swimming...

swimming....

and grilling...

the stuff of summer!

Our Trip to Austin

John and I love visiting Austin. There is so much great food and an endless supply of unique shops to explore. We have been there several times but not in the past couple of years. We were really hoping to make this a romantic trip but that didn't work out so we brought along the boys for some family fun.

The best part of the trip was that we were able to stay with some sweet friends. It was so funny how the boys called them "Heather and Mr. Funderburk" all weekend long. The boys (our Burrito and Noodle and their son "T") enjoyed playing together, and the adult time after the kids' bedtime was so fun! Heather and Daniel, we loved hanging out with you!

On Friday we headed to South Congress for some shopping and lunch at Magnolia Cafe.



Noodle and Burrito thought it was hysterical that their water came in a coffee cup and insisted I take their picture drinking coffee!



Then we explored Zilker Park. The boys especially enjoyed the fire truck at the playground.


And there was a random statue of some philosophers in the park so I had all my boys stand next to it with a funny philosophical pose!


After the park, we went to Central Market for a snack and to cool off before meeting the Funderburks for dinner at Kerbey Lane cafe.
Saturday was a lazy day and that was great! This is our friend T. He was a great host and was so sweet to share his toys with Burrito and Noodle. We went swimming at their neighborhood pool and played golf in their backyard. It is tough getting 3 boys to be still long enough for a picture and this is the best of what I got! The big boys went golfing and I had fun playing mommy with Heather at their house.

On Sunday, after eating Daniel's secret recipe pancakes for breakfast, we said goodbye to them and set off towards the capitol. I wasn't sure if the boys would appreciate seeing it or not, but it just seemed weird to not go there while in Austin. They did, in fact, appreciate it enough to warrant the visit, particularly the cannons!

After visiting the capitol, we visited John's favorite place, a local bookstore. We grabbed lunch at Maudie's and then went to a groovy retro shop for me! And of course, we couldn't leave Austin without a quick trip through Ikea! It was a great little vacation with some great friends!

our summer schedule

everyone likes a schedule, right?

well, at least type A personalities....and we've got 3 of those in this house. so we've come up with a summer schedule that i think keeps everyone happy, even noodle, the not so type A personality!

every day we all have breakfast together which is a great way to start the day. then our schedule kicks in.

mondays are mow the lawn and buy the groceries day.

tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays have john going to the library after breakfast to work on graduate school studies. i know, i know. i said he was done with grad school. well, almost....he is working on his last paper and then studying for his comprehensive exam. so this is built in time for him to get these things done, and he has a good chunk of time to do it in. he stays gone until after rest time, usually around 3:30 in the afternoon.

the boys and i are in summer school. after eating breakfast and getting dressed and ready for the day, we go to our new "school room," and do school work. i bought the boys their own age appropriate workbook to work through over the summer and they LOVE it. they ask me at least a hundred times in the morning if it is school time yet! i bought them their own folder to put their completed worksheets in and i give them a star sticker when they complete their work with a good attitude.

we are also going through 2 books together: My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts by Susan Hunt and Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching Your Children to Live for God also by Susan Hunt.

i cannot say enough about these 2 books. they are so great and the kids love them! i usually try to get house things done on these days while john is away studying and the boys are pretty good about helping me clean and do the laundry. we also love to do play dates with other moms and their kids on these days. last week, we met up with our friends "a" and "a.g." to ride a super fun miniature train that i once rode as a child!

and then it is family fun friday. we usually try to plan something fun for us to do as a family on fridays to celebrate togetherness and the freedom of summer. so far we've ventured to a local small town city and walked their downtown area, we've gone to the zoo, we've been shopping some garage sales and this week we are hoping to head out of town for some weekend fun!

here are some pics of the boys at the zoo. we had a lot of fun feeding the birds there!

we also headed out this past week to the Ballpark to cheer on our favorite baseball player, a certain toronto blue jay. you might remember this post about him. as we pulled in to the parking lot, ominous storms appeared in the west. and before the game even started, it began pouring. let's just say i was quite glad to be in a steel structure, as this storm produced a tornado about 20 miles north of where we were. after waiting for 2 hours for the rain to stop, they postponed the game till september. i did manage to get a picture of the boys before the rain began and you'll notice the tarp was already out on the field. not a good sign!

so that's our summer schedule. we've been so busy i've not had time to blog!