Thank you grandma!

Back in olden times when Ivy was 2 we made this for grandma so she could see Ivy opening her Christmas present. Now finally 4 years later.......well at least now she knows right?

Better late than never I always say.

Becky

It was really nice to have Becky here for the last week of James' visit.

Even though it was such a hectic week with kids starting school, Jed starting school random stuff happening and life in general it ended up going allot smoother than I expected.

The kids were so happy to have their grandma there to visit. i wish all of our family lived close to each other so we could just go and visit when ever we felt like it.

That way we could feel really close to each other.

I have many great memories with my mother in law. We are very different people but I think that is wonderful because you can learn so much from people who see the world differently than you do.

If It was not for people like Becky no one would have never wanted to help me have my babies! This women actually likes dealing with all the screaming, and the blood, and the pain, and the parts of the body you do not mention on a PG blog with baby heads coming out of them! Seriously so not my thing! But she is great at that stuff! Just look!

Our 2 families lived together for 8 months when ivy was born.

It was of course very hard but it was also an amazing time that I will always remember with great fondness.

I got to know my in laws so much better. I even got to know my own husband so much better, because I could better understand the dynamic that he comes from. Until then we had lived close to my family but had not had regular visits with his side of the family.

I'm so glad that my children get to know and love their grandmother.

I love my own 2 grandmothers so very much and love and respect them each so very much. The 2 women are so very different but each are a part of me and my history. I want my children to have their grandmothers to be more than just a heritage I want them to be part of their history as well.

In the end there really is nothing quite like a grandmother!



Going batty

In true Austin Texas tradition we took our out of towners to see the bats at congress bridge.

Much to our delighted surprise we also found our friends! YAY!

Ian's friend was baptised that day and so his family took their out-of-towner grandparents to see the bats to.

Becky was having so many back problems that she spend the majority of the time sitting on the lawn.

Poor grandma.

The kids had fun playing around by the river.

Me, I spend the whole time hoping they would not fall in.

The boys were quickly heavily engaged in a serious discussion as to how to catch a bat.

The kids finally got away from the water and as it got darker the lawn got fuller. -of people.

Congress bridge. People stand and watch from the top as well.

The Bats live in the crevices under the bridge. There is about 1.5 million of them!

The perfect thing about this family is that they have a friend for Ian, a friend for Ivy and even a little sister the twins age!

It was starting to get dark and even though my eyes were adjusting just fine apparently my camera was not. I love Ivy's arm on this picture. 

And now I'm proud to present you with my fantastic documentation of all the dirt on my lense that I just can not get off!

And...........

A bat!

Whut! You don't see it? It is that dark blob in between all the light blobs.

I had to use my highly scientific photo editing skills....and paint. there really was not a red arrow in the sky! I know, surprising.

This is the original picture.

Needless to say I did not take any more.

If you want to go see them your self here is some trivia, including a bat hot line, that I copied from this web page

" When and Where To See the Congress Avenue Bats:

Although the Congress Avenue bats are in residence as early as March, the best bat views are in August when the young pups join their mothers in the nightly flights. It can take as long as 45 minutes for all the bats to exit the bridge. There are plenty of locations along Lady Bird Lake in the vicinity of Congress Avenue where you can watch the bats. Flights normally occur around 8 to 8:30 pm but could be earlier or later. Best bet, call the Bat Hot line at 416-5700 ext. 3636 for times. "

 

I'm going to have to call that and see if we can still see them by Halloween.

Astrid kept calling the bats her honeys and asured us that they were all hers. All 1.5 million give or take a few. Once they started flying out she kept calling them. "honey! honey! I'm over here!"

Here is a great video from a boat on the lake.

 view from the bridge, very cool.

And finally this video is from one of the tour boats. It really shows how they snake across the sky, and it has a great commentary full of facts, like bats always turning left when coming out, from the tour guide.

Ivy's 6th Birthday party.

We had Ivy's party at our neighborhood swimming pool.

I think this is the best attendance we've had for a kid's birthday party ever! 

For the first time we did not have enough cake.

Thank you so much Becky for helping me in my first star tip cake decorating adventure.

Ivy picked the colors for the cake, I was sceptic but it actually looked really good. For some reason the colors on the pictures are just a little of. 

We handed out pool toys to all the guests and I brought at least 15 extra. I almost ran out! I have never in my parenthood career been worried about running out of party favors. 

After playing in the water it was time for cake and then presents. 

We have a million pictures of ivy opening presents and giving thank you hugs and on all of them you see my depressingly large walrus shaped self. 

Don't worry I won't burden you with all of them. 

So just lay back and relax! Ha ha, he was so funny. 

The happy birthday girl. 

Spectators

More spectators. 

Ivy's Party was a butterfly pool party so she was very happy to get a butterfly barbie.

She got spoiled rotten in general. So much stuff!  

  

Ivy in birthday heaven. 

Thank you hugs.  

Special thanks to Tyson, James and Angie for so beautifully framing this picture of my fat with skinny fit looking people! Ha ha! It's a bit poetic really.

Not to worry, I am happy to report that even though it is not visible to most people I can tell that my body is slowly but surely changing and getting healthier and stronger and lighter and wonderfully smaller. It is not happening as fast as I would like but it is happening! YAY! 

For the first time EVER we had a school friend at Ivy's birthday party. I hand out invitations to the class every year but this is the first time that anyone we did not know already actually came. 

Ivy is such a lucky girl to have so many friends. 

More thank you hugs.

And virtual Thank you hugs to all of you who wished her happy birthday from afar.



It's Grandma time!

It was time for James to go back home so Becky came to share his last week here.

We celebrated Ivy's birthday a few days early so that they would not miss it.

Ivy was of course happy as can be!

And poor Jed was sleepy as can be. We finally covered him in Ivy's presents.

Astrid having her hair fixed by someone who has skills far beyond my own.

I think Becky had fun doing the girls hair.

What do you think about the red eye fix in this picture?

I don't know but i think it makes her look slightly...scary?

She was sucking in all the attention like a rainwater in the desert sand. You would think no one ever noticed her or something.

Most of our bicycle helmets were dead so ivy got a fancy Dora one. Even came with knee pads!

Time for thank you hugs!

Ivy gleefully opening her presents.

Look at all the water bottles in the background.

Our water here in Pflugerville has lime and calcium in it and actually leaves a white coating on stuff.

When the twins were small and we had to boil their bottles every time we wanted to use them, we had a pot on the stove constantly. When we cleaned a bottle we just put it in the pot and when it got a few in it we would boil it. Since all we put in it was water and clean bottles we did not bother to was the pot. After a few days the layer of residue from the water that stuck to the sides every time we boiled the water was building up enough that you could scrape a bunch of and it looked like toothpaste. So we do not drink the water here. We used to filter our own water but the filters only lasted about a third of the time they were supposed to and it just got really expensive. So now we buy the water and as long as the bottles are good we take them to the store and refill them with the culligan water filtration system there. It costs about 27 cents a gallon. I've gotten used to the oddness of getting your drinking water from the store. Every now and then I still marvel at the fact that we actually go through all this trouble to get water from the store when we have it running right out of the tab.

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuug.

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuug.

Getting presents make people hug a lot!

Everyone wins!