Libby's Little Loves

Fun at the Science Museum

2012-01-16T12:38:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we went on a little outing to the Tellus Science Museum. It's right off of I-75 in a town about 50 minutes north of us called Cartersville. Yup, Carter was super excited to go to Cartersville! And the museum was fantastic! I love the Fernbank in Atlanta, but this was even better!

In the lobby we had fun watching the Foucault pendulum. Would it knock over any blocks?? We were on the edges of our seats (if we had seats)...

The first thing you see as you enter the main hall is a ginormous Apatosaurus skeleton. So cool! I love this photo of Carter looking up at the head!

In the fossil gallery we also found a big and scary T-Rex!! Named Stan. HA!

A great area for younger kids was the "Big Backyard" - lots of interesting hands-on science stuff, including this fun magnet exhibit...

There was a large exhibit about Science in Motion - lots of cool cars, airplanes, rockets, etc. Loved seeing Carter the astronaut!

Courtney's favorite things were the fossil dig...

And panning for gems!

Their geeky mom loved this awesome periodic table display!

Another highlight was the kids' very first planetarium visit! Super duper cool.

Tonight before bed Courtney asked if we could go to "the museum in Cartersville with the gems" again tomorrow. Sorry sweetie, not tomorrow, but maybe another time soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carter's Fun Run!!

2011-09-02T17:20:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone! This week Carter participated in his first organized fun run! It was a fundraiser for his elementary - Carter did a great job raising money that will go toward building a new STEM lab for his school. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering & Math - he has already said "Mom is there STEM today?? Science is my favorite!" Aaaah, he's truly the son of two enginerds. :-) Here are some photos from the day...

Getting ready to introduce the teams...

And here comes Carter and the Hummingbirds!! (The name of his kindergarten class is Mrs. Hinz's Hummingbirds) :-)

Getting the kids warmed up and ready... this is all of the kindergarten & 1st graders in the school. The other grades ran after them.

Go Carter Go!!!

Turns out my boy is a tongue-sticker-outer when he runs!

I had him stop mid-stream for a photo - seconds later another kid crashed into him - good move, mom!

Little sister cheering for big brother...

All done!! Very sweaty after running so hard! He did great, ran hard the entire time (with a few water breaks!) and got done before many of the kids.

Showing off his completed tshirt - they marked off the laps as he ran around. He did the maximum 35 for pledges, and then threw in a few more on top of it...

Great job Carter!! And a huge thanks to those who pledged!! Carter's class is in first place out of the entire school!!!

Farmers Market Fun!

2011-05-28T15:57:00.002-05:00

Wow I've completely fallen off the wagon when it comes to sharing family photos! Oops! I'll try to get back on schedule with it this weekend, but today I thought I'd share what we did today to "kick off" our Memorial Day weekend - a trip to the farmers market!

I asked Courtney this morning if she wanted braids in her hair. I meant two braids. She said "Yes, five braids! If Rapunzel saw me with five braids, she'd say 'Courtney that's so cool!'" So, alas, my sweet girl was sportin' the Bo Derek look at the market...

We were only a few stalls into the market when we came upon a sweet little petting zoo! The kids loooooved it. They got to pet ducklings...

And sweet little bunnies...

Courtney wasn't quite sure what to make of this painted dragon.

Ok, he was a nice lizard afterall.

Here Courtney has a turtle, and Carter has a CHINCHILLA! Very cool.

Once the petting was done, Mommy got to have her veggie fix. Oh how I love farmers markets! I can't help it, I have to show you a few gratuitous vegetable photos...

Carrots, "Yellow Taxi" tomatoes, and beets. Just lovely. I ended up buying lettuce, cucumbers and a couple of those yellow tomatoes to make a salad for dinner tonight. Plus two stalks of gorgeous green garlic - I'll be making a tasty stir fry tomorrow!

After the market, we went to the mall for a fun Lego store visit, then had a picnic with some cheese we bought at the market, among other things. Daddy and Carter kicked the soccer ball around a bit before heading home. A good start to the weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Week in Review - April 24, 2011

2011-04-25T00:21:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter if you celebrate Easter! We've had another fun week, with a few things going on - but I'm going to focus on our weekend with this post. We decided to take a little weekend trip to the Gulf - to say goodbye before we leave Texas. We spent the weekend in Corpus Christi, enjoying the ocean, the sea birds, the fish & chips...

We made the ~3.5hr drive over to Corpus after the kids got out of preschool on Friday. We didn't have time to do a whole lot once we got there that night, but we did go out for dinner - even at the restaurant, Courtney was ready to swim!

Next door to the restaurant we spied a comic book store - right away Carter noticed the neon signs and wondered what it was!

Carter couldn't believe there was so much superhero stuff all in one place!

After dinner we settled into the hotel, where the kids shared the sofa bed. They goofed around for quite a while, but in the end they settled down & slept - yay!

We began Saturday with a view of the USS Lexington, which is now a museum. We didn't visit but Carter thought it was pretty cool!

We did visit the aquarium, though!

At the aquarium, the kids enjoyed a dolphin show...

Touching stingrays...

And getting up close & personal with a sea turtle!

The aquarium was fun, but even better was the beach!!

Thankfully we avoided sharks. Mostly...

And before leaving, we hit the beach again in the early morning hours, this time combing the beach for shells...

Hurray for a fun weekend by the sea!

Two Weeks in Review - April 17, 2011

2011-04-18T09:55:00.001-05:00

Today's family update post is lonnnnggggg. I didn't get a chance to do one last week, so this one includes two weeks of photos. I apologize to those of you on dial-up. ;-) Here we go...

First and foremost - our house is FINALLY officially for sale!

Now that we are DONE getting ready, there is more time for fun things! Plus, I am trying to keep the kids out of the house as much as possible, to reduce the amount of cleaning required for each showing. :-)

A favorite place to spend our time is the community pool. It's nice that we can go to the pool in April - but it's still a bit chilly when we get out!

This isn't Courtney heading to the pool - this is Courtney heading home from Target! We decided we needed some goggles, arm floaties and kickboards, and Courtney was so excited she had to put them on in the car!

We've spent time at the library, where we had a bit of a milestone - Carter is now checking out chapter books, and we're reading one or two chapters each night. My baby is growing up!

(And yes, he's totally stylin' in his orange socks and soccer sandals!) :-)

Carter and I like to watch Dancing with the Stars together. Can't you tell he loves it from his enthusiastic face?

One issue with letting your five year old watch DWTS with you - "Mommy what does sexy mean?"

Courtney is such a big helper at the grocery store! She wanted to push the big cart, even though she could barely reach it.

Carter and I got to have a morning together, just the two of us! We went to the garden center and bought a couple veggies to plant...

Looked at some books at Barnes & Noble...

And had lunch at Kerbey Lane, where Carter ate nearly ALL of these pancakes!! Wow.

Visiting Petsmart can be dangerous... we came close to adopting this sweet kitty! Wonder what Daddy would have thought of that...

We had a fun time last week visiting a new-to-us bouncy place!

One relatively mess-free thing to do at home is coloring - here they were making cards! Sigh. My babies, making mama proud!

One afternoon I found Courtney reading books in her room. Sitting in the bin that normally holds her dress-up clothes. Silly girl!

And finally - more warming up after a dip in the pool. :-)

Until next time...

Week in Review - April 3, 2011

2011-04-04T12:59:00.000-05:00

Last week was another busy busy busy week for us!! I had a little medical drama including a visit to the MRI - but I'm happy to report all is completely fine. Our house is mostly decluttered, and will be officially for sale by the next update. EEK! Mixed emotions on that, let me tell ya! But despite all the craziness, I did manage to snap a few photos of the kids throughout the week...

Monday afternoon was Sportball. Carter had fun at his baseball skills class - he's happy to have one of his good buddies from preschool playing baseball with him, too!

Courtney was so excited to start her first Sportball class - she's doing the multisport. Will my little ballerina prefer sports to dancing? Stay tuned...

Mid-week my sweetpea posed for a photo with her mama...

My boy was not so cooperative with the photos...

Saturday was Carter's soccer game - here's the team doing their huddle... gooooo North Mexico!

And our own #52 in action...

And here's #52's little sister in action - throwing a fabulous tantrum on the sidelines.

Her mood improved tremendously with post-game snowcones...

We spent the rest of the weekend doing house work. Courtney loved sweeping the driveway.

Such a sweet little helper!

Thanks for stopping by!

Week in Review - March 27, 2011

2011-03-27T22:21:00.002-05:00

I don't have a whole lot to say about this past week. Let's see... Carter started his first baseball skills class in the neighborhood. I thought Great Grandpa Harmon would like that Carter is playing baseball now!

My sister Laura and I went to see Rick Springfield live at the rodeo. We had never watched a concert in a venue quite like this before (we had to watch calf ropin', barrel racin' and bull ridin' before the show!), but it was really cool. Grandma Doris - my MIL - the world's biggest General Hospital fan - is visiting right now and was rather jealous that I got to go see Dr. Noah Drake and she had to stay at home. If only I had known she'd be here back when we bought the tickets!

