Easter Bunny Bounty

Luke's feet are getting too big for the shoes to fit in the basket

Easter weekend we enjoyed a visit from Luke's Nana and Grandpa and from the Easter bunny. Louis missed out on the fun because he was away on a trip with friends to Las Vegas. I'm sure he didn't have any fun of his own.

Easter egg snacks- the breakfast of champions

We hid the eggs from Luke's Easter basket around the backyard for an egg hunt. He had so much fun hunting them that we hid them a second time and he hunted for them again.

Working hard to clean up after this messy bunny

Cue the sunbeam

Bunny booty

Happy Easter everybody!

Spring Things

We started this post over a week ago but never quite finished it... oh well, here we go...

The last few weekends we've been playing outdoors quite a bit. In true Texas weather fashion, we will enjoy 80 degree, sunny weather one day and freezing temperatures with snow flurries the next. So, we try to take advantage of the nice days which occur more often than not.

We took Luke to the first weekend of Longhorn football practice and hung out on the sidelines with his bud Vince and Vince's parents. Football season is a mere 6 months away, not that we're counting or anything.

Gotta put on some weight if we're gonna make the team

Quick, let's make a run for it!

We bought a kite a few weeks ago and let Luke pick out the one he wanted. He chose the ugliest one there-a weird robots and spaceship kite because he loves robots- who knows why- and he loves rocket ships a la the Little Einsteins cartoon. Here is Louis and Luke taking the kite out for its first flight.

Robokite

The next weekend we wanted to show off our new kite flying skills at the annual Austin kite festival. That day happened to be a super duper windy day, and our cheapo robot kite broke into two pieces within thirty seconds in the air. So sad. Thankfully, there were many other cool kites to enjoy at the festival, as well as a bouncy-house which is always a big hit.

Bouncing in Pooh kite shirt from Aunt Ariane's trip to Hong Kong Disneyland

"It's the biggest kite ever!"

Yesterday morning I came downstairs to this cute sight- Luke watching cartoons, Louis sleeping.

Saturday morning snuggles

Today Louis built an addition to our backyard playscape for Luke. The playscape has a small platform that you have to climb up onto in order to slide down the slide. The only way up was via a verticle ladder on which Luke was equally capable of climbing up and dangerously falling off. So, Louis built a ramp ladder for easier access to the platform. Luke helped out using his wooden toy tools and by stress testing the final product. Turns out he can still find a way to fall, but now it's a bit more unlikely.

Luke the builder, can we fix it? Yes we can!

Happy 2 (and a half) Birthday

We'll take any excuse to eat cake

Luke turned 2 1/2 years old today! Since an entire year is far too long to wait to enjoy three of his favorites activities- singing the birthday song, blowing out candles, and eating cake- we celebrated halfway through the year. With 2 1/2 candles lit on a cupcake, we sang him the happy birthday song and then he sang it to himself about a dozen more times. Happy half birthday buddy!

As Luke says it- "I blowed it up!"

Happy Valentine's Day

Koko, will you be my Valentine?

Luke's other true love- dessert.

...and playgrounds, too.

Lots of love to our friends and family. Happy Valentine's day!

Christmas in Houston

We spent a wonderful week in Houston over the Christmas holiday. Luke had tons of fun hanging out with Nana and Grandpa and Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Scott.

Nana and Grandpa were so excited to give Luke one of his Christmas presents that they gave it to him two days early. Luke was very grateful because it is the coolest gift ever- a big bouncy horsie! I had one similar to this as a kid, but, as with most toys, they've come long way, baby.

Yeehaw horsie!

Christmas Eve night Nana read Luke (and a room full of adult friends and family who had joined us for Christmas dinner) the book The Night Before Christmas. Afterward, we set out milk and cookies by the fireplace for Santa so that he could have something to snack on during his stop at our house that night. Luke ended up drinking most of Santa's milk... sorry, Santa. Then Cactus (our dog) ate one of the cookies right off of the plate before we could stop her... again, sorry Santa. (We totally should have seen that one coming.) We refilled Santa's plate, then put Luke to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in his head.

I guess Santa's milk must taste better than the milk in Luke's own glass

The next morning we woke up with Luke and excitedly walked into the living room to see all of the wonderful presents under the tree and the stockings stuffed full of goodies! Santa was here!!! After everyone woke up and gathered around the tree, Luke handed out presents to everyone and chanted "open it, open it!" while exhuberantly jumping around. It was our most fun Christmas ever.

Hard evidence Santa was here- cookies crumbs and an empty glass of milk.

The next day we visited Luke's Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Scott at their house. While there, Louis and Luke hijacked their 4-wheeler and took a joyride around the neighborhood. They didn't get busted by the cops, but had they I wonder if Luke would have gotten the ticket(s)... after all, he was in the drivers seat. Building a rapsheet by the age of 2 isn't going to help his chances of getting into a posh preschool...

Daddy and Luke riding Britney-style

Luke loves airplanes, so we took a short drive to a nifty little road near the airport that crosses the beginning of one of the airport's landing strips. You can park there and watch the airplanes fly right overhead and land mere feet from where you are standing. It was pretty cool to do when I was a kid, and it is still cool now. And Luke loved it. He sat on Grandpa's shoulders to get even closer to the planes and waved at the pilots and passengers every time they flew over. We swear the pilots tipped their wings to us as they passed.

