last day of school

 Today was the last day of 'school' for Zoe (and also the last day before summer break, hence the pizza;).  She's been at this nursery/day care since she was about 7 months old, and has grown up with a fair amount of these kids, most of whom live in our neighborhood.  We were so lucky to have found this second family for Zoe, and will certainly miss them. 

TABF fundraiser

 On May Day weekend we headed over to the German Texan Heritage Society as they were hosting a day by the Texas Artisanal Beer Fundraiser, raising money for the Austin YMCA. Tracie and Marcus joined us, and we all had a great time with some good, though very windy weather.  Really good pizza, lots of really good, small brew beers, and some music.

 

 Zoe even was able to help pull tickets for the raffle. And she was able to convince Dad to dance with her!

Crawfish Boil 2011

Yes, it's been a while since we've hosted the boil, but we figure with Kyle hitting the big double-three, our house passing 60, the remodel finally finished (more or less - photos coming!), and an upcoming move (surprise! we're moving to England!), it was time to host a party.  We were apparently so busy this year, though, that we didn't take very many photos!  Many thanks, of course, are due to John for a stellar batch, and Erica and Scott for co-hosting.  And thanks to everyone for coming, and taking a few extra pint glasses.  Now we don't have to pack them!

 John hard at work on the first batch,

a.k.a. the not-spicy one.

p.s. that's the addition in the background!

 

You say I'm how old?

Wait, I'm that old too?

You can tell the crawfish have arrived because no one is looking at the camera.

Clean-up the next day.  All of those containers at one time had either live or dead crawfish.

Snow in Austin!

 This past week we had snow in Austin!  Kyle had already left for a bachelor party, and I had driven Zoe to Omi & Pops' house the previous day, Thursday, knowing that the snow was coming.  I was heading off Friday for a separate bachelorette party.  Thursday nite the snow came, and quite a bit!

 I had to venture out to go to the doctor's office (didn't want to fly with a potential ear infection), and battled against people who didn't know how to drive in snow; they actually slowed down to go up a hill!!  You bet I sped pass them on the wrong side of the road, and barely made it up that hill.  The other person was stuck at the bottom.  Here are some photos to enjoy.  Quite the sight in Austin!

Thank you for your help!

getting ready that morning

With help from a lot of very generous people, we were able to raise nearly $1000 this year for Austin's Race for the Cure! What an amazing amount of help this will be towards treatment and support for those affected by breast cancer in Central Texas. Zoe was awesome race morning - she was convinced that pink was the color of the day, from top to bottom, including our special Race for the Cure leggings. And though we did lose one of the shoes on the walk (shoes rarely stay on her these days since she's learned how to put them on and take them off herself), it was a very successful outing. We again joined the Luthers, as we have for the previous two years, and continued our tradition of heading over to Waterloo for breakfast afterwards.
Thank you again to everyone for your help and support to this cause!

Zoe and me pre-race

Return of Tour de Fat

Again this year we attended New Belgium's Tour De Fat stop in Austin. Absolutely perfect weather for the event. A slightly different schedule than last year, to accommodate the Bird's mid-afternoon nap, though we were able to meet up with the Walters for a bit of an overlap.

Skippin' School

A couple weeks ago Zoe had to stay home from daycare. She had a temperature the previous afternoon, and they won't let you back in until it's gone for 24 hours without meds. Kyle stayed home with her pre-nap, and we switched off during nap time. She of course was feeling fine the whole day, so they were able to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having. Here are a few shot from the Zilker Zephyr. It's a big hit with the toddler set.

Urban Assault 2010 - the return of the Frozen Pickles

above: a collection of Zoe's fake smiles

As they did last year, Michael and Kyle competed in New Belgium's Urban Assault. Marcus, Tracie, Marcus's parents, and some of Kyle's other friends from work were there as well. I don't think it was as hot this year, thankfully, as Kyle and Michael rode a few extra miles in order to avoid lines. And, beer at the end certainly doesn't hurt!

Tracie, Marcus, and Marcus's parents (who flew out right after the race!
I hope for their seat-mates' sake they were able to fit in a shower...)

Brent and Jack

ignore the crazy guy
(maybe he's entertaining Zoe?)

