Living in Munchkinland

Thursday was our travel day. I cleaned the house and packed, picked the kids up and fed them lunch. We got to the airport in good time an dfound our flight to be delayed by 45 minutes. That was fine as we had a three hour layover in Dallas, so we went for ice cream at Amy's while we waited. We arrived in Dallas at 6:40 and had dinner at Chili's. Our flight left around 9 pm. Sam went right to sleep and got a good 1.5 hours. Davis had a harder time sleeping and only slep 45 min. We lost an hour on the east coast and so arrived at 12:45am. The trams were closed so it was. 30 min walk to get our luggage. We got a taxi and made it to our nice hotel, the Hyatt regency Miami, around 1:30am. We had booked our first night in a regular room through American Airlines and our second night in a suite using points. When we arrived they went ahead and moved us into our suite for both nights with no up charge. We were pleased. We all fell into bed by 2am and were instantly asleep...

This weekend was a busy one. We packed all day on Saturday for our cruise. We had to try on all our summer clothes and sort through everything. Saturday evening, we had a babysitter come and Michael and I went out to dinner at Casa Maria with our friends. It was a blast, though the service was terrible. I didn't mind as I had two margaritas and a table full of wonderful friends. After dinner we all went to Cheatham Street where my dad's band was playing their final gig. The place was packed and many of the people there were old friends. I had so much fun! I danced and danced and Dad's band played their hearts out. It was great to see everybody and enjoy the Lucky Tomblin Band's music one more time. Sunday morning we cleaned the house, went to church and enjoyed a service led by our friends Elizabeth, Chris and Anne on reproductive justice and then walked the Crop Walk to benefit the World Church Service and our local food bank. We were exhausted, but it wa...

We drove over to Sherwood Forest Faire yesterday after swim lesson. The boys wore their costumes and brought their bows. The weather was perfect, low seventies, low humidity and lots of sunshine. We had a wonderful time. The boys shot arrows, watched the dog show and caught most of the joust. We watched my friend Anne in her belly dancing show and then grabbed a glass of wine before watching a magic/fire eating show. Sam was chosen out of the audience to light a little cannon and fire a dollar bill at the magician. He loved it and felt very special. I got my hair braided (one of my favorite things to do) and Davis rode the sky chairs. We ended up at the Fool Hearty show and it was our favorite. Davis and Michael were chosen out of the audience and both enjoyed it very much. Davis shone on the stage and ate it up. The show is hilarious and very well done. We had a good time with our little family. We stopped at the Roadhouse in Bastrop for dinner and got home just in time ...

We had a super fun President's Day holiday in Port A. We drove down on Friday after school, stopping at the Thai Cottage for dinner in Corpus. It was delicious. We came in and put the kids down. Shortly after, the Gardners and Liffords rolled in to join us. Saturday was cold and windy, but we bundled up as best we could and went to the playground by ferry. The kids did some dolphin watching and then had a blast on the playground. We adults found a nice, sunny wind break on the stage and hung out there. Cheris figured out you could ask the office for horseshoes to play in the pit and she and Chris played a couple of games. After a while, we went to have lunch at Virginia's. We got a table right away and the food was good, but very expensive. Our waiter was nice and the kids were pretty well behaved. That afternoon we took the kites down to the beach and let the kids fly them while Chris and Rob played frisbee, Michael built sand castles and we ladies sat and chatt...

We had a fun, fast weekend. Friday night we attended CASA's mardi gras themed fundraiser at Dick's classic car garage. It was a lot of fun and they had a great auction. I wore my new designer dress and Michael and I had a wonderful date. Saturday morning we worked out and cleaned and then took the kids to their swim lesson and had lunch out at Chipotle. When we got home I cooked a big pot of vegan gumbo and we decorated the house for Mardi Gras. That evening we hosted a Mardi Gras potluck. Everyone wore their beads and we drank Pimm's cups and chatted and the kids ran around in costumes. It was pretty awesome. We had gumbo, red beans and rice, jambalaya, collard greens, cornbread, slaw, spinach salad with fried oysters and king cake. The Gardeners found the baby. I had so much fun. Sunday morning, I was lay leader at church and gave a reflection on reproductive justice. Michael and I also sang in the choir and performed several songs including Seasons...

I wanted to write a little update on the boys. Davis is almost eight and Sam is six. Time flies by and events take center stage in our life, but I wanted to put down here a snapshot of where the boys are right now. Sam is going through a difficult phase. He only wants to play at home. If we ask him to do homework, or practice piano, or drink his drinking medicine, or run an errand, he throws a fit. His whole body shudders and he bounces up and down and he sobs and he rolls his glasses all over the place. When we send him to his room for the duration of his fit (our standard fit behavior), he slams the door and throws his stuffed animals all over the room and then sobs desperately on his bed. It is not fun. I started a new zero tolerance policy on homework fits yesterday and took away his lego and beyblade privileges for the day when he threw his fit. He was very unhappy. We will see today if the lesson worked and if homework goes more smoothly. That is the hard stuff. ...

I have had such a wonderful weekend. Friday afternoon we had a playdate with Ransom and Ellis at the Children's park and I got to spend some time with Marja. We were all thrilled to spend time with our friends that we don't see often. After our playdate, I decided I didn't want to cook and instead wanted to sit outside at a restaurant in the glorious, warm sunshine and eat and drink and watch my kids run around a playground. Since that isn't possible in San Marcos, I considered driving up to Southpark Meadows in Austin. I texted Cheris to see if she wanted to meet us. Instead, she invited us over. I hastily accepted. We drove up and had a wonderful impromptu evening with our friends. The kids played outside until after dusk and we ate a delicious dinner and sipped a gin and tonic. We love our friends so much and it is so nice to get to spend quiet, quality time with them. Yay, Liffords! Saturday morning, we cleaned and worked out and then I frantically...