MEGA Party is MEGA fun!

Today at M's school there was a "mega" party for all the children, celebrating a cookie dough fundraiser. My house did not actually sell any cookie dough because it started days after finishing a wrapping paper fundraiser. And with 3 kids at 3 schools, somebody is always selling something!!! But luckily everybody got to enjoy 45 minutes of 6 fun inflatables, snow cones, and twister with music blasting the whole time! If you were a big seller you got an additional 45 minutes. But who cares because M enjoyed her time immensely! She did this padded, fighting thing with a boy down the street and he pushed her off the circle twice but my girl got right back up and knocked him off! It was a hoot to watch! Took lots of photos of the her class because I was a chaperone and it was a gorgeous day!

Fabulous Dinner?

I made dinner for last night in the afternoon since it was such a busy day and I knew we would all be eating at different times. I found a new recipe, shopped for the ingredients and came home and cooked for 1.5 hours. I tasted throughout the preparations and thought how yummy my dinner was going to be! It was a twist on homemade mac and cheese from the Food Network magazine involving good Parmesan and Gruyere cheeses, whole milk, butter, zucchini, and baby spinach. Not a low calorie dish but it sounded great and had 2 vegetables in it that my kids loved. I had to grate both cheeses and 2 lbs of zucchini, make a sauce, cook pasta, saute the vegies. The finished product looked beautiful and tasted fabulous- to me. Found out later my husband had text the girls to let him know if he should eat before coming home. Thanks hon. (he did come home and actually liked my dish a lot, enough for seconds). My oldest, the vegetarian, decided she did not like the way it looked or smelled. My middle daughter took a bowl into her room, closed the door and "pretended" to eat it not to hurt my feelings. My youngest left me this note. I burst out laughing when I read it. Love the" P.S. I had cereal"! At least she's resourceful! The older girls wanted to know if they would also be excused had they left me a cute note- NO! So much for all that effort. Lesson here: don't bother, just make what you know they will eat. I am considering taking the rest of the week off!

Austin in photos

Oh, the food!

I ate guacamole every single day! Got off the plane at 11:30 am and was eating at the Iron Cactus by 1:00. Here they make your guacamole right at your table and you decide what to add, like cilantro, salt, pepper, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, onions, even orange slices (weird but good). We ended up going there every single day for either a meal or happy hour because they had good food and great atmosphere on the roof top! I also ate fish and shrimp tacos. I tried them out everywhere! I had a great breakfast at the Driskill Hotel- twice, but not on the same day (ha ha). It was eggs scrambled with spinach and goat cheese with home fries on the side. And I ate lots of steaks, big ones, 10 ounces of fabulous beef. But the best find was "Oh, Cupcake"! It was a vintage, silver Airstream parked in the SoCo area that sold delicious cupcakes. We got a Michael Jackson with Botox aka a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese icing then injected with whipped cream. OMG it was good but too rich to eat by myself. I ate big in Texas and probably came back a little bit bigger too! But I still look good in my boots!

Boot Shoppin' in Austin!

Just returned (exhausted) from a trip with my husband to Austin, Texas! It was work for him but fun for me. I shopped, ate well, slept late, read my book by the pool, visited with a good friend and went out every night! I arrived on Wednesday and the hunt for boots began because we needed them for a party at Stubb's on Thursday night. Well, let's just say the adventure began! Everyone told us where to shop for "authentic Texas boots"- Allens (prices ranging from $400-$1000), and Heritage Boots (handmade with an equally high price tag but definitely gorgeous). This was really not what I had in mind. So my girlfriends and I found another boot place but it was located 20 minutes or a $25 cab ride away. We decide to take the bus. Had a hard time finding the right bus and it began to rain so what did we do . . . got a ride with a complete stranger! Yes, we did! I have never hitchhiked in my life but this very nice, young, professional woman heard us trying to find the bus and knew where we wanted to go so she offered us a ride. We said YES! Twenty minutes later we were at Cavender's Boots. The nice saleswoman gave us a tutorial on boots, the fit, style and makers then turned us loose to try some on. That we did, probably about 5-7 pairs each until we found the one! We all bought boots and I even got a pair for my husband. Best part about this story- we met a new friend in Cavender's who gave us a ride back to downtown Austin!! We looked good Thursday night!

They Make Me Smile

M. has been taking an art class after school from her art teacher. She has 3 classes usually once a quarter. The results from these classes have been beautiful!! My older girls also took art from her and they too generated really great pieces, framable even! Here are 3 from her most recent class. I just have them taped to my pantry door in the kitchen but they make me smile each time I look at them!!

Love the season- not the pollen!

