Bluebonnets!!!

After the Bunny Breakfast, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to take some traditional Bluebonnet pictures in our wonderfully blooming neighborhood while the kids were already dressed in their Easter best! :)

Bunny Breakfast

We had our traditional Bunny Breakfast this morning at Nordstrom's. Thanks, again, Miss A for letting us know to reserve a table!!! :) As always, we began the morning with a yummy breakfast at a table reserved just for us with a fun surprise at he table waiting for us. Strawberry Smoothie kit and cute reusable place mats with erasable markers and a visit for Mr. Bunny himself. Little Miss A was actually scared of the bunny when we were at the breakfast table. Holy crow, seriously miss animal extraordinaire herself...CRAZY!!! She warmed up when we got downstairs for the festivities though. :)

Waltzing through the infant section for hidden eggs, the Caswell Kids came up short. Thanks sweet K for sharing with Little Miss A, you are such a sweetie pie!!!!

Our traditional face painting...true A & D style. A wand for Harry Potter Junior and a sweet zebra for my animaniac. :)

As for he balloon artist, Little Miss A actually passed...shocker number 2 of the morning. Mr. D on the other hand wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to have a Star Wars blaster

What a fun start to Saturday morning!!!! Gosh, we LOVE this tradition!!! :)

Fun Friday

Three tickets to How to Train a Dragon in 3-D...$35

Drink, Popcorn and Sweets...$17

Spending a fun evening with my kids...PRICELESS

Medical Ailments?

Little Miss A has become obsessed with medical bandages lately. She's always loved band-aids, but she recently discovered the sling we had for her when she broke her arm just before she was 18 months old. Then we had to get the old cast out to see if it would fit...obviously not, but it was fun to watch her try. (Until I thought she might re-break her arm attempting to shove it over her hand.) After that she found a foot brace that we had in the medical cabinet, no clue when/why we got that. She also spotted a finger splint we had as well, again no clue how/why we have that either. That said I guess anything is possible with my medical anomaly J!!! I think Daddy is rubbing off on her. :)

Got Wheels?

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In an effort to enjoy to beautiful weather this afternoon, the kids got suited up and hit the cul-de-sac with the wheels of choice. Roller skates for Little Miss A and a skateboard for Mr. D. They're both still real uneasy on their wheels, but maybe by the time summer rolls around, they'll have perfected their rides a little bit better. :)

Spring Break 2010

The weekend before Spring Break, Grandma and Grandpa Brown surprised the kids and me with a trip to Florida for a few days. The kids were SOOOOO excited, that was ALL they talked about at school...we literally counted down to Sunday! :)

Sunday morning we got up really EARLY (with the time change it was actually earlier than the alarm clock would like to suggest) and were in Orlando right after lunch. We surprised Aunt N for her birthday dinner...gosh I LOVE surprises!!!! :) We had a nice fun-filled evening with the fam!!!

Monday we went to the zoo with Grandma! This experience at the zoo was unlike any others we had taken in the past...for several reasons. The first was our experience in the bird encounter. Last year Little Miss A and Mr. D would have absolutely NOTHING to do with this exhibit, we all but RAN through couldn't even think about feeding the birds. This year, on the other hand, the kids probably fed EVERY bird in the place TWICE. They loved it so much that they were even trying to entice the birds to perch on the their hands. Unfortunately that didn't happen with the kids, just Mommy and Grandma.


We hit the train to see a side of the zoo we hadn't experienced yet. Seeing the animals SO close up and even being able to see eggs in nests was super cool, but pales in comparison to our next stop...

Mom is an amazing VIP zoo member which is the ONLY reason we got to do this...
A baby giraffe was born at the zoo ONE and a HALF weeks earlier and was an astonishing 6 feet tall weighing in at a whopping 140 pounds. Still adjusting to this new life, Momma and baby are still not part of the regular exhibit and not many people have even seen the baby yet. As if seeing the baby giraffe wasn't cool enough, Little Miss A and Mr. D got to feed Momma JoJo, with Daddy Raffiki watching from a distance with a protective eye over his sweet new family. It was an unbelievably amazing experience!!!

