Patio Queen

Any time we go to a store with patio furniture, Daphne just has to try it all out and would probably lounge for hours if I would let her.

Playing Together

Pyramid and Garden Zoo

Mosquito Magnet

The mosquitos have been really bad because of all the rain we have had. Poor Daphne is the biggest mosquito magnet we know! They find her first and go to town, even on a short walk from the house to the car. Earlier this week the question of the day in Daphne's pre-school class was "How many mosquito bites do you have?" The answers for the whole class were written on the white board. Most kids had answered 0, 1, or 2. Daphne's answer was 10, which is sadly pretty accurate. She was the only one in the double digits. We have been trying different bug sprays to figure out what works best. Some of the aggressive mosquitos on the coast even bit poor Daphne through her clothes!

Texas Rains

We got back from the coast on Memorial Day just as the second major thunderstorm hit Austin and caused flooding in the central part of the city amongst others.

Since we haven't made room to park in the garage and
our house doesn't have gutters (common here in the 90s),
we got drenched heading into the house.

The kids made a blanket/pillow/stuffed animal fort in the living
room while we watched all the flooding news coverage.

Tyler is hiding behind the snow leopard and tiger.

Port Aransas

We spent part of a day exploring in Port Aransas, where Michael and his family spent a fair amount of vacations when he was growing up. Even though it was windy and overcast in the morning, the sun came out in the afternoon and we made it to the public pool/splash pad in Rockport for a cold, but fun, dip.

The ferry ride from Aransas Pass to Port Aransas is pretty short,
but we got out to watch the dolphins jumping in the water.

Taking a walk on one of the jetties where Aransas Bay
meets up with the Gulf of Mexico

The kids enjoyed exploring at the UT Marine Science Center

Our sea turtle

Rockport Beach

We spent a day at Rockport Beach, which is perfect for little kids. The sand is super clean and they rake it with a tractor every day. And since the beach is on Aransas Bay, it is pretty shallow near the shore and the waves are really mild. The kids played in the water for hours. They finally tuckered out when Tyler's arms got chafed from riding the boogie board so much.

The kids enjoyed the sand and at one point
we made a pretty nice sand castle with a moat.

The water was warm and cloudy skies kept it from getting too hot.

The kids took turns using Abuelito's boogie board, which they
thought was fantastic. Daphne even got pretty brave jumping
waves with a little kickboard or just floating in the waves with
her puddle jumper/floaties on.

Abuelito took some videos of the kids in the water:

The Coast

We headed to Rockport on the coast with Michael's parents for Memorial Day weekend. We mostly managed to avoid all of the recent crazy rains going on in Texas. We rented a house with a fishing dock in the back. The water was an inlet to Salt Lake, which connects to Copano Bay.

Fishing dock at the rental house. If you look closely towards
the center of the photo you can see a gray heron.

Abuelita and the kids on the downstairs patio

The guys did some early morning fishing
on Goose Island one morning

The guys fishing from the rental house dock

Abuelito finally caught a fish, a red drum, the last morning

Track and Field Day

Last week there was enough of a break in the rain for Tyler's school to hold their annual Track & Field Days. The older grades do actual track and field events while the kindergarteners do fun semi-competitive events. Each class received a trophy.

Relay race transporting sand with shovels

Continuous jump roping

Hula!

Tyler in action on the obstacle event.

Target Bollards

The kids have always loved the giant red ball bollards at Target. On our last trip to Target they insisted I take their photo sitting on the bollards.

School Work

Tyler's journaling has come a long way since earlier this
school year when the kids started writing phonetically.

Daphne's teacher said that Daphne drew these sharks all by
herself and then her teacher wrote in the descriptions
that Daphne gave her about the Daddy and baby sharks.

Yummy Dance

Tonight at dinner, Tyler did what he called a "yummy dance" before he sat down because he was so excited to see honey-glazed carrots and couscous on his plate. He didn't mention the chicken but he did try it (drenched in ketchup) without complaining. I think this even inspired Daphne to try all the food on her plate without complaining. This was the best dinner in weeks (short of ordering pizza or known kid-pleasers)! If only every dinner could go so smoothly...

How Many Fingers?

Daphne is currently obsessed with asking us how many fingers she is holding up. She always starts with all 10 fingers until we say 10, folds one in and waits until we say 9, all the way down to 0. I don't mind indulging her except Daphne doesn't understand that neither Michael or I can play this game while we are driving. Although I guess we could slowly count from 10 down to 0 without even looking and Daphne would never even know the difference.

Mother's Day

The kids and Michael treated me to a fantastic Mother's Day. We took a bike ride in downtown Austin this morning, which included a loop around Lady Bird Lake and the boardwalk trail along the Colorado River. We stopped for lunch at Austin Beer Garden and then later for dinner we went out to dinner with Michael's parents.

Daphne seemed pretty content riding in the bike trailer.

Tyler's legs are finally long enough for the tag-a-long bike.

The kids got me a card that plays tropical island music and got a kick out of dancing to the music over and over.

Earlier this week Tyler's school had a Mother's Day breakfast. In Tyler's classroom we each got a neck massage from our child and then they rubbed lotion on our arms. They also gave us some sweet art expressing their love. They had a fill-in-the-blank info sheet about Mom. Here are a few of my favorites:

• My mom is... 44 years old. (I don't mind that Tyler overshot my age by 5 years. What I really think is funny is that when he did this exercise last year in pre-K he said I was 20. Last year must have really aged me!)
• My mom's favorite place to go is... HEB. (I guess Tyler thinks I like grocery shopping since I go there so frequently!)
• If my mom could go anywhere in the world she would go to... Houston. (Tyler definitely had PawPaw and his cousins in mind.)

Knock Knock

Tyler has been learning lots of jokes lately and is starting to get good at telling them. Not wanting to miss out on the laughs, Daphne has also been telling the same knock knock joke repeatedly. She has told us the following "joke" at least 20 times the past week and giggles every time even though we are not sure why it is funny:

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Banana cha cha dance! (this is when Daphne starts giggling)

Touch-a-Truck

The kids had a blast at Touch-a-Truck yesterday. They got to climb inside and inspect a whole bunch of trucks.

Getting the scoop with PawPaw; Tyler and Daphne are covering
their ears because there were quite a few horns being honked.

Watch out construction workers- there is a Hurtado crew
driving this truck: Tyler up front and Daphne in the back.

Poor Daphne couldn't even see over the rim of the bucket.

Barrel train

We were surprised to see a real life Mater tow truck.

Behind the wheel of Mater

We also checked out a few of the aircraft permanently
on display at Camp Mabry.

Daphne thought it was cool she could walk under the plane.

PawPaw in Austin

Daphne cruised by PawPaw and Jamie and said "See ya slow
pokes!" PawPaw and Jamie jogged ahead to show her who's boss.

Waiting for a table... Only 6 years old and Tyler is constantly
asking if he can play games on our phones!

Sharing lap space

Watching cartoons with Jamie

Tyler and PawPaw finished off the arctic base
LEGO set PawPaw got Tyler for Christmas.

PawPaw joins a legalize marijuana rally in front of city hall.
Not really, he just took a few photos but he fit right in wearing
his Chuy's shirt with "Keep Austin Weird" on the back.