Carter also had his first soccer game with his new team, North Mexico. Colors are green and red. Go Carter!

And that's all I took photos of (and none very good!) because I was up to my eyeballs this week with this...!

We are about a week away from getting our house in the market. Next Saturday is the garage sale when hopefully a bunch of this will be sold, and what isn't will end up at Goodwill. Believe it or not, this horrible garage is actually in a state of organized chaos... there is a method to my madness... :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Week in Review - March 20, 2011

2011-03-21T01:44:00.000-05:00

We've had another fun week here in Texas! First of all, it was spring break for the kids from preschool. Daddy decided to take a couple days off from work, and we went on a little mini overnight adventure to San Antonio! There's lots more photos here if you'd like to check them out, but here's one of the highlights - a visit to a cave! Fun!

We went to a restaurant for dinner that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives on the Food Network. Joel had this bison burger and sweet potato fries - does it look Guy Fieri-worthy? :-)

We sat outside at the restaurant and the weather was wonderful - here's me and my sweet girl waiting for the food to arrive.

We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day this week with a fish & chip dinner, Guinness (for the adults!) and some shamrock-shaped cookies. As is the case for most holidays, I printed off some coloring pages for the kids... :-)

Courtney wore this funky green ensemble from Grandma, who's visiting from Arizona with Grandpa, too!

I've been pulling out a lot of the kids' baby things and putting them for sale on craigslist. I had Courtney's crib bedding laid out on the bed for a photo, and Courtney came in and decided she needed to snuggle in it one last time.

Courtney's becoming such a big girl, she decided she wanted to go for a spin on Carter's big boy bike. Guess we need to get her a big girl bike now!!

Daddy and the kids went on a picnic at the park with Grandma & Grandpa, while I stayed home and did more cleaning & purging & craigslisting. Carter found a good climbing tree at the park!

And finally, the most exciting thing this week happened just tonight - Carter lost his first tooth!!! Sigh, my baby is getting so big. There's more photos here, but this is his new toothless grin. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

The Tooth Fairy is coming!!

2011-03-21T01:23:00.005-05:00

He have some exciting news to share!! Carter lost his first tooth!!! It had been loose for quite a while, but tonight it was so loose Carter could push it way forward with his other teeth...

He decided it would be alright for Daddy to help get it out. I couldn't watch, but came in right after and found Carter inspecting his tooth, now in his hand!

Carter said "is this really happening?" - LOL!

Still bleeding a little so Daddy got out a washcloth to help it.

My boy with his new toothless grin!

Carter was a bit nervous about losing his first one, but now that he knows it's not so bad, the next ones will be a piece of cake!

Spring Break - San Antonio!

2011-03-21T00:42:00.007-05:00

This week was spring break for the kids from preschool, so we decided to go on a little mini overnight adventure to the San Antonio area, just for fun.

We started off with a stop at Natural Bridge Caverns. This photo kind of sums up how they were feeling about it - Carter was excited to go into a REAL bat cave, but Courtney was a wee bit apprehensive!

The trek down deep below the ground, past beautiful formations...

Our little cave explorer!

We walked around the grounds a little - it was a nice day!

They had a little area where you could go "mining" for gems - fun!

Courtney giving her loot to daddy...

They also had some dinosaurs to climb on!

My sweeties.

For dinner we went to a place called The Cove downtown. It's been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network! I had no idea - Joel picked it mostly because it also had a playscape for the kids to be entertained! Here's me and my sweet girl, sitting outside on a gorgeous spring evening.

Does this food look Guy Fieri-worthy? :-) This was Joel's dinner - a bison burger and sweet potato fries!

The next morning we went to the Botanical Gardens, where Carter took a birdwatching class!

Here's my boy outfitted with some binoculars, all ready to identify some birds!

Courtney got bored quickly in the birding class (and honestly, Carter did too - but he stuck it out!). Instead Courtney wandered around the gardens, especially loving the displays they had set up for Easter & spring...

My sweet garden girl!

Thanks for stopping by!

Week in Review - March 13, 2011

2011-03-21T00:39:00.000-05:00

The 10th week of 2011 started out on a very happy note when I saw my favorite sign that spring is here - a sweet little lone bluebonnet. Sigh. Oh how I love bluebonnets!

Mardi Gras was this week and the kids got crafty. You can read all about it here - and here's a photo of Courtney creating her Mardi Gras mask.

I explained to the kids about Mardi Gras being the party before Lent, and how some people give up things during Lent. Carter decided he would give up chocolate milk, and Courtney declared she was giving up Chuck E Cheese's. Like we go there a lot. LOL!

Carter had his first soccer practice with his new team - North Mexico! He's so excited to be on a team with his friend Rachel this spring!

We did our biweekly trip to the library, where Courtney was thrilled to find her favorite book available for checkout.

Carter was equally excited to find they have superhero books at the library!

Carter loves working on cards with me in my stamp cave. I have a desk in there just for him.

I took the kids to a free demo Music Together class. They thought the class was alright, but by far their favorite part was getting to "wash" the windows afterward!

Here's my sweet and silly girl when we went out to dinner at Rudino's.

And finally, on Sunday we went to a birthday party at the Children's Museum for one of Courtney's classmates. A private party - we had the entire museum to ourselves! Very cool! Courtney loved taking care of the animals in the "vet clinic".

And Carter enjoyed the exhibits they had set up that were all about motion (aka physics!). This big rollercoaster was his favorite, he got to drop balls from the top and watch them go.

We had a special treat when we came out of the museum - a little parade of marching bands going by! I still don't know what the parade was for, but it was funky and very Austin. A bunch of supertalented ragamuffin musicians. Good times!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Mardi Gras 2011!

2011-03-20T23:55:00.004-05:00

On March 8 we did a little celebrating in our house - Mardi Gras! I searched the internet for ideas, and here's what we came up with...

First the kids colored some coloring pages of kings and people in fun masks.

Then they made their own masks! I used small paper plates - cut out the centers to see through - then stapled them together. Popsicle sticks were attached for holding up the masks. I tried to show them how this sort of mask has just one stick, but they both insisted on having two. :-) First they painted their masks...

Then they attached all sorts of feathers, pompoms and glitter!

I should have taken a photo of them holding up their finished masks, standing in front of the wall we decorated with their coloring pages, but alas, I did not.

We rounded out the afternoon with the baking of "king cakes" - but I was too lazy to make REAL king cake so instead we did some cupcake decorating. Here's Courtney with her super sugary creations!

Laissez le bon temps rouler! Or as us non-Cajuns would say, let the good times roll! :-)

Week in Review - March 6, 2011

2011-03-20T23:53:00.000-05:00

After a great start to the year, I've completely fallen behind on these family updates! Darn it! Well tonight I'm catching up on three weeks of activity in the Hickson household, and hopefully that will get me back on track going forward!

So let's see - during week 9 we went and visited the neighborhood fire station! I've heard Carter explain to other people now that firefighters are real-life superheroes, and also the nicest people on the planet. I've taught him well. :-)

This is a not-so-great phone picture, but it was so cute of Courtney I had to include it anyway. She's finally started doing big smiles and not those goofy smiles she did for the longest time!

Brother and sister are so sweet with each sometimes...

And other times, not so much!*

One morning we went on an outing to Mayfield Park and Mt. Bonnell. If you're curious, I posted the full rundown here. But this is a photo of the kids taking in the view from Mt. Bonnell.

The kids both went for their annual well-checks with Dr. Petropoulos. I'm not sure why Carter was holding up his hands like this, LOL!

If you're at all curious about their stats - at 5yrs, Carter weighs 43.5 lbs (55%-tile), is 44.5" tall (75%-tile) and has a BMI of 15.4 (45%-tile). Courtney at 3yrs weighs 31.5 lbs (50%-tile), is 37.5" tall (55%-tile) and has a BMI of 15.7 (50%-tile). Did you know they calculated BMI for preschoolers???!

And finally, we started getting our backyard fixed up a bit, including the planting of Carter's favorite thing in the garden - tomatoes!

Thanks for checking in with us. :-)

Happy Spring! Mayfield Park & Mt. Bonnell

2011-03-03T18:02:00.007-06:00

Today was a gorgeous spring day here in Austin, so the kids and I just had to go on an outdoor adventure! We picked a couple of parks they had never been to. First up was Mayfield Park, just west of downtown.

The park has an old estate and cottage gardens, with ponds...

And peacocks!!

But we enjoyed the most was hiking on the trails, that took us down along Lake Austin.

Sweet brother and sister!

I loved seeing the first signs of spring.

Next we headed over to Mt. Bonnell, the highest point in Austin at whopping 785ft. Well even if it's not really a mountain, it's still a nice place to look at views of the city (and a little fact for you - it's where Joel proposed to me!) :-) It was the first time the kids visited. Here they are getting ready to walk up all the steps to the top!

