On April 7th, Christine met Joan at the park, and Grayson, Jack, Leo and Lydia all played. And as you can tell from the photos, they had a blast:
What you can’t tell from the photos is that Jack and Grayson played so hard at the park that JAck fell asleep on the couch while Christine was putting Grayson down for his nap when they got home:
That was a first!
On April 8th, after work, Christine, Jack Grayson and I took a little walk in the neighborhood. Well, we took a walk with a bicycle and a dog that is…
Grayson tried to break into a neighbor’s car.
At some point, Jack ditched the bike on the side of the road, and got on “Daddy’s shoulders” while Grayson walked the dog in front of us:
On April 9th, Christine took the boys to get their haircut. While they were out, they went to the little wooden toy factory next door to the hair-dresser’s.
She took this super cute photo of them riding the horses outside the toy shop:
On the morning of April 8th, while waiting for Jack to get out of school, Christine took Grayson to the State Capitol building for a tour. And boy was Grayson touristy.
First he chased squirrels around the grounds:
Then he spent some time climbing back and forth over the curb in front of the building. Then Grayson checked out the little cannon out front that was given to the Republic of Texas by General Chambers in 1836:
After that it was up the steps into the building where he gave Christine a tour of the statues in the foyer:
After spending time inside, the two of them went out to the fountains in front of the building where Grayson checked out the water and started picking flowers…
So, here it is, almost the end of April, and I’m just now getting around to posting a group of photo sets from the end of March… Sorry… these would have been up earlier this week if I wasn’t having problems with englers.org this week. I ended up having to reinstall the whole site from a backup, so hopefully nothing to missing from this week and last. Nevertheless… I’m not traveling this coming month (hopefully that’ll stay true) so hopefully we’ll find more time to post updates and photos. The thing for me to remember is that I really want to spend more time with the kids, not necessarily time writing about the kids… But, hopefully I can do both this coming month.
Anyways, on with the show…
Here are some photo galleries from mid-March through the end of March:
March 15, 2008: Around the House – just some photos of Jack and Grayson playing at home, when it was just the three of us… Christine was out shopping or maybe riding her bike (she’s become quite the little cyclist lately).
March 18, 2008: At the table – These photos are of Grayson having a blast at dinner getting food and pudding all over himself. There are also some good action thoughts of Jack in his underwear jumping off the couch arm onto the couch seat, which was pretty funny, and was in no small part responsible for Grayson’s laughing…
March 23, 2008: Easter 2008 – This year, we did Easter in Austin, for a variety of logistical reasons, and we all had a blast. The kids had a few opportunities to collect eggs, get candy, and spend time with friends. We did the First United Methodist Egg Hunt on the lawn of the State Capital. The Easter Bunny left baskets of candy for us, and we went over to Leo and Lydia’s (Ted and Joan) house for an Easter Hunt and Easter Dinner.
March 28, 2008: Momo’s House – We drove down to Bellville this last weekend in March, and had a BLAST with Evan, Shadel, Ella and Momo. I won’t say anything more about these photos except to say that the kids were adorable in the outfits they dressed up in while a Momo’s:
March 29, 2008: Evan’s House – . This group of photos is from Evan’s house and has a lots of great shots of the kids, Jack, Grayson and Ella. Suffice it to say the kids had a blast playing in the yard with each other.
March 30, 2008: Ella’s Birthday – Shadel and Evan hosted Ella’s Fourth Birthday Party (she’s already four… I can’t believe that) at the Teddy Bear Factory at Katy Mills Mall in Katy on March 30th. The party was a blast. The kids spent a lot of time before the party playing on a bunch of rides that were in the mall concourse (since when do rides cost $2.00 to ride on?) – they also walked down to the Rainforest Cafe and looked at the elephants and alligators. Then during the party, we had pizza and cake. After cake, the kids got to build their own bears, and afterwards we all went home, fat and happy.
On the weekend of 3/14 the weather was gorgeous so Christine and I loaded up Jack and Grayson and headed to Kiddie Acres in Austin.
Kiddie Acres is like that old amusement park you used to go to with your parents or aunt and uncles when you were a kid. They have old rides like a mini-ferris wheel, airplanes, jeeps, pony rides and a train.
