Creepy Man Pillow

This is the funniest thing that Bristol has been up to lately. Julie won this pillow at Six Flags a few years back and Cody thought it was creepy and didn't want it in the house. So we inherited it and its laid low for quite a while. Until recently. Beck took it to school for nap a few times and then Bristol has taken it over. It's been to Miss Amy's, HEB, Burleson, Dance Unlimited and all over our property. And he actually calls it 'creepy man'. Good times!

Random Weekend Pics

Petting Zoo

The Wiener Dog races had a petting zoo that the kids, including Jeff, loved. It had lots of baby animals including goats, a pig, chickens, a calf, and a rabbit. They were really sweet!

2008 Wiener Dog Races

Every year the Buda Lion's Club hosts the Buda Country Fair and Wiener Dog Races. This year they had dancers, an Elvis inpersonator, petting zoo, train rides and slides and the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile of course. Tara, Louis and their kids came down from Burleson to visit and go to the races with us. Here are some pics from the Nacho Wiener themed year. :) I love the enthusiam of everyone there and participating and getting to see friends from high school and Madalyn's school. It really is a great community event.

Bizet's Carmen

Friday, April 18th was a big day for the Austin Lyric Opera and for Madalyn. ALO is one of my audit clients and I won tickets in an office drawing to see Bizet's Carmen in the debut of the Long Center. The Long Center is another audit client of MLR that is the new facility of the arts in Austin. It was a long running capital campaign, but the Long Center is AMAZING! Madalyn and I really enjoyed the Opera which was set in Spain, but sung in French. We liked it a lot, and loved looking at everyone's amazing dresses. Austin is such a laid back city, so it was nice to see everyone all dressed up.

The Damselfly

Yes, remember class projects? Whether it was a science project, that pesky Senior poetry project for you Hays grads, or just anything that was due? Madalyn's class has been studying insects in science class and they (or really their parents)had to make 3D models that were at least one foot in length and labeled with labeled body parts. This is our lovely attempt at a damselfly which apparently is very similar to a dragonfly- we started early, waited until the last minute to finish and only sustained 5 hot glue burns. A success! My favorite is the marker lines we drew on the knee highs turned into wings that you can see the white coat hanger through. :)

Texas Bluebonnets

Bluebonnets aren't only the state flower of Texas, but they are a family tradition from when Jeff and I were kids and for many other families. We had a great bluebonnet area at the front of our property this year and were happy that several people stopped to take pictures in our patch. The kids are hilarious and it's hard to get all three of them to take a decent picture together! We had fun and as you can see Jeff even got in on the action. Like Colby Donaldson said on Survivor, "Everyday I wake up and thank God I'm alive, and that I'm a Texan"

Random Thought

Whoever would have thought that I would gain insight from watching a kid's movie, but I guess when you watch as many as we do it was bound to happen. Jeff and I were watching Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and Dustin Hoffman's quote was 'Your life is an occasion - rise to it.'
Absolutley love it.

First Girl Scout Overnight

Madalyn's Girl Scout Brownie troop went of their first overnight event at the Austin Science and Nature Center last Friday. The event was aptly named 'Beasts and Bedrolls'. They went throughout the Center to identify creatures and went for a nature hike and identified plants and more animals. All of the girls received two 'Try It' patches- one for Animals and a second for Nature. Congrats to Sylvia and Renee for being the best leaders ever!
My favorite thing is the shirts they got for Valentine's Day from Sylvia and Renee that say 'Who needs fairy dust?' and on the back it says 'I make my own dreams come true' Words to live by!

Madalyn's First Dance Competition

Madalyn and the pre-team from Miss Dianne's Dance Unlimited had their first dance competition of the season on Saturday. Thankfully, it was at the Performing Arts Center in Kyle, so we didn't even have to travel. They performed a ballet dance to 'Somewhere Out There' and they did a great job- I've seen a lot of the practices lately and they really stepped it up for the competition. I love them with their arms crossed- you can totally see the nerves.

They received a 'gold' desigination - whatever the heck that means because I was totally lost. We all just kept clapping. :)

Mark Your Calendars!

And save the date because you wouldn't want to miss the 2nd Annual Halfway BirthRAY Partay! It will be at the City of Kyle pool- which has a great area for toddlers, a slide, and lots of room- on July 12th from 7-10 p.m.

Be there, it won't be the same without you!