Hooray for Parades!!

Today we took the kids to their first ever real parade! The Chuy's Children Giving to Children parade in downtown Austin, which supports Operation Blue Santa. Blue Santa was started by the Austin Police Department to collect toys and provide holiday meals to Austin families who would not otherwise have those things for Christmas. The parade was tons of fun, so I have to share some pics. Ummm... LOTS of pics. Are you ready??

A couple excited kids waiting for the parade to start...


They moved to the curb to get a better view. And look, their sweet cousin Morgan was there, too!


Look what's coming!!


Its a bird, its a plane... no... its Super Grover!!


There were several cool balloons in the parade, I had never seen one in person. I felt like I was at the Macy's parade!



Of course a parade isn't a parade without flags... or bagpipes...

Or cheerleaders...

Or a marching band or two...


Or carolers (in a Christmas parade, anyway!)...

Here's some fine examples of why we love our WEIRD city...

This poor dog was holding on for dear life!

I always *knew* EMS were superheroes - here's some proof.

The kids got to shake hands with a REAL princess!

And there's Snow White!

Chewbacca!

Whoa, can you believe even SANTA came to our parade!??! So exciting.


And the reason for the parade - Blue Santa. That's our wonderful Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo up top, thanking the crowd for their support.

At one point in the parade (near the end for us since we were sitting near the start), the parade stops and everyone donates toys to Blue Santa - there were several pickup trucks throughout the parade to collect them. Here's Aunt Laura helping the kids give their toys.

The kids LOVED their first parade.


Hooray for parades!

The Lego Store!

There's a new store in town. And it's a good one! An entire store dedicated to LEGOS!!! Carter is Lego-obsessed lately, so of course we had to go and check it out. Right away both kids plunked themselves down at the bench where you could sit and play...


Finally Courtney pried herself away to check out the rest of the store. Here she is with the Wall of Legos...


And a huge Lego Woody!!


A great big, fun Lego...


"Mommy there are SO MANY people in there!"


Here's my happy boy. He loved this store. A lot.


Later, Carter sat with his great big new truck set and followed the directions step by step, putting together the back half of the truck all by himself. So proud of my big boy!

Giraffes!!

This past weekend the kids and I drove up to Dallas to spend the weekend with Daddy, who's up there on business. We packed in a few fun things, but for now I'm just going to show you one of them - because it was THE COOLEST THING EVER!!! We took the kids to the Dallas Zoo, where they got to feed a giraffe!! Some photos...

Here little giraffe, do you want some yummy lettuce?


Well hello there beautiful. Hungry?


Carter feeding the giraffe.


And Courtney.


He was so happy to be fed he even let Daddy pet him.


Thank you for a thrill today, gorgeous giraffe!


This was part of the newly-opened Giants of the Savanna exhibit. It's absolutely beautiful, you really must go see it!


Oh but maybe not in July - it was Africa HOT there in the African savanna! Ugh. But so worth sweating our way through to get to feed a giraffe!!

Our little ballerina!

Courtney has started ballet classes! She's taking a Kindertots class down at the Lakeway community center. There are two other little girls in her class, and Miss Angela is her teacher.


Its officially the cutest thing in the history of Courtney. :-)


While Courtney is dancing, Carter and I wait out in the lobby area. Carter brings toys or crafts to do. And he acts generally silly.


Love Tuesday mornings!!

Happy 4th of July!

Hi there! Yes, I've been terrible about updating this blog! We've done a lot over the past few months, so I'm going to work on getting it all updated here soon. At any rate - I hope you all had a great 4th of July! We had a nice day - a neighborhood kiddie parade in the morning, family over for a cookout in the afternoon and then fireworks in the evening. Here are some photos:

Our Yankee Doodle Cuties getting ready for the parade! Our friends Rachel & Derek (and parents Cindy & Brian) walked the parade with us.


Walking the parade route...


Our cake for the cookout. Carter did ALL of the cutting on the strawberries himself!


Uncle Brad, Aunt Laura & Morgan went with us to the fireworks in Cedar Park. It was really nice! The weather even cooperated, it was decent out and not boiling. Some more photos...


Happy 4th!