We had a blast with the kids:
We hope to get back soon.
Look at all of the photos here.
Peggy just emailed me this photo of Jack and Grayson playing shuffleboard out at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Raymond’s new house:
The weather sure does look nice down there.
Tonight, Christine called me on her way home from her 16 mile bike ride with Cyndi to ask if I wanted to go to the park with the Swendners to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner and let the kids all play with each other. I said “sure”, so she came home, we got the kids dressed, then we stopped at KFC to pick up dinner and met the Swendners at the park over in their neighborhood.
We had fun. The kids played. The kids ate well. The kids played some more. The adults chatted with each other. We found a guy with a great dog that would fetch a ball after the kids threw it for her. All around, a good evening with friends at the park.
Then we all went home.
When Christine and I pulled in the driveway, I asked if Christine brought a key for the front door (we’d locked it from the inside before escaping out the garage door). And last week, Christine broke the garage door opener in her car…
She said “no” and proceeded to get out of the car to check her diaper bag, just to make sure she didn’t have a key, while I checked to see if my car was open because my garage door opener still works. The car was locked, and she really didn’t have a key.
So we checked the fences on either side of the house. Both gates were closed, and only open from the inside of the fence.
Christine climbed on top of the A/C unit and reached over the fence to unlock one of the gates while I held the kids.
We went into the back yard. I knew one of the windows was unlocked, but we had an idea:
Let’s send Jack in through the doggy door and he can unlock the dead-bolt on the front door, and we can get in.
So, I walked around the house to the front door, while Christine got Wesley to come to the back door to open the doggy door (it’s an automatic doggy door that only opens when Wesley gets close to it, and it’s locked otherwise, so someone couldn’t really just break in too easily).
When I got to the front door, I looked for Jack, but didn’t see him… so I turned the knob and pushed, and the door opened…
So I called for Jack, and he came running from the kitchen.
I don’t think he’d made it to the front door yet, but I’d tried the door just five minutes prior and I could have sworn it wouldn’t open.
He did unlock the back door, so we could let Christine and Grayson in, though… silly me, I didn’t even think to have him unlock the back door.
Long story short: it’s nice to know we can break into our own house without a key, as long as Wesley is willing to come to the back door, and we have our three year old with us.
Last night, Christine and I went to see a movie while Aunt Peggy came over to baby-sit the boys for us. We saw 10, 000 B.C. which was very good.
When we got home, Aunt Peggy had to tell us a story:
She was putting Jack down for bed, and it was time to put on his Huggies for the night.
So she told him, “Jack, let’s take off your under-pants and put your Huggies on”.
Jack said “No, I want to put the huggies on over my underpants.”
Peggy replied “Jack, I really think you should put the Huggies on, and then we can put your underpants over them, so that if you have an accident, you won’t get all wet.”
Jack told her “But I have a rooster in my body that will wake me up if I have to go potty and I won’t have an accident.”
Peggy told us that she couldn’t really argue with that logic, so Jack was sleeping with a pair of underpants on, and a pair of Huggies pull-ups over his underpants.
We just sat there and laughed with her in the kitchen when she told us that.
Cock-a-doodle-doo everybody!
Every year, Austin throws a big party at Zilker Park, and calls it the Annual Kite Festival.
This year, because the weather was nice, the boys were old enough, and Aunt Peggy lives in Austin now, we decided to attend. And boy did we have fun?
We couldn’t get our kite to fly, but luckily, Josh Baer had a kite in the air when we got there, so he let Jack fly his kite for a few minutes, while Amy Baer held Grayson (who never goes to strangers as easily as he jumped into her arms) and helped him pet a friend of their’s puppy.
There were other friends from work there as well, and we all took turns flying Josh’s kite.
Then, Aunt Peggy went and bought a kite that would actually fly, and she got it up in the air, while Grayson held the rope for her…
While Peggy and Grayson were flying a kite, Christine and Jack went over to the rock wall to climb it. Jack actually climbed up around 6 or 8 feet, and had fun until he realized if he went any higher we couldn’t help him hold on… it’ll be fun to see how high he gets every year from now on.
