Spring Break (part two)

Gramma Pat and Pa left Thursday morning and we left for Houston shortly after. We started out by stopping by River Oaks Nails. El and I used to go there and get our nails painted for some of our special girl time. Eva had never been so I surprised the girls with a visit. It was nostalgic for El and me and exciting for Eva. Next we met Rex, Jim, Fabene', and Seth for a yummy dinner at Caraba's. We then went to the Magnolia Hotel and had cookies and milk before hitting the sack! Daddy met us at the hotel but had to wake up at 4 AM to head back to Austin... yuk! The girls and I met Paola, Anna, Mary, Chloe, and Alex for lunch at Mission Burrito (Runkle Girl Favorite!). We had some play time at Mary's house and then spent the night there (this coerced by two certain 10 year olds). We made it back to Austin on Saturday just after lunch time. We picked up our reserved copy of New Moon, went home, relaxed and enjoyed. Sunday we chilled and then back to real life.

Spring Break (part one)

We have been busy, busy, busy! I am finally getting a chance to update. Gramma Pat and Pa came down for a quick four day visit. The first day Pa and I put together the trampoline... the girls have had a hoppin' good time in that! Eva jumped for about five straight hours. The second day we went to Sea World. Eva is going to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up (and she is going to marry Daddy and have four babies in her belly). El loves the Sea Lions. We had a great time feeding the dolphins, watching the shows, and for the girls... sitting in the splash zone (I chose to sit up a few rows). This plan worked until the last show when there was no seating for me. I joined the girls and luckily survived the show without a drop of whale water:) And then... they sent the whales around to say good-bye... yep, we got splashed. I held Eva up as a human shield so I did not get drenched. As you can see we tuckered Eva out. We tuckered Gramma Pat, Pa, and Mom out too! The next couple of days we chilled out and just enjoyed each others company.

Spring Break part two coming soon.

Suess on the Loose

We celebrated Dr. Suess this weekend with a birthday celebration at our public library. There were stories, activities, a performance, and games. Eva really liked her "Go, Dog, Go" puppet. El really liked having time to look through ALL the books at the library. Eva has started her Dr. Suess PreSchool computer game and LOVES it. El loved it back in the day as well.

Rock and Roll

Yesterday El was downloading music to her ipod. She was playing some songs and Eva was dancing to the tunes. El then asked Eva, "Who sings this?". Eva replied, "Michael Jackson". correct. El changed the song and asked again, Eva answered, "Carrie Underwood". correct again. How does my just turned four year old know this? El decided to make it tough (as in I did not know the next one). Eva correctly answered, "Lady Gaga". When has Eva ever heard Lady Gaga? I can only think it had to be the Grammy Awards show. Needless to say El and I were quite tickled. All I can say is that Eva is living up to her name.

A bit of history on Eva~

While in the hospital I started calling her my rock and roll girl because when she had the sudden startle reflex her arm would shoot above her head in a fist. It looked like she should be shouting, "Rock On!".

Eva was not real happy about riding in the car as an infant. I had the baby mozart CD and the kiddy songs CD but nothing helped. So, for my own sanity, I put in Sheryl Crow. Ahhh, silence at last. At about two months old her favorite music was Sheryl Crow... she especially liked "Soak up the Sun".

Rock On~

more snow...

The snowflakes that fell were the largest I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot snowflakes)! I just goes to show... everything is bigger in Texas.

SNOW in Austin!!!!

Yes, believe it or not we had snow in Austin! Eva discovered that she loves throwing snowballs! El and PaPa discovered that they better run because Eva has a pretty good aim and arm. The girls and I had a great snowball fight and built a snowgirl. Eva would not allow us to call it a snowman. It was great... for a day:)

I say that it is amazing the lengths I will go to make my guests (from Ohio) feel at home. I knew they must be missing the snow so I had it brought in. We had 76 degrees and sunny on Sunday to 32 and snow on Tuesday! Crazy!

The Purple Mermaid in the Purple Sea Party

Eva had a wonderful time at her purple birthday party. She LOVES to open presents. She LOVES balloons. What's not to love?

