Big Top Candy Shop

Another one of those Austin places you just have to experience! Big Top Candy Shop was awesome! I have been wanting to take the kids there for a while, so after Shady Grove, since we were in the same neck of the woods (WAY south) we headed over near the trailer park food court and hit up Big Top. David had more fun there than the kids did I think. They had everything there, salt water taffy in every imaginable flavor, chocolate covered things like cookie dough, espresso beans, brownie batter, hundreds of gummy things, and bacon flavored mints and floss. David had been wanting to try an egg creme, so he got that and enjoyed it, and Regan got old fashioned pink bubblegum ice cream, and Riley got lime sherbet. Then when it came time to buy some candy, again, David went overboard with giant super sour gum balls, sour Skittles, a bag full of chocolate covered coffee beans, crunchy hot candy, and many more. The kids didn't get a whole lot, surprisingly enough. But, it was a neat place, we'll go back to enjoy the soda fountain at least.

Shady Grove

I have been hearing a lot about Shady Grove, and it's one of those Austin-only places that help "Keep Austin Weird". It was really nice, tons of trees (hence the name) and just a lot of nice landscaping and fun things around. The food was pretty good too.

TAKS Scores

After a very worrisome year for Riley, we got his TAKS scores in, and it's not bad news! It's been such a roller coaster year for him, and he wasn't doing great in pre-TAKS testing, but we KNEW he was smart enough to pass, he was just having test anxiety (or so we hoped). For Reading, he got a 33 out of 40 (score 2194), Math he got 37 out of 42 (2295) and for Writing 25 out of 28 (2315, just barely missing Commended). So it's official, he will be a 5th grader!

And for those who don't know, we will be homeschooling next year. I think we are all looking forward to it, except every once in a while Regan gets upset that she won't see her friends, but she is happy that she won't have to wake up so early anymore, which is one of the things that I'm most looking forward to!

Oooh, Shiny!

My new toy:


It's funny the things that excite you when you're an old married person. This is definitely the highlight of my year!

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed their 3 day weekend! We had a great time. We spent Saturday at home, taking it easy, relaxing and cooking. David smoked a brisket and a pork shoulder. On Sunday after church, we had our Financial Peace University class, then headed home for a houseful of company. Pam and Dave, Alex and Melissa and the kids, Daniel and my dad, we had a nice big brisket party! Then on Monday, got to sleep in, and watched some movies with Regan, then we headed to our friends Craig and Laura, with the pork shoulder and had pulled pork sandwiches over there. Had a great time there with some of their friends, and the guys even met back up later to go to a movie (the girls are going later in the week). It was a nice relaxing, fun weekend, makes me anxious for summer to hurry up and get here already!

Field Day

I hadn't been feeling good all week, but have been busy with field trips and book fair, and then today, FIELD DAY! The kids love field day and it's one of the only events at the school that I don't volunteer! But, I finally caved and made a doctor's appointment, so I had some time to kill that morning, and went and watched Regan's class for a while. The theme was Extreme Weather, so her class was the Friedlander Fronts and they all made visors and decorated them. Here are Regan and Natalie on the sponge relay (soaking up the water in one bucket, and transferring it to another):


And here is snack break, it was sure hot already and only 9 in the morning!


And since I left early and went to the doctor (and found out I have strep throat) I missed out on Riley's field day, they were the Margolis Meteorites. I had gotten the class the cool flaming bandanas to wear, and he said they had a great time, but as usual, it was HOT!

Girl Scout Pool Party

Tonight was our end of year Girl Scout party and patch/award ceremony. We have earned a lot of patches this year, and we got the cookie prizes too! Regan got a nice insulated lunch box, a stuffed horse, a journal, a bracelet, flashlight, all kinds of goodies for selling all those cookies! And of course the girls had a great time swimming.

Texas Capitol

Riley's field trip today was to the Texas Capitol, which is about the best field trip ever! I just love Texas History and find it all so fascinating. We started off with a tour guide, which we could have done without, I know all this stuff! But, she was good with the kids and led us around and showed us some of the new basement offices and gave us the general history of the building and Governors, etc. Then we made a pit stop in the gift shop, then got to sit in on the Senate in session, always super cool, to me anyway. Some of the kids were really getting into it too, it was enthralling. Then we went to the grounds and had a picnic lunch, and took a tour of the statues around the grounds. It was another beautiful day too, not too hot, so it was so nice to sit outside under the giant oak trees.

Whole Foods

It's time for the last field trips of the year. Regan's class went to Whole Foods, the nice big one downtown. We got to tour the store, and sample the merchandise! I just adore Whole Foods, and the one downtown seems a lot nicer, they have way more stuff. I took tons of pictures just of the displays of food. It wasn't a good idea to go on the field trip after skipping breakfast. Everything looked delicious. The kids saw a giant halibut, talked to the seafood guy, saw the chocolate fountain, got samples of chocolate, met the cheese man, he gave them all cheese sticks and let me know they carry my favorite, hard to find cheese, Kefir. Then we headed to Pease Park to eat (I bought a sandwich from WF to take with me, yum) and enjoy this nice weather we've been having lately.

Blaine!