After a fun filled afternoon at the zoo, it was back to Grandma's house for some pool time. (The kids were constantly asking when they could go swimming.) They both threw on their suits and hit the hot tub. :)

Tuesday morning, Grandma packed a picnic lunch and we headed for the park. The picture below is triumphant one for Mr. D. After several failed attempts, disappointment and frustration in trying to master the bar (a feat his sister was easily able to do repeatedly time and again since she is still quite a bit taller than her brother) with Grandpa's help, D finally figured it out and was so proud of himself and his swinging technique. :)

We left the park and walked to the boardwalk to head for the beach. It was still way too cold, so we went with the idea of just "getting out feet wet" and left with two completely soaked kids that had a BLAST in the water!!!

Afterwards, we left the park and headed to Ron Jon's for some dry clothes and were off to the Dinosaur Store. I think my kids could have spent hours just in the gift shop. :) What a cool place. It definitely got them both talking about dinosaurs which is always fun. Library, here we come. :)

Wednesday morning, we got Aunt K and headed to Orlando, we picked up Kay then went to meet Uncle K for lunch. So special!!! :) Afterwards, with several changes of plans we ended up heading back to K & K's for some bread to take to the park to feed the ducks. No camera tricks, optical illusions or shifts in perspective here, these geese are HUGE!!!! It was hilarious to walk to the park, we could hear the geese before we saw them. Their honking sounding like a band of trumpets...hilarious!!! :)

Once the bread was gone it was off to play. This is the same park we went to before when Daddy and Uncle D spun each other so hard on the spinning wheels, they both nearly got sick. Though it was St. Patty's Day, there were no green faces this time around. :)
A St.Patty's Day dinner with super fun green drinks. What a great way to end a day. :)

We had such an amazing time!!! As always, it went WAY TOO FAST!!! Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa!!! We love and miss you so much already!!! :)

Caswell-Bailey Camp Out

We planned a fun Spring Break camp out with our bffs...in their backyard no less. :) It was awesome...all the comforts of home and still able to hear the distant Coyotes since they live in the country. :)

We definitely need to do that again. Thank you so much Bailey family for having us over...love you guys!!!!

Rodeo Day

Today was Rodeo day at school. Dressing Texas style 2 Friday's in a row...how fun is that?
A day full of fun cowboy/cowgirl activities was just the thing for the Friday before Spring Break!!! We began with real cowboy/cowgirl pics, then went outside for a game of horseshoes, horseback races, chuck wagon snacks,panning for gold, potato sack races and calf roping. It was awesome!!! I think the monkeys were exhausted by 10 am!!! After a little downtime, we headed outside for our school picnic. Daddy came too...super special! What a great day!

Spreading the Word...

Holy crow, how cool is this? My cousin is a writer!!!!

Wanting to give her princess minded daughter an alternative to the mainstream princesses, she wrote and is in the process of writing a series of books about Sport Princesses. The first one "The Soccer Princess: Josephina and the Crustacean King" will be coming out in June.

To kick it all off, she is starting a contest on her blog...

www/mysportprincess.blogspot.com

All you have to do is email her a picture of your little girl (age 0 - 10) participating in a sport or dressed as a Sport Princess. The grand prize is a $250 giftcard, a custom-made princess Jo gown, a copy of the book, pink soccer socks and a pink soccer ball.

Check out her blog and pass it on!

Playing at the Park

We've had a couple impromptu park days lately that have been absolutely wonderful!!!! (The weather has been too nice not to.) I was the slacker Mom that opted to skip gymnastics and dance in lieu of an afternoon outing at the park on Tuesday!!!! That was so much fun that we left school yesterday and went straight to another park. This is going to become a regular occurrence now that spring is FINALLY approaching! I think our next challenge is to hit as many different parks as we can in one month. That sounds like an April thing...more to come next month. :)

Face Painting

We made a pit stop at the Spring Pet Rally and watched the puppies, collected treasures and even got our faces painted too.

Mr. D went first. After looking at the board of choices, it was Darth Maul. For my friends that aren't up with the Star Wars following, he is a character from Episode One. He kind of creeped me out with this one...scary! :)

Little Miss A just wanted something pretty and picked the girliest, sparkliest picture on the display board. That's my girl!!! :)

Let the gender differences continue...

On a total side note, my son looked like one of the lost 80's hair band members when removing the mask. I actually had to use MAJOR make up remover from my Lancome days to get it all off. Daddy asked if they actually put eyeliner on to get the black make-up so close to his eyes...nope.

