Molly turned five years old today! Way to go, Molly. We love you!
Instead of a blog post, I put together a quick video montage of her birthday, which was a regular school day followed by present opening (mostly Frozen (movie) stuff) and a special pancake dinner at Kerby Lane Cafe.
For Kit’s birthday, took a one-night trip to San Antonio. With her job, Kit can’t take a long weekend, so we had to keep this weekend trip short and sweet. This girls had not really seen the Alamo before, except maybe quick drive by. Claire had heard a lot about it in Texas history in school, so she was interested to see it.
It was a quick trip, but we did it right. We stayed at the Crockett Hotel right behind the Alamo. Luckily, we got a 4th-story room directly overlooking the Alamo grounds. For a while after checking in, we all sat and gazed past the old stone walls at the families wandering around the Alamo grounds. For a while at night, it was quiet on the streets except for the sounds of horse draw carriages clomping by below us. It was like being in 1888 for a while. Then the San Antonio Spurs won the NBS Western Conference championship, which resulted in celebratory yelling and horn honking all through the night. This was a nice sound too, and luckily it did not wake up the girls.
Molly’s says her favorite part of the trip was the water walls leading past the Hyatt Regency to the Riverwalk (in Molly’s words, “the big water things”). She wanted to just look at the flowing water and kept asking to go back. The water walls were big enough and on all sides, giving the feeling of being sort of in the water yourself. The water was loud but had a nice calming effect. Then a series of small bridges and rivers inside the hotel lead to the Riverwalk. I have enjoyed this amazing hotel lobby since I was young, and it was nice to see Molly appreciate it too.
Claire’s says she liked the water wall too, but her favorite part was the Riverwalk, the main part with all the restaurants, bridges, tress, music, etc. It was such a quick trip that we had to do basically a quick walk through, but we covered the whole main circle part of the Riverwalk on Saturday evening and even had dinner on the river. We also stopped by La Villita and did some window shopping in the old village and wandered our way back to the Travis.
The next morning, we visited the Alamo. It was nice to just simply walk across the street and into the Alamo. We spent couple of hours in the Alamo. The girls liked poking around. Molly did get a little impatient as we read the various history plaques. Eventually Claire got worn down too. Kit was enjoying it more than anyone, which is good since this was her birthday trip.
Then it was off to the southern reach of the Riverwalk. This is the more park-ish part than runs through the old King William residential neighborhood. We explored King William and the river. People were kayaking on the river, and there were lots of joggers. This was the part especially meant for Kit. She has always said she liked this part of town and the river. Claire, who loved the more dense central part of the river, was somewhat skeptical even before we headed down to King William. “I know what’s going to happen. We’re going to walk around a look at a lot of boring old houses and not do anything fun.” She and Molly got a little sluggish on this stretch, but they seemed to have fun too. We then had an awesome brunch at Liberty Bar, I think the best meal I had in many months.
By then it was Sunday afternoon, and we had to head home. The girls really wanted to see the Riverwalk again, but we were out of time. We never even had a chance to swim in the hotel’s pool. I felt like we had at least a week’s worth of stuff left to do in S.A. (more Riverwalk, El Mercado, La Villita, Fiesta Texas, kids stuff at the Witte Museum, other museums, and so on) but normal life called. At least it’s not a far drive if we want to come back.
We didn’t do a great job with the pictures on this little trip, but here are a few.
Claire’s birthday fell on the day after Thanksgiving this year. For the first time in years, we went to Corpus Christi for Thanksgiving this year, and we all stayed and celebrated Claire’s birthday down by the Bay. All four of Claire’s grandparents were there as well as (great) Uncle Bob.