After a traumatic trip to Petsmart for dog food (any time I take Regan, she falls head over heels, madly in love with some random puppy up for adoption, and it's MAJOR drama when we tell her no, she can't get a new dog), we got home to find Matt's mom's dog, Blaine visiting us for the weekend. Just what the doctor ordered for Miss Regan. And isn't he the cutest little thing...


Regan was in Dog Heaven the whole weekend, as you can see:


He's much friendlier, and active than Bailey, he would hop up in bed with me and David, burrow under the covers, flip over on his back, and be set for the night. I'm ready to bite the bullet and get another dog, but I don't think David is convinced yet.

Skate Night

Tonight was a fundraiser for the school, Skate Night. Regan wants to skate well so bad, but she doesn't want to fall at all, so it makes it hard to get any practice in when she hugs the rail all night. Riley on the other hand, wants to race and win, and after having a broken hand for a few weeks, the first lap around the rink, he fell back and landed on his wrist and now has a very sore, probably sprained, wrist. Boys! Regan likes to walk/skate around the track and stop for poses at each air conditioning vent. Girls!

Bunny Update

We've been doing a lot of bunny research lately. After Spike-Junie died, and the trauma that it's death caused, I wanted to make sure we were doing all that needed to be done for Cooper and Leslie. Here is the grave marker that Riley made:


We learned about a way to check and see if the Mama Bunny was coming to check on her baby bunnies at night, put a criss-cross shape of grass or dental floss over the nest and if it is disturbed in the morning, that means she visited them. We did that a few nights and sure enough, Mama was coming. But on Monday morning, when I checked, the nest was wide open and the bunny on top looked nice and robust, fluffy fur, eyes starting to open, plump little bunny-tummy. I got this picture of the little guy (already much bigger than the first picture I had taken a few days earlier):


But the bunny underneath him wasn't doing so well. I checked the way I learned online, and no round tummy, in fact, it was very skinny. His skin and fur weren't looking too well, and he was very dehydrated. I hoped Mama would come back that night and feed him extra. But yesterday, when I checked, no Mama, no brother bunny, but there was a partial skeleton of the sick bunny. The bunnies only stay in the nest for about 2 weeks, so I can only hope the other bunny was old enough and healthy enough to join his mother in the wild. Riley did find the bones in the nest and was very distraught, again. He just adored these rabbits and tried so hard to take good care of them. I think he did a great job watching over the nest, making sure they were protected everyday, and he even wanted to put a Mother's Day card out for the Mama Bunny. I have such a sweet boy!

Videos from Champion Park

Here are a couple of videos I took at the park last week. This slide is so bumpy, I'm not sure if you're supposed to slide down or climb up, but when the kids went down, it made me laugh.

Happy Mother's Day

We had a nice house full, as usual, but I was so excited that my dad got to come too! David smoked a prime rib that was to die for, and we had burgers, mashed potatoes, pies, there was lots of yummy food. Alex and Melissa, Melissa's mom Dee, Kris and Jen, Daniel and Kenzie, my dad, Pam and Dave, all the kids, there were a ton of people, and we all had a great time catching up. And then met again the next morning for church. We have almost a whole row just for us now!

A Very Sad Day

We had a house full of company, people over, David grilling burgers and smoking prime rib in the backyard, kids in and out, jumping on the trampoline, people eating on the deck in the back, slightly organized chaos. Well, in all the chaos, one of the cousins yells, "What's that in Bailey's mouth?" Crap. One of the bunnies, Bailey finally poked his head in the right place and thought he was bringing home a treat or something. Riley made him drop it, he grabbed the bunny and rushed it back to the nest, there was some blood coming out of the bunnies mouth though. I've never seen Riley so distraught. He collapsed beside the nest in tears, balling his eyes out, poor thing. He kept saying over and over that he didn't want the baby to die.

We checked to make sure, and sure enough, it was dead, and ants were getting all over it, and we didn't want the other bunnies to get bit by the ants, so we took him out of the nest, used the garden shovel and dug a hole in the yard to bury the poor little bunny that Regan named "Junie." Riley cried almost all evening, he was so worried about that poor Mama bunny, losing one of her babies on Mother's Day, and if she would be mad at him for taking the dead one out, and all kinds of questions.

These kinds of things are so hard on kids, and hard for me to explain. The circle of life crap just doesn't cut it when your sensitive kid is thinking he is somehow responsible for the death. I told him he wasn't, he did everything right. We checked on the babies just to make sure they weren't abandoned, and we tried to make sure Bailey left them alone, there wasn't much we could do, it was a tragic accident. These things happen. But, it put a damper on the day.

I checked again today, the other two are doing well, getting bigger. I have googled baby bunnies for hours and found out they are cottontails, less than 10 days old, and will only stay around 2 weeks, so they could be gone soon. Regan has dubbed them, "Leslie" and "Cooper."

I gave the kids popsicles yesterday, and Riley got the sticks and made a grave marker for the one we buried. He's already been out there checking the grave and making sure that the bunny didn't come back to life and try to push up the dirt. Poor kid, he's such a rough and tumble boy it's easy to forget just how sensitive he really is.