On the Road Again

The pod has been packed. The inspection with the landlords has taken place. Dora has been downloaded to the ipad and the sticker book shelves of Target have been cleared out. We are ready to start our trek back east. This time our itinerary will take us to overnight stops in Dallas and Memphis before arriving at Poppy's in Atlanta. After that it's Nana & P-Pop's in North Carolina, followed by Lola & Papa Bobby, Uncle Rich & Aunt Jill, and Uncle Marc & Aunt Donna in Maryland. Although I never look forward to the long days of driving, I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone and the kids are pumped, telling strangers about the different states they'll be visiting : ) Around mid-August, we'll make our return trip (itinerary TBD) back to the same rental until our house is done. Good bye Austin, see you in a couple months!

Serenade

We have a friend who plays guitar in a band who has offered to give Ed lessons. He even lent Ed one of his guitars to start, which he had been using for the past month until he finally got his own. All of this started since Dean is really into the guitar, so Ed thought it could be something they do together and that he needed a jump start on a 2 year old : ) So Ed has been watching lots of youtube videos about easy guitar songs and learning to read music. Dean likes to listen and sometimes gets out his guitar to  have a little jam session. Uncle Steven is also interested in learning at recently got a hold of our Uncle Phil's old guitar so he came over and Ed was showing him the basics.

Happy (Early) Father's Day

Since we'll be pulling out of town on Father's Day next weekend, we decided to celebrate a week early and took the family to a waterpark just outside of Austin in Round Rock. There were multiple pools, a lazy river, wading areas and 2 water slides for bigger kids (which big kid Ed did try out). It was a sunny day and the water was a bit cold, but the kids loved being in the water and splashing around. At the beginning of the season, Dean was very tentative about going in, but lately he's been really into it and even accidental gulps of water hasn't stopped the gaping smile on his face. Guess he might be next for swimming lessons...

Dean's "happy eyes"

Dean's boo-boo is from face-planting on the sidewalk a few days ago

Roommates

The boys are still sleeping together in Morgan's bed but it's getting more and more challenging getting them to settle down enough to actually sleep. The other night, I had to threaten that I was going to call the police to come over and give them a ticket for being too loud and not cooperating and that kept them quiet – for about 3 minutes. When they started jumping on the bed and screaming, I pulled out my thespian skills and pretended to have an entire phone conversation with the police. They were immediately concerned as I gave the police their names, ages, our address and explained the situation. He offered a warning if they promised to go to bed right away and when I asked the boys, they eagerly agreed. I thanked the officer and the boys were fast asleep 5 minutes later. One night down, have to think of something else tomorrow...

Windows are in!

The house is looking better every day. Windows are now in and the roof is covered. There's even some siding on the exterior walls. We met with a company last week and have decided to enclose the back porch with a retractable screens so we can use it as a sunroom or just have it open if it's nice out. We can't wait to move in! It's going to be weird not seeing daily progress all summer...

Strawberry & Blackberry picking at Sweet Berry Farm

I took the boys to Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls, (about 1 hour away), to pick strawberries and blackberries. I hadn't done it since I was a little girl so it was fun for me as well. The boys were really into it, getting so excited every time they found one: "Mommy, look at this one! Mommy look!" Dean had a hard time pulling them off - after a few times of pulling too hard and squishing them in his hand, he just wanted to find them and direct me to pull them all. Then it was a cacophony of Dean's "Mommy get this one!" with Morgan's "Mommy, look at this one!" Dean liked being the basket carrier, even though it meant sacrificing some berries from all the rough handling.

After berry picking, we jumped on the huge bouncy structure and checked out the goats before heading home. It was just yesterday that we went, but all the berries are already gone : )