All in all, it was lots of fun.
We left right as the first signs of rain started to show, and on the way to the car we felt a few drops of rain, but it never really rained on us.
We stopped at Wally’s Burgers on the way home, ate quickly and took naps. It was a full day.
The rest of the photos are here.
The boys and I had a great time this Valentine’s Day. First and foremost, John got home from a three night trip late last night, so first thing this morning the kids woke up to seeing daddy! Then it was pancakes and sausage, getting dressed, and off to school.
Jack had a great big day at school. At 9:30 the kids had a very special Valentine’s Day snack. I am the room mom so I took the class pink and chocolate cupcakes with heart shaped rings on them. Yummm. They also had a special valentine’s day gift exchange and arts and crafts. Jack’s teachers are awesome and come up with the cutest activities. Then for lunch the pizza man came and delivered pizza to the classroom. This is huge for Jack. He LOVED it. It was also the class’ first day to go to Chapel. What a big day at school! Jack told me this evening that he had “the most fun at school today.”
While Jack was having so much fun, I decided Grayson deserved something special too, so we headed to Schlotzsky’s to pick up a sandwich, chips and cookie. Then we headed for the Capitol, which is right across the street from our Church and Jack’s preschool, for a picnic. We sat and ate together on our blanket. Grayson was very hungry, as usual. Then I sat and watched him run around. It was so wonderful, the weather was perfect. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. See more pics here.
After picking up Jack we headed home and all had naps. I even took a nap which is pretty rare these days. When the kids woke up we went through all of Jack’ valentines from school and everyone had a lollipop.
When John got home (with a rose, champagne and cheesecake in tow) we cooked a delicious steak dinner and enjoyed spending time with the boys. Then it was more presents from mommy and daddy, nana and papa, aunt peggy, and one more lollipop to get thru bath time.
We couldn’t have dreamed up a better valentine’s day!
Jack told me last night while I was changing his underwear before bed something very important:
“Daddy, don’t break my penis off, because we don’t have any penis glue to put it back on if you do.”
How do you answer that one?
I just laughed… I couldn’t think of anything else to do…
Christine and I recently took a weekend trip up to New York City. It was like 20 degrees the whole time we were there, but we had a blast regardless. It was Christine’s first visit to New York City, and based on this trip, I’m sure there will be more…
While we were there, we took one day to tour the city in a double decker (actually it was only the top deck that was open) bus. We drove all the way uptown to Harlem, and all the way downtown to Battery Park, and saw lots of sights in between.
We also saw two broadway shows: Mama Mia and Mary Poppins.
We visited the World Trade Center site, looked at the statue of Liberty from Battery Park, and visited St. John’s Cathedral [link to website], and St. Paul’s Church. We also walked in the Apple Store on 5th Avenue, and FAO Schwartz (and got Christine’s picture taken with Chewbacca).
We picked up a FAO Schwartz teddy bear for Grayson, and a NYC Taxi Cab for Jack.
We ate Knishes, hot dogs, and gyros from street vendors. We ate at Sevilla, a typical New York City Spanish restaurant set back in a Chelsey neighborhood (and pictured ourselves living in one of the brownstones across or down the street). We had dinner at the hotel, and at a Times Square Deli.
We slept in one day until noon almost.
And overall we had a blast.
Outside the New York Stock Exchange:
At Battery Park, looking at the Statue of Liberty:
Out at night on Times Square with Erin Taylor and the boy that dragged her to New York, Tom:
Lots more pictures in our New York photo gallery.
Back in October (yes, it’s been at least that long since I posted a real post this this weblog … sorry folks, life has been busy), Grayson got his first haircut. Christine and I took him to the Hair’s Lair in Austin, the quintessential first haircut place for kids.
He had a lot of fun playing with toys with his mommy…
But was also very wary of the lady cutting his hair…
In the end, he ended up looking like a very cute little man…
Jack also got his haircut that day and looked pretty cute too…
Earlier this week Elise and Maly came over to visit, and Christine took some photos of Maly on the Rocking Harley Uncle Raymond and Aunt Debbie bought for Jack and Grayson for Christmas:
That’s one rocking biker chick!