San Antonio Zoo

Have you ever heard a Gibbon? 

They are one of my favorites primates.

 But I had never heard them call before the day we went to the San Antonio Zoo. 

Approaching the zoo I could hear them calling out so melodic and loudly I honestly thought it was a jungle soundtrack the zoo had going to "set the mood."  As we neared the Gibbon habitat we were able to see 4 Gibbons, one sitting high up on a rock calling out to the others. He called and called for a good 3 or 4 minutes and suddenly the other 3 responded, violently yelling in perfect harmony when one raised or lowered its voice the others never missed a beat. I thought it was pretty interesting and also wondered why we haven't seen these fellas do this at the Houston Zoo. 

I also recommend the butterfly garden in the San Antonio zoo, it is absolutely magical with butterflies floating and fluttering around you at all times. 

We passed this guy from person to person, and he was just as content as could be to sit with us.

Sometimes we would stop for snack breaks.

Sometimes we were able to see the animals eat....and in this case we were actually able to watch this red bird pick its own food and feed the fish in the pond with it.

See him?

Cash watching the zebra in the African Habitat

Neat Rhino pretty close up!

Zoo day was a great day. It was the first time I had been to a zoo other than Houston's, now I can't wait to visit others!

Highlights

Papa D referred to them as the biker gang

They rode this car, train and plane all over the place. You could hear them zooming about morning and night throughout the house and yard.. 

Cash just loved Mimi's school desk

Arts and Crafts

Dominos

The Mimi that makes it happen

Minus Cameron, all the kids together.

The Great Princess Debate

This is actually an alarmingly common subject in my household.

Yuliya and I frequently talk which princess is our favorite and why. (pretty deep huh?)

All of the story princesses inspire by showing bravery throughout their stories which I love.

But we still have our favorites...

Yuliya is pretty firm that Ariel and Rapunzel are her favorites. While Belle(Beauty) is mine.

Both of Yuliya's picks happen to have these things in common

• A secret talent that only their families know about.  
• Outgoing, eager personalities
• Creative
• And very stubborn.

(Yuliya can relate to most of the above, although I am not sure about the hidden talent yet)

 Defying their parents in search of a world they have only seen from afar, daring to give up comfort, family and possibly themselves to venture into the new world to find something better. They are full of hope, adventure, drive and down right stubbornness. Where they differ is, Rapunzel falls in love with a reformed (maybe) thief, while Ariel falls for a prince that she happened upon...pretty convenient Ariel.....

 In the end they both sacrifice to be with the person they love. 

Belle on the other hand  is an utter a nerd with no talents to speak of other than reading. Growing up I always related to her need to have her nose in a book at all times.
(Seriously when they came out with A.R. points I was elated...I get to read AND receive prizes for it?!)

She happens to be this stunningly beautiful girl despite her plain could-be mousey features and unassuming personality.
(Ariel and Rapunzel are beautiful too, but with more exotic features)

Belle is oblivious with most things, not to mention extremely clumsy. She is nice to everyone, even the somewhat stuck up clock. She unconditionally cares about her family, learning, and doing the right thing. She even shuns the town "hot guy" and a life of leisure because is motivated by honest work and love.
In dress she is far more modest than Ariel (bonus)
She sacrifices her freedom for her father's and falls in love with a man despite him being a massive fur ball with a spicy temper. In the end she is rewarded for her kind heart and sacrifices. Not to mention gains access to a dream sized personal library.

That being said, I do always wonder..

Will her princesses stay the same?

How will she relate to them as she gets older?

Using Momma's Hula Hoop as a tea room.

4th of July!

Any plans for 4th of July? We made it to San Antonio for the week.

But first we stopped off to watch the 4th of July parade through our neighborhood.

At first the car ride was SUPER loud with small children making every sort of declaration one could think of. Sometimes followed by arguments and "Fine, you can't look out my window"

And then....somewhere around the 45 minute mark this happened.

And then there was peace

We arrived at Mimi and Papa D's house around lunch time where they had a wonderful spread out for us. We were able to eat lunch, stretch out our legs and settle in for the week. 

It rained all weekend, which put a little damper on our walk through the alphabet, only being able to accomplish getting ice cream and jogging (Keith) on I and J days. The rain gave us the opportunity to play outdoors which happened to be a great trade off. Unfortunately the poor fairy garden suffered a flood and the fairies had to run for cover for the weekend, but everyone else did fine.  Jack and I even learned a couple of new tricks with our Hula hoops while it rained down on us. Hooping is much easier when you are a little wet...I have half a mind to turn the sprinklers on next time we hoop.

And while we saw very little sun this weekend I made myself a tulip garden in the kids play room. Tulips don't last long here in Texas so I needed a more permanent solution. And this is what I came up with....

