Cub Scout Adventures

Tyler's Cub Scout den visited the local farmer's market yesterday and then went for a hike afterwards.

Checking out the local vegetation

Starting to wear out towards the end of the hike

Completely wiped out!

Water

Daphne currently claims that she "hates" water, but she will drink it when push comes to shove. She drinks water at school and at home although she mostly asks for milk or juice. Daphne also insists on having what she calls "bedtime water", which is a water bottle full of water in her room that she can drink at bedtime or in the middle of the night. She has been insisting on bedtime water for a few months now because Tyler has had bedtime water on his nightstand for a few years now.

Conversation between Daphne and me as I put a water bottle in her backpack for a hike yesterday morning:
Daphne: I don't want that water bottle. I want my bedtime water bottle.
Me: Your bedtime water bottle is in the dishwasher, which is running right now.
Daphne: But I don't like morning water.
Me: Let's pretend this is bedtime water.
Daphne: Okay!

Fort

The kids have been playing together really well lately and playing together creatively. They built a fort using a card table as their base. They fit an unbelievable amount of stuffed animals in the fort with them and even had a pretend picnic with Daphne's fake food toys.

 

Family Walk

We enjoyed the nice weather we have been having by taking a long walk on Sunday on one of the trails near our house. The kids love stopping to check out all the exercise stations whether they are basic (sit up bar or pull up bar) or something designed for kids (monkey bars).

Tyler loves the monkey bars- forwards, backwards, eyes closed

Tyler easily scaled over the top of this.
Daphne climbed over the top too but
we spotted her on both sides just in case.

Pinewood Derby

Tyler's cub scout pack held their annual Pinewood Derby this past weekend. We worked with Tyler to make and paint his car. There were awards for speed but also for how the cars looked. Tyler ended up coming in 5th place for speed out of the Tiger age bracket, which included about 9 or 10 entries. His buddy Jackson came in 1st in the Tigers and overall. All in all, Tyler had a great time.

Tyler with his car

Some of the Tiger entries- Tyler's is #72 on the far right

Participation certificates for everyone and trophies for the winners

Guinea Fowl

One of our neighbors has a Guinea fowl that escaped from her backyard late last week. He spent a day in and out of our backyard and was spotted all around the neighborhood. The kids were mildly amused by the Guinea fowl, who liked watching us through the window in our back door, but Michael was the one who grew attached and was a little sad to see him leave. Gary, as Michael called him, did finally make it home to his owner. I was talking to my Granny Hulett this weekend and she said that her grandma used to race Guineas (in her home state of Kentucky).

Gary the Guinea fowl on our patio table

Playground Fun

This kids came up with a new activity today at the playground.

In Hiding

Daphne loves to hide and surprise us. She thinks she is really good at hiding but she is usually somewhere pretty obvious, which is good because we haven't lost her yet. Most often Daphne likes to hide behind trees. She also likes to hide in clothing racks while shopping.

Hiding on a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby

Snugglers

Yesterday morning I got out of bed, leaving it empty, to go to the bathroom. When I came back a few minutes later Michael and the kids were all snuggling in my spot. And they were quite pleased with themselves too!

McKinney Falls State Park

Our friends Rachel and Cheryl are in from San Antonio this weekend with a bunch of their friends and are camping at McKinney Falls State Park in SE Austin. We headed over today to hang out. The weather was gorgeous and sunny. The kids enjoyed playing games and collecting shells and rocks.

Daphne was quite taken with Chloe.
Aren't they adorable in their pink vests?

Daphne is trying to show off one of the
shells she found while we were out exploring.

Upper Falls is still closed from all the flooding back in
October but Lower Falls and surrounding trails were open.

Cheryl (holding Roxy), Michael, Tyler, Renee, and Rachel
(holding Chloe); Daphne was off searching for shells!

Knights in Shining Armor

Tyler and Daphne started a new dress-up game yesterday called knights in shining armor. I could tell when Daphne was ready for a new activity when she asked Tyler, "Are we still armorers?"

Daphne's "armor" was pretty much just her umbrella.

Tyler used his ninja turtle shell as armor.
Everything else on his person are weapons.
I believe the balls are supposed to be bombs.

4-Year Well Child Visit

Daphne had her 4-year well-child visit on Friday. She has been giving us all check-ups with her newest doctor's kit recently so I think she really enjoyed seeing her pediatrician use all the actual tools such as the stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. Daphne had a miraculously healthy year and didn't have to visit the doctor a single time since her 3-year well-child visit. The doc says she is doing great. Our little shorty is now 38-3/4" tall (27th percentile) and built solid at 39.5 pounds (80th percentile).

Let Me Tell You Something in Your Ear

At least 10 times a day Daphne says, "Mommy, let me tell you something in your ear." Then she makes her way over to me and whispers something in my ear. When this started a few months ago Daphne pretended to tell me secrets and would just say, "Psst, psst, psst, psst, psst..." Now she actually tells me stuff that doesn't actually need to be kept secret. And because Daphne is whispering it makes it really hard to hear what she is saying!

