About My Girls

*Several new posts below. Happy Snow-Day!

One morning while Owen was at school and the girls and I had some errands to run we went to Shipley's (donuts). We were the only ones there for a long time (until the couple you see behind Rebecca came in). R started calling the place "my donut kitchent" - because they make donuts just for us. Let us know if you ever want to join us at our donut kithen - we can arrange that.

I mentioned in my piano post that Rebecca has started taking a gymnastics class at Champions/WAYA. Nana takes her and some little girls from preschool are in the class. She loves it and Nana says she's caught on quickly (most of the girls have been in since August). This is her little outfit - I was thrilled I was able to find one w/ her at Academy that she actually liked and had the little legs which I wanted.

I am sure I have mentioned this but Rebecca won't let me throw anything away because pretty much everything has creative potential. This was a TP roll she turned into a bottle for one of her babies (even though we have toy bottles).

This was some sort of bed or house (?) for a stuffed pal of hers.

A bed with airbags.

Decorating details

This is how she draws herself (or any other princess) right now. That thing on her head that looks like crazy horns is her crown. We're working on adding 3 instead of 2 since I told her that's more crown-ish.

Other Rebecca-isms:

-She is so over her Aggie dress and has replaced it with a size 3T (she should be in 4T and 5T) that is blue and sparkly - that I bought for Maggie last winter but she wouldn't wear it. We make her wear it over leggings when we go out so its basically a shirt. 

-Hopefully my mom will go into more details when she does her Disney post, but she told me that when they were about to take off Rebecca was looking out the window and sort of wispered to herself: I hope the pilot knows what he's doing.

Maggie-isms:

Favorite new sayings: willy fahsss (really fast - when we're in a hurry or I accelerate in the car), Maggie fall down...funny (when anything happens to her - and then she laughs), I dodt it (goes along with I doey self!), airplane! (even when its just the noise from a car or mopac), big fruh (big truck), heletotter (helecopter), We did it!!! (chanting, a la Dora). 

Her songs: she has her own versions of twinkle twinkle and Oh Donny E-I-O (Old MacDonald) that I HAVE to get on video...

About My Boys

Kyle did carpool one morning for me last week - these are his notes. Wow I love this guy.

This is Owen pushing Maggie in the "baby chair" as she calls it. He is such a good big brother.

Other recent Owen things:

-He refers to himself as "the big brother" a lot. He even told Rebecca that if she wanted his big brother to be proud of her she would _______. (I swear we never talk like that!!!)

-His great love for Star Wars has caught on with most of his friends - the Murrays had a sleepover with him and Boone and I think over the course of 24 hours they watched 2-3 of them. And did lots of light saber fighting. And then he wore the storm-trooper hoodie she gave each of them for like a week straight.

Twosies and Threesies

Kyle and I read a book a few years ago with some friends about how hard you have to fight to keep balance in the family - to teach and grow your kids, but not over-commit and over-schedule them to the point that there isn't family time left or time left just to be a kid and play with friends. It's not easy but we're trying. We've decided to let Owen do soccer again this spring (Saturday mornings only, no mid-week practice) and Rebecca is taking a once/week gymnastics class that Nana has graciously offered to be in charge of (so much fun for both of them)! We love the idea of adding enriching things without adding the crazy/chaos that usually accompanies "more." Anyways, we have talked for a while about wanting our kids to have at least some exposure to music early in live - its so good for so many reasons. (*Mom, did you hear me say that?!) We have a piano in our dining room, and unless my mom comes over to give us a concert (unlikely since her baby grand sounds a whole lot prettier) its not getting played...

So, we did a little research and found the most amazingly talented, calm, fun, piano teacher who comes to our house! Seriouly, I'm over the moon about this one. Okay, they kids have only had 1 lesson, but it went so well. She is a gifted teacher. The kids want to practice each day (which takes about 5 minutes for each of them at this point). We're all enjoying it. 

Here is Rebecca with Miss Jacqueline.

Owen's turn

We'll keep you posted. 

*Oh, twosies the groupings of 2 black keys and threesies are the groupings of 3 black keys. Don't you want her to teach you too?!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Nana turned 59 again :) and the fam got together to celebrate - complete w/ BB's famous chocolate cake and the other Mezger's bouncy house (because the kids hear party and that means bouncy house)! 

Here she is with all the grandkids (minus the one on the way - not mine, Mel's)

These little people are soooooo lucky to be getting to grow up with each other. And even more lucky to have a Nana like our Nana to oversee it! 

Happy Birthday Nana - we love you!!!

Neighbor Friends

Some neighbors enjoying our sea saw at one of our "First Friday" gatherings. We bring it around from the backyard to give the illusion of a public park. :)

The Murray kids hopping on - ride for 4!

Nathan and Owen's SERIOUS faces during a chess match.

