Kiddie Acres

What to do on a summer day with 4 kiddos with lots of energy? Kiddie Acres - Austin's own kiddie amusement park. I think it's been there since the '70s - and has the rust to prove it - but we sure love it. Hudson's favorite was the airplane (he never rode another ride) and the rest of us had fun trying all the other rides. And of course, red snow cones for a special treat!

Fun in the Sun

It is hot so we went to Target and bought fun outdoor water activities to try out. Here are some fun pictures of our fun in the sun afternoon.

Austin Duck Tours

We couldn't call ourselves official 'tour guides' without taking the Kenner of the Austin Duck Tour Adventure. If you've never been on the Duck Tour, it's an amphibious tour of Austin’s downtown and Lake Austin inside an unsinkable, US coast guard inspected, Hydra Terra vehicles. We each had duck 'quackers' and had to quack at people on the streets to say hello. Mommy just wishes we had to leave the quackers behind but fortunately for us, we got to bring them home.

Ready for our tour

Hudson didn't care much for the history of Austin We actually drove the truck into Lake Austin

Hula Hut

After the duck tour, we headed over to Hula Hut for some yummy Tex-Mex. Of course, Mclain and I had to wear our matching 'Keep Austin Weird' shirts that Uncle Shannon and Aunt Kari bought for us. In fact, I overheard Aunt Kari tell mommy, 'if my son is wearing a tie-dyed shirt in public, yours is too'. Fun for us, at least!

Is that fish real?

The Zephyr

Zilker Park is always fun when we have out of state visitors but the Zilker Zephyr is a must! Daddy and Uncle Shannon stayed home but mommy and Aunt Kari took us all to ride the train and have snowcones for a special treat. It was hot, hot, hot but didn't phase us one bit.

Tate stealing a kiss from Hudson

This sums up Tate and Hudson's relationship

Kenner's Visit - Day 2

With all of the excitement of the Kenner's arrival, we all didn't get to bed at a reasonable time. In fact, bedtime is usually 7:30pm but we were all up playing until well after 11 pm. The result? Four tired monkeys today so we thought we'd have a relatively mellow day. McClain and Hudson had never been to 'Chuck E Cheese' and since we're obsessed these days, we took them for a little adventure. Tate chanted 'Chuck E Cheese' all the way there and all the way home. I think she loves Chuck E - just not enough to get close to him.

Tate and Hudson racing
Hudson loved the dinosaur game

Tate loved Hudson's hat

Special Visit from Atlanta

My best buddy since I was born is coming today with his family to visit us for a week. Technically, we were buddies before we were born because our mommies were friends and we had the same due date, but that might complicate things. The Kenners are also Tate's Godparents! We went to the airport with signs to welcome them to Austin and then took them to 'The Oasis' for their welcome dinner.

Sunset at 'The Oasis' on Lake Travis

Uncle Shannon and Tate watching the sunset

A fresh coat of paint

Mommy had our handyman over doing a few things before our company comes into town this week. One of the jobs was to paint part of the bathroom. I was busy playing in the playroom and mommy thought my baby was with me until.......she saw Tate whiz by in the garage with paint all over the floor, a hammer and herself. Tatie tried to brush the hair out of her face but when you do that with paint all over your hands, the result is paint in hair and on face. She was a mess but fortunately it was water based and most came off in the kitchen sink bath mommy gave her. The rest had to just wear off.

Sword Fight

What's not to love about a good sword fight? My baby and I sword fight often and usually use whatever we can find that might make a good sword fight and no one is safe. Today, we used the sword and the sword cover to sword fight each other.

Like Mommy like Daughter

When mommy was a little girl, her Nana made outfits for her to wear. Recently, mommy was looking through an old trunk and found 2 outfits that were hers. There are pictures somewhere of mommy wearing these dresses and although we couldn't find them, mommy thought it would be fun to dress my baby up and take some pictures. Lucky for Tate, mommy couldn't find the original photos because we all know she would have tried to 're-inact' the photo shoot and it would turn out badly....for mommy and Tatie.

New Swim Lessons

I've been at Emler Swim School for a few years now but mommy decided to change things up a bit and started me in private lessons with Miss Debbie. Today was my first lesson and I swam like a champ!