As you see in the photos, Molly was crying for Claire’s official candle-blowing-out. She had been asked to vacate the seat at the head of the table to make room for Claire. Molly did not agree or consent to this plan and let us know. Later, Molly made up a brief story, possibly as a sort of apology. She said the main character was Jonny Jakes. The story was called “Jonny Jakes, for Heaven’s Sakes!” In the brief story, Johnny Jakes messed up his big sister’s birthday party by making a scene. Everyone said, “Jonny Jakes, for Heaven’s Sakes!” and Jonny was sorry. The end.
Presents included two nearly identical My Little Pony Rainbow Dash dolls. It was a clear and obvious choice! We later exchanged one Rainbow Dash for Pinky Pie. Claire also got a big Playmobil Santa’s workshop. Uncle Tim mailed in a painting set with dolphin scenes, thus combining the recommended topics of art and dolphins.
Claire is (almost) eight years old!
This year Claire had her birthday party with her friends at Jumpoline Park. Initially Claire had talked about having a petty zoo come to our house. Once we expressed some concern about where to put the animals, weather, and other practicalities, Claire immediately said, “That’s easy. We’ll do it at Jumpoline Park.”
And so we had her birthday at the perennially favorite spot, the largest and greatest indoor trampoline you can imagine. The kids had a great time. The girls were still young enough that they wanted us parents out there playing with them. It was myself and Cullen, the dad of Claire’s friend Maddie, who took on the important duty of “bouncing” the kids. This involved the girls laying all around a parent on the trampoline, then the parent jumping up and down as high as possible, trying to bounce the kids up as much as possible. This was tiring work, and soon sweat was dripping from my brow. The kids also liked to be chased across the trampoline, and some were quite good at taunting. I required many breaks to avoid collapsing in exhaustion.
This year, Claire knew ahead of time what some of the kids were going to give her for presents. They basically just told her at school ahead of time. The two big must-have items this year were My Little Pony stuff and a Rainbow Loom. Claire adores My Little Pony and wants to know who your favorite characters are (Rainbow Dash and Pinky Pie of course, and Apple Jack is great but under appreciated). Some of the other kids at school think My Little Pony is babyish, but Claire stands her ground. She just loves that cute little ponies. The other big item was a Rainbow Loom, a rubber-band loom that is super popular at school. Claire got to take hers to school and use it on the playground and the bus, like her friends.
Molly is now officially four years old, just like her favorite TV character, Caillou. When Molly woke up this morning and we said “Happy Birthday!”, she looked a little confused and said, grumpily, “It’s not my birthday. It’s Kamile’s birthday.” Kamile is her friend who had her birthday party on Sunday, while Molly’s party was on Saturday. It’s a little confusing to Molly why we would have her party one day, then her friend’s party the next day, then Molly turns four the next day. We must have our dates wrong!
A few minutes later while getting ready for school, Molly looked at herself and said, “But I’m not any bigger. My feet are the same size. And my whole body.” This was cute and almost straight out of a Caillou episode. After some explanation of both the date and her not being any bigger, she seems to get comfortable with the idea of being four.
Molly had also been marking her fourth birthday as the day she would give up diapers completely. She has mostly learned to use the toilet now, and she said diapers are babyish and she wanted to put them in the trash when she turned four. We later talked her into donating the unused diapers to a friend. Molly has backed down from this self-imposed deadline, though. She is going to wait until she runs out of diapers instead.
Molly chose to have her party as a bounce house, so we set it up at Pump It Up! in North Austin. Since Molly recently switched schools, we were afraid we would not get a big crowd at her party. We invited her whole new class, some favorites from her old class, and some other friends from work, etc. With siblings, we ended dup with 24 bouncers. It was a good party, and we were happy to meet some of the new (to us) parents in Molly’s class.
Molly’s presents included a Skuut balance bike from Kit and me. Molly called this her “scooty patooty” bike. She got some plastic “Sofia the First” jewelry that Claire got at Target. Claire was a little sad that Molly was not very excited about the shiny necklace and earrings that Claire paid $5 for from her own allowance. Molly got an awesome “M” cape from Noni, which she often asks to wear and which she keeps with her at bedtime. Other presents are mostly books, puzzles, dolls, and hands-on art sets.