Nathan and Owen's HAPPY faces during a chess match.

Neighbor friends are the best.

January Family Fun

IHOP 

Two Saturdays ago Kyle had a plan and to no surprise for those who know and love him it included a hot breakfast. So, to IHOP we went. I had no idea how long Kyle had been dreaming about this outing - it was his Disney. :) 

Rebecca shared a giant breakfast platter with Kyle.

 Owen wanted his own.

 I can't remember what we did about feeding Maggie but I'm sure we did and apparently she liked it.

 Then we headed to a park near our house and played - only interrupted by 4 trips home (different sub-groups of us) to use the restroom or grab an extra coat, etc.

 Owen liked to push the girls but the biggest hit was the new permanent ping pong table. Fun. But lets also say that there are no Olympians in our family.

 Rebecca loved made up a "puppet show" with Rose Princess (her tie-die ballerina/princess bear with hair-clips). She tried to hide on the slide and talk for RP but kept sliding down and knowing she had been seen would get frustrated. Perhaps there is a reason puppet shows don't usually take place on slides.

 Working it out at the bottom of the slide w/ Kyle and Owen as her audience.

 "SNOW"

Last Friday we had a snow day. Or in Austin, Snowpocolypse or Snowmageddon. You can see the massive "wintery mix" on our trampoline. Make fun (and we all do) but the roads were pretty frozen. Not snowy slush, but slidey ice. I was glad we didn't go anywhere. Owen had the best day of his life (or so it seemed) - he ran around on that trampoline and made snow angels and threw "balls." Rebecca lasted about 4 minutes, then felt cold and wet and came in for cocoa and a snuggle. Melt.my.heart. All in all it was a fun day - our neighbor friend's deck was sort of like our trampoline but slushier and the kids had a great time over there as well. When you don't know real snow wintery mix is amazing. (We're taking O & R skiing in February so I'm worried that this might be the last time they're this thrilled with Austin snow.) *Incidentally, we're having another snow day today (same issue - icey roads) but there isn't anything fun to play with outside. Boo.

BALLERS

My brother was (is) a huge basketball fan. I remember at least twice going to see the Harlem Globetrotters as a family when he was a kid - probably for his birthday. So, when I saw tickets on groupon I thought it would make a fun outing to do as a family with Uncle Alex! I was mostly right. 

Even though we let Maggie take a moster nap (to prepare her for the 7pm start time) she wanted nothing to do with it. The music was too loud, she kept laying on me holding her ears. She pretty much wiggled, snuggled and winced her way through 1.5 hours of it when Kyle finally packed up the girls and took them home.  

 This was Rebecca's face even after we let her eat funnel cake (hoping the sugar would pep her up) - nope, she was slumped in her chair in a bored/tired sugar coma. Complete with powdered sugar on her nose. She kept asking when we could leave. She didn't care that there was a girl globetrotter. She did, however, want to spend some of her money on a toy (she hadn't even seem them and we were able to leave without passing a stall and she forgot).

 Despite Owen's stoic face, every time I asked him if he liked it he turned bright-eyed and practically yelled - Yes, I love it! Really? Well, at least somebody does! Granted its more a boy thing. And most of the kids were older elementary school. But Alex and I were a little shocked at how much product placement and go-buy-this-ball/jersey/toy talk there was. We didn't remember it that way. Hopefully Owen wont' either, though I'm not sure we'll be going back.

All in all, some fun things in January!

Disney : Perspective from 3.5 feet

Disney is the perfect way to start another year of family posts because this is truly how our 2014 started - Owen and Rebecca's trip to Disney w/ Bee and JoJo. I won't give too much away because I've asked my mom to do the blog post about their trip w/ her photos (and now she can't refuse because I've put it on the blog!) but I thought I'd put up a little teaser of the the photos the kids took! 

Owen and Rebecca each took a disposable camera w/ 27 exposures to use however they liked on the trip. We ended up with 34 shots that have at something at least partially identifiable and in focus - the others were gonners - but I think that's a pretty good turnout for first-timers! (I couldn't keep apart who took what but each of them knows exactly which photos are theirs and they are very proud of them!

Magic Kingdom by Owen

 It's A Small World : Series by Owen

 Dumbo: Series by Owen (?)

 Tree: ?

 Rebecca on Bench: by Owen

 Selfie: by Rebecca

 Donuts: by Rebecca

 Table: by Rebecca

 Was JoJo Holding her for This One?: by Rebecca

 ?

 My Big Brother: by Rebecca

 The Castle: ?

 The Castle: by Rebecca

 What a Ride: ?

 Disney at Christmas: ?

 Izzy, my Pirate Friend: by Rebecca

 Matching shirts: by Owen

 Owen on a Bench: by Rebecca

**Stick around for Bee's post about the trip. It is sure to be quite informative and not exaggerated at all. And there might even be poetry.