Bluebonnets 2017
This annual tradition just never gets old. I love seing him change and grow from year to year, but still at his core, my sweet, curious, loving little man.
This annual tradition just never gets old. I love seing him change and grow from year to year, but still at his core, my sweet, curious, loving little man.
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The force was with us for Isaac's 8th birthday party! Our padawans had a great time donning the robes of the Jedi, and training with blasters and lightsabers! Michael and I even dressed up this year!
Isaac was a big help in getting everything ready this year, from the TIE fighter cookies and lightsaber pretzels to the decorations, and LEGO scenes, he has been super busy helping me this past week!
My favorite part, though, was by far the cake! It's my favorite of all the cakes I've decorated over the years - and also the most challenging. But, when your kiddo asks for a BB8 cake that stands up, well, that's what you do.
Special Thanks to Claudia Chavez for the amazing photos, and Josh Grant with Jungle Movement Academy for the lightsaber training.
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8:29 PM
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I love my job! This is is the second summer that I've put together a couple of weeks of "Camp Andrea" for my kiddo and a few of his friends. This week is Dinosaur Week. We did Dinosaurs last summer too, with another friend, but Isaac loved it so much he asked to repeat it again this year and invite different friends.
For each week of "camp" the kids usually transform my library into a space that reflects whatever subject we're learning about, and this week was no different. We built a volcano tent from our Construction Fort Kit and it became a favorite place to read.
Every day we have a science and an art project, and we also do a variety of activities throughout the week to practice language arts, and math skills...although, to the kids, we're having fun, and that just makes it even better!
On our first day, the kids started work on adapting a story we read into a puppet show. They learned so much as we talked about the work that would have to be done to turn a story into a play. They created their own script, and then we had to cast the "actors" and adapt the script again to fit the casting decisions they made. They practiced all week, created their backdrop, and finally perfected their show enough to allow me to record it.
Another favorite activity later in the week was trying to figure out if we could outrun a dinosaur. We used a dinosaur that was about their size, ceolophysis, or CeeLo for short. We put footprints on the floor to show the stride length of CeeLo, and measured our own stride. Then we calculated and compared our stride length to CeeLo as well as other dinosaurs. It's probably not surprising that these kids can run FAST!

And it certainly made an impression on the kids because when we went to the Dino Park on Friday, they all recognized CeeLo right away!


We had daily science experiments, always a favorite with the kids. We made Dino Eggs (dissolving bath bombs, with dinos inside), and created our own lava lamps. Then we spent several days being paleontologists and digging for our own dinosaurs. We also had daily art projects, like fossil dough, ceramic painting, and plastic canvas magnets.
And, I may have had a little too much fun coming up with fun snack and lunch ideas for our dinosaur theme :-)
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5:14 AM
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I'm loving my new camera! Sometimes I wish I could just take pictures all day. Isaac and I had great time going on a nature walk this morning. The bluebonnets are in full bloom here in Austin, and the weather is glorious! We had to get creative in finding some bluebonnet photo ops this year, as both of the fields we've used the past several years are now under development. But, we still managed to find some beautiful flowers right in our neighborhood, and also loved getting to watch the bunnies, and bees, and butterflies as we walked.
I also love looking back at previous years in the bluebonnets and seeing how much he's grown!
2016 - 7 years old
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10:10 PM
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An Epic Minecraft Adventure! Of course we had to play some Minecraft; everyone worked together on a challenge to build Isaac the best Minecraft birthday cake! We also built a shelter, mined resources from a mountain, made torches, became Minecraft characters, and then used our archery skills to defend our house from a skeleton attack! We enjoyed cake and other Minecraft snacks, like slimeballs, sticks, buckets of lava and water, potions of healing (aka water), and for the grown ups, Mom's potion of sanity (aka margaritas). Finally, we headed outside to defeat the ghast floating around in the front yard. Overall, a great party! Happy Birthday, little man!
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8:00 PM
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And, here we are again! Our annual tradition, and as usual my happy little man made a great model!
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12:21 AM
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For Isaac's 6th birthday, he chose to have a pirate theme. Everyone dressed up as pirates as they arrived, and then they spent lots of time outside on the pirate ship, fishing, and walking the plank. We wrapped up the party with a scavenger hunt, that all the kids enjoyed. Happy 6th Birthday, my little pirate!
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11:09 PM
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It's that time of year again! I love Spring in Texas - even though we're having a weird one this year. Just when I think it's going to get warm, we have a cold front or a freak hail storm - crazy.