Total head banger, right? :)

Suess on the Loose

March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday. Had been alive today, he would be an amazing 106 years old!!! In honor of this amazing man, we got all dolled up and headed to our local library this afternoon to attend a Suess extravaganza!!!! :)

The kids were a few characters in one today...I couldn't resist. Playing the parts of little Cindy Lou Who and Thing 1...is none other than my sweet Little Miss A. Playing both the Cat in the Hat and Thing 2 we have Mr. D. :) I don't know who had more fun with this...the kids or me. (Actually maybe I do know the answer to that.)

We started with Cat in the Hat tattoos. A & D are temporary tattoo addicts, so this was a HUGE hit for the Caswell kids. :)

After the tats, it was on to the crafts. They both could have spend the entire day at the coloring table. :)

We made ears to add to our costumes...

The finale of the event was an appearance by one of our local favorites...Joe McDermott

The Caswell Kids have always loved Joe and have seen him in concert several times before, but today was different. They weren't their usual peppy selves dancing around like crazy as they usually do to all Joe's fun songs. They were so hesitant to participate, looking around at the other kids their age that WEREN'T out on the dance floor. :( This was the first time I've seen this social awareness pop up in our lives and I have to admit, it makes me SO terribly sad. Gone are the days when they just don't care what everyone else is doing and just have fun. Is this permanent? I will do anything do get that back. I wonder...if we had been with Ken and Mck (who we usually see Joe with) would we have had the same experience?

A Bouncing Good Time...Until the End

Little Miss A and Mr. D have been BEGGING me for a play date at "the bounce house place" for the longest time. Well, today was the day. We had a TON of fun...right up until the end when Mr. D went flying off the bouncy did a flip in the air, hitting the nearby water fountain, landing on his back on top of the step stool below the water fountain. My heart just sank...I was literally standing 4 feet away and there was nothing I could do but watch the events unfold. Upon reflection of this afternoon, let me just say that I would be the WORST EMT EVER, I swear. They say you should NEVER move someone that could have easily have broken something, right? This could easily have been one of those moments. So, what do I do? I grab my son holding him as close as I possibly could feeling all over to see if something was jutting out or just didn't feel quite right. He was, of course crying like crazy, but his first words were "Mommy don't be mad." Holy crow, the kid knew he was jacking around on the bouncy house which is why he flew off in the first place, but OMG I was anything but mad. I was so incredibly worried that something horrible had happened to him. I'm happy to report that the little man seems to be A-OK...thank God! I've been asking him all night if his back is okay, examining him all over to see if anything appears to be changing. I think he's getting tired of being questioned and inspected, but man if he really truly escapes that calamity uninjured, we may have a stunt double on our hands or something. Forget I said that...never going to happen!!! How do those Moms deal with that? I was a wreck and this was just a total accident. Sheesh!

Our Little Texans

With Texas Independence Day on March 2nd, the students in Miss A's class celebrated Texas day at school today. The kids got up super early to get dressed. (Maybe every day should be Texas day.) They were so excited to put on their boots and hats and hit the trail for school.

Once we got to school their class went to the Principal's office to lead the school in the Pledge of Allegiance AND the Texas pledge over the morning announcements. (For my out of state family and friends, Texas still thinks it is it's own country and we pledge to our great state every day at school.) I was so surprised they knew them both. A & D are so ready for Kindergarten...they did great. I couldn't hear Little Miss A, although her teacher assured me she said it too, but the whole school could hear Mr. D. I was in the hallway listening with a friend, the one time I didn't say the pledges myself. I just wanted to hear my kids. :) Ms. K agreed, D was the ONLY voice we heard. That boy still only has one volume...fortissimo!!!!!!

It's going to be a great day!

Feline Rescuer

You've probably heard of the horse whisperer, well, we have the feline rescuer at our house.Yep, Little Miss A is always bringing Sophie back in the house. I think Sophie wishes so badly that she could be an outside cat...she sneaks out the back door every chance she gets. (BTW, can you believe she's already this big, our first post this time last year when we got her she was this teeny tiny little thing. Not so much anymore.) She is so good with the kids...and Little Miss A in particular is so good with her!!!

The Recipe

The concoctions are continually being created at the Caswell house. Here is today's surprise...

Ingredients:

oranges

salt and pepper

water

grass/weeds

Directions:

Peel oranges. Add remaining ingredients. Mash. Stir. Done.

I'm glad I was able to convince Mr. D not to drink it. :) Before I even had a chance to do to the same with Little Miss A, she said "Don't worry Mommy, I would NEVER drink that nasty suff!" Smart girl. :)