2014 Road Trip Part 2 - Pennsylvania

When we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Pennsylvania, we were very glad we skipped the museum and got there in time for dinner. Grandma welcomed us with pizza and subs from one of Mom’s favorite restaurants,Rocco’s, and several kid pools full of water to play in. We had a really relaxing dinner outside. Mom and Dad were happy to catch up with everybody and not get in super late too. The weather was perfect, the birds were chirping - it was a great way to kick off our visit.

The first morning we were there, we all went to the farmers’ market in York with Aunt Lauren and Mianna. It was great to see them again.

While we were in PA, we took a couple of big side trips. We went to the Crayola Experience in Easton, PA, with Grandma, Aunt Lauren and Mianna. It was so fun! We got to do all kinds of drawing, coloring and painting. We got to mold melted crayons into fun shapes and make designs on a plate with spinning melted crayons. We made puzzles out of pictures we drew, designed our own custom magic markers and crayons, and did all kinds of other fun things. Our favorite thing was probably Art Alive, where we got to draw pictures on computers and then see them projected on giant wall, moving, spinning, and bouncing around. We liked running up to the wall and touching the things that we drew.

We finished up that awesome day with a stop for dinner at the Tropical Treat on the way back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

Hazel was in Heaven at the Crayola Experience

On the Fourth of July, we went to New Freedom, Pennsylvania, to Steam into History. We rode a steam train and learned about Civil War history with Grandma and Grandpa. Mom and Dad liked the history and the relaxing ride. Hazel, Turner and I were super excited to be on a train! Turner fell asleep on Grandpa on the train. Still it definitely made an impression on him - when he got back to the house, he made a train out of chairs and his stuffed animals.

We finished the holiday watching fireworks in York with Aunt Lauren, Uncle Ryan, Grandma, Uncle Daniel and Uncle Ryan’s dad, Jim. It was a blast! (Did you get the joke there?)

All Aboard!!!

Dad and Mom each got to enjoy some grownup time while we were in Pennsylvania. Mom was happy to spend lots of time with Aunt Lauren, with and without us kids around. One afternoon, Mom got to run errands with Aunt Lauren by herself. Even though they just ran errands, Mom was happy to have time just with Aunt Lauren. One evening, Dad went to watch the World Cup with Uncle Ryan and some of his friends. He had fun having a boys’ night.

We also had the chance to spend some time with Mom Mom and Pop, my great-grandparents, while we were there. We had lunch with them at Cross Keys Diner one day before we went to see Grandpa at his office. Another day, had lunch with them at the Famous Hot Weiner, one of our favorites. It was really good to see them. Hopefully next time we can visit their ghost JJ too!

We went to Gigi’s house one day while we were there. We had a nice time swimming, and while it was sad for Mom, being there brought a lot of memories back for Mom, who was thinking about all the fun she had there when she was a kid.

Kayaking with Grandpa in Maryland

The most fun we had at Grandma and Grandpa’s was just hanging out and seeing everyone. We were super happy to see Mianna, and spent a ton of time outside laughing with Uncle Daniel and Bruiser. It was nice being able to have lots of picnics without being super hot or being attacked by millions of bugs, like at home. Grandpa and Grandma read to and snuggled us, and we spent the last day of our visit swimming with them at their boat, where I had the chance to kayak with Grandpa! At the end of the day we went back to the house to watch the movie Aristocats, which really made us laugh!

It was great visiting and sad to leave our Pennsylvania family. But we knew we had more adventure in store on the rest of our trip.   

2014 Road Trip Part 1 - Kentucky

For the past month or so, I've secretly been helping Dad plan a summer road-trip. Mom and Dad got me a road atlas and I've been using it to look at different routes we could take to visit Grandma, Grandpa, Bubbe, and the rest of our family in PA and Atlanta.

Finally, a few weeks ago, it was time to leave. We got up super early in the morning - it was still dark outside - and all climbed in the car. Hazel, Turner, and I were all still in our jammies.

