clark's favorite thing - and there were a ton of them), using watering cans to pour water all over the rocks and plants (Aurora could've done that all day long), and of course - exploring the gardens and climbing to the top of the tall tower.

Afterwards, Clark & I took a nap while Aurora and Chuck went shopping for flowers, strawberries, chocolate, and a heart shaped cookie. What a sweet, yummy day!

Tonight we'll talk to our moms on the phone and have a normal dinner at home. If Mimi's is accepting reservations, I'm thinking it might be a crowded night to eat out.

I have to say that being a mom is pretty much the best thing ever, and we are SO lucky to have amazing moms, aunts, grandmas, and caring friends in our lives. Happy Mother's day to each of you!

Kindergarten Circus

Today was another big thing that I hadn't realized would be such a big thing - the Kindergarten Circus! This has been happening at Valley View Elementary for 28 years, and one of the teachers who has been involved since the beginning is retiring, which made for an emotional day for the teachers. It was very touching, and pretty hilarious!

The kids got to choose their roles, and while most of her friends went for things like tightrope walkers, gymnasts, animals, magicians and trapeze artists, she wanted to be a clown! Aurora's job was to pop balloons on stage. I should've taken video, but she's the one jumping in this photo:

I actually did take a short video of the grand finale, which included the whole group on stage singing circus songs together. I'm not going to post it here, but I will tell you that next week they'll be selling DVD's of the whole performance. I might have to buy a copy.

Here's Aurora with her teacher, Mrs. Parolini. It's Teacher Appreciation Week, and I must say that after spending just a few hours helping and watching the kids this morning, she deserves ALL the appreciation. She is so calm and gentle with the students, even when... well, when it feels like a circus, which is probably most of the time!

All the kids helped with decorations (Aurora made the elephant pictured) and they put so much time and effort into their performances. It's hard to believe Kindergarten is coming to an end! Just 3 short weeks before summer, and what an adventure it's been.

Family Days

This weekend my friend Katie came to town and we had a great time exploring Austin. The main activites I planned randomly happened to involve sculpture museums having family days. First, the Elizabet Ney Museum. I'd heard about this place and thought the building looked cool, but honestly had no idea what it was! Turns out, Ney was a sculptor who traveled the world and settled into a home studio here in Austin nearly 150 years ago. Admission is always free, we got a guided tour, and it just happened to be Ney Day which meant music and festivities were included!

Such a cool place - I definitely recommend it. Today we spent some time at the Umlauf Scuplture Garden, which holds a free family day the first Sunday of each month. We had a nice walk around the grounds and Aurora got to do a couple of fun crafts. She really enjoyed it.

Of course, we did more than that! Clark joined in for a few fun outings as well. We did a free workshop at Home Depot, went out for ice cream and played with Katie's dog Piper, got manis and pedis, and spent an evening with Katie's brother and his family, who recently moved to the area.

The whole weekend was really nice with lovely warm weather and good company. Aurora cried on the way home, sad that our time with Katie and Piper had come to an end. Now that Katie's brother lives here, I'm sure it won't be long before we see her (or her family) again!

Thank you!

Aurora's spring school photos just came in and (of course) they are adorable. They're actually all the same pose, but the photographer printed a big packet with various backgrounds and designs in the hopes that I'd buy them all. Most of the photos look like they were taken outside. They weren't.

Imagine 20 variations with different super-imposed backgrounds and layouts. Honestly, some of them are just silly, but Aurora thinks we should buy them all anyway. I think the thank you card turned out sweet and I'd consider buying a bunch of those for everybody who came to her party or sent gifts! But, I can't. I only get one. Oh well. Thanks anyway!