Brunch buffet

This morning, Hazel, Mom and I met up with Zhenya for a brunch buffet at Cannoli Joe's.

It was great! They had loads of Italian food, plus breakfast food and best of all, dessert.

Hazel and I ate so much a lady came up to our table and asked Mom if we ever stop eating. She said every time she looked over at us, we were shoveling it in!

Hazel especially liked the spaghetti and broccoli and I ate lots of fruit, tried some pasta and topped it off with apple crisp and ice cream.

While the food was awesome, the best part was catching up with Zhenya. I told her she is nice, which she proved by letting Hazel gum her up with her food encrusted hands. Zhenya took these fun pictures of us with her phone.

Trick or treat!

We've had a busy few weeks around here. After Grandma left, Mom's friend Sarah and her friend Jen came to visit. We had a great time catching up with them and eating at lots of fun restaurants around town -- Central Market, where we got to play on the playground, Huts, and Austin Java.


Then we all got sick. We had fevers and were just generally under the weather. Hazel and I bounced back pretty fast but Mom ended up with a nasty sinus infection. It all really messed our Halloween weekend up. We missed Dad's work party, my school party, and a trip to Six Flags last weekend. Luckily we still had a few chances to dress up. We donned our costumes twice for free food at one of Dad's favorite haunts, Freebirds.

Sunday I carved a new jack-o-lantern with Dad and we headed out for trick-or-treating. I dressed up as a duck and Hazel dressed up as a bunny. Before we left, Dad and Mom coached me about what to say when people answered their doors. I had it down and was getting really good at yelling, "Trick or treat!" But when we went to the first house, they asked me what to say and I yelled, "Candy!" Everyone laughed, but it got the job done. By the next house I remembered to say "Trick or treat," and Hazel was really great at it too. We LOVED eating the candy. My favorite part of trick or treating was running up to the house and ranging the doorbell.  At some houses, I rang the doorbell over and over again.  Fortunately, we have very understanding neighbors.

This past week was pretty mellow in comparison, and we spent most of our time trying to get back to normal since being sick. After missing three days when I was sick, I headed back to school Monday. I was very happy to see my friends and teachers. Hazel went back to her school Tuesday and they moved her up to a big girl classroom. She really loves it. They do a lot more there. She gets to go outside to play each time she goes and they do more crafts. She still goes about twice a week.

This weekend we made up for lost time and headed down to San Antonio for our postponed trip to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was great. I went on all my favorite rides: airplanes, fruit salad, a roller coaster, school bus, the big red cars, and a smaller car with a horn I liked to honk. Hazel came on some of the rides too and seemed to really enjoy them this time.  I climbed around on a pirate ship playscape and we watched a live Wiggles show. We all had a blast and are glad we didn't miss out on the chance to go since we missed it last weekend.

Click here for photos of our Halloween weekend, Six Flags, a trip to the park this week, and Hazel riding around in our laundry basket.

School photos

We got my school photos back this week. They are cute, but we think the ones with the leaves, beach and flag (which looks like it's missing some stars) are hilarious. Mom said they should have made a photo of me on the moon while they were at it.

Anyway, here they are for your viewing enjoyment.

A day out at Crowe's Nest Farm

Today I went on my first school field trip. I went in to school at the normal time this morning, then Mom left to take Hazel to her school. About an hour later, I was surprised because Mom came back. The next thing we did was pretty exciting -- we got on a school bus with all the other pre-k classes! It was great. We sat in the back seat and we had seat belts but no one rode in car seats. It was loud. There was no air conditioner so all the windows were open, and the bus driver played the radio for us. It was fun looking out the window and it was a really bumpy ride! Every time we went around a corner or over a bump, all the kids yelled "whoa!" It was very fun, but I held on tight to Mom, especially at first.

After about a half hour, we arrived at our destination, Crowe's Nest Farm. Crowe's Nest Farm is an educational place for kids and a place that saves wildlife and animals that were once pets (but shouldn't have been) and now need a safe place to live.

When we first got there, we went into the barn, where we watched a video about the farm and one of the farmers told us all the rules, including the fact that we needed to stay on the trails so we wouldn't run into any black widow spiders or snakes in the grass or the woods.

Next we looked at turtles and lizards in pools in the barn. We weren't allowed to touch them because if they bite your finger they won't let go and they could have salmonella. Then we went to another barn, where we saw a real, live cow. The farmer told us all about cows before hooking the cow up to a machine and milking her.

Mitch & Linh at the pumpkin patch.

After the cow, we went for a hayride. We saw bison and ostriches. We learned that bison have to be two before they can have babies and the ones they had are only one. They really like to eat! When they saw us coming, they ran to the fence and when the farmer gave them food, they gobbled it down. The ostriches were funny looking! The farmer told us they run very fast, don't like playing with people, and have dinosaur feet with two toes. He also showed us one of their eggs. The egg was big!

We next headed back for a nice picnic lunch. I sat at a table with all my friends and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an orange and some pretzel goldfish. It was great! Mom was glad lunch was in an open air, covered pavilion because it was starting to get hot outside.

After lunch, our class had time to tour the farm on our own. We saw many animals, including goats, a duck, a goose, many weird chickens, a porcupine, a coati, llamas, emus, ponies, many types of cows, and pot belly pigs, just to name a few. We wrapped up our fun day by picking a pumpkin for our class out of the farm's pumpkin patch, then headed back to school on the bus.