Last week Isaac and I took a little time after school one day to visit a field of bluebonnets in the neighborhood. It was especially fun for me this year because he was so excited about it. He loves seeing last year's pics on the apple TV, so he was looking forward to getting new ones up there.
As usual he was quite the little ham at first, but then he sat down and started giving me that sweet boy smile. By the time he started making hearts with his hands and telling me how much he loved me, my heart was overflowing. So lucky to have such a super sweet and caring boy. Enjoy the new pics of our quickly growing kiddo!
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5:27 PM
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I can't believe our little guy is already 5! Where has the time gone? To celebrate this year we turned our house into a Super Hero Training Center! Many thanks to Isabella at Party Box for All for helping me put together the stations, and dress up center. The kids had a great time dressing up as their favorite super hero and building LEGO super heroes as they waited for everyone to arrive. Then we headed outside to get our heroes in tip-top-crime-fighting shape.
Our first station was Strength. We had many different shapes and sizes of weights available so our heroes could build up their muscles. Station 2 was Accuracy - it took a few tries, but by the end most of them could get those bean bags through the holes easily. At our third station our young heroes practiced their Agility by bouncing through the obstacle course while trying to throw balls at a target. They made it look easy, but trust me, there's no way I would have been as successful! At the last station, our heroes-in-training had to practice their Problem solving skills to complete the puzzle they were given. It took all of their combined efforts before all the pieces fell into place. After working up an appetite, it was time for lunch, and then of course, cake!
After receiving their Super Hero Graduation Certificates, signed by Spidey, who hung out with us for a while in the morning, the newly trained heroes took their web-blasters to the back yard to practice their web-slinging accuracy. They all had a blast - and even got to take home some extra web-blasters in their super-hero goodie bags so they could practice more at home.
Thanks to all the super-heroes (and their parents) for helping us celebrate Isaac's 5th birthday. He had a blast, and is already busy planning next year's party.
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3:34 AM
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We had such a fun time for our fall outing. We went to a new pumpkin patch this year, and it did not disappoint. Isaac had an especially good time when we realized that his friend, Parker was there too.
I also included a few pics from the Halloween activities he did at school. His costume will be no surprise - he's still on a superhero kick.
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5:48 PM
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Last weekend Isaac and I went to my annual family reunion in Missouri to surprise my grandpa with an early 80th birthday party. He had no idea we were coming. When he saw all of his daughters and many of his grandkids there, he was surprised. Speechless, actually, which is quite a feat if you know Pop! I did my best to get some pics of the family - most of whom I haven't seen in forever. It was great to connect to everyone. Happy Birthday, Pop! I hope you enjoyed your party!
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9:28 PM
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Taking pictures in the bluebonnets has definitely become a tradition for us. I love the little field near our house because it allows us to just stop by and run and play and then hang out on the playground. We make it a fun and relaxing outing, which makes it easy to capture Isaac and his personality. As you will see, he was in a particularly silly mood on this particular day.
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8:57 PM
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8:38 PM
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October is off to a great start. Just two days into the new month we got to do the LEGO monthly mini model build. This month's model was a black cat. We also picked up a few more Halloween themed LEGO and had fun putting them together. I'm amazed at how well he's doing putting LEGO models together by himself. Who knew that a 3 year old could follow instructions like that? Now if I could just get him to follow the picture instructions and put my IKEA furniture together, we'd really be in business! Of course, Mom and Dad really love LEGO too - which is why you see the big LEGO Haunted House. We had as much fun with our new LEGO toy as Isaac did!
We had a great little break from school last week. Isaac and I took advantage of his time off school by finishing the Halloween decorations around the house, taking a trip to Elgin Christmas Tree Farm for some Fall Fun, and then decorating our pumpkins. We even carved a pumpkin this year - a first for us!
He loved the Fall Fun outing - and you'll see that's where we took the most photos too. We played with the animals, climbed on hay bales, took a hay ride, and played in the hay maze. Then there were the tractors! He was determined that he was going to get one of them moving because Papa showed him how to drive a tractor. Thankfully we left the tractors and the farm intact as we left. We did finally get around to picking out the perfect pumpkins to take home. He was determined to pull that wagon my himself, but Mom ended up helping a bit because it was really heavy!
He's obsessed with all things Halloween, so we keep making variations of Halloween themed lunch. I forgot to snap a picture of the ghost sandwich, but I'm sure we'll make another before the month is out, so I'll try to remember to grab a pic before he devours it.
