Spring Break

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!

Snake Farm

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.

Rhyme Time (Revised!)

If you read this post earlier today, you were probably really confused because it made no sense! I goofed it up. Fixed now...

I just remembered a cute story from Spencer's ranch visit. Geep taught him a new rhyming game and it went something like this...

Geep: "I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with 'think'."

Spencer: "Pink?"

Geep: "No, it's where you wash the dishes."

Spencer: "Dishwasher!!"

And So It Begins...

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!

Bicycle Bell, Ranch Trip, Quotes

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."

That's all for now!

P.S. Strawberry Adventure in Film

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!

Update: The sound isn't working for some reason. Try clicking here instead.

A Berry Fun Saturday

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.