Thank you Presidents!

I have been excited for weeks that today was going to be a school holiday.  I'm pretty sure we burned this day last year with having to make up for "bad" weather which never was really bad. The kids stayed quiet this morning after they woke up so we got to sleep in late!  They didn't know that we had fun things planned for today.  I have been holding on to some coupons for a loooong time and today I cashed them in.  The weather was chilly and rainy and perfect for what I had planned.

First we headed to a place called Safari Champ.  I have had coupons for the kids to go for free for a few years now and was waiting for the perfect time!  They were so excited and we let them play and play and play.  Shawn and I were able to just sit in some comfy chairs and play on our phones without being constantly interrupted.  

After that, we used some free coupons we'd gotten a while back to take the kids to Cane's.  We spent a total of $12 on lunch for 5!

Then Shawn took us to a place I'd seen online a few times, in downtown Austin.  It was a sight to see for sure!  It's called Hope Outdoor Gallery.  It seems that anyone who wants to do graffiti is allowed to!  It was so pretty to look at and I'm happy to say that at least on this day, I didn't notice bad words or inappropriate artwork...this is a constant changing "gallery" though.  I definitely want to come back sometime with spray paint and add our own something to the wall.  The kids really liked it too even though it was FREEZING!

And then we went back to Lick.  We introduced the kids to it.  We let them try all kinds of flavors and get a scoop of whatever tasted the best.  They were so excited to get to go here.  

Shawn and I each got a pint of our favorite flavor from Saturday!  Yes it's expensive.  Yes it takes 45 minutes to get to from our house.  Yes it's worth it!

After getting home, we did a little cleaning and let the kids watch Nanny McPhee.  Tonight is leftovers (YES!) and then I'll be heading to Girl Scouts with the girls while Shawn heads to Monday Night for the Master, with Levi.  Back to reality tomorrow.  

Valentine Parties

This is the only year I'll have to attend three separate school parties for every single holiday.  Next year I'm pretty sure middle schoolers don't do parties at school so that's at least one less thing on the to-do list.  Of course Kindergartners celebrate everything so actually the list will increase! lol

Here's a few pictures Shawn and I snapped at the various celebrations of more candy (after just having finally finished off/thrown away all the Christmas candy)...and I'm sure we'll get rid of this stuff just in time for Easter.  

We'll start with Levi's party which mainly consisted of a somewhat unhealthy second lunch.  None of the kids complained.  

After leaving his school I had some things to do at the church building so I let him bring in his bag of Valentine's and sift through them to find only TWO pieces of candy to eat.  This was such a dilemma for him but he finally decided and all was good.

On Friday, both girls parties were back to back which worked out well.  We were able to spend plenty of time with Elle at her party.  They did a few rounds of Valentine Bingo and then got to go through all of their Valentine's.

Then we headed down to Ava's classroom.  They had game stations set up with fun simple games for the kids to do.  After they rotated through all the games it was time to serve all kinds of goodies and ice cream floats.  

Shawn went up and got Elle and our crock pot of queso and chips and brought it back down to Ava's classroom where he and Levi sat quietly and finished off the rest of it!

 Everything just seems to have a different slant on it now as I look at Levi and how he will be at this school every day next year.  Then I look at Elle and think about how she will be in the big mysterious world of middle school next year.  It's terrifying and exciting all in the same breath!  Only 3 times 1 more party to go....end of the year....that one may be hard for me!

Cupid's Chase 5K

This was Shawn's 4th and my 3rd year to do Cupid's Chase.  Actually we are even now.  I didn't do the race the first year he did it and he didn't do the race this year so we've each really only done three years...not that I'm counting or anything.  Anyway, our congregation does both water stops during the race and we get to have our logo on everything related to the race.  It's always a fun thing to do...even though it's almost always super cold and also VERY early on a Saturday!  But usually it's worth the long sleeve shirt you get.  Anyway here are the pictures from this year's race.

Here's some of the girls from before the race.

Ava wanted to run the race this year.  She stayed far ahead of me the whole time and got it done in about 33 minutes!

