Spencer's school had a little Easter party yesterday. The kids hunted eggs (cascarones they made, to be exact) and we had a potluck lunch. Unfortunately I did not have my photo-taking-mojo, but here are a couple of shots.
And they're off!
First egg
Just like when we picked strawberries, each egg must be announced and presented
Cracking a cascarone on Ms. Shirali's head
Lunch with Izzy
Blogger is acting really weird and won't let me preview this post. Hopefully it doesn't look crazy with tons of space between images...
This was the scene in our carport today. Daddy taught Spencer how to wash a car. He was so into it and was very careful and intense about his work. He kept saying, "We're the guys who wash your car, Mommy!" and "This is going to be nice and clean, Mommy!" (My office is next to the carport so he was giving me a commentary through the window when I went back inside.) When they were finished, Spencer made sure I looked at every square inch of my vehicle, noting how clean it was. He was proud of his work!
We went to Angleton over the weekend to see Paw-Paw. We also got to visit with Aunt Renee, Aunt Dianne, Uncle Scott, Lolly and Don. Our big outing was on Saturday - we went to the Bayou Wildlife Park in Alvin. I'm not sure how long this place has been around, but it's a must-do activity the next time you're in Brazoria County or the Houston area. It's an 80-acre ranch filled with all sorts of exotic animals.
As you drive into the park, the animals start poking their heads into your vehicle to get food. Spencer wasn't so sure about that at first, but neither was I! Those ostriches and elands were pretty aggressive.
We took a tram ride all around the property where we saw and/or fed some awesome animals: camels, ostriches, emus, watusis, beefalos, zebras, elands, many varities of deer, giraffes, a white rhino...the list goes on. When a big animal approached, Spencer made sure to plant himself firmly in the center of our seat, just in case. That's why most of the pictures are of me feeding the animals. :)
After the safari tour, Spencer rode a horse named Elizabeth and I fed the zonkey (look - we match!).
Dave took some great pictures of the animals, which I'll add to the March photo album soon.
The whole time we were there, I kept thinking how much I wish Grannie was with us because she would've really liked it. Oddly enough, there was an Elvis CD playing while we were in the petting zoo area. I thought that was neat and maybe a little sign. We will definitely go back!
I've mentioned before that Spencer says, "I love you in the whole world in the sky" to describe how much he loves us. Well, last night during bedtime he started expanding on that sentiment.
"Mommy, I love you in the whole world, as the bright stars shine down on the beautiful land."
He then elaborated even more, but I couldn't quite remember it when I tried to tell Dave last night. It involved the sky touching the moon and the sun, and the stars shining...it was pretty. What a little dreamboat!
For my second day off during Spring Break, we headed to the Austin rodeo. When we arrived, there was a looooooooooong line to get in the gate. Luckily, there was a 4-yr old boy in front of us, and he and Spencer kept themselves entertained during the 30+ minute wait. And then we were on our way!
We started off by playing a game.
Then we rode a few rides and went into a fun house. Spencer's favorite was the convoy ride.
And you just have to get a corn dog at the fair. We think this was Spencer's first corn dog, if you can believe it. He enjoyed it!
Next up was the petting zoo, where we saw baby lambs, baby goats and a baby llama which was the softest little thing ever! (No pictures this time...) We walked to the opposite side of the barn and discovered the animals over there were total jerks! Super aggressive trying to get the food. We didn't like that, so we high-tailed it out of there and took a break to listen to some music and Spencer ran around with some kids.
After all that running we needed an ice cream break.
We strolled through the the barn to see some of the show animals. Then Spencer practiced his heavy equipment operating skills until we decided we were zonked and ready to head home. It was a fun day!
I'm not biased or anything, but I think Spencer's going to be a good little golfer. Guess he wouldn't be a Horridge if that weren't the case! Here's some footage from a driving range outing this week.
Last night Dave and I caught up on a lot of TV after Spencer went to bed. Around 10:30, I walked down the hall and noticed Spencer's door was open. I turned the corner and found this outside our bedroom:
Spencer ends up in our bed every night, and sometimes if he wakes up before we're in bed he'll go back into his room on his own. I guess he decided to just wait it out last night. No idea how long he'd been there, but he was sound asleep and didn't stir until I tried to pick him up.