Happy birthday, Molly!
For Kit’s big 40th birthday, we took a weekend trip up to Dallas to see a Rangers baseball game and enjoy brunch at the Dallas Arboretum. Kit took some ribbing from her fancy friends who thought this did not sound like fun at all. They would rather go to their vacation houses in San Francisco or Italy than plain old Dallas. But Kit had a good time, and the kids had a ball. We were wiped out and still recovering days later from the 36-hour trip (which is the longest we could get out of town). A few highlights…
And the rest I will leave to the pictures…
Claire turned seven years old today!
Sadly, I am actually going back and writing about it late at night months later. I will leave it mostly to the pictures, mostly. We had Claire’s party at her indoor swim lesson facility, Elmer Swim School. Claire was really into this idea, and it was fun for everyone to go swimming in late November! This was all on the weekend after her birthday. On Claire’s actual birthday, we took her out to Jason’s Deli, her perennial favorite.
Molly proudly turned three years old today!.
Molly had been looking forward to her “happy birthday” for a few days now, always making sure to point out that my own birthday was next in line (in a month) and that her friend Kamile was also turning three.
On first waking up and coming downstairs, Molly just stood there and admired the giant Sesame Street “Happy Birthday” sign hung up in the living room. She would eventually discover the dozens of little round cardboard “coins” of Sesame Street characters that came with the party decorations, laying on the glass table in the living room. She had a special little plastic bag with her name on it to collect them all. That seemed to be enough to make Molly’s birthday pretty darn good right there.
But that was not all. We set aside the whole morning for fun with Molly. We had hoped to take her to a bounce house or trampoline park, but being Sunday, they were closed for the morning. So we let Molly choose between going to Pease Park to play, staying around the house to play, or going to Mozart’s on the lake to feed the turtles. After initially leaning towards staying home and playing, Molly chose Mozart’s.
We would end up going to her friend’s birthday party in the afternoon, which was weird timing in a way, but which was also perfect because the party was at the Austin Children’s Museum, which is juts about Molly’s favorite place to go. I should also mention her presents for posterity. I may be leaving something out, but Molly ended up with a “Create a Story” magnetic board (which Claire ended up loving even more than Molly), some great books from Toot & Puddle and Dr. Seuse, a puzzle, a Lego Duplo farm set, and a Dora View-Master.
One other note, Molly loves to imitate Claire, and has inadvertently done it again today. Like Claire on her own third birthday, Molly was sick on her big day too, intermingling moments of joy with moments of grumpiness.
On to the pictures…
Two days after her big birthday bash, Claire officially turned six today!
Claire started the day at school by joining the morning announcements on the school-wide PA system. She and a couple of other kids got to announce their name and class and the fact that it was their birthday to the whole school. Claire was pretty excited to do this, and kept her composure for her brief announcement from a back room in the school’s main offices.
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| Claire announcing her birthday to the school |
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| Claire also received a nice Monkey Mail message from a classmate. |
As per our tradition, Claire got to pick what and where to eat for dinner. We offered to make her anything she wanted at home or go out somewhere. After some vacillation, she picked Phil’s Ice House, probably for its fine playground, which is always populated by active kids looking for fun. Claire tried to get something going with the other kids, but they were mostly older boys, so it was a little tough. Still, she persisted and manage dot have some fun. Molly tried many especially daring feats, including climbing up a chain ladder by herself and sliding down a really big, covered slide. Claire and Molly played and managed to settle down for a little food too.
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| Claire at Phil’s |
At home, Claire had a cupcake and opened her present form us, which was a kid-firendly real digital camera which Kit found on sale just that day (her original birthday present will become a Christmas present.) Claire did not seem too excited about the camera, but we think she will come to love it, especially on our upcoming trip to Washington DC.
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| Opening her present. |
McG Kids 