 Here's Valerie and me while we "strolled" instead of chasing. I was glad to have her pregnancy  as an excuse for me not to run....not feeling the whole running thing as this time in my life...check back tomorrow.

Elle worked one of the water stops on the race course!  It was a nice boost to see her smiling at me!

 Shawn was at the finish line waiting on us.  About 5 feet from the finish he yelled "Run!" so I did and he caught me looking like I was actually running the race.  It did improve my time by 1.7 seconds.  Valerie wasn't buying it.

This little monster was at the end of the race too, chilling out and having a good time.

Here's our little booth at the end of the race where we handed out granola bars and bibles!

Younger friends :)

Our group from Gabriel Oaks...year 3 as a group is in the books!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's this year simply rocked.  Shawn planned such a fun day for us and Barbara came and took care of our kids so that we could go!  

Gramme came in Friday night and the kids immediately mobbed her.  We met her brother and family at Chuy's to drop off Barbara's mom with them.  It was great to spend a little time with them and eat yummy mexican food.  

Saturday, we were able to have a nice slow start to the day.  Then Shawn and I left around 11 for our date.  Shawn had planned to take me to a BBQ place called Franklin's but the line was so long by the time we got there that people had folding chairs they were moving and sitting in as the line progressed.  Then he went to his 2nd pick called La Barbequa or something like that.  Again....LOOOOONG line.  So we headed to a place called Stubb's right in downtown Austin.  It was perfect.  It smelled exactly like the pipe my grandfather used to smoke so I loved it right away.  We were seated within a minute and we got to be outside on a patio with almost no one else around.  We both have been craving pulled pork and Stubb's has it...and it did NOT disappoint.  

After lunch, Shawn took me to a few of the romantic murals in Austin and we took our picture in front of them.  I love that he thought to do this.

Then he took me to an iconic bakery near downtown Austin called Capital City Bakery.  I absolutely love cupcakes, especially gourmet flavors.  It was really good and again the weather was so perfect.  We had a little time to kill so we just sat at our cute little table for two and soaked up some sun.

Then it was time to get our hearts racing!  Literally!  He took me to Central Texas Speedway south of Austin.  We got to race go karts that hit speeds of up to 65 miles an hour.  How I drove yesterday is how I DREAM of driving my minivan daily!  I only hit the break when the race was over.  I drove it as fast as I could get it to go!  Shawn has such a great time too!  Somehow he picked THE go kart that just went faster than all the rest....unfair advantage.  No one ever accused me of being good a losing....it was a very close race though....and his car did just drive faster than mine...I even asked the pit crew guys and they admitted that his motor was different than everyone elses.  Rematch.

So after that, we headed back to downtown Austin for dinner.  We went to a place we've tried one time before and loved; Home Slice Pizza.  It was a walk-up restaurant and just what we wanted.  

I got this gigantic Rice Krispie treat there to share with the kids, but now I'm having second thoughts....they really don't need this....they got so much candy and I didn't get any.....I can make them more at home.

They called our name a few minutes after ordering and we found a small seat on the curb with about 30 other people and had a great time eating pizza and soaking in what a great day this had been.

And then we changed everything we thought we knew about icecream at a place called Lick.  Funny name...amazing icecream.  They had the oddest flavors known to man.  Some sounded straight up gross. We taste-tested flavors called Fresh Orange and Fennel (yum!), Too Hot Chocolate (Shawn tried that one and said it was HOT!), and Roasted Beets and Fresh Mint (ew.) We ended up getting one scoop each of Cilantro Lime, Texas au Lait, Caramel Salt Lick, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie.  We are obsessed with the Cilantro Lime and the Caramel Salt Lick.  We are pretty sure that we are packing our kids up in the car tomorrow (there's no school) and driving all the way back down there just to get more scoops of those two flavors.  We can't stop thinking about them!

Valentine's was exactly the perfect kind of date to me; trying new places, doing outdoors things, delicious desserts.  It was awesome!  Happy 17th Valentine to Shawn and me!

 This morning after church we went to Panda Express with Gramme and had lunch.  She is so loved and we are so thankful that she is willing and able to come down and see us and help with the kids!