Now, we just have a couple more weeks before Halloween is here. Isaac is a little disappointed that I won't let him wear his costume before then. Sometimes he will ask if he can go into my closet and just touch it. One day I even caught him smelling it! It was all I could do not to laugh out loud at that one! So, it might be a long two weeks if he keeps doing that, but maybe I can keep him distracted enough with other activities.
Enjoy the pics! There will be more to come after Halloween. That is, of course, assuming that after his costume is on, I can get him to be still long enough to actually get a picture of him that's not a complete blur. Keep your fingers crossed, because I assure you, the odds are NOT in my favor!
P.S. Remember if you're viewing on an Apple device the Flash video slideshow above will not work. Just click on the album title and it will take you to the photo album.
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3:19 AM
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It's that time of year again! We spent a little time playing in the bluebonnets this afternoon. It was a very bright day, so he's looking down or squinting a lot. Oh well, sometimes it's just more fun to follow him around and grab the random candid shots while he plays. Enjoy!
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3:34 AM
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I'm so far behind on blogging and posting pictures, considering my last post was 6 months ago. Someday I will go back and post all the pictures we've taken since then, but for now I thought I should at least share the pictures from Isaac's birthday.
We were so excited to have Michael's dad and step mom visiting for Isaac's birthday this year. It was so nice to spend some uninterrupted time with them. I hope they enjoyed themselves, because we would love for them to come see us again sometime! Isaac had a great time with his Granddad and Grandma Gail - the best birthday present, really.
To celebrate Isaac's birthday, we decided to have a small Ice Cream themed party at home and allowed Isaac to invite a few friends from school. The party was a great success. I mean, we had ice cream and a million toppings, how could you not have a great time, right? There were also lots of ice cream themed activities, a magnet wall, puzzles, a bean bag toss, ice cream poppers, ice cream tattoos, decorating soda jerk hats, ice cream aprons, and of course the kid size "Ice Cream Parlor" set up in the living room. They had so much fun making ice cream after ice cream and "decorating" with sprinkles, fruit and syrup. After lunch we ate cupcakes in ice cream cones, and had an ice cream bar, which was a big hit with the kids and adults.
Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us, and to those family members who couldn't be here, but called and sent gifts. A few presents arrived later in the week, so Isaac got to open a present almost daily this past week. Sometimes, the packaging was as much fun as the actual presents, as you can see from him jumping on the large packing bubbles in some of the pictures! Isaac enjoyed the party so much that he is still talking about it and singing Happy Birthday to himself! We all had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!
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I truly meant to post our Cozi updates every week or two, but alas, the month has gotten away from me. Here is a recap of some of the highlights from August.
Wednesday, August 3
Robbie's sprinklers were on when we got home from dinner, and Isaac was fascinated. We let him play and run around in the water until it was time to go in and get ready for bed. I loved hearing that happy little giggle as he ran through the water.
I received a package yesterday and left this box out for Isaac to find. When I got up this morning, he had it half filled with random treasures; then he decided that he should climb in too. Such cheap entertainment! We also made a trip to IKEA today to get Isaac an easel. He LOVES it!
Apparently we don't know how to hide the crayons very well. Isaac found the Crayola tower (100 crayons) on my desk upstairs and carried the whole thing downstairs (amazingly without dropping them). I think last week's lesson must have sunk in, though, because he was only coloring in his book.
It's just too hot to go outside, so while waiting for Michael to get off work and meet us for dinner, Isaac and I decided to kill some time at Petco.
Then we hung out at the Lakeshore Learning Store. He really enjoyed these little animal masks.
This is the latest artistic endeavor...raindrops. I think he really wants it to rain here too!
Here's the second

We tried to get out for a bit this morning before it became unbearably hot. We took some bread down to Mills Pond for the ducks. It was so sad to see how low the water is!
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Recently I've been trying out a new family list/calendar/planning app called Cozi. I'm still getting used to making it work for me, but one thing I've discovered is the Family Journal capability. It has made it really easy for me to use my phone to quickly note something that happens in our daily life. So, here is the last week or so in review. There's not an entry for every single day, but we have had a lot of fun recording the little bits of our life (mainly the funny things that have to do with the kiddo) so that we can share them more easily. Enjoy!
7/22/2011 - Today Isaac came up to me and asked very solemnly, "Mom, where'd Dani go?" I showed him a picture of her and he said, "That's my Dani. Where'd she go?" I tried to explain that she was at her house, to which he replied, "I want my Dani here now!" Poor kiddo. I hate that he's missing her, but also really glad that he had such a great time on our trip to Kansas.
