Crazy Texas Weather

I need to get out of Texas and back to earthquake country!  We had 6 tornado warnings/seek shelter warnings on Memorial weekend alone.  I had to wake the kids (and the two dogs) up in the middle of the night and bring them into the bathroom during these warnings.  Of course they thought it was fun and wanted to sleep in tub for the next week.

We had major back to back storms and while we weren't affected by the floods, our neighbors had some issues and some other Austin communities had to deal with 40 foot high waters.

 The creek behind our house was the highest in 20 years.  It was more like a river for 2 days.

Zoe reading to her brother - keeping our minds on other things  :)

The phone, TV & Internet alerts were non-stop

 This is a picture from a neighbor...taken approximately 8 miles away from our neighborhood.

 I suppose the silver lining is that all these storms =  Lake Travis going up 35+ feet and a new roof!

BEFORE

AFTER

The roofers were the fastest workers I've ever seen.  They were done in 1.5 days.  Amazing.

The downside of storms... BIG BUGS.   I almost walked right on this guy.  Eeeeeek!

Mariner Math Awards

Zoe has a very unique kindergarten classroom with 100% parent participation.  Not normal life!   Her school did this extra math activity called "Mariner Math."  It is basically extra math homework that the kids take home and have to do by themselves. It's not mandatory but definitely encouraged. Well, every single kid in Zoe's classroom completed every single assignment!  I guess this is very rare...so the school recognized them at an award ceremony.  Here is Zoe playing with her friends right before the awards.

Where's Zoe? 

Zoe's best girl friend - Kaylee and her best boy friend - Jackson.

Very proud of my little girl!

Winning!

Zoe had a big Saturday this past weekend!  She completed the Nitro 1 swim curriculum on Saturday and graduated to Nitro 2!!  She has worked really hard to get past station 10 (station 10 = 20 yards of backstroke and 20 yards of freestyle, rolling to catch a breath)! 

Whereas Nitro 1 focuses more on safety and basis, Nitro 2 is more advanced instruction – covering streamlining, rhythmic breathing, side breathing freestyle, and the other 3 competitive strokes: backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.  It also covers treading water, survival floats and competitive turns.  She is super excited to start this Saturday!  I hope she can learn a lot in the last 1.5 months we have here :)

After swim, she had her final soccer game of the season.  The Rainbow Unicorns dominated and won!

 We had a post swim and soccer lunch at All Star Burger where she demolished her fries and burger...

...while her brother didn't eat anything (no surprise there).

Zoe has always been competitive - I hope that she continues to be interested in sports and athletic as she grows up.  That girl sure loves to win and be #1!  :)

Texas Sunsets

I experienced one of the most beautiful Texas sunsets this evening...after surviving my first "tornado warning - seek shelter" emergency alert.  Sorry mom for not telling you  ;)  But there was no tornado and we are all safe (but not from the stupid mosquitos)!

Mother's Day 2015

I had a great mother's day weekend.  Francis flew out and we were all so excited to see him!

Here we are enjoying a nice lunch on Mother's Day  :)

Happy Mother's Day to, Mimene as well!  We all love you!

Me and the Kids

With Francis in Santa Barbara, I've been here with the kids and dogs running the show by myself.  I'll be staying in Austin until the end of the school year and then moving back to Santa Barbara and joining Francis at the end of June!  It's been challenging working full time and taking care of the kids solo but I'm getting it done!  It has definitely given me insight into what single moms have to deal with and I have to give major kudos to them because it's not easy! As long as I stay on my schedule, everything usually works out :)

Here is what we've been up to these past few weeks...

Swimming at the lake

FaceTime with the grandparents

Zoe's school has a yearly carnival where pretty much our entire small town shows up. 

Zoe zip lining

Yes, that is ouchie #1

Sugar high was wearing off

Zoe and Kaylee

Getting them back to their happy place with more sugar  ;)

Saturday's have been packed with swim and soccer.

And lunches afterwards...

She climbed all the way to the top like it was nothing!

Napping on the coffee table...parenting at it's best.

Ouchie #2

Ouchie #3 (spider bite.. or so the doctor thinks.  Eeeeeek!)

Our neighbor dropped this off for them one morning, nothing beats the southern hospitality down here!

More soccer..

Hydrating at the Lakeway Spring Festival.

We've been spending a lot of time outdoors and enjoying the beautiful spring weather.