I should have brought my slingshot

On another day, we spent the morning at the awesome Houston Aquarium. They have all types of cool stuff. Giant Octopus, Electric eels, 200 lb turtles, Mexican Walking Fish, White Tigers plus an amusement park with a train ride through a shark tank! They also have a merry-go-round and a very high in the sky ferris wheel that Luke rode for the first time. We were a bit nervous that he'd have not so much fun once the rides started, but he enjoyed them as much as we did. Having a kid is the best excuse ever to ride amusement park rides. Thanks Luke.

He kissed me!

Those raisins look delicious... and you look pretty tasty yourself, little boy

Getting carsick on the carousel

Ferris wheel fever!

It was fun to see some old friends while in Houston too. We met up with a group of friends at the Jumalons' house and watched the Longhorns trounce Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl. Luke hung out with his buddy, Vincent, and they partied until past their bedtimes along with the football watching crowd. Vince has a sweet motorized motorcycle that the boys zoomed around the house in. Luke drove at first, then Vince took the wheel until the batteries pooped out. The boys finally pooped out as well, and after a late night hanging with friends we packed up the next morning and headed back to Austin. Happy New Year, y'all!

Ponch and Jon running down some crooks

Merry Christmas Update

To catch us up, here are lots of pictures from the last few months. We vacationed in France, had a spooky Halloween, a yummy Thanksgiving and we are gearing up for Christmas...

Farmer Luke in Normandy

Parent tip #932: Kids LOVE balloons!

Luke's cousin Lavinia takes him under her wing

Louis and his sisters Yasmine and Ariane.
Luke and his cousins Henry, Renee and Lavina.

Luke is pleased with the French cuisine

Luke on his second birthday,
dressed up for his great grandmother's 100th birthday celebration

Just another day at the office

Luke and Jen, hanging out

Luke cheating injury once again

Too much sugar!

Luke's first pony ride

Luke on the Deauville boardwalk

Renee pointing out a butterfly to Luke at the butterfly sanctuary

Lavina, Luke and Renee turning into butterflies

Back to Austin... football season, yay!

Splash time with Gabby in our backyard

Luke and Grandpa having fun

Grandpa saving Luke as he cheats injury once again

Smile!

Carving the pumpkin before Halloween... yummy

A job well done!

At the pumpkin patch

Luke and Gabby, awwww

Luke the cowboy, yee ha! Happy Halloween!

Martin Armstrong

Luke's buddies: Gabby, Luke, Vivian, Ellie, Zach, Winston, Martin

Luke and Gabby Trick or Treating

Hanging Christmas lights around the house

Decorating gingerbread house and noses

That's all for now! Happy holidays!

A boring day in Chicago

A couple weeks after moving in to our new house we were off to France for a family visit and to celebrate the 100th birthday of my Grandmother. We were scheduled to fly from Austin to Chicago, then Chicago to Paris. Our (mis)adventure started in Chicago. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly as far as killing several hours in an airport during a layover can go, and we boarded our flight to Paris in good spirits. We proceeded to sit for over two hours on an unairconditioned plane before they announced that the plane had irreparable mechanical problems and they were canceling the flight. By now it was after 7pm which is Luke's usual bedtime and we are thinking "Oh no, don't mess with the bedtime, this is not going to end well." We packed up our belongings, got off the plane, and waited an hour in line to rebook a flight. It was too late to catch any other flight to Paris and, after much heated conversation with the airline, we accepted the fact that the only other flight we could take would be this same flight the next day. A full 24 hours later. Pissed, hungry, and with a travel weary toddler, we waited for our bags in baggage claim, took a cab to a hotel and checked in for the night. Luke was a trooper and never complained (whew).

We got up to the room and having not had dinner yet, ordered Luke some room service. By 10pm he was saying, "Mommy... Lukey go night night?" and after procuring a hotel portable crib, he fell fast asleep.

Do we get HBO in this room?

Our flight wasn't to leave Chicago until the next evening so we were going to have to spend the day in Chicago. Sweet, right?! Chicago's a big town, there has gotta be lots of fun stuff to do around here! Well, not so much... It takes over an hour each way by train to get from the airport to downtown Chicago. Either that or a $75 cab ride each way. Add in that we'd need to be back for a nap and you buy yourself an exciting 30 minutes in downtown Chicago before you have to turn around and go back to the hotel.

Surely the great Chicago airport metropolitan area has numerous activities for stranded families? Guess again. Our options were a Wizards and Fantasy Convention at the airport convention center or.... anything else. We heard there was a Denny's within walking distance so we had to check that out. It sucked.

After breakfast at Denny's we went back to the hotel for a swim. That was fun but ended after Luke's non-swim diaper exploded cellulose pulp all over the place. We quickly gathered up our things and ran back to our room before anyone could blame the mess on us. Parent lesson # 16,371: Don't let your diaper wearing child in the water more than 15 minutes.

Then came nap time, checkout and finally our flight! The flight went great thanks to a portable DVD player worth its weight in gold and a steady supply of snacks. A short 10 hour flight later and 2 hour car ride we had arrived at our destination in St. Gatien, France.

Yay! We're finally here!