P.S. all photos taken with my phone sorry for the quality

I could become a soccer fan

We went to a Dynamo game on Saturday.

It was a blast!

It rained all day Saturday right up until we walked into the stadium, pouring on us for a few minutes on our walk. Walking in the rain is delightful during these hot summer days and no one seemed to mind.

It was truly enjoyable to slowly dry off in the warm summer night breeze watching the dynamo kick tail.  We really could not have asked for better weather. The clouds were beautifully gliding across the sky as the sun was setting creating an amazing backdrop to the open stadium seating. 

The game itself was much more high adrenaline than I anticipated and the band fed into it. I walked away thinking...."when is the next home game??"

On our walk back to the car we stopped off at the hills on the side of the stadium and rolled down at an uncountable amount.
 Every time I did this it took me a minute to balance myself again unlike the boys who could go from rolling to running back up the hill in less than 2 seconds. Jack told me "Close your eyes, it helps"
It must be something you outgrow....


And that's two more things off of our Summer list!

f-h

I had to make my way back to work the rest of this week, but the boys could still play with the alphabet.  

They painted faces, and used flash cards

We played games, wrote haikus and played hide and seek.

On G day they also started the Star Wars episodes.

Haiku's on the walls, haiku's in the halls. 

Under the shade tree 

in his fluffy cotton tail

the red panda sleeps

The small stripey gourd 

squats, hidden under the leaves

avoiding summer.

Raising Butterflies

A couple of weeks ago I ordered caterpillars in the mail so we could raise our own butterflies.

 I thought we would all be excited about it. 

I thought it would be a learning experience at least for Cash who has never witnessed this.

I thought children would check on the caterpillars progress daily.

but we got them in the mail and no one seemed to pay them much mind.

I would sit and watch those little guys munch on their food daily 

and I thought no one else was watching. 

No one else was cheering on our baby caterpillars to literally grow wings and fly. 

The caterpillars soon were hanging upside down and I was even more excited then. They one by one fell into place and hung by their tails from the top of their cup.

 Fat and happy. 

The following day I propped my chin on the counter and watched them morph into chrysalises completely in awe, but also alone. 

Jack reading, and the other 3 playing with trains.

6 days later

While I was at work, Keith and the boys were coloring rocks (rock art) Jack suddenly jumped up and screamed! " Ahhhhhhhhh! Daddy the butterflies!!!"

They had hatched and he had screamed it out in excitement! 

He then called me at work to tell me

and it made me so happy to know the butterflies had hatched and to know he was excited enough to call me and tell me.

And it made me very happy to later see him chin propped on the counter watching the butterflies shake off the rest of their cocoons.

So maybe they did watch them when I wasn't looking 

and maybe they did quietly cheer them on 

and maybe they weren't so indifferent after all. 

Beach day

This morning we hit the beach, bright and early we made it there with the intentions of beating the heat.....but then again it is late June in Texas. There is no escaping the summer heat without a little rain. Thankfully our friends the Blackhearts(blog here) brought a tent to provide shade and the sun was not so oppressive after all.

I just love the stage Rose B. is in. When she first saw us she ran up to me and said "LOOK AT MY PONY TAIL!" I looked, "That's beautiful Rose!" "MY DADDY DID IT! ......I'm thirsty"

 Although there was almost no wind we were still able to get our kite pretty high up in the sky :)

Everyone ended up joining in a mission to dig to china or mexico. Which later turned into Little Rose and Ryan's "bubble bath"

 Ryan successfully made herself look like a beach bum zombie baby with dark red cherry stains all around her mouth and sand covering her head to toe. Future Halloween costume?

This is Cash's new thing when he doesn't want his picture taken....

After making it home safe and sound a beautiful storm broke the hot still air and brought us about 10 minutes of rain.  Keith, Jack and yours truly were able to play barefoot on the steaming cement while ice cold drops of rain trickled down our legs. We could not coax the little ones out to play in the rain but soon enough I am sure they will. After last summer's drought any summer rain calls for celebration and play. 

Tomorrow is back to work, I look forward to next week's celebrations, family visits and time off.

Monday-D day

It sounds way worse than it actually is. 

I actually said it out loud while we were eating donuts for lunch.

"We are having donuts for lunch on D-day "(only sibling battles here)

Maybe D day shouldn't be declared everywhere we go.

We are four days into working our way through the alphabet, here are a few of the things we have done as of yet:

Astros game

Sighting a firework show afterwards

Arboretum

While beautiful is a little crushing to see all of the damaged suffered from last year's drought

Animals(SPCA)

Cash was extremely unhappy about leaving and as always there were about 3 dogs and a cat that I wanted to take home with us.

Breakfast for dinner

Homemade Cinnamon French toast where one 8 year old exclaimed "These are so yummy, thank you for making them!"