I was really wiped out by the end of the trip and made Mom carry me, but stayed awake to enjoy the (much quieter, since everybody was so tired out) bus ride home. It was really a great day and I can't wait to go on more field trips!

Check out our pictures here.

Grandma in town for Hazel's 18 month birthday

This has been a pretty exciting week for us because Grandma came to visit. Grandma came late Wednesday. We laid low and hung around the house Thursday, but Grandma thought taking me to school and meeting my teacher was fun. Friday we had lunch with our friend Zhenya and her parents, who came to visit all the way from Bulgaria. Hazel and I had a good time slurping up a smoothie Grandma ordered for lunch, then we went on to shopping at Borders, where I talked Grandma into picking up a fun game for me. After our nap, which I decided was optional, we headed to the playground, where Hazel showed Grandma how great she is at playing in mulch.

Saturday was another fun day. We headed to Terra Burger for lunch, where I played a little on the playscape and Hazel and I ignored our food but had fun in the water. After our rest, Grandma took a break from us while we went to a birthday party. We had some yummy fruit and cake and Hazel jumped in a bounce house with Mom.

Grandma brought tools to make jack-o-lanterns, so we made funny faces out of pumpkins Sunday morning. Hazel and I did not like touching the slimy insides, but Peepa had fun sleeping on top of them. We are really excited about the end product. Sunday afternoon we shared our full personalities with Grandma. We hadn't slept well and spazzed out. At the end of the day, Mom and Dad left us with her because they couldn't take anymore.

Today Hazel is 18 months old. To celebrate, she had a well visit at the doctor's office. The nurse was so surprised at how tall Hazel has grown, she measured her twice to be sure she measured right the first time. Hazel is now a whopping 31.25 inches tall (40th percentile)! She weighs 20 lbs 4 ounces and her head is 44.1cm around (both 4th percentile). You can click here for her latest growth chart or check out the chart of the right side of the blog.

Afterwards we headed to Costco for lunch and spent some time with Grandma in the morning while Mom and Dad went to a conference with my teacher and in the afternoon while they ran an errand. We had a great time -- Grandma took us to the playground again.

Dad and Mom said my parent-teacher conference went really well. My teacher said I am on track and am learning a lot.

For some pictures of our week, click here.

An afternoon at the playground

The weather has been great here lately -- cooler but sunny -- so we headed to the playground yesterday afternoon. Check out our video (which shows why Mom thinks Hazel is headed to college on an athletic scholarship one day) and photos.

Life's a beach

We celebrated this weekend with another great road trip. This time we headed down to Corpus Christi for an overnight beach stay.

Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed out bright and early. The four-hour drive took us through San Antonio, so our first stop was, of course, Krystal. We were last there only six days ago on our way back from Six Flags last weekend, so we weren't expecting anything new, but when we got there, the place was completely closed down. The drive-in section was completely ripped out, the sign was removed, and the windows and doors were boarded up. It may have been the worst day of Dad's life. He kept screaming and taught us a new word that Hazel repeated a few times but Mom won't let me write here.

After that, Dad said we weren't stopping for anything so we powered through to our hotel, the Residence Inn. It was fantastic, starting with the cookies in the lobby, a fun elevator, and better yet, our suite. Hazel and I loved running around the room and dancing and making faces in front of a huge closet-sized mirror. I liked turning on and off all the lights and messing with the alarm clock. Hazel found a funny hiding spot only she was small enough to crawl into.

We didn't want to leave the room, but with promises of cookies and elevators, Dad and Mom eventually talked me into it. We headed out to a local pizzeria and finally, the beach! It was fantastic! It was like a giant sandbox but better because of the ocean. Dad took us out into the waves, but mostly we liked playing in the shallow part, digging in the sand, running around, and chasing seagulls. Hazel also liked chasing any dogs that walked by. I think she missed Peepa.

After a while, we were tired so we went back to the hotel room to clean up, then headed out again for dinner at a really great place called Snoopy's. Dad and Mom had fish, Hazel and I had burgers and grilled cheese, and we sat out on the deck over the water, where we could see lots of big fish swimming just underneath us, and watched the sun go down.

It was late when we got back to the hotel, so Mom and Dad thought we'd go right to sleep, but we had other plans. Before we went on this trip, Mom told me I could sleep in a nest on the floor. I was really excited about it. Hazel had a portable crib to sleep in. When we were supposed to go to bed though, all bets were off. Hazel screamed a lot and I kept running out of the room. Eventually, Hazel went to sleep in the crib for a few hours, then ended up in the nest, and I slept in a giant bed with Mom. Dad ultimately ended up on the couch.

Despite our twilight adventures, Hazel and I woke up at our usual bright and early hour Sunday morning. Mom took us downstairs to breakfast so Dad could get some more sleep. It was great -- they had a huge breakfast buffet with almost anything you can think of to eat in the morning. We ate a lot to make up for our lack of sleep.

After playing in our room for a little bit and heading back for a second breakfast once Dad woke up, we went swimming again, this time in the hotel's indoor pool. The pool was cold, so I didn't spend much time swimming, but Hazel floated around in an inflatable boat and I had fun putting bubbles from the hot tub in the pool and splashing with my feet. Dad relaxed in the hot tub while Mom pushed Hazel around in her boat and drug me into the pool with them when she could catch me.

Our ride back was pretty uneventful, since Hazel and I were so beat we slept the whole way. I hope we take another beach vacation soon.

Here are pictures from our trip, as well as a link to the video above.