My sweet boy.

Enjoying the view.

Courtney isn't a fan of looking at the camera these days - but I thought this photo was sweet, despite her not looking.

After our time with nature we met Aunt Laura for lunch at Jason's Deli. All in all, a good day. Well, until I took them for their well checks at the pediatrician right after lunch... ;-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Week in Review - February 27, 2011

2011-02-27T14:26:00.001-06:00

Daddy was in Atlanta this week, which is always a bit tiring for Mommy. We had a not-so-popular appointment to take care of, but we tried to have some fun too! Here's the rundown:

During Courtney's ballet class on Tuesday, Carter and I looked for a nearby geocache that he & Daddy hadn't been able to find. We found it, yay!

The not-so-popular appointment was a trip to the dentist. Carter did mostly ok, although he really hates the taste of toothpaste and was very dramatic about it. Just like he's quite dramatic about it every time we brush at home, too! (and yes, we've tried lots of different flavors, even chocolate!)

Courtney wanted nothing to do with having anyone look in her mouth. They tried warming her up to the idea by letting her brush this guy's teeth...

Carter even sat in the chair with her for a bit. There's a video screen above them, so here they are in zombie-mode staring at. None of this helped, though. It was not a good dentist visit for Courtney!

One of the FUN things we did this week was visit a new-t0-us bouncy place! This one was FUN! They had the standard bouncy things to play on...

And they also had little themed-rooms set up: a vet clinic, a diner, a grocery store... and an entire room for playing dress-up!! Courtney was in heaven.

Back at home, the kids put on a "dance concert". Courtney danced at the ball with her Bunny. See the audience they set up? And the pile of clothes for "costume changes"?

And my sweet little musician at one end, playing the keyboard for his sister to dance to. :-) (Please ignore the shoe chaos. Geesh!)

Courtney had funny bath hair one night. Love the face she made for the photo, hee hee!

Carter loves playing with Daddy's iPad!

And finally, one night Uncle Jon came over for dinner and Courtney helped me cook! She chopped the ends off of this entire bin of strawberries using the kid safety knife. She is such a big girl!!! And she was sooooo proud of her strawberries!

Thanks for stopping by!

Week in Review - February 20, 2011

2011-02-20T15:26:00.006-06:00

It was another fun week here in Austin, TX!

Of course, it started with Valentine's Day! I got to go to a little muffin breakfast with Carter's preschool class that morning. Carter was cooperative as always for the photo...

After school, Courtney helped me make some sweet treats for dessert that night. I made chocolate-covered strawberries, and she made chocolate-dipped marshmallows, covered with sprinkles.

We also had heart-shaped pizzas for dinner!

Carter loves playing with his toy animals. This week I suggested he sort them into categories, land, sea or tree. He liked this new thing to do with them!

Tuesday was "observation day" at Courtney's dance class, so Carter and I got to sit in the back of the room and watch what she's been learning. It was A-DOR-A-BLE!!!! (I shared more photos from this in the previous post - scroll down to check them out!)

On Thursday we had lunch with Daddy at his work. Always a fun outing!

Courtney had another fun week of playing dress-up. There was the usual princess-dress-wearing. But she also spent some time as Jessie...

She got into Carter's things, including his soccer clothes...

And here's the cutest little Spiderman I've ever seen!

And finally, Carter got his soccer uniform back from his sister and was happy to put it back on once again! Saturday was "skills day", a little practice & evaluation before the season begins. He's looking forward to joining a new team this spring!

Thanks for stopping by!

Courtney's Dance Class

2011-02-20T13:41:00.005-06:00

On Tuesday, Courtney's dance class was open for Mommies and Brothers to observe. Usually Carter and I drop her off and run back home during the 50 minute class, so it was fun to get to watch what she's up to when she's there. And of course, take lots of photos...

Getting ready for class, Ms. Jessica has them all put their hands in the middle, then say "Do your best!" as they lift their hands up in the air. Too cute!

The first half of class is tap...

Then they put on their ballet slippers.

Courtney loves her dance classes so much!

Week in Review - February 13, 2011

2011-02-13T09:45:00.001-06:00

We didn't have any grand adventures this week, but I still managed to snap a lot of photos! Just some more of our day to day happenings...

First, our only adventure outside the house - Courtney had her usual ballet class on Tuesday. She was soooo excited to wear the new purple leotard she got for her birthday from Aunt Laura, and especially the black tights - since they are just like the black tights her teacher, Ms. Jessica, wears!

She may look like a sweet princess ballerina in the photos, but boy has she been cranky lately! It looks like her gum is really swollen in the back, so I think she may have a tooth coming in. Here's hoping she's more cheerful once it pops through. And in the meantime, I'm very thankful for things like unexpected chair naps...

Carter likes to draw pictures and mail them to his friends. Here he's starting to work on one...

On Wednesday it was cold again and we had a chance of ice, but thankfully the roads were fine. We did get a couple little icicles though!

By Thursday the kids were outside playing once more. "Mommy I'm a garden girl!"

We strung up some bats in the Batcave, aka Carter's bedroom. Once again thanks to Aunt Laura for doing the ladder work - she's a superhero!

Carter likes spending time on the computer - it's only a matter of time before he knows how to do more than I do!

"Mommy, me and my dolly and me are beautiful princesses!" (yes, that's how she said it!)

Uncle Jon came over for dinner on Thursday while Daddy was on a business trip up to Dallas. He helped Carter with some counting-by-tens homework. Carter was thrilled that I wanted a photo of it...

And here's Courtney, eating her breakfast. Yes, always a princess!

Until next week...

Courtney's 3rd Birthday!

2011-02-08T09:18:00.005-06:00

Courtney turned three last Friday, and on Saturday we celebrated with a princess party! Here's some photos...

Aunt Laura and I turned our livingroom into a "princess ballroom" with streamers (aka tablecover) and pompoms made from tissue paper. Laura did all the hanging from way up on the ladder, she's my hero! :-) I also made felt crowns for all the kids as party favors, you can see them up above the fireplace. I was able to borrow all the princess tables, yay!

Here's Carter wearing his crown, earlier in the week.

Courtney had so much fun with her princess friends!

This is her sweet friend Fia eating her lunch. I cut out the sandwiches with a glass slipper cookie cutter, and the cheese with a crown.

Carter with his good friend Aaron.

Cake time! See how Courtney looks a bit shocked and sad in this photo? Her friend - the smiling one - had just blown out the candles for her. LOL!

We relit the candles and Courtney tried again...

Courtney enjoying her cake.

And everyone else...

Present time!

Carter helped read the cards...

Courtney loved her party! Did you notice how many times she changed princess dresses throughout the party?? :-) And she got a new Cinderella dress from Grammy which she has hardly taken off since Saturday! All afternoon, after the kids had gone home, Courtney kept saying to me "Mommy I am so happy right now!". Yay! Makes it all worth it. :-)

Week in Review - February 6, 2011

2011-02-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

The 5th week of 2011 was an adventure here in the Hickson household! It began with playing outside in the nice weather, riding bikes! But leave it to my little princess to throw a tantrum ON HER BIKE! Who can be grumpy while on a bike?? I just don't get it.

Ok, the reason she was upset was because I wanted her to go inside and put on something other than a princess dress that would get caught in the wheels and pedals. So she... did?

We had to do a load of princess laundry, it was badly in need of a washing. I sure wish MY laundry looked this fun!

My dear son decided to write a message on his bedroom door, in marker. He is SO LUCKY this washed off easily!! And by the way, it says "Carter NO Mom!" I wasn't feeling the love...

I spent a large amount of last week doing princess party prep! But more on that in a future post...

By mid-week the temperatures began to fall again. I saw some readings on my SUV that I don't normally ever see!

And on Friday morning we woke up to SNOW!! We get MAYBE one day of snow a year, so the kids were soooo excited to get outside and play! (But notice what Courtney insisted on wearing...)

Yes, friends and family to the north, this is the amount of snow that cancels school in Austin and basically shuts down our fair city! But remember, we also don't have salt trucks, so the roads are quite slippery when this happens...

Friday was also Courtney's 3rd birthday, so she thought it was a pretty special birthday treat to get to play in the snow and then warm up with some hot cocoa!

Until next time...

Week in Review - January 30, 2011

2011-01-30T21:28:00.001-06:00

Daddy was in Atlanta this past week, but we still had some fun!

The biggest highlight from our week - MUCH NEEDED haircuts! First my little jinglebug...

And then big brother too...

Monday was Uncle Jon's birthday so we made him some cupcakes...

Tuesday was veggie pickup day - here Carter poses with them as if he likes them and he'll actually EAT them, but HA!!, not so much...

Speaking of eating, Super Princess went looking for a little something in the fridge...

One of Carter's favorite things as of late is playing cards. We play a game that's similar to Spades. Carter likes keeping score, which is good practice writing his numbers. One afternoon I wasn't able to play, so he got a game going with Cheetah. Much to my surprise, Cheetah won!