Favorite Colors

Daphne is selectively picky about colors right now. She has a long list of favorite colors, which typically include gold and pink somewhere in the top 3 to 5. For whatever reason there are a bunch of colors she hates. I believe the unlucky hated colors are currently purple, green, white, and black. For instance, she typically refuses to wear her purple pants right now that go with about a third of her shirts. And forget about giving Daphne milk in a purple or green cup. She throws a total fit. Yet, Daphne completely overlooks the fact that her two favorite butterfly shirts include purple on them.

Daphne & Eric's Birthday Party

Daphne and her friend Eric, who is in her class at school, share the same birthday. We are friends with Eric's parents and decided to team up for a joint birthday party at Hoppin' House this past weekend.

Daphne and Eric at the bottom right corner of the foam pit.

Tyler is always up for a bouncy house.

A smiling photo- they had to pose in order to get cake

Now a silly photo

Daphne chose a dinosaur cake.

Eric chose a Minion cake.

Daphne refused to take a photo with
Tia Ludy before she flew back to LA

Instead, Daphne crashed hard on the couch for a much-needed nap.

Shop Hard, Play Hard

I haven't taken both kids to Target in a while but when I took them recently they insisted on the big honking cart where they both ride behind it. Never mind the fact that they are perfectly capable of walking. After shopping we definitely need to work out some energy at the park.

Daphne kept climbing up on the seat.

Then she would lean on the cart and say, "Look
Mommy! I'm doing a front support." A front
support is something she learned in gymnastics.

Our tree climber

Our little American Ninja Warrior

Tia Ludy is in Town

Tia Ludy is in town and has been having fun hanging out with the kids and reading to them at bedtime. Tyler also schooled Ludy and I at Uno. One round he played four skips on me and polished it off with a +2. In a later round he said he was thinking of old memories of when he skipped Mommy 4 times in a row!

Star Wars

We took Tyler to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 3D this weekend and it was awesome! The storyline was great and it was fun to see the classic characters in action again. Tyler's favorite character was Chewbacca with BB-8 coming in as a close second. I loved that one of the new main characters was a strong, fearless woman. Take that Dark Side!

Tyler in his Wookie hoodie

Shopping

I run a lot of errands with Daphne on Thursdays and Fridays while Tyler is at school. I forgot how contentious they can be when shopping together until I did a back-to-back Costco and grocery store trip over the holidays. They were very insistent on taking turns putting things in the cart and Daphne got upset that I wouldn't let her put heavy things in the cart at Costco. Eventually Daphne had a major meltdown over the Costco receipt. While checking out at Costco Tyler asked if he could hold the smiley face. I asked him what he was talking about. He reminded me that the Costco staff usually draw a smiley face on your receipt as you exit the store. So I gave Tyler the receipt on the way out. Well, Daphne was not pleased to see Tyler holding the smiley face receipt and completely lost it. She didn't even calm down when Tyler generously let her hold the receipt when we were about halfway to the car.

Still crying over the receipt even
after we arrived at the grocery store

Finally both in harmony and standing on the front of the cart
(their weight combined makes it so hard to push!); Luckily an
awesome HEB employee saw Daphne crying and got her
smiling by asking her how old she is, giving her a high five,
and giving her a bunch of Buddy Bucks.

So Big

At almost 60 pounds, Tyler is finally getting too big for me to carry him to bed when he falls asleep. Michael was out when Tyler fell asleep on the floor around bedtime. It didn't help that he was on the floor. I barely managed to pick Tyler up and then carry him up the stairs to bed. My baby isn't such a baby anymore!

New Duds

Daphne has been wearing all the fun new clothes she got for Christmas and her birthday. Pretty much every time I try to take her picture she flashes me the Gig 'em thumbs up. Then she'll giggle and give me the Hook 'em Horns symbol. Sometimes she gives me both symbols.

Gig 'em (most appropriate since
wearing an Aggie dress)

Hook 'em

Busy tap dancing

Hook 'em and Gig 'em

Making a snake with Daddy in her new Wonder Woman PJs

Snuggling

Tyler: Who is the best snuggler?
Me: Me! Everyone loves to snuggle with me: you, Daphne, and Daddy.

Happy Birthday Daphne!

Our big girl turned 4!!!! Daphne was very excited about her birthday this year and kept reminding us that it was right after Christmas. We did a family celebration with my dad and Michael's parents on her birthday complete with a trip to the Thinkery, presents, and butterfly sugar cookies. She is still looking forward to her party with her friends this weekend.

Our painter hard at work

Excited about making a paper chain

Tyler's shadow art

I made the kids change clothes for the water
room because they always get soaked!

That's my ice cream PawPaw!

Jamie always loves to come with PawPaw to visit.

Daphne wanted butterfly and rainbow cookies. We don't have
a rainbow cookie cutter so I settled on colorful butterfly cookies.



Daphne has been wanting
superhero PJs with a cape just
like Tyler and her cousins