Eeyore's Birthday Festival

Went to Eeyore's Birthday Festival this Saturday. Just another excuse to have corn dogs, snow cones and listen to live music. We had heard that you had to come in costume so we decked the kids out in what was on hand. Dean's Halloween piggy costume made a reprise as"Piglet" this time and got lots of glances and people stopping to take his picture. Morgan was Captain Morgan in his cape, Hawaiian lay and beaded necklace he made at school. We ate, walked around, listened to the drumming circle and played on the playground. Happy Birthday Eeyore, however old you are!

drumming circle & dancers

Diva Dash

Team pink socks from left: Ronda, Robyn, me, Siiri, Laura, Melissa & Jill

Me and Siiri

Ran in my first race last weekend: The Diva Dash -- a 5K with 10 obstacle courses sprinkled throughout. I started running 3 years ago, at first to loose the baby weight, but never really took it seriously - just happy to get out there and certainly not competitive with my time, etc. so I figured a race with obstacle courses would be the perfect gateway race. How serious could it be when you have to go through a maze or a room full of bubbles (and is that really considered an obstacle???) And come on, folks, everyone knows what a girly-girl I am so what better race to run than a "Diva Dash" where you can wear make-up and tu-tus? I ran with our friend Siiri and some other girls on the Stroller Strides team. We all finished together, somewhere around 45 mins (none of us wore the timing chip so I can't be sure). The obstacles comprised of a balance beam, running through tires, a maze, a rope web, carrying a log up and down a hill, hurdles on land, hurdles in the lake (we were in chest-deep!), going around buoys in the lake, climbing a rope canopy wall and running through the aforementioned bubble room. It was rather hilly, but a fun run on a beautiful day and I would definitely do it again next year.

Art City Austin

Rode our bikes downtown Saturday to Art City Austin, an Art Festival featuring national artists, food booths and kid crafts & activities. While we didn't end up buying anything, it was just a great day to be outside and check out the creativity. Although the kids weren't that into the art, their biggest draw was a bus on display touting some new bus routes. Go figure.

Hot Rod Heaven

 

All kinds of customized, antique and tricked out cars (and their quirky drivers) descended upon Austin for the Annual Lone Star Round Up. It takes place at the convention center downtown, but the overflow of people and fans line up and down S. Congress Street - literally - setting up lawn chairs along the sidewalk to watch the colorful, LOUD cars as they drive up and down and then back again. It was entertaining to see the least - I think the crowds were just as interesting as the cars themselves. We set out for an early dinner Friday to get a table outside so the kids could have front row seats. Morgan of course was so into it and we're pretty sure Dean liked it too by the way he was pointing at everything. Here are some highlights:

Our table at HopDoddy

notice the keg in the back

 

Aw yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about

You had me at "Howdy"

!!!2012-2013 Tour Date Announcement!!! Now that our lease here will be ending May 27, we started planning our next destination. We have many weddings and family commitments on the East Coast this summer so traveling back and forth just didn't make any sense. Rich and Jill have graciously offered to house us over the summer at their place in Clarksburg so we'll be back in town for lots of visits with family and friends. With their 3 kids and a basement full of toys, it'll be like camp!

The question then became where to after that??? Charleston, SC was our next stop, but the more we looked into it and started researching housing, the more we realized how much we'd miss Austin. So... we decided to come back for another 9 month stint starting at the end of August. We were able to get Morgan enrolled in the same school and just this week secured a furnished vacation rental not far from where we are now.

So if you didn't get to visit us this time, "y'all" now have a second chance! We don't know where we'll end up after that -- who knows. We are keeping an open mind and just seeing where the next year takes us. Part of the adventure I guess but I know we can't be nomads forever!

Easter Weekend

Egg Hunt at Zilker Park

 Easter Weekend brought lots of fun, starting with an egg hunt in Zilker Park on Friday. Morgan was one of the biggest kids there, so he was very into it and quick to collect his eggs. Dean on the other hand, wanted to open each one upon finding it, and although he got the hang of putting it into the basket, he was more like forcefully dunking it into the basket.

Easter Weekend just isn't complete without a parade of dogs in drag, and that's exactly what took place down S. Congress Street on Saturday. Random but fun!

Our friends Nam and Mimi were in town with their 2 boys, so on Sunday we took them to Ruta Maya for some live music and then to the Lady Bird Wildflower Center to see the blue bonnets in full bloom.

Easter may be over, but the candy remains... for now.

Molly's visit

Morgan's ex-nanny Molly made the trip out to see us (and especially Morgan : ) It was great to see her and spend some good quality time together. Morgan and Molly just picked up where they left off, instant friends and playmates. Having never been to Austin before we took Molly to our go-to spots (that we've been frequenting a lot latey!) like Rudy's BBQ, a walk down S. Congress, the Zilker Zephyr, and of course lots of eating at trailers (hope the dress fitting goes ok Molly : ) We at least got some workouts in there too though, like tennis and bike riding. It's been so hot that we even took Morgan to the pool one day! It's been almost a year since he's been, but he just loved it and had a smile on his face the entire time. And we even squeezed in some adult nights out: Molly and I went to the Easy Tiger Beer Garden one night while Ed and Molly went to Perla's for oysters, then Continental Club for live music another night.

Since Morgan will be the ring bearer this summer at Molly & Brandon's wedding, we even did a trial run down the long hallway in our house. It went ok, but I think we need more practice. It might be different when everyone in the room is staring at him! Thanks Molly for coming out -- we had fun and it was great to see you!

Wow, the Dominican sure looks a lot like Austin...

(Insert beautiful pristine beach shot here)

Ed won his incentive trip for 2011 sales: 4 days, 3 nights in Cap Cana's new Fishing Lodge resort. Luxury accommodations included private villas with infinity pools that feed into the larger resort pool so you don't even have to set foot on land! Personally, I was very excited to have 4 kid-free days where we could sleep in, sip cocktails and just totally veg out. We flew my mom in from North Carolina to stay with the kids (thanks mom!) but things didn't really go as planned. Upon check-in at the Austin airport, we discovered that my passport was expired. I was so upset with myself. I mean I used to be the most detail oriented person I know. A double-checker to the point where I was borderline anal. How did this happen? It was like from a scene in a movie and I'd think "Yeah right, how could they let that happen???" Well, it did and my oversight cost us the trip. We tried to make the best of it though, taking advantage of my mom being in town to babysit often while Ed and I enjoyed the sights of Austin. We got massages, went bike riding, played tennis, ate out and saw some live music and even a movie. It was great, but we still had kids jumping on our bed at 7:30; not quite the vacation I had in mind.

So a BIG sorry out to Ed, who handled all it all great by the way. I think I was the one who was more upset. Thanks for not being mad at me and I promise it will never happen again ; )