Courtney begged me to let her wear her hair to ballet class this week...

On the way home from ballet, Carter snapped this super cute photo of Courtney!

It was his only good one out of about 180 tries. Most looked more like this...

Speaking of photos, Carter also helped me get my piggie photo for the Hambo announcement this week. He wanted a piggie photo too...

Carter had a homework assignment this week to create a bar graph. We decided to collect data on "favorite fruits". Along with calling some family members, I also posed the question on Facebook, so we ended up with quite a bit of data to chart! We were surprised to see that strawberries were by far the favorite fruit, and nobody loved pears the most. Poor unloved pears!

By the end of the week the weather was fantastic and the kids enjoyed a lot of time playing outside.

Thanks for stopping by!

Week in Review - January 23, 2011

2011-01-23T16:54:00.001-06:00

It's been another interesting week for the Hickson clan! I'm going to start off showing a couple things Carter and I did last Saturday. First, we put together a birdhouse! I held the nails as Carter pounded them in - can you believe he didn't hit my fingers at all? And can you believe I even took the chance? LOL! Here's Carter working hard at painting the finished birdhouse...

Carter and I also did a little "mad science" kit we picked up at the Children's Museum. We made a bouncy ball! Carter got to pour the different color bits into a round mold, which we then placed in water. My silly boy doesn't pose nice for the camera all the time...

And here's another silly face with the finished ball!

We had hoped to go see Tangled on Saturday but the timing didn't work out. To help appease two disappointed kids, I decided we could have a "princess picnic dinner" at the coffee table while watching Cinderella. This went over REALLY well. :-)

Although everyone seemed happy on Saturday, it all took a turn for the worse Saturday night. The kids both had fevers and complained of sore throats and tummy aches, so I decided to take them to the after hours clinic on Sunday for strep tests. The poor sweeties zonked out almost as soon as the car started moving...

This is what their ragged mom looks like after a sleepless night with sick kids. Ravishing, isn't she? Ack! (I have no idea why I'm showing you this, LOL!)

Whatever they had, it wasn't strep and after another sick day on Monday they were feeling better. Well, sort of. Courtney was still a grumpypants, no doubt partially because she wasn't feeling 100% and also because she was missing her Daddy, who was on a business trip to Korea. Here she was throwing a MAJOR tantrum on the floor - a big part of our week. Sorry for the rotten photo, I took it with my phone.

Eventually everyone was feeling well enough to finally go see Tangled. The kids loved it, and even dressed up for the occasion...

Carter's favorite show these days is the old 1960s Batman series. He also loves acting out the fight scenes, beating up the pillows. In his undies. :-)

The kids were so happy when Daddy got home from Korea!

Last night Daddy took Carter to his first professional (minor league) hockey game! His favorite part was when they scored (go figure!).

And Mommy enjoyed a pretty Texas sunset.

Week in Review - January 16, 2011

2011-01-16T16:53:00.000-06:00

Today I'm sharing my summary of our second week of 2011. I meant to have this posted earlier in the day, but it hasn't been a good 24hrs in the Hickson household. Both of my kids came down with fevers, tummy aches, sore throats and general unhappiness overnight. I took them to the after hours clinic today and I'm still waiting to hear for sure whether they have strep throat or not, but my bet is they do. The doctor thought it was probably a fun mix of strep plus flu! Oh joy! My poor sweeties.

Despite the last 24hrs, we did have a rather fun week...

Courtney started her dance classes back up - this time with an actual dance studio that holds classes in our neighborhood, rather than Kinderdance. So far she's loving it, and I'm excited that she'll get to be in a real recital at the end of the semester at Ballet Austin!

As you may have heard, I made homemade pop tarts this week...

Carter spends most of his time these days playing with his superheroes, especially the new Batcave that Santa brought him...

My sweet girl asleep on the couch... (she is nearly always in either a tutu or a princess dress!)

I rejoined a wonderful CSA and this is what came in my first box of locally grown organic veggie goodness. Yum!

Carter got an ant farm for his birthday and the batch of mail order harvester ants arrived this week. He was soooo excited!

He even decided to make a scrapbook about ants... (His first scrapbook! Mama is proud...)

Courtney watched one of her favorite movies. Again.

Remember I mentioned the superhero obsession. This was dinner attire on Friday.

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Austin Children's Museum. It was mega crowded but the kids had a blast. Here they are tinkering in the Tinkerer's Lab.

And finally, life gave us lemons... I'm thinking about making lemonade!

(Ok that was actually a care package from my in-laws tree in Arizona!)

Week in Review - January 9, 2011

2011-01-09T11:17:00.003-06:00

This year I'm going to attempt, once again (!), to keep this blog somewhat updated! One plan is every Sunday I'll do a summary post, of things we did during the week. Then I may do some other posts for things that had lots of photos I feel the need to share. :-)

For this first post, I'm cheating slightly and dipping back into the tail end of 2010, just because we did a couple fun things before the year came to a close! First up, bowling with Grammy & Papa!

Courtney had fun pushing the ball down the ramp - and she was quite the fashion queen of the bowling alley!

During the day on New Year's Eve, we went on a little adventure down to San Marcos, TX and visited Aquarena Springs in one of their glass-bottom boats!

This is a photo of the springs bubbling up on the bottom of the lake.

I had to include this one - a rare one of ME, who's usually the one taking the photos rather than appearing in them...

We spent New Year's Eve at my house, playing games and eating top-your-own pizzas. Good times!

A favorite activity around here since Christmas (when Santa brought Daddy a new GPS!) has been geocaching. Daddy and Carter have found tons of "treasures" already. Carter is quite good at spotting the caches!

Here's a fun day at a park - happy kids!

Some of you know how I feel about cycling - of course I had to make the family pose on this one!

And finally, a trip to Sea World with Grammy, Papa, Aunt Laura, Uncle Brad and Morgan before the grandparents had to head back to Michigan.

The kids loved the Sesame Street show! They got to go right up to the stage and shake hands with several characters, including Ernie!

Courtney found her good friend Zoe painted on a fence & had to pose for a photo...

And finally, a tired family after a fun day at Sea World!

So that's it for my first summary post! Fingers crossed this will be a Sunday tradition this year. And more importantly, that I remember to TAKE photos during the week!!

Hooray for Parades!!

2010-11-27T16:32:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-08-15T11:11:00.005-05:00

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!!

2010-07-26T22:57:00.007-05:00

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!

2010-07-06T16:39:00.003-05:00

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!

2010-07-05T10:04:00.004-05:00

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!

World Cup - Korean Style!

2010-06-13T21:52:00.005-05:00

Joel is in Korea on business right now - and has apparently caught World Cup fever - but, is rooting for South Korea!! What?!? Actually this sounds like lots of fun - KS is one of his colleagues over in Korea. Here's Joel's email...

I met up with KS and his friend HH. It had been raining off and on all day. KS said they went back and forth 5 or 6 times whether to watch the game outside at City Hall or go to a pub. They finally decided we should just go to city hall and get rain slickers. We got there about 6pm for an 8:30pm game. The subway station was full of screaming people selling all kinds of Red Devil souvenirs (horns, thundersticks, etc.) and police were lined up to watch the hooligans.

Not sure exactly how many people were there but the next day they said about 70,000. We pushed our way in and found some space on the soggy grass. Before the game, it was like a concert and several popular bands played.

HH went to get some food and supplies. He came back with rain slickers and mat to put on the ground. I followed their lead as they took their shoes off and put them under the mat. After not too long I found myself standing in a puddle of water, and after another few minutes of getting jostled around I found myself standing in beer.. Later that evening KS would say to me “Oh, where are my socks?”. They are laying somewhere out near City Hall.

HH and KS. And HH and me.

I like this shot because you can see the glowing devil horns.

The atmosphere was really unbelievable, everyone was so excited. And the game started off great with Korea scoring just a few minutes in. I was high fiving KS when the guy in front of us, who we had made friends with, blindsided me with a bear hug that almost knocked me down. It was great game that Korea finished off with another goal in the 2nd half which led to a whole lot of screaming and singing. I found this youtube video showing the reaction to the first goal:

We walked down to a pub after the game and the streets were full of people singing, dancing, climbing up on sign posts, etc. I can’t image what it would be like if they won the world cup. Next game is Thursday night against Argentina, I can’t wait.

Joel

Last Day in CA - La Brea Tar Pits

2010-05-31T10:35:00.006-05:00

And finally, the last full day of our California vacation. We decided to spend our morning on a bit of an Ice Age adventure by visiting the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits!

We began the visit by walking around the grounds and looking at all of the stinky tar! There are several spots where it has bubbled and oozed out of the ground. This next photo shows a pretty neat site - they've constructed a little viewing building over a large pit. There are still some bones down in the pit, so you can see how it looks to the paleontologists - and see how dirty they get when they are excavating the fossils!

There were also some statues of Ice Age animals that the kids loved.

In the museum, the kids immediately found books in the gift shop that interested them and plopped down to look.