Dinner on Route 66

Our first stop was Dallas, where we went to the new Dallas Children's Museum. Outside there were giant frogs for us to climb on and a little stream for us to splash around in. Inside, there was standard children's museum fare - a small grocery store, a sandbox, and a climbing area. After we played for a while, we went back outside and had lunch by the frogs and stream. It was a great way to break up the drive.

After Dallas, we drove up to Oklahoma. This was exciting because none of us had ever been to Oklahoma before. We drove on old route 66 (which reminded us of a great kids poem we know, "Highwire 66," which is about some people in a circus) and stopped at a fun place for dinner. We finally arrived at our hotel for the night. The hotel was a bit disappointing (the pool was too cold to swim in, the breakfast food had ants all over it), but fortunately, we were only there a short time before moving on.

Lunch under the Gateway Arch

The next morning we got up super early again and headed east to Missouri. We had a picnic lunch underneath the Gateway Arch in St Louis, which was pretty neat. After quick drives through Illinois and Indiana, we finally arrived in Louisville, Kentucky to visit our friend Bowman and his parents Mike and Tabby (and their dogs Zoey and Oscar).

We spent a few days in Kentucky. After catching up on some sleep, we grabbed a delicious breakfast at a restaurant where we could sit outside and drove to Lexington, Kentucky. Our first stop was the Kentucky Horse Park where we took pony rides. We all really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it started to rain before we could do anything else at the horse park, and it rained too hard for us to do a campus tour of University of Kentucky. So, we headed back to Louisville for the night. We all agreed that we were ready for a day of no driving.

The next day we spent the entire day in Louisville. We went to a really fun splash pad right on the Ohio river. After that, we decided to walk across the Ohio River into Indiana on a giant bridge. Dad and Mike rented a fun bike and we rode and walked up the bridge ramp. By the time we got to the top, Dad and Mike were pooped, so Mom and I drove the bike on the flat part of the bridge. We went all the way across and all the way back. By the time we were done, it was time to head back for naps and dinner.

A really fun thing we did at Bowman's house was catching fireflies. There were lots of them around, and Hazel was really good at catching them. Mike even gave her a jar for her to put them in.

During our time at the house, we all had a blast playing with Bowman. He is almost 2 years old, and it was like having a new little brother. He was really good at sharing toys with us.

One other neat thing that happened just before our trip was that Turner finally potty-trained. He was so excited to start wearing underwear. For night-time and the long car-rides, he still wears pull-ups just in case, but when we stopped, he got out and went potty along with the rest of us. We are all very proud of Turner.

After a couple of days in Kentucky, it was finally time to continue our road-trip. We left super early in the morning again and headed up through Ohio, West Virginia, and on to Pennsylvania. We made good time and stopped for lunch in Pennsylvania. Dad gave us a choice of going to a children's museum in Pittsburgh or driving for another 4 hours to get to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. We surprised him and Mom by choosing to keep driving!

So we headed down the Pennsylvania Turnpike (much to my delight) and got to Grandma and Grandpa's in time for dinner!

The Amazing Flying Hazel

Graduating Preschool & Kindergarten

Hazel and Mom (not in a banana costume)

The end of May and beginning of June have been a busy and exciting time for us.

Hazel graduated preschool. At the graduation ceremony, her class walked out, wearing little graduation hats, while they played Pomp and Circumstance. Then they sang "The Pirate Song," which her class chose to sing with a vote. That was the song Hazel voted for, so she was excited. It's also one of Turner's favorite songs from school. Then they gave each graduate a diploma, everyone ate cake. 

My wonderful teacher, spraying us all down with shaving cream

Before graduation day, Mom asked Hazel if they should dress up, and whether Hazel wanted to wear her fancy pink and white dress. Hazel said yes, and Mom asked if she wanted her to dress up too. Hazel said, "In what? Your banana costume?" It wasn't quite what Mom meant, but it made Mom realize that maybe she has been running around in the banana costume a little too often.

We celebrated the end of kindergarten in a big way too, by inviting my whole class to have our end of the year party at our house on the last day of school! It was wildly fun. We had three wading pools with water toys, a slip n slide, a million bottles of shaving cream that we all sprayed all over each other, watermelon popsicles, pizza, cupcake decorating, water balloons, face painting, and lots more. It was crazy fun, and we were all tired for days afterward. Woo hoo! I'm a first grader now. And Hazel's a kindergartener!!!