7/23/2011 - We went to Sonic for dinner. The prize in Isaac's Wacky Pac was a roller skate type wheel with a handle. You had to insert the handle into the wheel, turn it several times, and then push a button to release the wheel so that it would go rolling away. After Isaac had been playing with it for a while, Michael was giving it a try. He put in the handle and then asked (supposedly to me), "Which way do I turn this?" To which Isaac helpfully answered, "Clockwise, Dad."
7/24/2011 - Today I'm making my first attempt at cake balls. After trying to get the cake all crumbled and mixed with the frosting, all while listening to Isaac ask me about every single detail, I thought I was going to be able to finish up and get them into the freezer to chill while he was playing. Then he walked back into the kitchen, pointed to a large cake crumb on the counter and said, very solemnly, "What happened there, Mom?"
7/25/2011 - When I picked Isaac up from school today he picked up the little John Deere die cast metal tractor Papa gave him before we left Kansas a couple of weeks ago. Since then it has been "Papa's tractor". This evening however, he picked it up and said, "Look, our tractor!" I was puzzled by this and asked, "Who's tractor is it? I thought it was Papa's tractor." To which he replied, "Papa's and me's!"
7/25/2011 - Michael opened a new package of headphones tonight. He had it sitting on his desk and Isaac found it. He opened it and then started putting his finger into the openings where the headphones had been then touching his face in different places...first one cheek, then the other, then his forehead. Michael asked him if he was putting make up on, and he grinned and said, "Yeah!"
7/26/2011 - Tonight on the way home Isaac said, "Drive faster, Mom!" I tried to explain that driving faster than the speed limit was a breaking the law, so we couldn't. He didn't understand, so I tried to explain that a policeman would pull us over and give us a ticket which would require me to pay money. He was still confused. In his world, there is nothing better than the idea of seeing and hearing the police lights and sirens, so getting the policeman to come right to our car is bonus. Then we get a ticket (which to him is something that lets him ride carnival rides) and pay money (which we have to do for fun things). The poor kid just kept looking at me in disbelief, as though he still couldn't understand why any of this was a bad thing...
7/26/2011 - When we called my Dad tonight, Isaac tried very hard to say "Happy Birthday, Papa!" It was a little garbled, but he got most of it out. So sweet.
7/27/2011 - We decided to help Uncle Bill celebrate his birthday by going out for Amy's Ice Cream after dinner. Sorry we couldn't take you with us, Uncle Bill, but we thought about you while we ate our yummy ice cream ;-)
7/28/2011 - I went out for girl's night (Grease Sing-A-Long at the Alamo Drafthouse, yay!), so the boys were on their own. They called Granddad to wish him a happy birthday. Isaac is getting pretty good at saying it since he's had a lot of practice this week. :-)7/30/2011 - This morning we woke up to quite a colorful explosion of creativity. Isaac found some crayons I had left on the bar (I really need to remember that he's super tall now).
His abstract creations covered a 10 foot by 4 foot section of the carpet, 7 steps and the walls half way up the stairwell.
Thank goodness for Krud Kutter and Magic Erasers. Isaac spent about an hour cleaning up the mess, and we had to help too because he didn't have quite enough oomph with the scrub brush to get the carpet clean. Needless to say we were all tired and a little cranky by the time everything was cleaned up.
The good news is that I don't think he'll do it again, and we're also going to get him an easel so that he can confine his creative works to a safe place. He has really taken more of an interest in drawing since our trip to Kansas, where he saw how much Brent and Dani loved it.
7/31/2011 - Today Isaac and I made a big batch of pink, strawberry scented playdough for his class at school, and since our's was getting kind of old, we also made a batch of purple, grape scented dough for us to keep at home.
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| Isaac Learns to Swim |
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2:54 AM
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Today is Cinco de Mayo and since Isaac goes to a Spanish immersion school, they get to make a pretty big deal out of it. Here is a little video of the celebration. I'm sure you won't miss Isaac when his class performs - he's the little red head in the middle of the screen trying to completely steal the show. Even when his class finished, he continued to dance along as he watched from a distance. I think it's funny that he is still so quiet and reserved around new people, especially a large crowd, but turn on some music and he suddenly has no fear!
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4:49 AM
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Happiness is not an accident. Nor is it something you wish for. Happiness is something you design.