Finally we convinced them to come inside the museum - and Carter was glad he did. There were so many animal fossils - mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, giant sloths - very cool!

When we finished at the museum it was time for lunch, so we tried California's popular In-n-Out Burger. We got to drive around Hollywood a little, and saw the famous sign. Then we headed back once more to the California Science Center. We explored their very cool new "ecosystems" exhibit, and spent time in the Discovery Zone there - an area specifically for preschoolers. It was decorated SO CUTE!

After this big day of museum adventures, Courtney needed to rest!

The next morning we spent a little more time at the beach, then boarded our plane back to Austin. Such a fun vacation!

California Day 7, Part 2 - Waves & Wind

2010-05-25T10:05:00.004-05:00

I decided to put the rest of Day 7 into a separate post, since I did a rotten job narrowing down the cycling photos in the last one and it was already so long! :-) After watching the Tour of California, we went on a scenic drive through the Santa Monica Mountains...

And back along the Pacific Coast Highway, where we pulled off for some photos.

Carter immediately began throwing rocks toward the water. He would spend hours throwing rocks into the ocean if we let him.

It was massively windy, as you can tell from Courtney's lovely hairdo...

But oh so pretty!

We made our way down to Santa Monica, where it was still insanely windy. We tried walking out on the beach, but the wind was whipping the sand up and it stung as it blew against our legs! So we went up on the Pier for a bit, where we played a little skeeball in an arcade and posed for a photo, then left before the wind blew Courtney out to sea...

But the seagulls sure were lovely!

California Day 7, Part 1 - Tour of California

2010-05-25T09:26:00.006-05:00

On Sunday we drove up to Thousand Oaks for the 8th and final stage of this year's Amgen Tour of California bike race! I've been a big cycling fan since 1999, when a guy from Austin started winning the Tour de France. It was so exciting to see a cycling event live and in person! I had no idea what to expect at the starting line - turns out fans could wander around the parking lot with the team buses and wait for a peek at favorite riders. How cool! We opted to hang out by the Team RadioShack bus. We were surprised how we were able to get in so close to see the cyclists - Joel pointed out it may not have been so easy if Lance hadn't crashed out of the race a few days earlier...!

We saw Popo...

And Jason McCartney (I took this one for Lisa!)...

Jani Brajkovic (who I've learned, thanks to Twitter, has THE CUTEST little boy!!)...

A roughed up Chechu - he had crashed a few days earlier with Lance, but stuck around to finish the race. I had read he "had no skin left" - ouch!

And Levi - yay! This photo cracks me up, it's like the kid is saying "Can I touch you?".

Here's some fans waiting at the HTC-Columbia bus. Mick Rogers, who ended up winning the tour, was in there.

The BMC team car - they'd be helping to take care of George Hincapie along the route.

Carter & Courtney have a new favorite - Team Jelly Belly!! And yes, they were handing out free samples! We also got some free t-shirts from Team RadioShack, yay!

Jens Voigt! (Truth time - I had no idea it was Jens until now when I was looking up the numbers - note to self, next time you go to a bike race, bring a roster so you actually know who you're photographing! But yay, how cool that it was Jens Voigt!)

The ceremonial starting line...

The cars lined up, ready to go...

After the starting line we had lunch then found a spot along the route to watch them fly by. As you can tell, Carter and Courtney were so excited... (ha ha)

Here come the leaders, George is supposed to be one of these?

And the peloton. Recognize anyone? They went by so fast...

And the cars, rounding out the "cycling parade".

YAY! Fun day. Now let's hope I watch a live stage of the Tour de France someday... :-)

California Day 6 - Tide Pools & Baseball

2010-05-25T00:57:00.008-05:00

This day took us in search of tide pools! I thought the kids would enjoy looking at the marine animals in their natural setting. Joel did some searching and found that the coast in San Pedro next to Cabrillo Marine Aquarium was a good spot. So that's where we headed!

Turns out the aquarium staff lead walks out into the protected tide pool area - they begin with a slideshow in the auditorium where they introduce you to the animals you might see, and advise how to safely touch them (safe for the animal and us!). Then we walked out to the shore...

There was a large group of people while we were there, but it was fun! This nice girl showed Carter a couple things she found, first a tiny crab...

And also a sea urchin carcass.

I thought this was pretty...

The anemones were amazing!

This was an animal we had never heard of - a sea hare!! It looked like a gigantic snail and was really slimy to touch, just as you'd guess!

After about an hour of tide pool discoveries, we headed back to the aquarium, where we met back up with Grandma & Grandpa. The aquarium was nice - nothing fancy like the one we had gone to a few days before, but it was free! And really great and educational for kids. One really cool tank was this one - the BIGGEST sea stars we had ever seen!!

There was a touch tank at the aquarium too, so Carter got to poke more sealife...

And just a few more random shots from the aquarium grounds...

My favorite one - my little grunions. hee hee

After the aquarium we grabbed some lunch and then headed back to the hotel room, where Courtney took her first and only good nap during this trip - in an actual bed for a couple solid hours, yay! I hung out with her while Daddy and Carter ventured out to Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers were playing the Tigers, so of course Joel had to go. Grandma & Grandpa joined them for the game, too.

A couple more shots...

Thanks for stopping by!

California Day 5 - Adventure City

2010-05-25T00:03:00.006-05:00

Today's California adventure took us to Adventure City in Anaheim - a little amusement park geared specifically toward munchkins like Carter & Courtney. And of course, they loved it! We knew it would be fun when as soon as we walked in we saw their favorite steam engine...

They both loved the carousel at Disney and were happy to have the chance to ride another one. Again. And again...!

By the way, that face Courtney is making - that is her "smile" that she does for the camera now. She does it for pretty much every photo she poses for. It cracks me up! I suppose it's inspired by Carter's sloth smile...

Here's the kids on another favorite ride - the airplanes!

This cute one of Carter was taken during a very silly magic show they had at the park - Mommy & Daddy thought it was pretty bad, but it completely cracked Carter up! Guess that was the point.

Here's Daddy & Courtney riding the train...

And Carter on another train - this one was propelled by pedaling with his hands! Fun!

There was a petting zoo with a bunch of goats to feed - both kids loved it.

And Carter's favorite ride of the day - the school bus. Courtney didn't love this one, and it made Mommy feel kinda nauseous, so we hit the carousel several more times while Carter and Daddy had fun on this one!

After our Adventure City adventure, we went back down to Long Beach for dinner with Grandma & Grandpa - we ate at a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed the view of the boats along the pier.

And one last photo of my sweet little bug...

Thanks for stopping by!

California Day 4 - LA Zoo & Manhattan Beach

2010-05-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

Here's where we went on our fourth day in California:

Grandma and Grandpa joined us for our walk around the very hilly and hot zoo. And by George, I got them to smile for this photo! It was a zoo miracle!

The zoo was quite nice, it had a lot of harder to find animals (ie not in San Antonio!) - like koalas!! There were several, but I loved how this little guy was lounging.

And Carter's favorite - zebras!! (they technically have zebras at the San Antonio Zoo, or at least ONE zebra - but the last few times we've gone we haven't been able to see him!)

We were quite impressed by the size of the antlers on this Nubian ibex. Amazing he doesn't have a constant headache!

And we wondered if these genenuks might be part giraffe, their necks were LONG!

Speaking of giraffes - these guys were right at the edge of their enclosure so we got to see them close-up! So cool!

We loved how lush and green it was at the zoo - so different than our part of Texas!

After the zoo and a failed attempt to get kids to nap back in the hotel room, we decided to head to the beach for some actual playing in the sand and surf! We chose Manhattan Beach, mostly because we found a parking place there...

The kids LOVED playing in the sand!

There were several surfers riding the waves while we were there.

The kids loved playing in the waves with Grandma and Grandpa!

What's that? ANOTHER photo of them smiling?? There must be something in the California air...

Another fun day in California!

California Day 3 - DISNEYLAND!!

2010-05-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Finally the day we had been waiting for - the main purpose of our trip to California - DISNEYLAND!! We had hoped to go the day before but the weather was rotten in the morning, so we held out - so glad we did because we had a PERFECT Disney day! Here's what you see as you enter...

Mickey and Walt.

The kids with Daddy in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

The kids picked the carousel as their first ride at Disney. I was standing with Courtney as she rode the horse and exclaimed "This is AMAZING!!". Here's Carter on his horse:

Waiting in line to ride the Dumbos.

A family photo in a teacup!

Both kids loved riding the teacups!

Next the big event of the day - MEETING MICKEY!!!

And MINNIE!!! I didn't know how the kids would react to meeting the characters, but they loved it. Especially Courtney, she was absolutely enamored with Minnie. She declared "I'm Minnie's very best friend!". By the way, she refers to Mickey as "the other Minnie Mouse". HA!

Minnie and Mickey's "houses" were very cute - set up as if they really lived there. The kids could wander around and touch everything - sit on the furniture, etc. They LOVED Minnie's kitchen, especially watching this silly cake "bake" in the oven. It would inflate into a full cake.

