Dinosaur-themed Birthday Party

One of Owen's friends from church had a dinosaur-themed birthday party, complete with a dino dig, pinata, dinosaur cake, cascarones, and water balloons.

I think cascarones are a Texas thing; I'd never seen them before. They're Easter eggs filled with confetti:

School

Last Friday was Texas Independence Day. Owen and his friends had a Texas-themed preschool. (They're eating cornbread, chips and salsa, and oranges for their snack.)

And Heidi's first grade class did a Texas unit, including a short play called Tumbleweed Stew:

...And a shoebox parade with Texas-themed floats:

(Heidi wanted to do "Texas fashions," so she decorated her shoe box with pictures of cowboys and cowgirls, boots, cowboy hats, etc., and she put Woody and Jessie inside.

Destination Imagination Tournament

This past weekend Lizzie and a few other first and second graders from her school "competed" in a Destination Imagination tournament in South Austin. (The tournament isn't actually competitive till third grade, so everybody gets a medal just for participating.) They prepared a skit about different cultures, and Liz did a bunch of research about Ancient Egypt. I should have gotten a better picture of her costume--complete with Cleopatra-style eye liner.

Mother-Daughter Date

I got a Cheesecake Factory gift card for my birthday! Heidi and I went today for a lunch date:

(Isn't Heidi a ham?) :)

Preschool Fire Station Visit

One of the kids was out sick. The tall kid is actually a kindergartener; he just tagged along with his little brother.

Misc

These two pics were taken earlier this month at Heidi's after-school GEMS club:

The picture quality on this one is really poor, but I got a kick out of the fact that they were carrying William around the house in a litter.

No caption needed.

These two pictures are from this month's staff appreciation event. Every month our PTO committee does something to show our appreciation to the school staff. This month it was a s'mores bar. Did you know you can make s'mores with Ritz crackers? And Reese's? (Google it. You're welcome.) The other committee member is not pictured because her daughter was sick:

Heidi's class Valentine's party.

Random Pics

Feeding the goats at the park. This was last week's playgroup.

Getting ready for church. William dressed himself.

At the park. We've been taking advantage of the warmer weather by visiting the park most days after school.

Art work in the school hall.

We hosted a groundhog-themed preschool this week. Spoiler alert: Phil says 6 more weeks of winter. :( 

P.F. Chang's. We joined Daddy there for lunch one day this week.

I turned my back for one minute, and this kid climbed into the bath with all his clothes on!

Science Fair

Heidi had a friend over and we did some fun science experiments to prep for the science fair. 

This was my favorite. We dissolved M&Ms in water, and the M floated to the top. (Can you see it?)

Heidi's final project. She got a "WINNER" ribbon. (She was the only submission from her class.)

Lizzie's final project. She typed it up and did all the work herself. She got a "2nd Place" ribbon.
(There were only two submissions in her class, and the other one was pretty elaborate.)

Grandma and Grandpa

My camera broke back in August, and my phone doesn't take the best pictures, so I've been really slacking about taking pictures lately. But here are the few pictures that I took from Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth's visit:

We went to Menchie's to celebrate the girls' good report cards

We joined the girls at school for lunch

We went to Chuy's for some Tex Mex

Grandma and Grandpa read books and played games with the kiddos