Later Skater!

This weekend our family went to 3 birthday parties, one baby shower, and celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. Definitely a busy weekend but our family had so much fun celebrating with everyone! One of the birthday parties was at Skateland and I hadn't planned on Merritt skating but when we got there, they had toddler skates that slide over their shoes. She had so much fun skating around the rink! Here she is with one of the birthday girls, Caroline. She loved trying to skate with all the big kids! Here is Merritt and her Delia! Even Beau got on a pair of size 14 skates to party! He hadn't been rollerskating since he was 8 - he did well - no falls and even got into the Hokey Pokey! Everyone enjoyed some much needed sugar after all the skating! Happy 6th Birthday Kate and Caroline!

Fun with Aunt Katherine!

My sister Katherine came to visit for Spring Break and it was so much fun to have her around! When we got to Austin, we went to try Terra Burger to grab a bite to eat while Merritt played on the playscape. After lunch, the day was so beautiful, we went to the Arboretum to visit the cows and feed the ducks, turtles, geese, and fish. We went through a package of hot dogs buns - hungry, hungry animals! The next day we went to the Austin Nature Center. Here is Aunt Katherine and Merritt looking at the turtles - I am not sure which one of them wants to take a pet turtle home with them more? Merritt wanted to hang on the 'monkey bars' {I think it is supposed to be the rib cage of a dinosaur} at the entrance of the Dinosaur Digging Exhibit. We took turns and here is Katherine lifting up Merritt so that she could reach the top!

By the end of Katherine's visit, Merritt had really connected with Katherine. Merritt read her night time books with her, shared her goldfish {this is a big deal!}, and even cried for Katherine not to leave. Merritt and I hope Katherine gets a chance to make another visit real soon - or maybe maybe we can visit her Boston {when it stops snowing!}.

So LUCKY to have friends like this!

Merritt and I are so LUCKY to be apart of an amazing playgroup - TOTS! We don't get to visit with our friends as much as I would like to, but when we do... there is definitely fun to be had. Here are the girls enjoying a St. Patty's Day green snack prepared by our super creative hostesses Katie and Leah! Merritt is busy finding all the marshmallows in her Lucky snack from Jen and Marin. Merritt loves to go to K & L'S home for all the fun toys, new babies she can take of, puzzles, and Play-Doh. Here she is practicing her numbers. After our snack, the Leprechaun had left shamrocks around the house with clues about were the Leprechaun had left a Pot of Gold Treats for the Lucky Girls. It was SO funny watching the girls search for each shamrock because they would walk right past the shamrock. At one clue, two of the girls had their hands on the shamrock and walked right past it. Merritt was so interested in the puzzles she walked right by the purple shamrock and the Pot of Gold! Thank you to the Leprechaun for the yummy treats! Two of the Lucky Girls laughing and playing in Leah's bed.

I wonder... Does this mean Merritt is ready for a big-girl bed, because Mommy and Daddy aren't!

Dino Day

While Houston, my sister Katherine and I took Merritt to the Museum of Natural Science. There was so much to see and it was perfect because it was a gloomy day outside but an exciting day exploring inside! Merritt couldn't stop staring at the dinosaurs long enough for me to snap a picture of her and Katherine! She kept naming them: There is Mommy Dinosaur, Daddy Dinosaur and Baby Dinosaur - one happy dinosaur family! Look Mom! Can we take him home??

Goin' Buggy...

When we walked into the Insect Exhibit we were greeted by Charlie the Caterpillar. I was surprised that Merritt ran up to him and gave him and hug and hello. The 'Buggy' exhibit had lots of hands-on activities including noises from insects! The exhibit also had lots of "interesting" animals for us to observe - who knew there were so many kinds of beetles, spiders, and katydids. "Look Mommy! Can I have one, please?" Response: "Um... no beetles in the house, Merritt {please}." When I taught First Grade, one of my absolute joys was our Butterfly Unit! The exhibit had 1000s of chrysalises, so many different species of butterflies! While we were watching 2 butterflies emerged - Merritt was in awe and so happy for the butterfly! "Mommy! The butterfly did it!" she kept shouting over and over. Aunt Katherine and Merritt posed by the termite hill - eek - I hope none decided to come home with us!

