Happy Birthday!

My wonderful family treated me to a lovely birthday :-)  I still can't believe how fast time flies.  Everyone says it, and it sounds cliche', but honestly age 28 to 38 felt like warp speed.  Matt, Pa, and the kids made my day special, complete with a meal cooked by Matt and birthday cake designed by Kara.  (Nini is a nickname Ainsley came up with a couple of years ago.)

My sweet little munchkins!  They look like they are cuddling with me, but they are actually arguing over who was going to get the first piece of cake. 

Matt treated to me to a nice dinner Saturday night while Pa watched the kids!

 Silly naked girls before we left for our date...

Other cute photos from the weekend include Kara wearing her princess gear for breakfast (because she slept in it, of course)...

Jack and his firetruck...

The cute part about the fire truck is that it parks in front of the toilet whenever Jack needs to go...

Our neighborhood hosted a snow cone truck so we enjoyed snow cones with the neighbors...

Trip to Ohio

We finally got to visit Grandma and Grandpa D in Ohio (rather than them jetting around the world to visit us!).  We timed our visit for Grandma Bussy's 90th birthday party.  Unfortunately Jack caught a stomach virus which pushed our trip back a day, so we were late to the party.  We got there in time for the kids to meet their cousins and visit with Grandma Bussy for a little bit.  Because we went straight from the airport to the party my camera was packed away in the suitcase so I didn't get pictures of the party.  Here is a picture of the kids with Bussy a different day:

Four generations:

 

While in Bremen we enjoyed a day at the local park.  The weather was a welcome treat, about 30 degrees cooler than Austin :-)

 

There was so much corn!!!!!!!!  We had to take a picture in front of the tall corn!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa D for such a fantastic visit.  We all had a great time!

Summer in Austin

It has been a doozie of a summer in Austin -- we have had 53 days of 100+ F for June, July and August so far.  And the heat just keeps coming...!  Our normal weekend routine includes running our errands early in the day and swimming in the afternoons.  The kids are not phased at all by the heat, aside from Matt and I complaining about it when they ask to go play outside :-)

Some water coloring outside in the shade...

Swimming now involves first letting Jack & Kara's pick out their favorite swimsuits.  Kara likes anything princess and has a princess swimsuit (thanks to Grandma D) and Jack's current love is Spider Man (I believe this is also a Grandma D purchase from last year)...

And Ainsley doesn't care what she is wearing as long as she can go swimming...

While Ainsley has zero interest in princess stuff, Kara is the princess of the house.  She wears her princess attire every day.  Most nights even to bed.  And forgive anyone who takes her crown...

July 4th and Cousinpalooza

We were so excited to celebrate July 4th in the states this year!  For Jack & Kara it was their first July 4th celebration, and for Ainsley it was the first one she is old enough to remember.  We decided to celebrate with family that we hadn't seen in several years, which meant lots of cousins for the kids to play with.  We drove (to save money) and first drove from Austin to Argyle to pick up Kevin (my brother) and his three kids (they rode in Pa's car).  Then we all drove to Shawnee, OK to visit Grand Nan (my grandmother), Aunt Jona and Beverly, and cousin Melissa.  We went to an old favorite of ours in downtown Shawnee -- Hamburger King.

Notice the phone at the booth, it is used to call in the orders.  This was my favorite feature of the restaurant when I was a kid :-)

My brother and I used to go to Hamburger King with my grandmother when we were kids, so we have a lot of memories ... the inside looks exactly the same!

Back at Grand Nan's house:

at IHOP the next morning, Grand Nan and her great grandkids (Jack, McKenzie, Kara, Grand Nan, Ainsley, Mason, Maddie):

We then continued our journey and drove to Broken Arrow, OK (just outside of Tulsa).  Aunt Karen (dad's sister) hosted a huge family get-together that included my dad's side of the family.  The kids had nine other little cousins to play with and had a BLAST.  Some of the highlights...

Baseball game in Tulsa with the cousins:

Fireworks after the game, we watched from the parking lot:

The kids watching the fireworks:

Water balloons!

Jack persuaded many o' people to play baseball with him...for hours...

 Water balloon volley ball:

Homemade ice cream!

Swimming at the neighborhood pool:

Aunt Karen gave lots of golf cart rides to the kids:

The kid cousins:

 

 The grown up cousins (Kevin, Kim, Stephanie, Kyle), aka parents to the 12 kids in the previous picture :-)

One of the reasons we decided to move back to the states was to give our kids a chance to be close to family, and this weekend warmed our hearts.  They enjoyed little things like buying snacks at gas stations, staying in a hotel, getting to stay up later than usual, playing for hours and hours with cousins, and being around family.  There were so many moments that Matt and I just smiled, on the outside and inside, because we saw pure joy in our kids eyes.  The drive back to Austin was ~8 1/2 hours, but the kids did great.  It was a fantastic vacation -- a good time had by all!