Dinosaurs!

We took Claire to the Witte Museum a few Saturdays ago to check out the new exhibit, Dinosaurs Unearthed. She's been on a real dino kick lately and couldn't wait to get there. Well, until we actually got there. It was a bit of a surprise for everybody that a gigantic moving and roaring velociraptor would greet us and appear to make a move to eat Grandpa. Claire quickly decided that this would be a much safer place to be:

We moved by the raptor and investigated some less scary dino parts--bones, eggs, that sort of thing. Then we turned the corner to this:
Which prompted this:
And she didn't leave his chest until we made it to the end. Luckily, things perked up there. She and Grandma joined in on a little archaelogical dig and discovered all sorts of interesting things:
Then we headed over to the Treehouse, where we all played with the toys showing scientific principles. Here's our Bernoulli experiment:
And one of me (and Madeleine's head) trying to get in a picture, since I'm usually the one behind the camera:
After we finished at the museum, we all drove up to New Braunfels and enjoyed a wine and food event along the river with Aunt Jamey and Uncle Jeff.
Unfortunately, the girls were pretty worn out after the busy morning, so we couldn't stay long. And, believe it or not, Claire asks all the time when we can go back to the museum and see the dinosaurs. I think we'll wait a few more years, though.

School Days

Claire has had lots of fun activities leading up to the end of the school year. She started off with water day. The kids wore their bathing suits to school, then spent the entire morning outside playing. The best part, though, was when the wonderful room mom brought everybody Happy Meals!

A Mother's Day celebration was next up. All the mommies were treated to a yummy breakfast, then were serenaded with a lovely performance of "I Love Mommy". It was so cute! We also received hand-painted flower pots. Mine looks perfect sitting in my kitchen window!
In order to let the dad's feel loved, they had a pre-Father's Day breakfast the next week. No pictures of that, but Jason said it was pretty awkward with the dads just standing around silently. No surprise, really. Claire made him an awesome painting that he has hanging in his office. It's so good I'm thinking about getting some big canvases and letting her at it--we still need wall hangings for her room.

And thanks to a HORRIBLE, wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-wailing ear infection, Claire almost missed her last day of school. Thank goodness for effective antibiotics, because not even 24 hours after the first dose, she was back to her normal self. She was a bit deaf, but healthy enough to participate in the last day party. We all ate pizza, then one of the parents surprised the kids with a monkey cake (they were The Monkey Class this year). There was lots of playing with friends and hugging good bye. (And a word of caution, Nathan--you might have a competitor named Christian.....)

Claire brought home a little portfolio she's been working on all year. It's pretty amazing to see her growth--both in academics and physically. She's learned to write a few words and read and sound out some others. And she's sprouted! She grew 3 INCHES since September! (But, lucky thing, only 1 pound.) Look at this page from her book:
Amazing!

Claire has had such a wonderful experience with school this year and is already asking when she can go back to "the new class by the playground". Luckily we have lots of fun summer plans to keep us all busy!

Sick!

Here's what it looks like in our house:
It seems like somebody has gotten sick every week since January. I'm pretty sure the week-long retreat the entire pediatrician's office recently took was funded entirely by our copays alone. I'm hoping the break from school will keep people healthy. We have lots of fun coming up!

Camping Trip

We went camping with some good friends from Houston over the last weekend of April. I was a bit leery of how camping for the first time with Claire and Madeleine would go, but I really couldn't have been more pleased. We originally thought renting a cabin at Bastrop State Park would be the best route, but those were all taken, so we went to Plan B: tent camping at our ranch out near Austin. There's a little old hunting cabin out there with a bathroom, and if things were horrible, we could always go stay at my grandparents' house.

Our family got out Friday afternoon and set up camp. Claire had fun running around the "yard", and Madeleine was the first to try out the tent as soon as it was set up. Then we headed over to the big house for dinner with the grandparents. Amy, BJ, and Hogan arrived later that evening, and we set to work making smores. Much to the Mommies' pleasure, Claire and Hogan liked roasting marshmallows but not eating them. Yum! As we were all enjoying the cool weather and company, the sky began to fall, so we hurried into the cabin and set up camp for the night in there. I didn't realize 7 people and a dog could sleep in little more space than 2 double beds!

