Molly got ready for bed extra quickly tonight and made a little sign that said ‘I.G.R.F.B.E.”. She asked me to guess what it meant. After a few clues, I figured out it meant, “I got ready for bed early.” She wanted to get ready early so she would have extra time to read.
McG Kids
This weblog tracks my kids’ early years. Each entry is a snapshot from their childhood.
Please pardon any type-o’s, misstatements, or factual irregularities. This blog is written by an often dazed dad, normally after 11 pm when he should really be in bed if he had any sense. Even the basic quick edit is not a regular practice here.
Claire’s 11th Birthday Party
Claire turned 11 and had her birthday party at Altitude Austin, an amazing trampoline park. Altitude is extra fun compared to other trampoline parks because it has a special area for bouncy dodgeball. We played dodgeball for probably an hour and ended up exhausted and sweaty. Claire invited six of her amazing friends. Despite all their energy and the fun they were having, we managed to get them together briefly for a group photo (below).
Molly came along to Altitude too. Then the girls went to the house for a sleepover while Molly came to my place for some one-on -one fun time with me, including making a gingerbread house and our own little sleepover.
Music Store
Another fun thing to do when the weather is cold is to go to the music store. Molly loved the kids-sized drums and the tiny pink guitar, while Claire was into the keyboards. Molly wants the drums for Christmas, but she’ll have to settle for using my less-fun electronic drums set.
Middle School Tour
I took Claire on a tour of a fine arts magnet middle school today. She’s deciding where to spend her next three years of school. She’s been leaning towards the regular neighborhood middle school where most of her friend will be going, but she’s considering agent schools, especially the fine art academy. I was hoping Claire would get do the Digital Arts stem at the fine art academy. In that program, she would spend 6th grade learning digital photography, 7th grade doing digital moving editing, 8th grade producing a movie. It makes me want to go back to middle school. I never thought I;d say that!
After the tour, Claire seemed a little overwhelmed and said yeah, she pretty much wants to go to the normal school.
Indoor Fun Day
With the weather cooling off a bit and making it hard to to spend the day at Barking Springs, and Sno Beach shut down for the season, we’re having to move our weekend fun activities indoors. Today, we took Claire’s friend Susie to lunch at the always delicious Homeslice Pizza and then off to Pinballz arcade for some indoor fun. The girls had lot of fun playing ping pong and messing uncooked dough at Homeslice. And they did a crazy job as a team effort winning tickets at Pinballz, They won over 3000 tickets, with Susie digging into her own money for tokens after my budget had run out. They were picking rolls of 500 tickets out of the claw machines at will, and basically emptied one out in a matter of minutes. With the prize tickets, the girls each got a ping ping gun, plus an inflatable ninja doll and some miscellaneous small toys. We all went back to my place and had a ping pong gun fight and basically destroyed the place. We can have fun even when it’s not warm and sunny out!
Reading on the Swing
Molly seems to enjoy multitasking, including reading while swinging at West Austin Park. Not bad for a first grader!
Rope swing
On the way back from Barking Springs, the girls convinced me to do the rope swing into Barton Creek, and Claire got a slow motion video of it. There was a large turtle nearby, and I was afraid of landing on it or getting snapped by it. But there was no such trouble. I think I scared it away since, to the turtle, I was basically a giant monster falling out of the sky.
Jock-o-Lanterns by the Pool
We made jack-o-lanterns for Halloween out by my pool this year, for lack of room inside. The girls did a great job focusing and making quality scary pumpkins.
Barking Springs and Sno Beach
Almost every weekend this summer, the girls andI have gone to our favorite hangout: Barking Springs. A cold, rocky, slippery, green water paradise downstream from Baron Springs pool, this shallow swimming spot is a favorite for dogs and all kinds of people. We walk over there and join the families, dog owners, slackers, fitness nuts, teenagers, and people on dates for an afternoon of splashing and floating in the water, and trying not to hurt ourselves or drown. We had a 100% success rate this year on not drowning, but we did see a couple of other people almost drown, including a toddler in a floaty that got away from her parents, so that was a disturbing lesson to see in person. Within five seconds on trouble, about a dozen people were scrambling to help the bobbing toddler, and they got her out safely. One of the great things about Barton Springs is that everyone is nice and in a good mood. You just can’t help it there!
The we run things is to go to the flat cement part on the west side of the river and wade into the current coming from the waterfall. We float downstream for a while and do it again, trying not to trip and kill ourselves in the process of getting out of the river. Sometimes we invite a friend of Claire’s to come along, which makes it even more fun. Managing three kids at Barking Springs is not easy, but it does make the day more fun.
On the walk home, we always stop by Sno Beach, a snow cone stand that makes the best snow cones in town. It makes for the perfect summer day.
McG Kids 