This is in Mickey's house, he has a "movie studio" in his barn. Here's Courtney sitting with some of the props from his movies.

Carter went on his very first rollercoaster at Disney, too. That's him and Daddy sitting in the last car.

We had a very long, tiring day at Disneyland! The kids loved it. Courtney loved meeting Minnie, riding the carousel, Dumbo & teacups. They both were in awe of "It's a Small World". I was really surprised by Carter, he LOVED all the "dark" rides, where you ride cars through the buildings and things popped out at him. His favorite was the Alice in Wonderland ride, we went on that twice. It completely scared Courtney! (she only went on it once...) But all in all, a very fun day!! I was as excited as the kids - my first visit, too!

California Day 2 - Science, Roses and THE OCEAN!!

2010-05-22T20:48:00.007-05:00

On our second morning in California we headed up to LA to the California Science Center. We were shocked to see the parking lot already PACKED as the museum was opening. And ginormous crowds of school groups trying to enter the museum. Guess what! We decided to visit the California Science Center on the day it was hosting the California State Science Fair! Fun times!!

Thankfully, though, the students who were there for the science fair cared very little about the Discovery Zones set up for preschoolers. We had the run of the place! Here's Carter and Courtney "building" a house in one of them!

Courtney assembling a train in a toddler play zone.

Coloring!

Constructing!

Exploring!

The museum was really fun (and free!), but we only saw a fraction of it! They have a new "Ecosystems" exhibit that we didn't even enter. The kids were exhausted and hungry so we hit the cafe for lunch. Then we wandered out into the GORGEOUS rose garden in Exposition Park.

Here's more photos:

After our science-filled morning, we took a drive out along the coast, hoping the kids would fall asleep in the car. They didn't. But we made our way up to Malibu and pulled over by the road for our first ocean views!

Much to our delight, we spied a school of dolphins a little ways out traveling parallel to the shore. I was able to catch one semi-decent photo.

And finally, dinner with Grandma and Grandpa back at their RV park. They live in Arizona, but they drove over to California to see us! They were staying down in Long Beach. The kids were thrilled to see them!

Stay tuned for Day 3 activities! Hint: They involve a MOUSE! :-)

California Day 1 - Aquarium of the Pacific

2010-05-22T19:16:00.004-05:00

We spent our first morning in California at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. The guide book calls it the "amusement park of aquariums". That's about right - it was NICE. They had lots of tanks that went all the way to the floor, so the kids could see them without having to be lifted up - love that!

Outside was a shark tank with lots of different species hanging out, plus some touch tanks where Daddy and Courtney got to touch REAL sharks!!

Carter couldn't quite bring himself to touching the sharks, but he did enjoy finding out that stingrays are super soft!

Outside was also a Lorikeet Forest - if you buy the nectar, the birds will land right on you to take a drink.

Inside the aquarium, we were on the hunt to find Nemo! Finally we did!!! A bunch of Nemos, with a bunch of Dorys!! Carter found them first, and he was so excited that he ran back and told Daddy and Courtney to hurry and come look!

And Courtney squealed and clapped! :-)

Another fun thing was the tide pool touch tank. Carter and Courtney touched anemones and starfish!

Here's Daddy with his monkeys, who wouldn't cooperate for a photo.

It was a very fun, and very tiring, day at the aquarium!

The prettiest of them all...

2010-04-30T22:16:00.005-05:00

My silly boy. Believe it or not, it was his Daddy who helped him with his new look. Carter came in the kitchen and said to me "Now I'm the prettiest of them all." Indeed!

And here's some more pure silliness...

A to Z at the Park

2010-04-29T16:36:00.009-05:00

Here's a creative & educational activity from last month! My friend Lisa had shared this link, which mentions going on an A to Z walk. I thought it was a GREAT idea for fun, free kid entertainment! So we grabbed the camera, a notebook to keep track of our letters, and headed to the park. Carter REALLY got into it, he thought it was tons of fun. Here's what we came up with...

A is for Air.

B is for going Barefoot.

C is for Carter next to a Cactus.

D is for dandelion.

E is for ESCAPEE!

F is for Frog.

G is for Grill.

H is for Hill.

I is for the Interesting part of the park.

J is for Jump!!

K is for Kid.

L is for Leaf.

M is for Mud.

N is for Numbers.

O is for Orange shirt.

P is for Pelican.

Q is for the Quiet part of the park.

R is for Rock.

S is for Swing.

T is for T-rex.

U is for Up a tree.

V is for Very hard. ("but not for me!")

W is for Wrong Way up the slide.

X is for X. hee hee

Y is for it's good to be Young.

and Z is for Zooming down the slide!

Yes some were a bit of a stretch, but we did our best. Fun day at the park!!

Bluebonnet Photos

2010-04-29T14:40:00.005-05:00

I'm trying to play a little catch-up here on the blog, once again it's gotten away from me! This first batch of photos are from back on March 27. The show of bluebonnets was really great this year - these were taken in our neighborhood just as they were starting to peek. I meant to go out and try again, but I waited to long and now they are fading. These are a bit washed out thanks to the bright sunshine. Carter did GREAT in these photos - Courtney, not so much. She was having fun making "I'm not going to smile, you can't make me" faces. Grrr.

So my favorite shots from the day are more candid ones when she wasn't looking at the camera, like this:
And this:

Here's a few others....

And of course a gratuitious bluebonnet shot. So pretty!

The Indian Paintbrush were looking good this year too:

Hooray for spring in Central Texas!

Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height...

2010-04-11T17:13:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Aunt Laura, Uncle Brad & Morgan came over and brought their kite - Carter did such a great job!!! (Well, with lots of help from Aunt Laura, of course!) :-)

And now for your listening pleasure, since it's probably stuck in YOUR head just like it is in mine...

Thanks for stopping by today!

Trip to "Hueco" - Mammoth bones, geocaching & the zoo!

2010-04-10T01:26:00.007-05:00

On Thursday of this week, Uncle Jon took the day off from work and went on a little daytrip with us up to Hueco - or Waco as it's more commonly spelled. I learned on this trip that Waco is named after the Hueco Indians who settled in that spot along the Brazos river, so I had to mention it in this blog post! :-) The main purpose of our trip was to visit the newly opened Waco Mammoth Site.

Here's Courtney along the trail that leads from the welcome center back to the dig site.

Columbian mammoth bones were found at this site back in 1978. For the past 30 yrs they worked to excavate most of the mammoths, so the site wasn't open to the public. Now they've built a shelter over some bones that are still in the ground - it's pretty cool, you're looking at a REAL excavation site!

Here's a close-up of some of the bones. We learned that Columbian mammoths were different than Woolly mammoths - they were larger, and didn't have the thick hair since they lived in warmer climates - Woolly mammoths were farther north.

Uncle Jon and I found this site to be pretty darn cool - first time we'd seen an actual dig site right where they discovered it! But, the interest level lasted for maybe about five minutes with the kids. So that was our visit!

Uncle Jon has taken up a new hobby - geocaching. Turns out there's this whole secret world of hidden treasure - there's probably some that you pass by everyday and don't even know about! How it works is you learn the coordinates of a cache from the geocaching website, and program it into your GPS. You go where the GPS leads you - hunt around for the treasure - sign a little log sheet and put it back for the next person to find. Jon checked to see if there were any hidden near the mammoth site, and sure enough there were! Here are the treasure hunters off on their quest...

Signing the log...

Carter and Uncle Jon are the Geocaching Kings! Or Kings of the Mountain! Or something.

The mammoth site is only a couple miles away from the Cameron Park Zoo. Since the whole mammoth visit and geocaching was finished pretty quickly, and we had done the two hour drive up to Waco, we decided a zoo visit was a grand idea too! The Cameron Park Zoo is really nice - I highly recommend you visit it. It has a lot of shade (key in Texas!), a majority of the animals can be seen by little people without having to lift them up to see over fences, and it's a good size - nice, but not so big that the kids are beyond exhausted when you're done (well, except mine were - but we started at the zoo kind of late...) :-) Here's Carter near one of the first exhibits - Lemur Island - but he was checking out the turtles!

Carter sitting on a komodo dragon - well ok, a komodo dragon STATUE!

Say WHAT?! This REAL komodo dragon isn't as big as the one I sat on?!?

Near the orangutan exhibit, my little monkeys tried to swing like the apes...

Mommy loved being this close to her favorite animal...

Courtney decided she needed a little rest...

...but she got her second wind just in time to do a little pow-wow in the teepee...

...while Carter checked out the bison.

Another thing the kids loved was this cool slide that goes right through the otter tank!

Here's my little bug trying to be a butterfly, but not quite getting where her head is supposed to go.

Still not quite right, but cute!

And finally, Carter hanging out in the snake tunnel. I told him to "peek" out of the snake's mouth for the photo - apparently he thought "peeking" meant "winking".

Hooray for Hueco!

Happy Easter!!

