Mommy's Little Helper

I once had a son that was totally gung-ho about helping out in the garden.  Sadly, that little boy discovered iPads and basketball.  But lucky for me, I still have a little someone around that likes to help out and be a "big girl"!  She did a great job helping me plant the summer garden!

An Afternoon at the Botanical Garden

Those of you that follow both of my blogs, you already know that we spent an afternoon at the Zilker Botanical Garden a couple of weeks ago where we came across a certain special critter that Texans love!  Well, I thought you might like to see some of the other things that the garden has to offer.

We actually ended up at the botanical garden because Miss Ainsley is now enrolled in a Scottish Country Dancing class.  Sadly, this class is on the opposite side of the universe from us, so I am having to pack the kids up 2 hours early, just to beat traffic.  Therefore, we are now frequenting many of the local parks and shopping centers in the area.  Which has actually turned out to be a lot of fun for us!

The drought has been so bad here and flowers of any sort have been few and far between, so it was nice to visit the garden and see some color!  And what is an outing without taking loads of pics!  This is what you are greeted with at the entrance of the gardens!

 The children showed me how much they love each other...

and there were still some irises in bloom (at least I think this is a type of iris)!

I love these two so much!

There were still a few roses in bloom.

Ian found a little water snake (that kid is one helluva a spotter)!

We explored the Japanese Garden.

The kids found a perfect spot to just "hang out"!

There were bridges to be climbed,

strange butterfly chairs to sit in,

more beautiful flowers to look at,

and yes, armadillos!

Seriously.  Could one ask for a better way to blow a couple of hours?  I think not.  :)

Little Luna

I found it highly ironic that Little Luna chose Easter Sunday to emerge from her cocoon, a rebirth so to speak!  We have had all females this year, kind of strange, but no matter, they are wonderful!

Ian spent some quality time with her

and we even talked Ainsley into holding her!  This only lasted a couple of seconds as she really is freaked out by the prickly little feet.

And yes, I had to get a close up of her sweet little face (the moth's that is!)

We took her to Linda's house for Easter dinner, and no, since these particular moths don't eat, she did not partake in the steak and potato salad!  ;)  We waited until after dinner and I brought her out for all of the kids (Mia and Riley too) to see.  Then we set her gently down in Linda's garden.  Within a few minutes she was gone, surely off to explore the greenspace behind Linda's house.  Good luck Little Luna in finding a handsome male and laying perfect little luna eggs!

Pedernales Falls

March 20-26th was a big week for us.  Spring Break for the Texas school kids was the week before and Ian was all bummed that I didn't let him have Spring Break right along with them.  But I told him that there was no way in hell I was going to go places the same week that every other family in Texas was going places!  That is the brilliance of homeschooling!  You wait until the next week and NO crowds!

So Woodall Family Spring Break 2011 broke down like this; Monday at the fair, Tuesday bowling and going to the park, Wednesday Sport and Skate class and treats at Sonic, but Thursday was the day we had all been looking forward to.  We were going to spend the day at Pedernales Falls State Park!  I packed a nice picnic, some towels and swim shoes and we were off.  It was a nice drive and a beautiful sunny day (thank goodness I remembered the sunscreen!)  Now I hate to admit it, we have been living in Texas almost 9 years and this is the first time we have really been to Pedernales Falls.  We did a quick drive through once on our way home from San Antonio and we laughed at what Texans call waterfalls.  For our little Spring Break trip, we didn't hit the falls are as there is no swimming in that section and we wanted to get wet!  So we made our way down to the river, which after the serious drought we've been having has been reduced to more of a creek.

But it was still pretty and with small children that don't swim that well, it was perfect!

Ian spent most of his time exploring the smaller pools, trying to catch fish and frogs and honing his rock skipping skills.

Ainsley spent most of her time trying to net fish and catch butterflies.

And they found that old cypress trees are good for relaxing!

It was a great day of exploring and splashing and Ainsley came home with a whole collection of rocks and little freshwater clam shells.  It was nice to get out in the sunshine and enjoy what Central Texas has to offer.  We did, however, make one important discovery.  It is about 120 damn stairs to get down to the water and subsequently about 120 stairs to GET BACK UP!  And once you are sunburned, tired and lugging 5 lbs. of a little girl's rock collection AND having to hold hands with a completely wiped out 4 year-old, those stairs are a bitch!  As it turns out though, I'm one helluva a pack mule!  :)

Ainsley-ism of the Day: International Edition

While getting ready to go to Nana and Papa's for Easter dinner, Ainsley came in to the bathroom where I was doing my hair, folded her hands together, bowed and said in a very serene and quiet, little voice, "Namaste, Amigo."  I was like "Wow!  That's two languages there Sweetie!"  To which she replied, still bowing with hands folded in a very serene and soft voice, "That's OK Mommy.  I speak AAAALLLLL languages."

She cracks me up!  I do have folks requesting "Namaste, Amigo" t-shirts.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll do it!

Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo

As usual, I am way behind on posts!  I have to say, homeschooling two kids and trying to keep up with all of the extra-curricular activities, trying to start a new business, keep on top of housework AND tend a garden has proven to be more time consuming that I would have ever imagined!  But I have a few minutes this Easter Eve to catch up a bit!

