Fun Weekend

We are feeling very proud of ourselves tonight- we didn't eat out once this whole weekend! That's saying A LOT for us. We discovered in Florida that when we have more time, we love eating at home. Usually people go on vacation and eat out- not us, apparently. In Florida we had such fun making meals at home and eating together. We tend to eat out a lot during the week and weekend- by the time dinnertime rolls around the kids are getting grumpy, mommy is getting tired from being "on" all day, and daddy is hungry from a long day at work! We've been trying much harder to plan ahead to eat at home, and it's been working out. 

Anyway, in addition to eating at home a lot, almost every other minute of the weekend was spent having fun outdoors! On Friday night we had dinner at a friend's house and enjoyed meeting new people and watching the kids play in their backyard. On Saturday we joined Titia at her company's summer picnic in Zilker Park and then got together with her for dinner (we pretty much invaded her life for a day :)). 

Today we jogged around Town Lake and then took the kids to Deep Eddy pool. We had never been there before  but it was really cool! It's the oldest public pool in Texas and is spring fed, which means it was COLD! It felt good after our jog, though! 

When we were done at the pool we had lunch at home, took naps, then ran some errands and ended up at the Long Center for their free concert in the park series. Each Sunday a different section of the symphony performs. We went a bunch of times last year and really enjoyed it, and tonight was no different. The weather was fabulous and the kids had a blast dancing in front of the performers with all of the other kids :)

Big week ahead- all kinds of summer activities and hopefully by next weekend we will have chosen an architect for the renovations!

Our New House!

click on the picture above to see more photos!

We closed on our new house today! This was just one step in a long process before it becomes our dream home, but we're on our way! We'll be adding on two bedrooms, a bathroom, a game room, remodeling the kitchen and laundry room in addition to a few other things (if we can afford them!). We'll be chronicling this new adventure on a different blog, Renovation: Rosedale. Follow along over there if you're curious! 

We are very excited to get started on this process. Actual construction probably won't begin for about 6 months- gotta get through the drawing of the architectural plans, permitting etc. We've really enjoyed researching architects and builders, and have already started a pinterest page to organize our ideas. Rosedale is located in central Austin, just three miles from Eric's new office. We will be within walking distance of a ton of restaurants and shops. It will be interesting to see how our family likes a more "urban" lifestyle. I'm sure Eric will like it, but it remains to be seen what the kids and I will think! If we can get everything we want in the house, I'm sure we'll be happy. After all, that's where we spend most of our days! 

Bye Bye Cribs!

This week we all said goodbye to the kids cribs! It became really obvious in Florida that they were ready for bigger beds, so when we got back we decided it was time. It was really hard for us to pick out new beds and bedding since pretty soon they will have entirely new bedrooms in the new house, but I'm really happy with what we got. It will look fabulous in their new rooms, but for now the kids are loving it and so far have been sleeping really well in their "big kid beds." They were so cute when I was switching out their rooms- telling me over and over how much they love their new rooms and how thankful they are that we did this for them. They are such sweet kids! :)

Our Bounty!

Last summer we planted a ton of onions and tomatoes. Then we went to Italy and forgot to ask someone to water for us. Then everything died.

In March of this year, we noticed a few onions had started to grow. I guess they went dormant over the winter (?) and germinated when it started getting warmer. We had about 6 onions sprout, and since then we've been watching them but leaving them alone. One by one they were ready to be picked, but one onion just kept on growing! It was finally ready this week- and boy, is it big! I'm not joking when I say it is almost as big as the Emery's head! It is going to make a very large batch of fajitas :) OR maybe we'll give it to Eric's parents, since we know they love onions so much. Haha, just kidding guys! I promise we won't make you eat it!

Testing Out a New Layout

I haven't changed this blog in three years so I thought I would try out a new template for a while. Might have to go back to the old one, though- it was a classic!

Last Day of School

Yesterday was the last day of school! Waaaaaa!! Although I have a ton of activities planned, I just know we are going to experience some bored moments! I'll need to set up a lot of play dates to fill our days up.

Here's a picture from the first day:

And here's the last day:

The End of the Trip

After a busy couple of days and a long car ride, we are home! We decided to leave Florida a little early so we could rendezvous with some friends of mine in New Orleans Saturday night. It was my girl friend's 30th birthday, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to celebrate with her since we were already so close!

Our last full day in Florida was really fun. We went to the pool, ate lunch out and then had planned on leaving the kids at their "Kids Night Out" program while Eric and I grabbed dinner, but when we went to drop them off Emery suddenly didn't want to go. Anderson, on the other hand, took one look at the cute blonde babysitters and wanted to stay! In the end we kept them together, though, so we went out for a family dinner. We chose a restaurant right on the beach with a playground for the kids. The food was so-so, but the view was awesome! The kids had a blast playing with all the other children well into the night. 

On Friday we planned to leave after lunch, so we spent the morning at the pool and splash pad. After one last shrimp basket for lunch, we hit the road! The kids were very cute saying goodbye to our "beach house." Another week of great memories!

The drive had it's ups and downs (no naps for our tired kids!) but we made it to New Orleans really fast! That was good, because I was ready to party with my girls! I helped Eric get settled in the hotel (and Emery cleaned up after a little barfing incident!) and then left them all so I could surprise my friend. I'm so glad we were able to do that- it was totally worth leaving the beach half a day early. We had an awesome time celebrating her birthday! 

Ok, back to reality! One more week of school for the kids, pool party for the neighborhood this weekend, house closing next week etc. etc. etc.!