2010-04-03T22:34:00.002-05:00

I'll be back very soon with a full round-up of the photos from our holiday activities - but wanted to share just a couple and wish you all a very Happy Easter!

Springtime Gardening!

2010-03-27T14:14:00.005-05:00

This morning we spent some time trying to get our garden in shape! It's tomato-planting season, and we actually managed to keep the sweet little tomatoes we started from seed alive, so in the ground they went! (Remember when we planted them and when they started to grow?) Here's my Big Boy Helper giving them a little drink:

I put some marigolds in with our tomatoes, and our gnome friend is standing guard.

The tomatoes are looking small, parched and sad already. They miss being inside our house. I sure hope they survive out there! (Ssssh... if they think it's bad now, please don't tell them what's in store for them come June...) I also got this little end bed ready to plant something - I can't decide what. In the past I've planted sedum - hens & chicks and such - but I'm thinking about small herbs this year, like some creeping thyme? It's a really small bed, though, so there's not room for much. Any suggestions? :-)

I already have some herbs throughout the yard, but I figure you can never have too many herbs, right? Here's a few... first my lavender bush, which has gotten quite large over the years!

Hello, oregano!

You're looking mighty perky, mint!

Good showing, chives!

Daddy also added some new sand to the sandbox, which made Carter quite happy.

Carter found a bug which he had to show me. Then he set him outside his sandbox and said "Go back to your home safely Mr. Sand Roly Poly, have a good day."

While I have you here visiting, I have to show you my honeysuckle coral vine, which is just about to bloom.

And my hydrangea - he always looks so happy and full of vigor at this time of year, but he's yet to make a flower for me. Which I'm sure is mostly due to the neglect I show him.

Ok, perhaps I should post this and try to Google "how to make hydrangea bloom in Texas" - maybe this will be his year!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Trip to the Wildflower Center!

2010-03-25T14:37:00.006-05:00

Today we were on a quest for butterflies! We decided to head down to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center to see if we could find any! I hadn't been there in years, it was so nice to visit! Here are some photos...

As we walked in there was a VERY LARGE dragonfly there to greet us...

The ants were a little bit scary!

Hello, sweet bluebonnet.

Well, Courtney found a big butterfly! But should she be standing next to it? NO! She walked through a flowerbed to get there. I had to walk very gingerly around tiny plants to rescue her...

My own little bugs under a gorgeous vine...

Some more lovely flora...

Oooh, and some fauna!! Turtles!!

And finally... what we came in search of... one lone little butterfly! Yay for butterflies! (or is it a moth? I have no idea...)

The kids got to pick out a surprise in the giftshop. Courtney was VERY excited about her bugs!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Another trip to the Austin Nature Center!

2010-03-23T15:58:00.004-05:00

It's another beautiful, sunny day here in Austin, so we just had to go on another outside adventure! Today we returned to one of our favorite (and free!) places - the Austin Nature & Science Center.

There are several rescue animals for the kids to see...

Mommy's favorite was this beautiful Barred Owl.

Lots of pretty flora too!

Walking over to the "dino pit" we cross a pretty little stream.

Here's Carter trying to excavate something in the dino pit...

Courtney helped out with the finer brush work.

"Look Mom, a mosasaur!"

Another happy day at the nature center...

My future cyclists!

2010-03-22T12:25:00.002-05:00

For Christmas this year, Santa brought Carter a new big boy bicycle! Sadly though, Carter was not too thrilled about it. I think he was a bit ticked off at Santa on Christmas morning, to be honest. There was no mention of a bike anywhere on his list. Mommy was really worried that she didn't do a good job making sure Santa saw his list, and that future Christmases may not be so magical for Carter anymore. But... he finally showed some interest in the bike, and yesterday he wanted to ride it outside for the first time! Yay!! He did so well on it too!! Here's some photos...

Daddy helped Carter get comfortable on the bike and used to peddling...

See that grin?! (but Carter, you better watch where you're going!)

In no time he didn't need Daddy to hold on anymore! (the training wheels help...)

Wait, who's that we see in the distance...?

Oh it's Courtney!! She got a "new" tricyle for Christmas too - Carter's hand-me-down. This was her first time out riding too. She concentrated on those peddles really hard - but she still needs a bit more practice.

Here's my two little bikers, proud of their bike-riding accomplishments!

Oh and if you're wondering - yes - they are in their jammies. What of it? :-)
Thanks for stopping by today!

Catching up on January...

2010-03-21T16:12:00.005-05:00

Here are the rest of the photos I meant to blog back in January but never found the time...

In case you didn't get enough Morgan sweetness in the previous post, here she is again!

Courtney still loves playing dress-up!

Carter still loves watching his trains!

They both love playing with playdoh.

Sometimes playdoh playing is clothing optional...!

Notice that Courtney has to open EVERY can of playdoh. Note to self - purge some of the playdoh...

Carter REALLY loves his blocks - here he's hugging them.

Uncle Jon's birthday was January 24th and we had a little party for him! Here he is with his periodic table cupcakes!

Daddy came home from his January Korea trip during Uncle Jon's party - the kids were sooo happy to see him.

There you have it. I've now blogged everything we've done so far in 2010!!! Not all of the posts had emails announcing them, so be sure to scroll back through our blog and make sure you haven't missed anything! Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Cousins!

2010-03-21T16:08:00.003-05:00

Here's a little photo shoot we attempted back in January! Aunt Laura bought Morgan and Courtney matching outfits - too cute! None of the shots turned out "perfect", but there's still a lot of cuteness going on here... Carter and Courtney love their sweet little cousin!

A few more things from February...

2010-03-21T14:57:00.004-05:00

Here's one more blog post to get us all caught up on February! It's a little stroll through the exciting things we haven't yet covered...

I shared photos from Courtney's birthday bash here. On her actual birthday, February 4th, we met Grammy for lunch & games at Chuck E. Cheese!

Courtney was soooo excited to get a Tinkerbell costume in the mail from her Aunt Lori!

(by the way, I'm a bit surprised that Blogger spellcheck knew it was Tinkerbell, not Tinkerbelle!)

Here's Carter the Thinker on a random February night.

While Daddy was in Korea I thought it would be fun to have a little pajama party! I dragged my mattress out into the living room, we got in our PJs and watched movies! The kids thought it was so much fun! Courtney was too wound up to make it through the night and ended up sleeping in her crib, but Carter and I stayed out there - I only got kicked about 30 or so times in the process... :-)

This is what our evening routine now consists of... we have dinner, and then it's bathtime. Before getting in the tub, the kids strip out of their clothes and run around the house yelling "BUNKA!!!". No idea why. And sometimes this happens at random times throughout the day as well...!

At the end of the month the kids and I met Aunt Laura and Morgan at the San Antonio Zoo - Morgan's first zoo trip! Courtney's favorite part was torturing, err I mean BRUSHING, the goats...

Carter hid behind a palm to spy on the flamingos...

And Morgan was just too cool for the zoo!

Thanks for stopping by! The next posts will be catching up on JANUARY! :-)

A Korean wedding

2010-03-21T14:15:00.004-05:00

While we were home having fun out in the snow in February, Joel was spending a couple weeks in Korea for work. But it wasn't all work and no fun - while he was there he got invited to attend his coworker's wedding! He wasn't quite sure what to expect - would it be a very traditional Korean wedding? For the most part it wasn't much different from a typical western wedding...

Except for the women with swords...

And the crazy glowing aisle...

The happy couple greeting guests...

Joel chatted with some of his colleagues while the bride and groom had a private ceremony with family.

After the family ceremony, the bride and groom changed into traditional Korean dress. Here is Joel with the groom, S.W.

Thanks for stopping by!

This day was SNOW much fun!!

2010-03-21T13:15:00.008-05:00

We had the most exciting thing happen back in February, and I cannot believe it's taken me this long to blog about it! IT SNOWED!!! I know some of you have had so much snow this winter that you are completely rolling your eyes at me, but trust me, this was a very rare and special treat down here in Austin, Texas! It was only the kids' second time seeing snow EVER - the first time being two Christmases ago in Michigan. So it was a VERY exciting day!! Here are some photos...

The kids at the window watching the snow fall.

Seconds later they would be running around the house yelling "It's snowing!! It's snowing!! It's snowing!!" and seconds after that they would be dressed and ready to go outside and play - the fastest I have EVER managed to get them dressed and into coats & hats!

It was really coming down for a while.

Once we were outside, Carter immediately tried catching the snow with his tongue. Is this just something kids are just programmed to do?

Courtney was unsure once she was out there. That other time she had seen snow in Michigan, she wasn't even 11 months old - she found this white stuff falling from the sky to be quite bizarre.

Meanwhile Carter was trying to catch snow with his bucket, to save for later...

Courtney made her way off the porch but still wasn't convinced...

Carter found a nice deposit of snow on our outdoor table to play in...

We built a little friend for my frogs...

Finally Courtney agreed that it's FUN to play in snow!

She started singing a little song to herself as she marched around in the snow - "It is snowing, it is white. It is snowing, it is white." So cute!