I took off Wednesday and Friday this week to spend some time with Spencer since he doesn't have preschool this week. Luckily, Daddy didn't have any SXSW responsibilities yesterday, so the three of us got to hang out together. We had such a fun day exploring on South Congress.
First we went to the parking lot of Hotel San Jose to listen to some live music. Then we walked across the street to Amy's Ice Creams and had a little pre-lunch treat. Then we walked a little further to the food trailer lot for lunch. After that, we had a look around Uncommon Objects - I was surprised that Spencer was so interested in looking at all the old treasures in there. He was so careful about all the breakables, too. It was VERY difficult to resist purchasing one of these fedoras for him, but they were $45! Question to ponder: Were fedoras popular for kids in the 1920s or did men in the 1920s have heads roughly the size of my 3-year old's?
On the way home, Spencer said he wanted to go to Butler Park to ride his scooter, so that's how we ended our little outing. It was a great day in Austin, TX with my boys!
Paw-Paw came to visit us yesterday. He and Spencer played this morning while I worked, and then I took the afternoon off and we took a trip to the infamous Snake Farm in New Braunfels. Years ago, I heard a story about that place - that the animals were in bad shape and they even had a gorilla there at one point (not sure whether that's true). Anyway, I always had a negative impression of it until recently when I heard that some friends went there. So on a whim, we took a little Spring Break roadtrip.
Spencer was glad to see that the snakes were in enclosures and not just slithering all around. I guess that makes three of us! I gotta say, even though there were some GIGANTIC snakes there, the ones that gave me the creeps the most were the deadly black mambas (3rd pic below). I didn't like them looking at my boy!
Out back there were lots of animals to see - monkeys, capybaras, warthogs, kookaburras, a zebra, goats, pigs, parrots and many more! I couldn't get Spencer to stand still long enough to get pictures of him with the animals except when he was feeding them, so no exotics in these...
The neatest surprise was a tiny baby lemur holding onto its mama's belly. If you look carefully you can see a tiny black head on the right side, in the middle of that white fuzzy belly:
There was also an ice cream truck out back - so many choices!
And this is what a boy looks like after a big day at the Snake Farm, clutching his souvenir centipede.
Today we went to cousin Lee's 11th birthday party. Lee has been taking guitar lessons, which meant Spencer finally got his hands on an electric guitar. I took this video of his first moments trying it out - he was one happy boy!
Dave shared this video with me last night from their Veloway trip a couple of weeks ago. (Sidenote: Videos still perplex me...my Vimeo videos won't play on mobile devices...maybe YouTube will work?)
Spencer spent Thursday night at the ranch with Geep and Pop. I drove out after work Friday. The weather put a damper on the usual ranch activities, but Spencer got to do a little fishing on Thursday before the rain started. He reeled in a couple of fish for Pop, but he also cast his own line (with a hook this time) and caught a little bass. All by himself! A pretty big day for Spencer and Pop. He had a great time at Pine Fork!
Just a couple of quick quotes while I'm here.
While discussing what Spencer wanted for a late morning snack... Me: "How about some peanut butter toast?" Spencer: "No, I need something patricious." Me: "Patricious?" Spencer: "Something good for me.
"Daddy, chocolate frozen yogurt is NOT as good as chocolate ice cream."
Just in case you didn't follow my link over to Steffani's site yesterday, here's the sweet little video she and Chad put together. It has a joyful and innocent vibe that makes me a bit weepy. Hope you don't mind that I borrowed this, Steff!
Saturday morning we met Ella and her mommy and daddy at Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls to pick strawberries. It sure was chilly out there but it didn't slow down the kiddos. They picked lots of yummy berries, fed some goats and chased/hugged each other. Steffani wrote about it on her blog and she has some really cute pictures of the kids together. Click here to see.
When we got home, we made some strawberry muffins. Daddy and I thought they were super tasty, but Spencer said, "I don't like the strawberry part." Oh well.
