austin zoo

we got to experience the austin zoo for the first time a couple of weekends ago. one of ellie's classmates, carmencita, celebrated birthday number 4 there, and we were on the list of honored guests! we were greeted by several peacocks running wild, one with only 1 leg. they were bold - wandering all the way to the edge of our picnic area and everything! and they had GIANT beautiful feathers, too.

the kids posed for a picture - such cute kids :)

ellie with a longhorn. sorry, cacky, i know this makes you puke a little, but there were no metal bears. 

my kids were definitely the cautious ones of the bunch. (granted, kaleb was strapped into the stroller.) they stayed a couple of feet away from most fences. campbell, on the other hand, reached through the fences to touch the animals - and this as the petting zoo portion, so it was ok.

we watched the tigers play. one was in the water and with a giant ball - he'd splash us over and again jumping in after jumping out! there were 3 tigers, all a very good size. this was where the crowds gathered most.

the girls (lilah, one of ellie's classmates, tagged along for a bit while her mother changed a diaper on her baby brother) really liked the girl lion.

they even posed for a picture with her!

the austin zoo is a rescue zoo, meaning that many of the animals were taken from bad situations. that's right...of the 2 male lions, one was a former pet to an individual and the other was part of a circus. i'm not really sure who wakes up one morning and thinks it a good idea to buy a pet lion.

after much animal-watching, we all met back at the picnic area for lunch. whoo hoo!

kaleb and daddy shared some goldfish :)

and everyone took a great nap before church! i think we'll make a return trip to the zoo sometime when we can really just enjoy it on our own. we did get to ride the train, which was a letdown for me, as it only went out in the woods and then returned. we sasw no animals on our trip, just trees. and wooden figures of space ships and aliens. not really sure what that was about.

earth day

was last friday. and in honor of the occasion, ellie and her classmates planted in the garden at school. each child was supposed to take something to plant - seeds or plant, fruit/veggie/flower. ellie took green bean seeds. she was excited because jonah also brought seeds!

and to further celebrate the occasion, we asked fabo and cacky to come down and help revamp our flowerbeds. what a weekend! here's what we've got:

3 pots on the back porch that ellie claims are hers. she's very good to water them daily.

a parkway of plants. it was once grass. we sprayed it to kill it. twice. eric tilled it. we planted and placed stones. watering daily, and i think the plants look pretty good at this point. and here's a close-up of what we planted:

in our big flowerbed up by the house, we have a nice arrangement of blue salvia and stella de oro day lillies:

i can't wait to watch this grow and transform in coming years! it's a bloodgood japanese maple tree that mom and i found at a nursery out in bee caves. 

i have forever wanted to plant a japanese maple and never had the right spot  for it. so in this house, i was so excited to see the sun/shade patterns just right for one in the front bed! i researched about a month ago online and found a bloodgood to be one of the types of japanese maples i wanted to find. lo and behold - they're easy to find in austin! i must have known what i was talking about! 

my father thinks it's a little dr. seuss-ish because of the wild branch shooting upward from the left side of the plant. (and the picture is HORRIBLY blurry...it's time for a new camera...hint hint!)

tonight, we finished up our plantings by putting in the ground a dwarf pomegranate tree. it will grow to be about 5' tall. right now, it stands at about a foot. and it has BRIGHT red-orange blooms on it. can't wait to see how it produces this summer!

grill out

We are back in the business of grilling - and Eric is SO excited! he got a grill for his birthday since we sold the last one when we moved. (it's hard to justify keeping a grill when you're in an apartment indefinitely.) so we went for him to pick out his grill thursday, and spent the evening putting it together after the kids were in bed. i cooked the cast iron grates in the oven all afternoon friday, and we fired it up friday night with friends around to help commemorate the special occasion!

our friends from our small group at church, oscar and jen and their 2 girls (ages 2 and 5), and chad, came over as well as the peyton family from the kids' school. ellie really enjoys playing with jonah (just turned 4) and sadie (3 in june), so we were glad to get to play with them outside of school. 

the kids all crammed into the little playhouse in the backyard and had a blast! they also played croquet and blew bubbles - and all before dinner, thanks to daylight savings time! we all ate outside, and then the kids headed inside to dress up. it was quite a fashion show!  

everyone stayed until about 8.30, at which point kaleb had a meltdown (in his defense, his bath was an hour overdue). so i took him in to bathe him. we discovered that night that ellie's conditioned to take her clothes off to the sound of running bath water - she got naked as could be and ran into the bathroom! i tried to explain that kaleb was taking a bath and she could wait until after her friends left, but she'd have none of it. oops! sadie wanted to stay and keep her company in the bathroom :)

we had so much fun! can't wait to do it again soon :)

lost time

i haven't blogged all month long...in over 2 weeks! there's so much to catch up on. i was out last weekend with a stomach bug, and it reminded me how miserable it is to be down. i stayed in bed from mid-day saturday until monday morning, and then came home from work early to get back in bed. it was awful! but i'm fully back now, and onward full-steam ahead!

we've spent much of the spring outside in our backyard. we are so thankful to have one again! ellie's house (which kaleb has taken over on several occasions) is on the back patio with a couple of rocking chairs, but that's just the beginning! ellie's been blowing bubbles, and chasing them into the yard to pop them. here, she poured out some of her bubble solution into the yard, and kaleb thought it a good idea to stick his foot in it. not such a hot idea, but they both got a kick out of it!

ellie's also taken to playing horseshoes. the first time we played, she asked if she had to take off her flip flops. to put on the horseshoes, of course! no, dear, just throw. or frame your face:

she hasn't quite gotten the full hang of how to throw - andy's been pegged a time or two - but she has so much fun playing!

we celebrated eric's birthday last week, and how else to celebrate than with a german chocolate cake?!? and with a line of candles - ellie was so proud of her line of candles! kaleb got to try cake for the first time, and i think he ate more than i did - needless to say, he's a fan!

kaleb's really taken on a crazy little boy personality lately...all about eating bugs and grass and dirt outside, and all about wrestling and pouncing on his sister when we're playing inside. he gets in the middle of the wrestling on the floor and laughs right alongside everyone else! it melts my heart to see them having so much fun together!

this weekend for easter, we made a last-minute trip to garland after eric was given saturday off from work. friday night, we drove up to meet all of my family for dinner and hung out saturday with both families before heading out sunday morning and getting home about lunch. last night, we got to go to church and then hunt easter eggs afterwards. before church, we had a couple of minutes in the backyard for a few pictures: