Another reason I love where I live

Something I've always wanted in a city we live in, is free outdoor fun for the family. I've never lived in a city that provides that on a consistent basis...until now. We fall in love with our area more and more all the time! Today, we had quite a full day of fun things planned. First, today was "Market Days" on the square here in town. While Shawn stayed home with a napping Levi and worked on sermons and bible class, I met up with one of the dads from church and his daughter. There was suppose to be an interactive craft thing at our museum so I took the girls and he brought his daughter and they got to make Texas Ranger badges and learn a little Texas history, specifically about our county. Then we walked the square looking at all of the little crafty booths. Jeff, the dad of the little girl that we met up with, and I then passed a little "booth" where you could throw a baseball and it would clock your speed. We were so extremely curious to know how fast we could throw so we split the cost of the game and tested our ability. I was able to throw the ball 39 miles an hour and I won't tell what Jeff did, even though I thought it was great, but he was embarrassed (I will say it was faster than me ;) We also let my girls throw the ball and Elle threw it 21 miles an hour and Ava did 10. lol Just needs a little more practice! Next, we found one of those tractor-pulling-barrels-type-of-train things and all took a ride. It was hilarious because I could barely fit in the barrel with Ava so I have no earthly idea how Jeff fit his legs in there!
This picture was taken right as he was telling me I couldn't ride in this car so that's when I had to cram in with Ava!

After the train ride, we found the main reason we were there...to see the Biscuit Brothers preform! They are a local group that has a TV show that comes on on Saturday mornings and they really were very entertaining. The girls all loved it! After watching them for almost an hour, the girls were getting restless and hungry. As we were driving home, I remembered that Round Rock was having something called Chalk Walk today and I had really wanted to go to it. So, we picked up Shawn and Levi, grabbed some lunch at Mighty Fine Burgers, and then headed to downtown Round Rock. It was a really cool event and I only wish there had been even more chalk artists. The girls loved it too, but I'm pretty sure there favorite part was when we caved in (FINALLY) and bought them sno cones. I made the mistake of giving Levi a taste and it was all over after that...he wanted a taste every 4 seconds! Anyway, it was a very cool event and the girls got to do some painting at one booth and they loved that. (I loved that I didn't have to get paint out and then clean it all up!) After leaving there, we all headed home, and tonite watched Tangled together. Elle summed it up well by saying "This day just couldn't be any better!
This was my favorite one...go figure! He did a wonderful job on the colors!
I included this picture to show just how dirty the artists were getting. Her hands and legs and face were covered in colored chalk.

This was the most vibrant piece and I loved it. One thing that impressed me and I hope left an impression with Elle and Ava, was the age of some of the artists. There were two different pieces that were done by 9 and 11 year old girls and I made sure to make a big deal about it. Wonder what Elle was thinking when she heard their ages???

SNO CONES!!!!

For the record, the girls got "rainbow" sno cones and I got a watermelon/blue bubblegum flavored one. It was super yummy...just ask Levi.

I didn't include this in the story, but we actually got some rain this evening. It has been threatening all day and finally it really let loose right about dinner time. We all ran to the back door and just stood in amazement watching it. It didn't last for too long, but it was a decent amount for how little time it was happening. Hopefully tomorrow brings even more! It was a beautiful sight. We reminded the girls that God had heard our prayer and thanked God not only for the rain, but the patience to wait on His timing!