San Antonio Trip

We're back and we're exhausted, but we had a great time! I told myself I wasn't allowed to blog about the trip until the suitcases no longer lingered at the door where we dropped them when we got home.

Thanks so much to our Aunt Shelley and Uncle Dave who hooked us up with the awesome resort! It was beautiful and so much fun!

This is Kyle at "the beach"

Kyle snoozing in the hammock in a cabana

My boys and me in the hammock... a very brief swing...too much to see and do!

We invited our friends, the Logans, who live in San Antonio to join us for making s'mores with us at our fire pit. This was quite possibly the scariest part of the trip--giving 3 boys with a marshmallow sugar high long sharp pointy sticks. Fortunately, nobody lost an eye!

Ava, Garrett, Kyle, Barrett

This was right after I asked them to sing us a good campfire song...Garrett (yes, there is a Garrett and a Barrett when we get together!) sang the Star Wars Theme! "Duh dum duh duh duh dum dum!" Love it!

The picture above is of Barrett's first rollercoaster ride. I cannot believe he actually rode that rollercoaster. He is JUST like his MAMA! I thought for sure he wasn't going to be tall enough so I started off for the next thing, but he kept talking about the rollercoaster. I decided that I would stand him up next to the yardstick and let the "man" tell him no, but when we got there, the man said he could ride! I thought for sure he would freak out as soon as he got strapped in, but he didn't! He rocked that Shamu rollercoaster!

Barrett looking at Angelfish in the aquarium

Kyle feeding a baby dolphin

Photos of the boys...it's been a while

I took the boys with me to scope out a location for some mini sessions I have coming up. We found all kinds of neat stuff. It's wonderful what's amazing to kids. Things like sticks, and dandelions, and logs that "are just my [Kyle's] size to sit on!" They were having so much fun, they even let me set up a tripod to get one of the three of us! Unbelievable!

a good chuckle

Every Tuesday and Thursday Barrett's teachers fill out a little report about how he did in school and include a little note about the day. I always look forward to reading them (he always gets a good report!). THIS Daily Report stands out! He got it before Spring Break and I had to put it up on the fridge. I still get a good chuckle everytime I look at it. I thought I should put it here for for posterity...wouldn't want something so great to get lost forever! Someday, he will be able to read and I would love him to read that his teacher thinks he is "easy-going!"

ETA: In case you don't know Barrett very well, I thought I should add that easy-going doesn't top the list of adjectives I would normally use to describe him. Strong-willed, persistent, determined, goal-oriented, focused, driven...all of these and sweet, but I don't get to see his easy-going side, I guess!

Laptop Lunches

Everytime Kyle and I are out to eat and I pull out his lunchbox, someone asks me where I got it and what is it called. Not that those people are readers of the ol' blog but here's the info...maybe word will get out (I don't really mind them asking, though, half of them are probably grandmas--good lookin' out!) Actually, if I do say so myself, this lunchbox is pretty cool! I have pretty much emilnated our cabinets of BPA and this one contains none as well. And it's compartments make it great for making healthy Bento lunches. It comes with a book with lots of great ideas, too! I have never seen a lunchbox get so much attention...or maybe it's because I am not feeding my kids chicken nuggets off the kids' menu that makes people do a double take. To find one, just google "laptop lunches"--I found ours new on Ebay. Amazon has 'em too.

big announcement on the photography blog

check it out!
http://jessicastarrphotography.blogspot.com/

Eating our way through Texas

My life revolves around food. I love food. My kids have multiple allergies so every meal, every outing, is carefully planned and outlined according to what the kids will eat.

So last weekend was my birthday weekend and a roadtrip to my friend, Meredith's wedding (without the kids--Thanks Moms and Dad for watching the boys!). We could be carefree about food...Fly by the seat of our pants! But we decided to shoot for the cafes in the December issue of Texas Monthly on our way to and from the wedding which was in Marble Falls, Texas. We hit Jake and Dorothy's in Stephenville for lunch on Saturday. Sunday breakfast was at Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. They have a pie happy hour there! Then we went down to Fredricksburg to shop off some of our breakfast ... and Cody had some beer. When we could begin to think about food again, it was the Yumm Factory Cafe in Lampassas that filled our tummies so full we could not even eat dinner! We had a wonderful time driving around this great state, meeting locals, listening to music and talking to each other on the way!

Here we are enjoying a slice of heaven, uh, I mean hot apple pie with ice cream on top at Jake and Dorothy's.

I should also mention that for my birthday dinner on Friday night we went to Line Camp Steakhouse near Granbury. (I'm not sure what town it's officially in) It was also in Texas Monthly for being one of the best Steakhouses in Texas. It was delicious!! Thank you to my father in law, Stacy for a wonderful birthday dinner and to my mom in law, Cindy for a beautiful homemade birthday cake! You guys are your own little yumm factory!!

Orange you going to eat that apple?

If you know my boys, you know they luuvv their fruit. They would happily eat nothing but fruit if we’d let them. We like to think we are good parents for making them eat some protein and vegetables occasionally, too. But, we're not above using fruit as a bribe, such as "If you choke down this bland rubbery stuff I am trying to pass off as chicken, I will give you some fruit!" Works every time!

The other day, Kyle was scarfing down an apple, wearing his engineer hat. I just love the faces he makes when he’s eating an apple and the way his ear was getting pushed down by the hat was too cute. I didn’t bother to clean the grit and dirt off his face--It’s just so Kyle and so little boy.