Daddy, the Super Racer!

March 2014

Tommy left on a Thursday night to head to Austin.  As part of the local BMW club, he had the opportunity to learn to race at the Circuit of the Americas recetrack, the only Formula One racetrack in the United States.  To say he was excited is a huge understatement.  I think he ate, slept and breathed COTA for weeks before the event!

We were excited to go support Daddy, but we had some important things to do in Frisco before we left.  When Jack turned three, I remember being sad that no one at daycare seemed to be inviting their classmates to birthday parties.  Well, apparently the 4th birthday is when the parties start.  I've heard many parents talk about how tiresome it gets to attend so many kid birthday parties and maybe I'll feel the same one day, but right now, I kind of enjoy taking him to the parties and meeting his friends and their parents.  This particular Saturday, we had not one, but two birthday parties to attend.  The first one was a joint birthday party for Jack's friend Julie, who was turning 4 and Livi's friend Jacob, who was turning 2.  The theme was Frozen/Thomas the Tank Engine:).  We started off with the Thomas part of the party, a train ride around the neighborhood - even Mommy got to ride!

Livi was super excited! 

Jack and his buddy Truman had fun, too! 

From there, we headed inside for some ice cream (the "Frozen" part of the party) and cake and opened presents.  Then, it was time for us to head to our next birthday celebration.  The party for Jack's friend Ariel was at the Main Event, a bowling and video game venue near our house.  Livi didn't bowl, but Jack had a great time on his first bowling alley adventure.  Even the 6 pound ball was a little heavy, but he just had to put it at the top of this ramp and let it slide down, then bounce around the bumpers until it finally knocked over a few pins.  It's quite the feat to keep 4 lanes of bowling 4 year olds focused for 10 frames!

Jack shared a lane with his friends Emilina, Jeffrey and Jacob: 

After a fun day of parties, we set off bright and early the next morning for Austin to see Daddy race.  The trip actually went pretty smoothly and we made it to COTA just in time to have a little lunch before Tommy's second race of the day.  As I looked through the photos, I realized how few photos we actually got of the racer himself.  He was in his car in a ton of pictures, but there were very few pictures where you could actually see his face.  Here's one - he's lined up in the starting area before a race began:

And here he is with his instructor:

It was a beautiful venue, and really nice to be able to enjoy it without the crowds of people who would accompany an F-1 race.  There was a big room where we could hang to get out of the wind in between races, but the kids really loved time running all around the stands:

 

...and even sat down for a few minutes to watch Daddy:

 

Here he is pulling out of the start: 

Go Tommy go! 

They had a professional photographer there taking pictures of all of the cars and they were much better than mine; 

This is Tommy's favorite.  It makes him happy because an M-3, which should be a faster car then his, is waving him around to pass - Speed Racer! :)

Mom and Dad drove in from Boerne to watch.  They win major brownie points because anyone who knows my Dad knows that he loves his Kansas Jayhawk basketball.  They drove from to Austin while KU was playing in the NCAA tournament (unfortunately, they lost), and made it just in time for his race, and of course lots of grandkid hugs:

Even Mommy got some hugs:

Of course, no trip to Austin would be complete without a trip to my favorite Austin Tex-Mex restaurant, Trudy's.  I finally got to try their famous Stuffed Avocado.  Yummy, but definitely not a meal for anyone counting calories.  From there, Tommy headed back to his hotel to rest up for his final day of racing and Jack, Olivia and I headed down to Boerne for a few days of Grandma and Grandpa fun!  Stay tuned for more of our adventures in scenic Boerne, Texas!

Happy Valentines Day 2014!

February 2014

This was the first year that I had any help getting kids valentines ready for school - which probably means that kids are too young to exchange valentines at school until they are at least 4.  At any rate, Jack picked out (you'll never guess...) Ninja Turtle valentines.  Livi picked Disney princess, but all of the valentine putting together happened after her bedtime.  Jack was really excited to help with the first few valentines for his classmates.  He signed his name, folded the cards, and stuck the Ninja Turtle eraser inside.  After about 5, he decided it was much more fun to play with the erasers...Oh well.  I kind of enjoy putting all of their valentines together.

The next morning, the kids got dressed in their Valentines Day shirts - Livi's says "Bee Mine," and she completed the look with the pink tutu from Aunt T's PJ set. Jack's says "Love at First Slice." (In case you aren't a Ninja Turtle expert, they love pizza!).

They also had these waiting for them in the morning - card, candy, t-shirt and toy for each of them.

Both of the kids came home with Valentine bags that they had decorated, filled with valentines from their friends.  Somehow, Jack came home with someone else's bag - we kept the valentines (they don't put names on the cards at daycare), but I brought the other kid's bag back to school the next day.  Jack's bag never did turn up.  Boo!

For dinner, we picked up this fun heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's.  Yum!

