Living in Munchkinland

We ate outside on the patio this evening. The weather was beautiful- upper sixties, partly sunny and a soft breeze. It was a perfect spring late-afternoon. After we ate, we played fetch with the dog and then decided to go exploring. We wandered around the ranch and through our backyard and down little side paths and made our way, eventually to the river. Everything is so cool and green today. It smells like wildflowers. With our dogs and our boys leaping around us and dashing off in exploration, Michael and I put our arms around each other and truly appreciated where we are and what we have and what we have become and where we might be going. I love living on the ranch and I'm happy to share with you the pictures of our ranch and river dressed up in it's spring clothes.

Here are some pictures of the yard after the landscaping crew had their way with it. Wish I had taken some "before" photos.

On Saturday morning, we picked up my Dad and followed Michael on his vespa up the winding back roads to Austin. We dropped off our stuff at the condo and went out to lunch. Then Dad and I began getting ready for our big night out. We were going to the VIP Gala at the Long Center to celebrate their third anniversary and see a concert with Harry Connick, Jr.! My dad is on the board and my mom was out of town so I got to be his date! The dress was cocktail attire and/or purple because that's the Long Center's signature color. We got pretty and took some prom like photos and then drove to the Center. We had valet parking and a purple carpet to walk up to the door on. We were greeted with sixth row tickets stage right (so we could see his fingers on the keys!) and purple slap bracelets that enabled us to drink for free all evening. Then we were ushered into an elevator taking up to the cocktail reception. I was a little daunted to be surrounded by a bunch of people I didn...

Michael bought me tickets to Cirque de Soleil's Dralian for my birthday. On Friday night we dressed up and took off for San Antonio and the show. The car ride was lovely with a sweet card from my husband and wonderful conversation. Once there, we grabbed a cocktail at the stand, but the only mixer they had available was pineapple juice. I'm allergic to pineapple, but I figured I'd try it any way. We took our (fabulous) seats and began people watching. It's amazing the difference in the San Antonio crowd from the Austin crowd. Those are two very different cities. The show began and it was pretty great. It wasn't our favorite show, (we've seen lots of the Cirque shows), but it was far better than the regular circus or that knock-off show Cirque Dreams. We loved the juggler and the trampolines and the vertical wall. Unfortunately, it turns out that i am not okay with pineapple. About halfway through the first act I began itching and swelling all over. I h...

It's looking a lot like spring around here. The grass is green and wild flowers are everywhere. The weather is warm and windy and sweet. Davis has always been extremely observant and he pointed out to me the very first day the trees along our driveway budded. I love that he notices those things and that he shares them with me. Our whole little town is gorgeous. It's my very favorite time of year. We had our very first pool party this weekend and it was excellent. Mom heated the pool and we all splashed and played and appreciated being in the water again. Sam was especially pleased with himself when he realized that he could still swim. He kept shouting at me gleefully to watch him dive under the water over and over again. We hired my parents' landscaping crew to come out and spring-ify our yard. It's so pretty and clean and neat now. They pulled out the dead stuff, and trimmed the bushes and put in lots of mulch. I bought some herbs and new plants and they put...

We spent the first half of our spring break in Port Aransas. As usual, my birthday fell in the middle of spring break, so I decided to invite some of my friends to join us at the beach to help me celebrate it. Mom and Dad, Cheris and Rob, Stacey and Chris, Zach and Elizabeth and Anne and Jeff were all there to share the spring break/birthday fun. We also had 13 children with us and it was a blast. Vacationing with the kids is so much fun now. They sleep, they swim, they get along with their friends (mostly) and are really a joy to share the whole experience with. We shared a car ride down to the beach with Stacey and Rowan because Brynn was still recovering from a bug. This was so fun and set the festive mood immediately. We stopped at Joe's Crab Shack (for the playground) and had a drink and food. We had a slight hiccup when we realized that Sam gets carsick, (he threw up in front of the hostess stand) but we quickly recovered. We arrived with great excitement and settled i...

Sunday we woke early (damn kids!) and I was at the grocery store by 7:40AM. I loaded up and drove home in time to say good-bye to Martha and Clark. We had a great visit and were all sad to see them leave. A little while later we dashed off to our Unitarian fellowship where our friend Zach rocked his lay leader job and our minister gave an amazing sermon. Then we had a quick hour where we ran home, ate lunch, changed clothes, dropped Sam off at my parents' house and went to the old fish hatchery on the river where we joined our Unitarian group (full of our friends) and walked the walk to raise money for our local food bank. It was a gorgeous day-sunny, in the upper sixties, with a light wind. We did our walk and enjoyed the fellowship and the beautiful walk along the river. After the crop walk we had dinner with our friends Stacey and Chris and let the kids play and really relaxed for the remainder of the weekend. Pretty perfect weekend I must say. Now to kick the gosh-darn...

Saturday was extremely windy. Crazy windy. We weren't sure we should go outside. After a random rain storm mid-morning though, the sun came out and we decided we might venture out. We drove to the town square and celebrated the newly re-opened farmer's market. Then we drove home and I cooked lunch and then napped (I'm fighting an evil cold) while Michael and his dad cleaned out and organized our garage and Martha played with the boys! It was great! After a productive day, our new sitter came over and Martha and Clark and Michael and I went out to dinner at Texas Reds, a fabulous local steakhouse. The food was delicious and we really had a nice time chatting grown-up style. When we finished our delicious dinner, we drove two blocks to Cheatham Street club where my dad's band was playing. My whole crew was there. Michael and I have built this great group of friends here and they all showed up and we made a great evening of it. Stacey, Elizabeth, Zach, B.G., Jama...

On Friday night we headed over to Kobe Steakhouse with my parents, grandparents and in-laws. This was my early birthday celebration with my family. I had a beautiful plate of sashimi, because the teppanyaki grill violated all of my allergies, but I had a great time sitting at the big grill and watching the chef do his show. We all had fun and it was a great early birthday celebration!

On Thursday night I loaded up the mini-van with Grandma, Gramp, Mom, Dad, my mother-in-law, we headed to Austin, met with my sister and all took our places front and center to see Liza Minelli at the Long Center. Michael was out of town and my father-in-law volunteered to put the kids down. My mom had bought us all tickets as a present. We were all very excited. And then Liza appeared. Then she sang. Poor Liza. She has so much pizzaz, and stage presence, and sparkle. She's a legend, but she just can't sing anymore, bless her heart. She can't sing at all. She is also tiny and FRAGILE. As my sister put it, she puts the meaning into the phrase, "shake it, don't break it". We were worried about her. But the girl can still act. Her timing was impeccable and her band was fabulous. I loved her patter in between songs. And the songs were well chosen and some were pretty clever. It was an interesting experience, but it might be time for her to retire. Ble...