Butterfly Princess

The Museum of Natural Science has an amazing exhibit right now - Cockrell Butterfly Center! All of the chrysalises that emerge in the exhibit are released into the 4 story glass-enclosed jungle. There are butterflies everywhere! {I will warn everyone that the humidity in the center is around 200% - so go there last if your hair cannot handle that much humidity.} All guests start at the top and walk down the spiral steps, it was amazing to see people just stop and stare at the awe of all the butterflies and lush plants. No pictures can do it justice! At the very bottom there is a lagoon where the waterfall collects - Merritt wanted to go swimming so badly! When you get back into the air-conditioned museum there is a child's area with puzzles, games, etchings, blocks, and a beehive. Merritt loved putting the insect puzzle together while saying all the sounds they make. Once all the other {crazy/bigger/unsupervised} children left the beehive Merritt went buzzing!

March Madness

March Madness is here and we began celebrating the Horns run towards the Final Four {Hopefully!} last weekend. Even though the Longhorns didn't win the Big XII championship against Kansas, our family hopes they were just saving their energy for the upcoming basketball tournament. We went a crawfish boil {I love when Spring arrives and so do the crawfish!} at our friends' house and Merritt wasn't so sure about the crawly critters in the dirty water. She got used to them and asked everyone at the party to keep picking them up so she could get a closer look. Hook'em Horns!

Go GREEN!

Merritt and I having been going GREEN this month! One activity that I have always loved doing in the classroom; I brought home to do with Merritt for Day 2 of our St. Patrick's Day countdown. Bell Pepper painting! I cut the bell peppers in half {they make the perfect shamrock shape} and let Merritt 'stamp it up.' She loved switching between the different colors, I used green, yellow, and lime green, to decorate her shamrock. Of course, now almost ever craft we do, she asks "Mommy can we add glitter please." After the paint dried, I cut out the shamrock and added it to her craft wall. We also been learning about Leprechauns, Shamrocks, and Pots of Gold in her books. She has added them to her night-night books and will read them to us before she goes to bed. On Day 6, we painted and counted shamrocks {I am really trying to work on Merritt staying within the lines - she does well paint but when this girl gets a crayon in her hand, she is all over the place!}.

Next week is Spring Break- so excited to see our playgroup friends for a St. Pat's Day Picnic!

Baby Boy Edge

Today we found out that our second child will be a BOY! Our family is super excited to meet him in July! Beau and I took Merritt with us to find out - This is Daddy's reaction! Oh Boy! High-Five! Merritt loved watching the screen as the nurse pushed around her little brother to find out his measurements. She REALLY wanted to help with this {and play with the 'jelly' on Mommy's tummy}! Big Sister Merritt and Mommy waited to talk to the doctor about the back pain Little Brother is already causing for Mommy :(

Our little boy will be named after Beau's dad, who lost his life too early, Ross Douglas Edge {with the nickname of Razor - of course!}

MARCH into Counting

Merritt and I had so much fun counting towards Valentine's Day, I thought let's count towards St. Patrick's Day too! I found a craft kit for 30 Pots of Gold {the original purpose for the pots were to put pictures inside, but I thought I could make my own craft with them}. Being a perfectionist, I had to lay them out first and create a pattern that I liked. All the pieces had sticky backs so they were super easy to put together! I added the gold numbers, some gold sequins, and a clothespin to the back {unlike the heart pockets for Valentine's Day - there was no where to put the 'gift' in the pot, also the clothespin is really convenient to attach to the ribbon and 'gift.' Here is the LUCKY girl on March 1st! Instead of giving her 'gifts' each day which can hit the bank account {even if you are shopping in the Dollar section at Target!}, I am going to try to do more activities/projects each day. For March 1st, the LUCKY girl received print outs of numbers 1-9 and a package of shamrock stickers. We went through the numbers and she identified all of them and then we added shamrocks to each number. Here she is adding 5 shamrocks to the number 5! Afterwards I cut out all the numbers and I had planned on hanging them up in her room but she wanted me to leave them on table so she could show Daddy! So proud of her work!! I had 13 extra Gold Pots and wondered what to do with them - I could put shapes, colors, have her make patterns with gold coins, or March vocabulary pictures in them. I decided to use 7 of them to spell out the LUCKY girl's name so we could practice identifying the letters in her name.