I love to sit outside this time of year. The temperature is great! It is sunny and my plants are all flowering but the pollen is killing me!!! I vacuumed my screened porch on Monday and it was unbelievably YELLOW! There were outlines of the pillows in pollen and any time you sat down a plume of yellow pollen went flying. Even the dogs won't fetch in this stuff. Our backyard is covered and when you throw the ball it lands in pollen which sticks to it, so they won't pick it up. Gross! We need another rain, preferably at night, so we can enjoy the day! I hate pollen. Aaachooo!

Hissssssssss

Today M. went to school dressed as her favorite character from a book because it is National Library Week.

Can you guess? Yes, Medusa, one of the "terrible three" . M. knows about her from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which we just finished reading. Then we saw the movie in which Medusa is played by Uma Thurman. And she looked awesome as Medusa. So M. has a hat/head full of colorful snakes, mirrored sunglasses and a concrete bunny. I sent her with some other information about Medusa but had to cross out the part about her having sex with Poseidon in Athena's temple, which is one story of how she lost her beautiful hair. I left M. with the story of how Medusa beat Athena in a beauty contest so Athena made her have a head full of snakes and a look that could turn men to stone. Just trying to clean up the story for first graders so I don't get calls all weekend!

She loves me, she loves me not

This is how things feel sometimes with my oldest. Last night she came home from work (childcare at our church with 4-7 year olds) and brought me a painting she made me of a heart! Beautiful, sweet, colorful and definitely a surprise. Usually I am being accused of ruining her life and other such atrocities. K is a junior in high school who makes good grades and causes us no problems. But she is under a tremendous amount of stress right now. In the next 4 weeks she will have 4 AP exams, the SAT and begin work on her Girl Scout Gold Award. Yes, she is a little busy. But I have complete confidence in her abilities to manage her time, study and actually emerge victorious in a few short weeks!! I am very proud of her and I love her to pieces so it is nice to see she feels the same way about me (sometimes)!

The "fun-Jida"

M. had a sleepover on Saturday night with our next door neighbor. She spent a lot of time making up a "fun-Jida" (a.k.a. fun-genda) of activities that would make the sleepover perfect. As you can see there is a lot of dancing and eating. We just loved the inventive spelling on this! "consrt" = concert, "pupit sowe"= puppet show, "be prinssas" = be princesses, "pant" = paint and then the last item, out of 24, is "bathrom brack". Finally that needed bathroom break! She is such a cutie! And the sleepover went very well. They did not get to all 24 items but it was declared a success anyway.

Mr. B's Farm

Field trip today in first grade. We were scheduled to go to Mr.B's Farm about 45 minutes away. The permission slip said 8:30-1:45. I arrive at school at 8:30, but then discover there is a problem with one of the buses. We wait around, and waited some more. I ran to the bank and home to throw in a load of laundry. Finally depart at 10:50. We went to a park first for a picnic lunch which was fun because we had great weather. Then went to Mr. B's at 12:30. Very interesting indeed. Turns out it was not a farm so much as a gardening store. The kids learned ALL about seeds-even the ones that cannot germinate until an elephant eats, digests and poops it out. How cool! Then they planted their own "gardens" into pellets of dirt. They planted Crowder peas, grass, a sunflower, cantaloupe, pole beans, and okra. We have to water it daily and should see growth in a couple of weeks. Then the kids can bring it back to Mr. B and trade it in for a 4 pack of flowers or some other plant. Very fun trip!

Life's a Beach!

Spring break got a lot better once we got to Bald Head. Taking the ferry over allowed us all to leave that junk behind and just enjoy the vacation! I was looking forward to reading Percy Jackson every day with M., riding bikes (rentals now, of course!), riding around in golf carts, sleeping late and reading my books!! On day 2 we went to climb "Old Baldy" , the lighthouse on the island with 150 steps to the top. It was a beautiful day and a spectacular view from the top! Nothing like the beach to just recharge your battery- and mine needed it!

Day 1 of Spring Break (actually the first 10 minutes)

On our way to the beach, ten minutes from our house, we were hit by an 18 wheeler! OMG!! Yes it was scary but mostly it was a huge pain as the guy managed to ruin all 5 bikes and the back end of the car. And the kicker- it was a hit and run. Unbelievably, after smashing into a suburban with 5 bikes, 3 kids, 2 dogs and 2 adults at 8:10am the driver just drove away. My 7 year old (sitting in the 3rd seat) had glass from the back window down her shirt. It is probably a good thing the bikes were there if you ask me. But get this, bikes are not covered by auto insurance but the bike rack is. Weird. We were all absolutely fine. After filing the report with the police and switching cars, we left about an hour later. It can only get better from here, right?