Since then, we've kicked summer off to a great start. Turner and Hazel are still going to school two mornings a week, which is a nice way for Mom and me to spend time together. We like going for walks, but it is also our time when we have to get some errands done. No matter what we're doing, we agree that it's nice hanging out together regardless of what we're doing.

Another cool thing we've done is visited a splash pad in Central Austin two Fridays ago. It was a nice relaxing day. Turner, Hazel, Mom and I all really enjoyed that and then a visit to a banana stand afterward. I told Mom it was the best day of my life.

We've also spent time at birthday parties and hanging out with friends, but the main thing we've been doing is blitz swim classes this week and last. Blitz classes are when you have a class every day Monday through Thursday. It doesn't sound like much, but we are all worn out. The best part is we can all hang out in the shallow end when we aren't in class. Mom especially loves not having to sit on the side watching everybody else having fun.

I'm doing really well in my class, Hazel already moved up to the next level, and even Turner has started taking classes this week. After watching us all last week, he said, "I want to take lessons." He's doing great. He doesn't mind going underwater and does everything the teacher asks with a smile on his face. It seems he's a natural swimmer! Mom and Dad are proud of all of us. We all agree we want to spend a ton of time in the pool this summer.


Finally, we had the chance to celebrate Dad last weekend, on Father's Day! We started the day by leaving the house so he could sleep in. Mom took all of us to Einstein's Bagels, everyone's fave.

Then we headed to a nearby elementary school to check out their playground. Turner and Hazel played on a playscape while Mom and I made up a new game, state bounce. They had a huge U.S. map painted on the ground at the playground, and we found a playground ball. I like states, and Mom wanted to work on bouncing and catching. So we combined it all and made up a game. It was a blast!

Dad sent Mom a message telling us he was up, so we went home to shower him with gifts. After Mom took a nap, we headed to the lake to spend time with our friends Will and Bob on their boat. It was great! Turner and I didn't love the speed, but once we anchored and jumped in, we really liked being out there. Hazel and Will did cannonballs off the tube and we all just had a really happy time relaxing and hanging out together.

Then we took Dad to Freebirds, and were happy that Bob, Will and Will's mom and brother could join us. Will asked Hazel to marry him, and Hazel said yes, so that was just one more exciting part of the day.

I can't wait to see what the rest of summer has in store for us! 

Coming up on 7 years

Even though I'm not quite 7 years old yet, I had my 7 year-old-checkup at the doctor today. I was excited to see how much I've grown, and also excited that I didn't have to get any shots.

I am just a half-inch short of 4 feet tall (45th percentile) and weigh 52 pounds (55th percentile).

You can see my latest growth chart here, or by clicking the image on the right side of the blog

Happy Father's Day!

We love our Dad!

Potty Training Express

This picture has nothing to do with
potty training because that's kind of gross.
Shucking corn, however, is pretty fun.

Here's some big news. Turner is pretty much potty-trained!!!

It all happened so fast.

Last week, after hearing that one of his close friends started using the potty, Turner started wanting to wear underwear for the first time. So Mom let him wear underwear around the house, and kept the potty around for him to use. He sat on the potty a lot but didn't seem to get how to use it. He had a few accidents in his underwear but then something seemed to click. He pooped in the potty a few times, then the day after that he started peeing in the potty. He even went to school and used the "big potty" there and didn't have any accidents.

The first few times Turner used the potty, he ran around yelling "I pooped in the potty. I'm not a toddler anymore!" Then he started saying, "Now I can stay in the babysitting room at Ikea!" 

The funny thing was I think Hazel and I were just as excited. We ran around yelling about Turner's accomplishment, and telling him how proud we were of him.

Today he used a regular toilet at Mom's allergist's office, at a friend's house, and at a restaurant. So Mom got rid of all his training potties so he will just use the regular toilet at home.

All of us were amazed at how quickly Turner has become potty-trained! Way to go Turner!