May

May was about two things around here:  birthdays and illness.  The first part of the month consisted of one birthday party after another, cummulating, of course, in the big party for our new three-year-old. 

Like the shiner by his eye? He ran into the sofa a few hours before the party, just in time for it to get good and red before pictures.  Oh well.  He got seven different packs of Hot Wheels, and was thrilled by every last one.

We had a blast with friends

and family

and then birthday season was over, and 24 hours later the littlest guy was miserable.  They've all had ear infections on top of a cold; Noah and Owen are on round 2 of antibiotics.  So that's where we've been. 

Three!

Three years ago yesterday, this little guy arrived.

My sweet, imaginative, michevious boy

Three is gonna be great!

New Orleans, Part 3

Our last day in New Orleans, we met one of Mark's old friends at Old City Park.  Katrina left it under a foot or so of water, but it's been totally restored and is now glorious.

We fed the ducks

and dug in the mud.

Peek a boo!

Then one more time to run around before heading back.

It's about 9 hours of driving between Dallas and New Orleans, so the game is always to find fun places to stop along the way.  This time we happened upon a kite festival in Baton Rouge.  The boys got to make their own itty-bitty kites

and go down the bounce-house slides, over and over and over again.

It really was a fantastic time.  And it feels so good to , a week and a half later, finally be done writing about it.

New Orleans, Part 2

Audubon Park had this nice little pond, perfect for throwing sticks,

and these great trees, draped with Spanish moss,

and, of course, plenty of room to run free.

Then it was back to Rory's place, so we could watch the street cars

and enjoy the breeze.

Rory is an aspiring professional musician, so the boys like to get their rock star on.

Right now

New Orleans

Last weekend we had a fantastic time visiting Mark's family in New Orleans.  It was the first time in ages that we've been there in nice weather, so we spent half our time in one park or another.  Owen has discovered the joy of the swing.

We took an absurd number of pictures (seriously, 300+ over the course of 3 days).  I've actually been putting this off because it's too hard to pick a reasonable number of pictures to post, but maybe I'll just spread the picture dump over several days.

Rory had this toy accordian that was a huge hit with all the boys, even our newest musician.

We took the streetcar from Rory's place, as per normal.  After a nap on his uncle's shoulder, Nate's cowlick started taking over his whole head.

Then we head out to Audubon Park, with it's absolutely amazing trees.

We had a leaf fight under this tree.

The price of this shot:  I spent the next fifteen minutes pulling bits of leaves out of my bra.

Serves me right for going to the bathroom

Only for Easter

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,

Your loosened tongues employ;

Ye blind, behold your Savior come,

And leap, ye lame, for joy.

Wordless Wednesday--To the park!

Thanks to Wordless Wednesday for this excuse to share some of my favorite pics.

Coffee filter spring decorations

We have had the best time lately making these coffee filter prints.

The boys dribbled food coloring onto the coffee filters.  Some of them got pressed together to make symmetric prints, but most ended up pretty random.  They went through an entire container of coffee filters.

Then Noah picked out a few to string up in a garland.

And now we're all decorated for spring!

A word of warning, though:  food coloring stains. 

Half the fun for the boys was getting to use the normally off-limits food coloring, but I'm sure we could have used watercolors with equal success.