We woke up to a beautiful day Saturday morning. Hogan and Claire helped Daddy make bacon and eggs for breakfast, then we broke out the fishing poles! The daddies worked and worked to get the poles ready for the kids, then worked and worked to try teaching them how to cast and reel. It was very cute, but I think a bit frustrating for everybody. We played with those all morning, then settled down a bit a lunch time for a movie and a nap. When everybody woke up, we headed over to the big house for appetizers and drinks and more fishing! There were actually fish in this pond, but, *unfortunately*, we didn't have hooks. We went back to the ranch for burgers, hotdogs, and smores, and a wonderfully cool and clear evening. We tried tents for Saturday night, and the moon was so bright it felt like a light was turned on inside.

Sunday breakfast was pancakes, then we cleaned up and packed the cars to head home. We can't wait for the weather to get cooler in the fall so we can all go back again!

Home away from home. This thing was HUGE!

Madeleine was perfectly comfortable

The cabin!Fishing PondScrambling eggsSo intentPracticingGuidance

And more guidance

But I think this is how the daddies were really feeling:

Trying for realSupervising
Quiet time around the firePancakes!

One last marshmallow

New Madeleine Pictures Below!

Madeleine is Five Months Old!

Happy fifth-month birthday, Miss Madeleine! You are still such a laid back baby, giving us lots of grins and giggles all day long. In fact, you really haven't cried since your colicy episodes a few moths ago; if you get mad or upset, you just let out a short yell or two. You also have a particular voice for cooing that sounds especially annoyed when you get bored or hungry.

You are still wearing size 2 diapers, and are pretty much in 3-6 or 6 months clothes all the time now. I have no idea how much you weigh (I'm guessing the 14-pound range), but those little thighs of yours seem to get thicker every day!
The exersaucer is your favorite toy, and you've already grown tired of the swing. Tummy time is tolerable, as long as Big Sister is there to distract you. You've gotten really good at pushing all the way up with your arms.
Sitting up seems to be your new challenge. I have to keep an extra eye on you while you're in the bouncy seat, because you pull yourself up off the back and look like you'll flop off the side--time to start using the seat belt!
Playing with your toes and chewing on your index fingers is what you do 90% of the day.

You still go to bed around 8 and sleep until 8, with one or two snacks along the way. And you're still a cat napper, sleeping exactly 45 min at a stretch during the day and going back to bed about an hour and a half or two hours after waking up. This behavior drove Mommy crazy with Claire, but we're just going with it with you.
I'm still nursing you exclusively, but you're showing lots of signs of being ready to eat like a big kid. We've decided that when you're able to sit in your high chair by yourself you'll get to start eating.

Your eyes remain blue, although I can see some brown specs in there. Maybe you'll have hazel eyes like your daddy?

Exersaucer Fun

Madeleine loves the exersaucer. She's not really into the toys, except for chewing on the dragon puppet and cooing at the smiley sun; she likes that she's up all by herself in it. She has a great view of all the happenings of the living room, and gets very mad whenever we leave the room with her still in it. I remember getting lots of cute pictures of Claire during her exersaucer days, and the same seems to be holding true for Miss M.

What in the world happened to April????

We were busy bees last month, with lots of visitors, Easter, and trips out of town. Enjoy the picture recap!

A visit from Connor and Grayson and their mommy, Meredith, kicked off our month. The kids enjoyed nonstop playing and the mommies enjoyed nonstop talking! It was great getting to catch up with such great friends.

Easter was up next. We participated in the culdesac Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Here's a picture of Claire (bottom row in stripes) completely outnumbered by our neighbors' grandchildren.

We took our first family-of-four trip to church Easter Sunday. Madeleine did perfectly! Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jamey, and Uncle Jeff came over for the rest of the day. Claire hunted Easter eggs, we drank mimosas, and Madeleine got some rolling tips from Uncle Jeff.

A trip to the ranch was the next adventure for the month. For the first time in I don't know how many years, all four cousins were at the same place at the same time. (Things get complicated when one of them lives in England.) And another first occurred as well--Mommy actually did work on the olive orchard! I was instrumental in the fence building. Really, I don't know how anything's gotten done without me. Just look at how hard I'm working. HA!

The next weekend consisted of an extra-special treat: A Nathan visit!!! He and his mommy came over to play, then we all went back to their hotel to play in the (heated) little kid-sized waterpark. We ended their trip with a pancake breakfast the next day.

The last weekend of the month was spent camping. I'll save those details for the next post.....