The weekend after Valentines Day, Brandi, Ryan, Lincoln and Charlie made the trek over from Fort Worth to spend the day with us.  We met at Blue Goose for lunch, then headed back to our house to play for a little while. For our last outing of the day, we headed to the new ice cream place in Frisco, iCream.  The cool thing about iCream is that you get to watch your ice cream being frozen. You pick your flavor and toppings and they put the liquid in a giant blender and freeze it with liquid nitrogen, right in front of you.  Jack and Lincoln thought it was pretty cool:

And the ice cream was pretty tasty, too!

Poor Charlie didn't get any ice cream, but hasn't he grown?! As I took this picture, I remember thinking what a big boy he was becoming!

In the Calm of Winter

Winter 2014

The weather this winter was very strange.  It would be beautiful and unseasonably warm one day, then sleeting and icing the next.  This winter marked my first busy season away from public accounting.  My January and February were definitely busier than I had been since I started my new job in May, but nothing compared to the 16 hour days and all-nighters of public accounting.  I may have stayed until 8pm a few nights and worked a couple of hours on a weekend, but I didn't lose my life to work.  It was pretty great.

All that explanation is mostly just to say that I used to blame busy season for the first quarter of the year being less-than-exciting, but I guess its just the season.  Nothing much happened in January or February, but I do have some pictures from my phone that give a glimpse into our not-so-exciting midwinter lives.

First, Jack had a dentist appointment.  After the last two dentist appointments led to cavities followed by several unsuccessful return attempts to fill the cavities on a very freaked out little boy, I was really nervous about this appointment.  He still wasn't a fan of getting his teeth cleaned, but overall, things went pretty well:

And we ended up with our picture on the "no-cavity" wall.  Way to go Jack!

Aunt T and Uncle Rob picked up some fancy new PJs for the kids for Christmas from one of their trips to Disneyland.  Princesses and Monsters Inc. - thanks guys!

While the weather was cold, Tommy decided it was time to introduce Jack to one of his favorite past times when he was younger - video games.  He's still a little young for the racing game they were playing, but I'm sure it won't be long until this is a favorite activity for them to share!

We took advantage when the weather was warmer and took a bike ride to the park. Livi looks like she is a speed-rider in this picture, but she really hasn't gotten the hang of the pedals yet, so Mommy and Daddy had some sore backs after this trip to the park:

Jack also drew the first people I'd ever seen him draw.  I'm not really sure why these "firsts" always seem to be on the erasable drawing board - he really doesn't use it all that much.  Anyway, I now present "Human Portraits" by Jack:

On Super Bowl Sunday, Dallas weather threw another cold snap at us, combined with sleet and a little snow.I was bummed because Jack had a friend's birthday party and we had a super bowl party to go to. Fortunately, the weather cleared up enough by late afternoon for Jack and I to venture to Emilina's 4th birthday.  Jack and Emilina are big buddies at school, so I was glad we were able to make it.  I was especially glad because the nasty weather, combined with the fact that the party overlapped with the beginning of the Super Bowl, meant that only 2 kids came to her party - which was a shame because Jack had a really great time.  It was a pirates and mermaids party.  The kids got dressed up and then played various pirate games.  Here's pirate Jack:

...and with the birthday girl, Princess Mermaid Emilina:

And here's the whole birthday crew, including their friend Ariel:

 One of the games was an obstacle course:

At the end of the obstacle course, they got to have a sword fight with the lady pirate host.  How cool is that?!

Tommy took Livi with him to Tom and Jen's Super Bowl party and Jack and joined after the birthday party. It wasn't a very good game - the poor Broncos got absolutely creamed, but the party was fun, as always.  I put Livi's hair in pigtails (or at least pulled the top back into 2 different pieces) for the first time ever.  I still have a lot to learn, but I thought it was pretty cute!

Christmas in January

January 2014

Our Christmas celebrations finally came to a close in January with a trip to Fort Worth to celebrate with Nana, Papa and the McCarthy clan.  Nana still had her house beautifully decorated for the season:

 

To allow as much play time as possible, Jack got to open his present first so that he and Lincoln could play with their super-cool new remote controlled cars from Nana and Papa!

Everyone headed outside to watch, including Nana and Charlie - just wait until next year, little man, you'll be running around with everyone else!

Brandi got a great picture of me and little Miss Livi.  This day was my first attempt to put her hair back in a bow.  I've learned quite a bit since then, and I don't think it stayed in very long, but it looks pretty cute in this picture, I think!

Of course, since we were outside, we had to take a few rides in the Jeep.  Being the lucky little lady that she is, Livi got to be chauffered around by the boys.  It won't be very long at all until she will want to be driving herself, but for now, shotgun was acceptable.  Here she is loving her ride with big brother:

And with cousin Lincoln!

Riding off into the sunset...

After the outdoor fun, we headed inside to open the rest of the presents and have dinner.  As always, Kathryn was super-creative and wrote a poem about the presents they gave to everyone.  They gave Tommy and I money for a nice night out, picked out a really cool restaurant, and offered a night of babysitting. Thanks, Nana and Papa!

And with that fun day, Christmas 2014 finally draws to a close.  I can't help but pause to think how fortunate we are to get to celebrate one holiday with so much of our family!  On to 2014...