Every person makes a difference,

and in some cases it isn't necessarily a positive difference. Family Connections (which I raved about in May of '09, which seems like an eternity ago these days) has closed. There are numerous news stories about it. I first heard about the closing through the following email, simply entitled 'Library will be closing' :

Dear FamilyConnections’ Library Patron,

Until further notice, FamilyConnections’ Family Place Library services are on hold and we will be closing the library. If you have items borrowed, please hold onto them until you receive instructions from us on how to return them. We have records showing exactly who has what materials and will be able to contact you via phone or e-mail once we have more information. All overdue fines will be waived and online renewals are no longer allowed. You can still log onto your account to see what items are checked out to your account.

We greatly apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate the opportunity we’ve had to impact the children in your lives. If you wish to help or express your concerns about the loss of our library, please contact the Austin City Council via http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/site/city_hall_portal.htm.

Thank you,

FamilyConnections’ Family Place Library Staff

I'm having such a hard time grasping all of this. I haven't used their other services, like parenting classes (in English or Spanish, for families, mothers, or fathers - there were so many), or home-schooling supplies like laminating machines, but I stopped into the library every couple of weeks to borrow books for Z, books for me (how to be a working breast-feeding mother, a working mother, a whatever mother, etc, etc), and toys for Z. I felt this place was so Austin. Toys to check out? How awesome is that? I could live in my small 960sf Austin house, with my one bathroom and two bedrooms, have a child, and help keep her entertained and stimulated with an ever rotating supply of toys and books. Additionally, we could stop by there any day of the week and there was an entire play area set up, most likely with other playmates already included.

And now, allegedly because of one very selfish person, it's all gone. There were slight hints recently if you weren't "in" with the employees: schedule changed to being closed on Mondays, e-mail check out system not working quite up to normal standards. But I would have never imagined that, according to the news reports, someone decided to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars, while getting paid an $88,000 per year salary, so that she could run off to Venezuela while families (much more needy than our own) would all of a sudden lose one of their primary support systems.

In my various e-mail listservs, many people have been commenting on what a wonderful resource Family connections is and has been to the community as a whole. One mother recounted how they wouldn't have survived staying home with twin boys, who are now 18 years old, if it weren't for Family Connections.

So, I'm shocked. I've written our city council, but, frankly, I'm not quite sure how much good that will do. The facts being reported seem to indicate that there is quite a bit of money missing, and the person who may be responsible has left the country. While every person makes a difference, it'll take a lot more than just one to bring this valuable resource back to life.

Tour de Fat

This weekend we ventured out to New Belgium's Tour de Fat in Austin with the Walters. We really enjoyed ourselves, primarily because of the company, and Zoe slept through the whole thing!

On the way home I was the designated driver, so Zoe was keeping the Walters company in the back seat!

read this

so, I've become a fan of Google Reader - I no longer really worry about bookmarks, and sometimes it actually brings up other random stuff I like. So, here's a rundown of some recent items my reader has shared:
- Cool photos of bridges
- Make your own word cloud
- Make your own favicon ? (no, I had never heard that term before either...)
- Pimp My Smart Car
- New bookstore in Austin to check out
- Massive drought in Texas already
- and therefore watering restrictions in Austin, though they aren't necessarily being followed...

art in central texas

yes, believe it or not!

From the NYT:

SAN ANTONIO

The Jane and Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions will open at the McNay Art Museum on June 7. The first exhibition for the 45,000-square-foot, $33.1 million glass pavilion, designed by the Paris-based architect Jean-Paul Viguier, is “American Art Since 1945: In a New Light.” Over 100 paintings, sculptures and photographs — many from the permanent collection — will be on view for the first time, joining some of the museum’s better-known modern and contemporary works, like Willem de Kooning’s “Eddy Farm” and Joan Mitchell’s “Hudson River Day Line”. Admission: $8; (www.mcnayart.org).

2 Wheeler Adventures

Well, this past weekend my folks visited, which was great to see them. We took them to the Alamo Drafthouse
to see Pirate of the Caribbean (ugh - definite thumbs down), visited the Blanton Museum of Art, saw a Round Rock Express game (vs. Nashville's own Sounds) which Kyle's entire family came in for as well, and hopped on some Segways for a tour of Austin (more for the benefit of trying out the Segways). The Segways were quite fun to play with - a bit off-balancing at first, but towards the end we were all speeding up as fast as we could, and then coming to a sudden halt. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend!
(And yes, you do need to take breaks when riding Segways - you'd be surprised how tiring it is standing in one position for 3 hours!)