Living in Munchkinland

We spent the last five days in Port Aransas with Martha and Clark. We had a great time. The weather was spotty, but we got one really good morning of beach play in. The kids loved being with their grandparents. We shopped and ate and played games and puzzles and enjoyed each other. Michael and I really relaxed and enjoyed each other and we had a good family vacation in Mom and Dad's fabulously renovated condo. Thanks mom and dad! We plan to head back there in two weeks for Mother's Day. I can't ever get enough Port A. Enjoy the pictures. XO! amber

We had an insanely busy but fun weekend. Friday night we had dinner at McCormicks and Schmicks and then saw the touring production of Avenue Q. It was a perfect evening. Saturday morning we woke and slogged through the mud while we worked on our courtyard. Michael was digging up the grass we had killed and capping sprinkler heads. I did laundry and worked in the house as well. Then we went outside and laid out our weed barrier. That evening we headed back up towards Austin to the exotic game ranch for a fabulous benefit for Charity partnerships for children in Austin. I am totally in love with their Yes Mentoring program. Check it out here . Sunday morning, Michael took Davis to get his stitches out while I threw together a pumpkin and black bean soup for my soup swap. Then we headed outside to work on the courtyard again. We hauled load after load of huge rocks and then placed them and added the gravel. Then we cleaned up all the mud off the sidewalks and then I cleaned the

It start's today! You may remember me telling you all about Baby Ike a couple of months ago. Here's his website here. Ike-a-saurus . Since then his story has been told in the New York Times, on local news stations, we've thrown two bake sales and a rummage sale and raised some much needed money for the Roy Family. Today begins an online auction with some wonderful items that we hope will raise a significant amount of money. Please come over and check it out and bid and please send the link to anyone you know who might be interested in fabulous items and doing good while they bid on them. Here's the link: Ikeasaurus Online Auction

Davis got four stitches in his chin last night. The boo boo was caused by a game of tickle-chase gone terribly wrong. With the tickle monster looming, he zigged when he should have zagged, tripped over his feet and hit his chin on the two steps between our hall and living room. The tickle monster (daddy) scooped him up and we headed for the ER. Once we were settled there, Michael took Sam home and put him to bed and I stayed with Davis and told stories of Chester the cheetah and Zax the zebra while we waited for the doctor and got our stitches. Davis was extremely brave and hardly cried at all. He's actually quite pleased with his "whiskers" and likes to check them out in the mirror. The odd thing is that Sam fell on Easter day and bruised up his chin in the same place. Both my boys have matching boo boos. Poor babies. Is this what having boys is like?

We had a nice Easter. We started Thursday afternoon when Gigi and Gramp and Mimi all came over to help us dye easter eggs. That was a bit stressful as Sam just can't be trusted with cupfuls of dye yet, but we made it through and I think everyone had fun. Saturday evening, Violet and Graham helped Davis and Sam build their Easter nest in anticipation of the Easter bunny. It poured down rain on Sunday morning so the Easter bunny left surprises in the kids' Easter baskets and nest and then hid eggs on Mimi and Papaw's many porches. We headed over to their house after we enjoyed the contents of our easter baskets and had fun hunting eggs with cousin Kade. The kids headed upstairs with Papaw and we all enjoyed mimosas and the New York Times and a brief respite from mayhem. Soon we all began getting ready for our Easter lunch and party. The whole Davis clan arrived around 1 and we had a fantastic lunch buffet and sat out on the porches since the rain had cleared and the skies

We headed down to the San Antonio zoo on Saturday with our fabulous friends Cheris and Rob and their two kids, Violet and Graham. Violet and Davis have been friends since they were tiny and love each other completely and Graham and Sam are close in age and have been becoming great friends too. It's really fun to watch them all together. Davis has been fascinated with animals lately especially zebras and leopards. The zoo rocked his world. Both boys loved every minute of it and it was so fun to live vicariously through them. We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect. After the zoo we rode the train around Brackinridge Park and then Cheris and Rob followed us back to our place where we had a happy hour playdate and the dinner. It was pretty much a perfect day with family and friends. We bought a membership to the zoo so let us know if you ever want to go.

We drove up to Huntsville this weekend to celebrate my great-Aunt Julia's 80th birthday. We took our time on our drive up and saw some beautiful spring wildflowers. The town of Brenham was breathtakingly pretty. We stopped at one point and took some photos in a patch of bluebonnets that seemed really popular. Taking photos in the bluebonnets is something that you do if you live in Texas, but it's been hard to do since we've living in such extreme drought conditions this year. We had to drive a few hours east, but we found them. It was a nice weekend and a great opportunity to see the Davis side of my family that I so seldom see. They had a crawfish boil and it was so fun to watch Davis and Sam watch the crawfish. Enjoy the pictures. Happy Spring everybody and Happy Birthday to my lovely Aunt Julia!

I'm having a hard week. I really just want to sit here make a list of all the crappy things that are going on this week, but I'm not. I read on an airplane last weekend that one way to make your teen slightly less of a pain in the rear is to make them write a thank you letter to someone once a week expressing their gratitude for something. So I thought maybe if I made a list here on my blog about the things I am grateful for, then maybe I'd feel less like screaming/breaking down in tears/going out for an early cocktail without the children. (and that would be bad because michael's out of town and I would have no one to leave them with) Onward. 1. I am so grateful to have my husband. He is perfect for me and even though we have our spats, he is my best friend and the best husband anyone could have. Totally loyal, hardworking, gentle, a great dad and good looking to boot. 2. My children. They are healthy, active, beautiful children. And I haven't totally screw