She had her party at the pottery painting place. She painted a ballerina slipper. Her guest list was all "her" friends. One four year old, one eight year old, and four ten year olds! She had befriended all of El's friends. The mom's said the older girls had a great deal of fun shopping for a four year old (brought out their inner child).

Eva is very excited about being four and being huge now. Ah... to be four... what a wonderful life.

Happy 20th Birthday to Katie and Lolo!

Happy Happy Birthday to the best nieces and cousins! We hope you are having a wonderful birthday celebration. Thank you for bringing twenty years of joy to my life! I wish you both the best of everything life has to offer. Love you Infinity!

The Purple Mermaid in the Purple Sea

It is all about getting BIG!!!

There is so much birthday excitement around here you can touch it. Eva is having a Purple Mermaid birthday. She tells everyone we pass. When asked how old she will be she holds up four fingers and says, "I will be one, two, three, four." Then grins ear to ear.

I told her she was getting too grown up and that I may have to have another baby. She said, "NO! I will always be your baby even when I am huge and I will always live with you even when I have my own babies." What a lucky mom I am:)

One day I reached something for her and she said, "Wow Mom, you're huge!" Not exactly what every woman wants to hear. However, I knew that coming from Eva it was quite a compliment. So it has become a staple synonym in our household.

The lightening Thief

El and her friends wanted to see The Lightening Thief today. So we went to the movies right after school. (It's a good thing because the 6:00 showing was sold out!) During the movie the main characters make a getaway by "borrowing" a new black Mozerati. As they peel out Eva yells, "I like that car! I want that car!" Oh boy...

Story School

Eva is ready for story school. She is taking Angelina Ballerina with her today.

The stories were all about camping. She is coloring a picture of a girl camping and reading books. She colored it and said that the girl in the picture is Issy.

She is getting VERY excited for her birthday!!!

Less than two weeks. Let the fun begin!

Happy Birthday Lily!

Eva's friend Lily had her 4th birthday. This was Eva's first "kid" birthday party. I was a t a place with lots of moonwalk style jumping areas. Eva had a blast. On the way home she asked, "Why did all those kids hit and kick me?" It was very busy!

Eva is very excited about her upcoming birthday party!!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This picture was from a sunny day not long ago. However, we are having a very wet winter! The good news is that Lake Travis is back to normal levels after last summer's drought. February is forecast to be wet and cold... yuk! I am ready for spring.

A house full of sickies!

Last week was a sick fest at our home. Both girls had sore throats and headaches starting on Monday. Then Todd cam home from work on Thursday with a sore throat! I managed to not get ill but I was feeling run down. Everyone is finally feeling a bit better. Hopefully we will have done something to blog about soon.

Happy New Year!!! a bit late...

We stayed in for New Year's Eve. That is after our day at Hamilton Pool. We had planned to see New Moon and then New Year's at home. However, it was not at our theatre any longer:( We were quite upset. So, plan B was to go on New Year's Day. We did and it was great to see it again. Eva absolutely loves the wolf fighting scene. She laughs so hard it makes the rest of us roll.

Painting Pottery

A favorite of all is to paint pottery. We went to Art Attack and had a fun time. El painted a bowl, Eva a unicorn for ME:), Katie an Autumn leaf, and Lolo a Jackie O mug. They all turned out beautifully!

Good Times... Good Times...

The girls liked to play hard and sleep often...

Hamilton Pool

We live off of a road named Hamilton Pool Road. My father-in-law made the mistake of asking how the street received that name. It is from a stream/waterfall/mineral pool that is about five miles away. I had not been there at the time. We decided to check it out. It was about an hour before lunch and Eva, DeDe, PaPa, and I ended up on a half mile hike down and then back up a stoney hillside in street shoes and Eva was not that great at walking at the time. It was beautiful, but we were hot, tired, and hungry by the end!

Now I know to be prepared for the trip... walking shoes and plenty of time to enjoy the sights. On New Year's Eve we took our reluctant visitors to enjoy the outdoors. When I first mentioned going on a hike I got some not so enthusiastic faces. Later that tune changed as we all loved it and had a wonderful time!