Blowing Bubbles(really they just dumped them out)

Bananagrams

Board games

Because we were busy early in the morning on B-day we decided to do the beach tomorrow on E day.(It's allowed)

Baking Cookies for friends

Making Collages

Yuliya's mainly consisted of pretty dresses and a Toy Story 3 picture,

Jack declared his unfinished, but so far looks great having hunted down fantastic photos.

Coloring

Donuts for lunch

Cash, who is not a fan of donuts opted to just eat the icing off of a cake donut.

Not being a fan myself, I observed.

Discovery Green

Dock Dogs

Tomorrow we head to the beach with friends on E day.

I realize we aren't there in the alphabet yet, but have I mentioned that we play trains nearly every day? This was one of my favorite inside toys as a kid. It delights me that all of the children participate in the building/playing process.

Alphabet Summer

Friday marks our summer through the alphabet. We will try to hit as many as we can.

Today we spent 2.5 hours at the dentist office with 4 children....that was a blast...but they all did very well.

Later we went to see Dock Dogs at the park (Dog Olympics) we were splashed by dogs jumping as far as 23 feet! We capped off the night at a baseball game, watching Friday night fireworks. By the time we left all the little birds were so sleepy siblings couldn't help but snuggle each other.

Yes we sent this photo to family, and showed the kids when they were awake. They insist that's not the way they were sitting...they definitely insist that they were in fact NOT sleeping

Land owners

The boys arrived today!

 I think they didn't mind flying alone in the least, what do you think?

Keith's summer sabbatical being a stay at home dad is in full swing today. I think it has started of well, Sam as happy as can be to play trains and Jack humming around the house beaming from ear to ear at all of the new books to read. 

In other news:

Yesterday we officially became land owners! 

After meeting the previous owners and closing on the property we went out there where our Realtor (Keith's Aunt Sheri) gifted us with this great bench! I was able to put it right where I previously stated I wanted a bench. We also planted a beautiful Plumbago near the mailbox marking our arrival. Thank you to Sheri and Paul for all of the help trekking around this land with us helping us decide if it was the spot for us. 

Keith also spent quite a while trying to check dam one of the creeks on the property and returned with hundreds of tiny stickers all over his person and embedded deep in his hair. 

Adventures begin! 

To my dad on his birthday.

(Most likely Attached to some funny card making fun of how old people like you can’t have fun anymore)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Almost 60 huh…I wish you were here to go out to eat with before 5 and shopping on Tuesdays, I’ve always envied that senior discount. I’m sure you’re caught up on life, being all seeing or all knowing or simply just floating around in the valleys of Zion attached to the back of some critter sun bathing in sweet Utah summers.  Or…you read my blog too…flattering dad!

The other day I was telling Keith about how I learned to ride my bike, and it reminded me that it wasn’t you who had that pleasure…sorry about that.  I've got to say, I wasn't gung ho about it in the first place. Remember when I made that vow at age 3 to never get on a bike/tricycle again after falling off? And then we went and moved down the street from a massive cacti bush. I can honestly say..this was definitely no motivation for changing my mind. Really.. it was better I learned away from that threat.(Although I would still shake and get a little woozy riding past it for at least 2 years)  As a parent I now understand the pride in teaching your children things like this, especially bike riding, something we both loved. 

But we had flying kites and sailing in catamarans.

And you did teach me plenty of other things, sometimes while I dug my heels in the ground.

But at least I know how to get sap off my person, and cactus out of my feet. 

On your birthday we think of you, I remind the kids even though their grandpas aren't physically with us now, they were at one point. 

I hope you are really getting a kick out of all of this year's misfortunes and trial and errors. That the kids' adventures keep you entertained and you cringe at every new color I paint the walls. (Remember making me cringe?)

Happy Birthday old man, you are missed.

Love,

Your darling dear
+
Little monsters

Closing tomorrow!

Welcome to our new chunk of land.

Let me show you around....

See all of the crispy trees? This land was part of a wildfire last year, we can't wait to help it recover.

Okay now look way down, see the creek? There are a couple of wet weather creeks here.

This is by far my favorite spot on the property, there is always a breeze shooting through here. 

I want to smack a bench down right where I stood to take this picture. 

The land will require a lot of work, replanting to prevent erosion, dams in the creeks and just plain old love but I hope to update with pictures next spring with all the new growth and change. 

Tomorrow is closing day.

Tomorrow is the first day of this property's new life with aspiring permaculturist owners. 

We will treat it well. 

We will help it thrive and try to make all its visitors and animals that call it home healthy and happy.

Heck, we might even give it birthday parties. 

P.S. Tomorrow is also my dad's birthday, doing this makes me happy, and I think he would have been happy to trek around on this nice little chunk of land.