William's party at the Austin zoo!

Pictures from our nephew's super fun 9th birthday celebration at the Austin Zoo!




Happy Birthday, William!

Sunday night BBQs at the Marquis!

We are so lucky to have a wonderful location here at our apartment complex, right between the bus stop and the sports court/2nd pool, and even more lucky to have met some equally wonderful families to hang out with. We've been enjoying such nice weather here that we've taken to having nearly weekly Sunday night grill outs down at the pool. There are about four families (just about a dozen kids!) that are usually always around, plus we add an extra family or child depending on the weekend. There are always kids playing outside. I didn't expect such a sense of community in what I thought would feel like "transitional" living but I sure am grateful for it!


There are three Power Wheels in the complex. Some day we are going to let the kids go head-to-head with them and see what happens (the other parents and I are somewhat hoping the cars are destroyed...). The Barbie car is quite popular because kids can sit on the truck as well as in the front seats.


Freddie was saying, "Let's do this!" and Sammy pulled him into the pool. It was nearly 80 degrees that afternoon but the water was still cold!

Future sports star


I'm not sure why it's always my boys who end up in the pool... probably because we just moved from Minnesota and for them it feels like summer. I'm sure there are a few Texans who think we are craaaazy....


A couple of our fun and fantastic neighbors, Angela and John.

Thanks to our hilarious neighbor Kristen for bringing the little plastic wine glasses to the party. The wine goes into the stem!

Kids


and cupcakes to finish off the evening...

roller skating

Hilarious pictures from a classmate's birthday party at Skate Town.


Sammy was a bit awkward but he had so much fun and wants to go back, which I am super excited about because I grew up roller skating (seriously every Saturday growing up in Baltimore was spent at Skateland) and I can't wait to go back with him so I can skate, too. Now, where to find an adult replica of my childhood white skates with pink wheels and glittery pom-poms...


To be fair, most of his class was using these hilarious skate walkers. I couldn't stop laughing at them. Sammy was getting around really well by the time we left.

Mario, Luigi and Toad

Mario, Luigi and Toad, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Buddies. I love Jack's face looking at the trio, too.

San Antonio

The Alamo
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

On our way back from visiting Jacob's parents after Christmas we made a detour to San Antonio. Fun, beautiful and historic city to explore if you've never been. Probably even more enjoyable without little children who, in their exhaustion, blurt out things like, "I hate the Alamo!" whilst standing in front of the Alamo. lol

Christmas in the Christmas Capital of Texas!

Christmas Capital of Texas!, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Finally managed to get all of our Christmas photos up on Flickr!

Our first Christmas in the Christmas Capital of Texas. It was fun-filled, overly exciting (it was a looong wait for Christmas for our four-year-old and he was going a little nutty by the last two weeks), and family-centric event that lasted weeks and weeks. We're still recovering! (oh, and I've only just recovered from a cold I picked up a few days before Christmas. These two things plus the excitement wiped me out!) The boys were home from school from Dec 16-Jan 2nd.

Here is a LINK to check our festive fun!

sneak peek...

This morning we went down to Grapevine Station. The boys especially liked watching the engineers move the trains, on the tracks and on the turn style, to prepare them for The North Pole Express. It was a rare treat as we've heard there usually isn't that much activity so early on a Saturday morning. We were really there to meet up with a photographer, who I hope managed to capture what will be out Christmas card photo for this year with our mostly distracted and wiggly children. In the meantime, here are a few that I took while we were there.



















FYI it was 70 degrees, overcast and very windy.

7th birthday dinner

Since we had two parties and a grill-out the night before, Sammy got to choose where we went out for dinner on his actual birthday. His main request was that he wanted to go to a place where they would sing to him. We drove by a Joe's Crab Shack on our way to another restaurant, and the kids noticed that they had an outdoor playground. There was plenty of room to eat outside next to the playground, pretty lights and no wait - our dinner location was chosen.

Here is the birthday boy while the waiters were singing:


And wearing the cowboy hat and taking the horse-on-a-stick (what are those called?!) to do his birthday lap around the restaurant (which he wouldn't do, btw, but his younger brother *happily* filled him for him. When did 7 become too cool to run around a restaurant shouting, "Yeehaw!" ???@!)


Freddie, excitedly taking the horse from our waitress.


The boys' favorite part (aside from the playground) was the beaker and shark that came in the special drinks they ordered called "Shark Nibbles." The beaker was inside a plastic shark floating in their cup and filled with grenadine, which was suppose to be blood. The kids poured it into their blue drink so it looked like blood in the ocean after a shark attack. Charming. They played with filling the beakers the rest of the night.


Happy Birthday, my sweet seven-year-old Sammy! There's nobody in the world like you and we love you to bits and pieces!

Happy 7th Birthday, Sammy!

Super seven-year-old
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

We had Sammy's Mario kid party at our apartment's clubhouse party room and movie theater. Jacob set up the Wii in the theater and the kids played various Mario games, then watched some of the Super Mario Super Show. We had cake and ice cream in the party room and then went on a scavenger hunt because King Koopa hid Sammy's presents!

To see more pictures of the Mario party check out the Sammy's 7th Birthday set

Here are just a few...
the party room at our apartment complex, decked out in Mario


The character cupcakes and one-up (ish) cake balls I made:


I ordered a giant Mario so the kids could all take pictures with him. The kids loved it.

Mario is now residing in the big boys' room :)

We also celebrated with family (Grandma, Papa, Nana, Ba, Aunt Dominique and family, Cousin Andy and family) and friends in our apartment complex with a backyard grill out out by the pool and basketball court later that day. It was a really great time, and wonderful to have so much family present (11 family members, not including our little family of five!). Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate Sammy's birthday with us!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun and warm Texas Halloween.

First, I took all of the kids Trunk or Treating at the Grapevine First Baptist Church. It was huge! The trunks were decorated in either Halloween or fun themes, the kids' favorite was the Mario car. I thought the Mad Scientist and the Cereal Killer trunks were pretty funny. Here we are at the Mario trunk:

Notice Jack's abandoned Toad hat, and Jack wandering off in a Zombie-like fashion. ;)

The sun was setting right on the trunk when we trick or treated there so it didn't make for the best pictures. But you get the point. Really cute.


Trunk or Treating had a great turn out. Loved seeing all the kids in costume. And quite unlike women who intensely dislike wearing the same thing as each other, my kids were elated when they saw other Marios and Luigis. They were instant friends and had to go say hi. It was very cute, if not a little tricky keeping track of my own children at all times since there would randomly run across the parking lot to greet other Marios.

Without the Toad hat Jack looks a little like a 70s porn star. I should have borrowed one of the kids' mustaches and put in on Jack. lol Here he is wandering off again.


Quick Trunk or Treating photo op!


We concluded the Trunk or Treating with a little hay ride around the square. It was very fun!

Jack was forced to wear Toad hat for one picture - for documentation - sadly you can't see his cute bare chest because I'm restraining him. Oh, and in case anyone was worried about a baby recovering from a week of stomach flu-followed by strep throat don't worry! It was like 80 degrees.

We ran home so I could put Jack to bed and the kids went around to a few apartment buildings with our neighbor friends. The boy, Jeremiah, is in Sammy's class.


Then we went trick or treating. I thought this might be a good way to test drive the neighborhoods and see where we want to live. Make sure they give out good candy, you know?


Please excuse my poor iPhone night time photography!


Most of the houses, much like the trucks, were decorated really well. I love holiday exuberance! Happy Halloween, y'all!