Replaceable????

Michael and I were relaxing on the couch, looking at something on the laptop, when Brad came by yesterday to pick up Bumblebee since we had been dog-sitting for him. We helped Brad get all of Bee's stuff and load her up in his truck. When we came back to the living room, we found Daphne on the couch with her giant bears sitting as we had been sitting. The taller bear in Michael's spot and the shorter bear in my spot with the laptop. Most diabolical was the search the mama bear had up on the laptop: "how to replace daphne's parents". That Daphne is something else!

Braces!

 

Tyler got braces on Friday! Nothing says awkward middle school years like braces. He only needs to wear them for 14 - 16 months. Tyler is bummed about some of the foods on the do not eat list his orthodontist gave us like popcorn and gummy candy. The orthodontist said that Tyler did really well and sat super still. She also noted that he salivates a lot. It made me laugh and remember his baby\toddler years because he drooled more than any other kid we knew! We think Tyler should change his Xbox gaming name to The Salivator but he disagrees.

Throwback to The Salivator during

his baby years- look at that drool!

Let it Snow!

By some miracle we got snow in Austin today! We didn't think it would actually happen especially when we got a bunch of rain this morning. Slowly snow flakes appeared with the rain and eventually it all turned to snow. We ventured out for some snow fun in the afternoon and took a walk through our neighborhood and the park.

The kids barely fit in their snow gear from last year.

Many snowballs were thrown! The wetness of the snow

made the snowballs really easy to pack.

Daphne made this giant snowball
especially for Daddy.

Even covered in snow, the kids wanted to stop by their
favorite workout station on the park trail.

We all enjoyed some hot chocolate after playing in the snow.

Happy New Year!

We had a very nice low-key family New Year's Eve with the kids this year. We had crab for dinner and then had game night. Clue and Trouble were the top picks. At midnight we did sparklers in the driveway. Daphne kept asking if it was legal! She couldn't believe we were waving fire around. We assured her it's one of the few "fireworks" that are legal within city limits.

We started with basic sparklers.

As Daphne got more comfortable, the kids battled it out.

We also had some short morning glories and then our neighbor gave us some morning glories that were several feet long. Those were pretty cool and we liked the pretty colors they made!

Rum Cake

Tyler is less traditional in the types of desserts he likes compared to most kids. Ice cream? Forget it! He would rather have salted caramel gelato. Cookies? Not really- sometimes the occasional sugar cookie. Definitely not chocolate chip cookies. Cake for his birthday? Usually red velvet or strawberry. Tyler recently discovered rum cake. Mary made one that my dad brought at Thanksgiving and he loved it! So Tyler and I got Mary's recipe and made the rum cake yesterday. We ended up using a different liquor since our liquor store didn't have the one Mary uses. It came out pretty tasty but Tyler says that Mary's rum cake is better.

I caught Tyler on video unaware while he was singing a rum cake song he made up while he was greasing the bundt cake pan.

Getting ready to make the batter

The first piece! Tyler isn't wild about nuts in baked
goods so we only sprinkled chopped pecans on 
half of the cake.

Putty Head

Daphne got some Aaron's silly putty for Christmas. It was unicorn themed and so it was white with colorful glitter in it. Apparently she was playing with it yesterday on a plastic placemat on the couch, set it down and forgot about it, and then laid her head on it while she was watching TV. A big chunk of it got stuck in her hair. We were unaware this had transpired. Michael drew her a bath and she tried to get the putty out on her own and then came down to dinner wearing a hoodie. I caught a glimpse of the putty and originally thought it was shampoo suds she had not rinsed out. She confessed it was putty. I tried putting conditioner in her hair and combing out the putty. While difficult I made some slow progress and did get some putty out. Daphne hates having her hair combed anyway and made an executive decision that she was okay getting it cut out. Michael took her for a haircut today and she looks great. Since Daphne already has an asymmetrical pixie she just has more bangs and a different taper now.

Daphne is 9!

Our baby turned 9 today! Daphne got to call the shots today: out to eat for breakfast, ice skating, movie at home (Croods- A New Age), presents, chocolate chip cookie cake, and a few rounds of Jackbox games. All in all, a very fun day! 

Daphne really wanted French toast sticks from
Galaxy Cafe but they aren't on the menu
anymore. Thankfully our picky eater gave the
pancakes the thumbs up.

We have now gone ice skating on 3 out of Daphne's last 4 birthdays. We headed to Chaparral Ice. Daphne used a helper for about the first half hour. Minus a few short breaks she and I skated for about an hour and a half. Michael, a little shaky on skates, only lasted a few laps and Tyler bowed out early too.

Daphne helped make the cake. She likes to sample the brown
sugar and the cookie dough batter. And lick the beaters and bowl!

Our picky eater has decided frosting is out and so we only
decorated part of the cake.