And here's the front of our house on that rare, snowy day.

It really was beautiful - like being in a gigantic snow globe. I think I was just as excited as the kids! Or maybe I was so excited because the kids were so excited. And poor Daddy was in Korea and missed it all!

One cute day back in February...

2010-03-21T12:23:00.003-05:00

Aunt Laura and baby cousin Morgan were visiting. Morgan's bottle time came...

and Courtney decided she needed to feed her baby too...

Even Bunny was hungry!

So cute. :-)

Spring is picnic season!

2010-03-21T11:34:00.006-05:00

On March 9 we had a nice, sunny spring day in Austin, so we decided to have a little picnic lunch down at Zilker Park! Daddy was working that day but he was able to sneak out for a bit and join us. Here's some photos...

Loved this hand-holding as we walked up to the park!

Courtney loves playing the big outdoor xylophone.

After hanging out at the playground for a while, we went to the grassy area of the park to run around. Courtney had fun flying around like a birdie, more on there HERE.

Carter helped Daddy grill hot dogs for lunch.

Carter wasn't too keen on smiling - more on there HERE.

All in all, a perfect spring day - made even more perfect by our first bluebonnet sighting of the season!
Thanks for stopping by today.

I will not smile for the camera...

2010-03-21T11:01:00.004-05:00

... and you can't make me!

Ok fine, I suppose I can smile just a little!

Taking photos of Carter is so much fun these days, LOL!

Sunday Morning Sweeties

2010-03-21T10:48:00.002-05:00

My sweeties hanging out on a Sunday morning...

This just makes me happy...

2010-03-20T22:06:00.007-05:00

St. Patty's at the Hickson's...

2010-03-20T17:41:00.005-05:00

Yup this was how we celebrated St. Patrick's Day this year! The kids start young in the Hickson household. I don't know what's crazier, the 2 yr old drinking Guinness or the big toe chaser she followed it with....?Meanwhile, as all the Courtney shenanigans were going on, Carter just sat at the other end of the table, looking sweet as can be...
Ok ok I should probably clarify - Courtney didn't REALLY drink any Guinness! Daddy had the bottle and she kept saying she wanted some, so after he had finished drinking it, he let her hold up the bottle. She may have gotten a drip. I expected her to make a completely revolted face and declare it to be the nastiest thing she had ever tried, but instead she squealed as sweet as can be "I wuv it!!". Yes, we are in trouble...

Our actual St. Patrick's Day "celebration" consisted of Carter deciding he needed to wear a green shirt - and then discovering in his drawer that he actually owns TWO green shirts - so he in fact wore TWO green shirts. We couldn't find a green shirt for Courtney, so instead she wore a My Little Pony shirt with a rainbow on it - the rainbow seemed sorta leprechauny. Or something. I decided we needed a green/Irish-inspired dinner, so I tried something crazy... I actually tried making homemade fish & chips. I bought fresh cod, made beer batter, heated a pot of oil and everything. The result - it wasn't that good and I found deep frying WAY too scary. So that's the first AND last time I'll make fried fish! I also heated some sweet potato fries for the chips (I figure there is orange in the Irish flag, yes?) and then made some green sides - peas, salad with green onions, cucumbers & avocado, and some avocado slices on the kids' plates. But of course their favorite part of dinner - the green frosted cupcakes!

Thanks for stopping by!

Camping!

2010-03-06T11:16:00.005-06:00

Last night Carter and Daddy went on an overnight camping trip to Pace Bend, an LCRA park about 30 minutes west of us on Lake Travis. This was the third time Carter has gone camping with Daddy, he really loves it! They went hiking, cooked hot dogs for dinner on the campfire, roasted marshmallows for s'mores, and even had a little visit from a raccoon!! First thing Carter said to me when they got home today - "Mommy, we got to see a NOCTURNAL ANIMAL!!". Love that he knows the word nocturnal. :-) Here's some pics:

Setting up the tent.My little happy camper!Going for a hike with the backpack he got for Christmas...Sunrise this morning over the lake - see all those boats? There was a fishing competition going on!And here's a little video of Carter at dinner - taken from Joel's phone, so the quality is not the greatest.

Courtney and I had some fun Mommy/Daughter time together too - but Courtney asked me about 100 zillion times "Where's Carter go?" and "Where'd Daddy go?" even though the answer was the same everytime - "Camping!". Maybe next time Courtney and Mommy will go with them!!

Olympic Fever!

2010-03-01T16:24:00.005-06:00

Olympic Fever was in full swing at our house yesterday! We were sad when Team USA lost the hockey gold to Canada, but at least it was a fantastic game! But long before the hockey madness began, our morning was filled with watching some figure skating recaps. Which Carter found quite intriguing, and decided to "skate" along...And the finale, a perfectly executed triple lutz.And Carter takes the GOLD!! Well done.

Home grown tomatoes...

2010-02-22T12:03:00.004-06:00

Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What'd life be without home grown tomatoes?
There's only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes!

Remember the tomato seeds we planted last week? Look what Carter found this morning... I think the photos say it all!

Mmm donuts!!

2010-02-20T23:34:00.005-06:00

Last night before bed, Carter asked if we could go for donuts in the morning. We've had a pretty rough week around here - I mentioned Carter's strep throat in the last blog post - well just as he was getting better Courtney developed an ear infection! They did a strep culture on her too, thankfully it was negative. So... we went for donuts this morning, to celebrate making it through our rough week and everyone being back to good health, and to make our weekend with Daddy gone to Korea a little more fun. Needless to say they LOVED the donuts! Carter ate two whole donuts, and Courtney ate one. "Whole" is the key word here - usually they just want to lick off the icing, so this was a big improvement! And since Courtney just had her birthday party last weekend, she still has cupcakes on the brain - she kept calling her donut a cupcake and even started singing Happy Birthday to Courtney. Too cute! Here are some photos:

Seeds!

2010-02-16T15:25:00.006-06:00

After our fun party on Saturday, we've had a couple rough days around here. Carter came down with a fever Saturday night. When it still hadn't gone away by Monday, I decided to get him into the doctor. There we learned he has strep throat!! Boo! Yesterday wasn't pleasant, but I'm happy to report that he woke up today feeling MUCH better. So much better that we decided to do a little seed-starting project! It's actually a little late to be starting seeds here in Austin, but we're giving it a go anyway. Here are some photos...

Carter is so happy to be planting tomato seeds! We got some mixed cherry tomatoes - red, yellow & orange.Putting seed starter into the cups...After putting in the seeds, Carter sprayed them all with a little water...We put the seeds in the window so they get lots of light. Carter was very proud of his work!He asked me to put a chair next to the seeds so he could sit with them for a bit...Any guesses at what he was saying to the seeds? That's right - "grow little tunafish!" :-) Now let's keep our fingers crossed that they actually do grow!

Courtney's Birthday Party!

2010-02-13T16:52:00.009-06:00

Courtney turned two back on February 4th, but her birthday party was today! We went with a Sesame Street theme this year, right down to Courtney's cute little outfit (thanks again Aunt Laura!). As soon as Courtney woke up today she was saying "Happy birthday to Courtney!" and "I'm twoooo" - she had been looking forward to her party and was just a little excited. She had a great time, and before I put her down for nap I asked her if she had fun at her party, and she replied "Yes, I ate a cupcake! I'm two! Happy birthday to Courtney!" Yay! Success! Here are some photos:

Mmmm I love cupcakes!The cupcakes were Elmo and Cookie Monster!The entire birthday crew.Courtney and her future boyfriend Derek.Cute little Dylan from Courtney's class as school.Sweet Natalie, a friend from our neighborhood.And another Natalie, who is in class with Carter.Can you tell Nathan is Natalie's little brother? Look at those eyes, they both have the same gorgeous dark eyes. Nathan is in Courtney's class at school too.Carter's good buddy Aaron.Grammy helped me put together a cute game - she painted a clothespin to look like Oscar, complete with Slimey the Worm on the side! The kids took turns dropping the clothespin into the "garbage cans" to win a prize. Thanks to my Twitter friend @paperbatty for helping me come up with this idea!!Carter was such a great helper with the prizes, he let everyone pick a toy from the bag.Time to open prezzies - Courtney sat with Grammy, and Carter very much wanted to "help". (ie, he wanted to do ALL the opening himself...)Courtney in the CUTE garden hat from Aunt Laura!Courtney LOVES dollies and dressing up - check this out - she got a Princess Aurora dress from one friend, and a matching Princess Aurora baby doll from another friend! What a cute matchy-matchy coincidence!!Here are the goodie bags the kids were sent home with... mmmm COOKIES!And some of the food - since the party was brought to us by the letter C (for Courtney) and the number 2 (for her age) - I cut out some of the cheese with cookie cutters!And I cut sandwiches into shapes - triangles, circles, hexagons, squares. Seemed kinda Sesame Street-y! :-)Courtney loved her party, and the other kids seemed to have fun too. YAY!