Videos

Making Slime (and Tacos!)

Video | | patmcg

Claire has been trying for a few weeks to make the perfect homemade slime.  We’ve used Borax, Elmer’s glue, sprinkle glue, acrylic paint, and anything else you can think of that is slimy.  Today Claire filmed a time-lapse video of her slime experiment while I cooked dinner and Molly played Rayman Legends on the PlayStation 4 in the background.  At the very end of the video, you can see a taco appear in front of Claire, which was the sign for the slime experiment to end and for dinner to begin!

In the video, I used the song Pink Slime by La Luz.  I found the song from the NPR Music’s Austin 100 playlist for SXSW 2015.

Galveston Time Lapse

Video | | patmcg

The girls had lots of fun on the beach in Galveston while waiting for Pleasure Pier to open.  There was no shortage of hermit crabs to scare, and the gulf waters were warm enough to wade in, even right after Christmas!

And thanks to Gordon Colcotte’s song for being almost custom made for this video.

Rope swing

Video | | patmcg

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.

One-on-One Fun Day

Video | | patmcg

Last year’s trip to Schlitterbahn as a family of four was a little tricky since Molly and Kit couldn’t swim.  Claire and I swam around having fun while Kit basically babysat Molly in the kiddie pools.

So this year, we planned a Schlitterbahn trip with just Claire and a friend and me.  Kit and Molly had their own special day at Donut and Taco Palace, followed by puzzles at home, then dinosaur bone digging at the Austin Nature and Science Center, and finally watching the Shaun the Sheep Movie at the theater.

Unfortunately, Claire’s chosen friend, Nadia, broke her arm a couple of days before the trip to Schlitterbahn.  With such short notice, it was hard to get a replacement friend, so it was just Claire and me.  Claire loved Kristal River and the Torrent, both circle “river” types of rides, which we did at least 20 times.  We spent the whole day at Schlitterbahn, from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm.

It was a day of many unexpected free things too.  At the Schlitterbahn ticket gate, a lady randomly gave me a free ticket that she didn’t need, worth about $60.  A guy we shared a picnic table with gave us some free drinks from his cooler.  We got a free tote from the Schlitterbahn locker guy.  And P. Terry’s gave us a free milkshake that they had extra.

We met up with Kit and Molly at home around 6:30 and traded stories before getting the kids showered and off to bed after a full blown day of fun!

Molly Takes Some Questions

Video | | patmcg

Molly was in the mood to answer some “tabletop questions”, so we went with it.

Molly covers her inner dialogs, her favorite toys and books, her courageous fight against naps, how she felt about her first day of school, and what she likes about her big sister.