Springtime

Spring is here!

We are all so happy winter is over and the warmer weather has arrived. The warmer weather brings lots of out door adventures and fun. Scott and I have both felt a surge of new energy and motivation to get out and start running again. On the weekend mornings, Scott has been taking the girls out to the running trail, girls on their bikes and he is running along beside them. It's a dream come true for Scott!

Spring in central Texas is absolutely gorgeous. I've loved watching the trees come alive again and the flowers bloom. This year is a particularly good year for the bluebonnets and other wildflowers that you see all over Austin. It's been really magical. I had forgotten how much I really love having some seasons. 

A few weeks ago, the girls had a class out in the woods building forts and fairy houses. Wyatt was too young to sign him up too, so Scott and I had a day with just Wyatt. We visited a dinosaur park and found a playground for him to play on. It was a lovely day with just my boys!

These beautiful pink blooms are all over the place. The color is stunning. It makes me so happy to feel the warm sunshine on my face, a crisp breeze and beautiful bright flowers all around.

We found a small bluebonnet patch to take some pictures. This patch was a bit sparse, but we could walk to it, so that's a plus.

Madeline found a butterfly! After our bluebonnet pictures, we all got snow cones and sat by the lake.

Spring Break

Just before spring break, Zilker had their annual 4th grade musical. Lily is not in 4th grade (she's in 3rd) but because she is in the school choir, she had the chance to be in the musical too. AND... she had a solo! It was her big debut and she was amazing! The musical was BUGZ! Lily played an army ant.

Over the first weekend of spring break, we headed off to Houston. Our journey started off a bit stressful. We left town a bit late (my fault, I didn't get all the packing done in time) and so we hit traffic when we were trying to leave. After an hour in the car, we were still only about 30 miles down the road, Wyatt exploded a Sprite in the back seat and Madeline already had to pee. We knew it was going to be a difficult drive!

We finally pulled into our hotel about 9 pm. Whew. Time for bed!

The next morning, we headed over to NASA Johnson Space Center. I was very excited. I remember visiting NASA as a child and I thought it was so cool. We spent all day there and saw everything. It was pretty good, and I'm glad we've done it, but honestly, I was a bit disappointed. We won't be heading back any time soon. I felt like it had more of an amusement park feel and not a science center feel. There is something about NASA that sets my expectations pretty high. I think there is a missed opportunity here to really grab kids and get them excited about STEM fields. I spent most of the day there thinking about all the little ways that they could make it better. Regardless, we had fun and I got some cool pictures.

This is the Robonaut, a robotic astronaut. He's a new project that NASA is developing. I was impressed to hear that his touch is so precise that he can turn pages in a book.  Pretty cool!

We saw an Apollo space craft. It was so HUGE. We were all marveling at its size. There is a really nice exhibit about the Apollo missions and each of their significance. Scott could have spent a lot more time in that room.

Here the kids got to lay in a mock cock pit and pretend to get ready for take off!

After our day at NASA, we met up with our gorgeous friends from school and had a couple of days on Galveston Island and the beach. It was a little cool and not swimming weather, but we had a ball anyway.

After our weekend in Houston, we returned to Austin. Scott went to work and the kids and I just enjoyed a few days of not having much to do. At the end of the week, Scott and I had the chance to see some music during the SXSW festival in Austin. We even took the kids to a few of the free concerts that were near home.

By the end of our week, we felt refreshed, rested and ready to get back to it. It's now the final stretch to the end of the school year. Time is flying!