Girls Night Out

Take one part creativity and an apron,

Two parts artist's paint brushes, 

Three parts wine,

Four parts friends,

Five parts of colored paints,

Six parts family,

Seven parts of nerves and giggles,

Eight parts of laughter,

Nine parts of FUN,

Ten parts of finished master pieces!

Mix it ALL together and 3 hours later you have yourself a GREAT night out!

Thanks Monet for being our inspiration!



The Age of Swimming

 I am four and I LOVE to swim.

I can hold my breath and put my face in the water.

I can kick like any fish in the sea.

I like jumping in or doing cannon balls.

I like wearing goggles to see underwater.

I can dive to the bottom to collect torpedoes.

I am four and I LOVE to swim.



Summer Favorites

Berry Austin-
We discovered this local frozen yogurt business while taking Taylor to swim/gym at Crenshaw's near 2222 and MOPAC. It's such a great "Keep Austin Weird" type of place! The decor is very retro and funky. It's completely self-serve and then they weigh the amount in your cup to charge you. It's also a very environmental friendly place because instead of wasting a paper cup for your frozen yogurt you can select a pre-washed bowl instead. Super delicious!

Yogurt Planet-

Since summer began, Taylor and I seem to be going to the Hill Country Galleria a lot lately. This local yogurt business is completely self-serve too. Take how much you want, weigh it, and pay for it...so simple a four year old could do it. What could be better than ice cold yummy frozen yogurt on a sizzling Austin summer day!

SUP-

Due to a recent LivingSocial purchase by my husband we were introduced to Stand Up Paddle-Boarding on Lake Austin. I will admit that I was not entirely looking forward to this family outing, but I had already agreed, so there was no backing out! Much to my amazement, I loved it and we all had so much fun! It took me about 30 minutes to feel comfortable enough to stand up from a kneeling position but once I did it was literally smooth sailing. We all had a blast jumping in and out of the lake and paddling up and down the lake. I've already told Andrew that we'll be doing that again before summer is over.

Cooking Light Cookbook-

Currently we've worn out our stash of cookbooks. Since it's summer and I'm home, I was more than ready to jump back in the kitchen. A friend at school recommended this cookbook and I was so excited because we used to get the magazine and always loved the recipes. The ones we've cooked so far are quick and delicious! It's so nice to add a few new nightly meals to the cooking repetouir. 

Torchy's Tacos-

Another Austin favorite for some, but a newly visited restaurant for our family. Some of the best Mexican food I've had in a really long time! I love Baja California Mexican food (sorry Tex-Mex lovers) but I can't be converted. However, Torchy's might be the perfect happy medium for me. The best part about this summer favorite is that they're opening another one closer to us on 620 and Anderson Mill. It's hot, it's spicy, and oh so good!!

P. Terry's-

Yet another Austin best! The more exciting news is that they're finally coming to Lakeway!! They're building a new one right across from Lake Travis High School...Yay! About a month ago when we were downtown to play miniture golf we were super excited to drive through and pick up some P.Terry's but the 2-lane line was crazy long. This restaurant is the closest we've come to our beloved IN & OUT in California. Fresh produce and all-natural delicious hamburgers. We can't wait to have it in our neighborhood!

As you can see, if you've read this far, is that most of our summer activities revolve around FOOD!

And Austin has plenty of it to offer. 

Butterfly Garden

Since it's currently been over 100 degrees in Austin this summer, we decided to take a little weekend trip somewhere a little bit cooler...

A Tropical Rainforest to be exact where it's always a balmy 80 degrees with a constant 80% humidity.

No, we didn't fly south to Costa Rica or Brazil. However, that does sound fabulous.

Instead, we landed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science's Butterfly House.

Stand still and wait patiently for the butterfly to step up on your finger.

Proudly show off your beautiful catch.

Giggle because it tickles.

Move it really close to you to get a better look.

Look he's on my shirt! Okay, it's kind of creeping me out, get him off me momma!

Celebrate Freedom!

Picture courtsey of Uncle Tony

Happy 4th of July!

Not too many things are more American than fishing:)



Kayaking

Even when Lake Travis seems to be drying up by the recent drought conditions, my boys still can find plenty of fun things to do together! Thankfully, we won't be doing any boating this drought season. We learned an expensive lesson in 2006 when our boat stuck a rock in a cove during that years severe drought.



Organizing Art Work

With the close of our 1st pre-school year, I was left with the daunting task of deciding what artwork to keep forever and what to toss. I knew that I wanted some sort of long-skinny "art box" but nothing I ever saw seemed to be quite right.

Until about month ago, when a stroll down a Target aisle brought a smile to my face. There it was, the perfect organizational box for Taylor's school work.

In less than 15 minutes Taylor and I went through files and piles of his work and decided what to keep and what to recycle. Of course Taylor really wanted to keep everything, but with a little encouragement to purge some things, he finally released some unneeded pictures.

Here are some favorites from this past year:

His first picture of his family. Daddy's in the middle, I'm
on the right and Taylor is on the left.

An early attempt at writing his name.