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.
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.
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!
Molly seems to enjoy multitasking, including reading while swinging at West Austin Park. Not bad for a first grader!
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.
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.
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.
Molly is interested in biking and doing pretty well with the training wheels. We’ve been going to the Town Lake trail and letting Molly ride her bike while Claire and I walk. Claire has more or less given up on biking for now. I’m waiting for some sort of peer pressure to kick in and inspire her, but she may be driving before she can bike!
I’m trying to get the girls more interested in sports. We play a little basketball, but the girls can’t even throw the ball all the way up to the hoop, so it’s not that fun. They don’t really enjoy soccer. But one sport that is “taking” at least a little is baseball, or wiffle ball. Claire loves to bat! And she’s getting better at throwing too. Catching is a big challenge, right now, though. Still, it’s a start. Molly tends to enjoy the throwing and catching. Together, these girls make a pretty good baseball player!
McG Kids 