Last month was the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo.  Linda and I packed up one Monday and headed out with the kids to enjoy a day at the fair.  We had a blast!  We saw all of the livestock, lots of pigs and cows AND the kids and I got to see and pet baby ring-tailed lemurs!!!!  Sorry no pics, but they didn't allow you to take photos unless you purchased their photo pack!  Thhhppppttt! 

You know we had to go see the Swine Races!

 We visited the petting zoo.

 

Two of the cutest "kids" I've ever seen!  

The kids rode ponies.

And Ian took on the crazy bubble!  We laughed so hard watching him try to get around in that thing!  And he obviously had a blast in there, except he said it smelled bad!  (I can't imagine why!?!)

Ainsley enjoyed the Merry-Go-Round with Nana because Mommy would have hurled!  Could she BE any happier?!?

I rode the Pirate Ship with them and they both screamed and cried like something was killing them!  Nothing like trying to scream at some carnie to stop the ride before your kids literally squeeze under the restraints to try to escape from the terror!

But they both felt better after riding the Dragon!

The fun houses were big hits!

 And we can't forget the ferris wheel!

I even talked them into the Wacky Worm! And they LOVED it!

We had such a good time! 

As it turns out, Brady and I brought Ian back to the fair the next night to check out the one and only Joan Jett!

We thought is was only fitting since one of Ian's first concerts ever, while we were still living in Oregon, was Joan Jett at the Taste of Beaverton Festival!  She still rocks!

We talked the boy into riding a few more rides, but he refused to ride the Super Shot with his Daddy, so Daddy had to ride alone.  :(

We had a great time at the fair!  Can't wait until next year!

Spring Wildflowers

As it turns out, the wildflower season this year stunk.  Really.  The winter was so cold (by Texas standards) and we have had absolutely no rain to speak of for months.  These things make for a pretty pathetic wildflower season.  Lucky for us, we have a place called the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center where they actually care for their wildflowers with some water, fertilizer and TLC!  I took the kids down for our monthly installment of Nature Nights, a lecture series geared toward kids.  While Ian was off enjoying the lecture, I spent time taking photos and doing arts and crafts with the Piggy.  She's not much for the hiking and the lectures, she prefers to draw and visit!  Here she is proudly displaying her Tootsie Roll/tissue paper flower!

We saw some evening primrose (if I'm not mistaken),

 

 Some really pretty water plants that I have absolutely no idea what they were,

 The trees were in bloom,

 And yes, there were a few bluebonnets!

 

I even managed to get a shot of the elusive 9 year-old boy!

It was a beautiful night, learning about pollinators and wildflowers.  The breeze was nice, the wildflowers were gorgeous and as always, the company of my kids was awesome!  Ian even impressed the docent so much that he won a bug vacuum for being such a smart and attentive kid!  I love spring in Texas!

Ian-ism of the Day

We have recently been reading about Columbus, so I asked Ian to name the three ships that Columbus sailed across the Atlantic.  His answer?  "The Nina, the Pinta, and the Sacajawea?"  I think maybe we need to spend a little more time on this!  ;)

Ainsley's new do

A couple of weeks ago I reached the point where I just could NOT fight over hair-brushing any longer.  My Piggy has beautiful hair, but only when it was clean and brushed which was not as often as I would like!  Brushing was cause for tears and screaming and good luck trying to use anything that might pull it back out of her face or make it look cute.  So I finally sat down with her and had a discussion about "THE HAIR".  Finally, it was decided with summer coming up, that a short "do" might be nice.  No 30 minute brush-outs after the lake, no more tangles and of course, a cute factor beyond belief!  This kid really is cute with short hair!  So while Ian was taking his Iowa Basics exam, Ainsley and I went to the kid salon and had Ms. Grace whack it off!  We went for a bob and I kept the bangs because we all know what a pain in the ass it is to grow out your bangs!  So if she decides to go long again, the bangs won't be an issue.  So here are a couple of pics of the new do.  Granted, she has yet to let me get her all dolled up so these are just casual snapshots, but you get the picture.  We will hope for some super cuter Easter pics!

It's cute, it's easy and most of all, she LOVES it!  Although, she already talks about growing it back!  Like mother, like daughter I suppose!

Ian-ism of the Day:

Ian used his allowance to purchase himself and his little sister remote control cars.  Ainsley's car is of course smaller and less impressive, but as it turns out, faster than Ian's car.  He was explaining this to me when he said, "You know, I think her car just has more exhilaration than my car."  I'm pretty sure he meant acceleration, but who knows, maybe her car DOES have more exhilaration!

Ainsley-ism of the Day

"Hey Ian!  You just gotta come and see this!  It is so awesome it will BLOW YOU UP!"

Ainsley-ism of the Day: April Fool's Edition

OK, my little Piggy was on a ROLL this past April Fool's Day.  I will entertain you with 3 Ainsley-isms that all happened in the period of a 30 minute car ride...

1.  Ainsley:  Mommy?  If you find a new dinosaur skeleton, do you get to name it?
     Me:  Yes Sweetie, I think so.
     Ainsley:  Cool!  When I find a dinosaur, I'm gonna name it FRED!

2.  "I really want to visit Antarctica, but I don't like ants!"

3.  "Ian, if you get a robot with a heart on, it means it's a nice robot and you have to give it a hug and a kiss."

Yes, all of this in a short half hour!  Now you know why I'm freakin' exhausted all the time!  Oy.

Ainsley-ism of the Day: Especially for Auntie Nina

"I don't think you can get that on this planet, but I'm pretty sure you can get it in California!"