I know what the calendar says...

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Let it be known that I do in fact own a calendar. The date today clearly reads March 21, 2010. It is spring... it just doesn't look like any spring I have ever before seen in Texas...

6 days of glorious snow this year in Dallas. Lots of snow. While fun at the time, I have to admit that Gabriel and I shared a little of the same feeling this morning while layering on the winter apparel. we found ourselves sighing, "again?" We are ready for sunshine, flip flops and cherry limeades. Bring on the afternoons with the bubble machine and rolling down big hills at the arboretum. We have picnics to schedule at the park and quite frankly--- the gloves just get in the way.

And while we still want to live in the land of flowers, we rallied this morning--- in fact, we even had fun.

Destin... is this you? Funny see the snow and sand toys look very similar to a day at our favorite beach.
World's best snowman builder lives here...

They make a great team.
Which is good because "Princess Ariel" was all about trying peg Daddy and Gabey with one of her quality snow balls... and for all her clumsiness--- she has killer aim.

So spring, we see that you are all about keeping us guessing. Can you guess what we want next?

Here's a hint...

Perhaps this will be the weather for March 22nd in which case we all purchase a GIANT box of Kleenex for our next round of colds. Roller coaster weather? Okay, maybe it is spring after all.

Irish everyday was GREEN.

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Irish every day could be spent visiting with family from far away...

Irish that there is always someone in my life that will take the time to explain the rules to the game...

and then not get upset when I forget them...

Irish that I always feel like I have everything I need to be happy.

Irish that my days can always consist of fantastic art, great friends and bare feet.

Irish for my life to always involve laughter, comfort and a good deal of fancy.

And above all, Irish you the best year ever!

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Love, Molly and the rest of my green lot.

Festival Weekend

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While we might be EXTREMELY tired and a little under the weather now, we wouldn't trade this weekend of fun for anything! This weekend, we took a nice trip down south to visit two of our three favorite Figueroas!

Gabriel's and Jude's birthdays fall just 10 days a part so we hope to have a yearly god brother birthday celebration weekend! This year was a great start to a new tradition.

Gabriel was SO excited about Jude's gift... we actually had to give it to him when Gabe was off playing in the other room. Although Jude has yet to uncover his LOVE of firetrucks, it will come soon--Gabey will make sure of it!

What a weekend for festivals! Spring was definitely here and at times it felt a little like we were bordering summer conditions. Oye. Everywhere we went this weekend was insanely crowded... it seems we weren't the only ones soaking up the sunshine! While hitting up three festivals was SUPER fun, it was also a wee tiring...

Lots of time eating out and riding in the car. Perfect for some quality hand holding.

The San Antonio zoo was so much fun! Where else can you pet a chicken...
feed some snails?

Lure in the fish...

And then catch them!
We sure ate some quality food!!! YUMMY. Mealtimes were busy! These kiddos had so much to say...

I don't know what is going on here but for some reason I think this picture is pretty funny


It was at dinner Saturday night that I realized I had birthed a comedy genius.

High comedy right here, folks.

The rest of the San Antonio pictures will come in a separate post by Molly. We bought her an instant camera so she could take pictures of the Luminaria Festival. Mainly I look for the pictures to feature random feet, several clouds and about 11 pictures of Aunt Balissa.

After all this fun in San Antonio, Rosie George, reminded us that we had yet to celebrate her first successful road trip. So, we scheduled a play date with our favorite lady dogs and headed out to the Kite Festival in Austin.

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It is so fun to have a dog in Austin!

Especially when your buddies have such great dogs too!

The kites were incredible and we are definitely going to bring our own to fly next year. After we take our train ride on the Zepher again! And this time, we will remember to take more pictures.

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What a weekend!

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While we MAY have celebrated in the south a little too late, Gabe MAY have lasted 4 hours with a cookie stuck in his nose, we MAY have experienced two episodes of motion sickness, and one very lovely "explosion of sorts"... it was definitely a GREAT trip with so many candid memories...

Can't wait to visit again!

Duck Duck GOOSE!

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This week has been all about adapting our current plans to whatever the crazy weather is doing. I know that I have been referencing Texas weather on the good ole' blog a lot here lately.

Believe me, I know.

Crazy weather really has been the theme of this fall/winter/sorta spring season. I like to think that we all wake up wondering to ourselves, "What the H-E-double hockey sticks is up with this weather?" No?

You just NEVER know what you are going to get.

This morning was by far the most beautiful Texas blue sky I had seen in a while. PERFECT. I was so giddy that I almost didn't even need coffee. Almost.

Pretty morning but this afternoon it poured. The day before was cloudy at wake up, beautiful for the early morning so we made big plans for parks, picnics and ducks. Loading the car we heard the rumble... and while I do drive a mighty mini, it is most definitely not that mighty. We chanced it though--- called its bluff per se. The clouds might have showed us up but in no way did we let it steal our thunder.

We adapted. We came to feed the ducky/monster geese and by george we were going to feed them. I like to think of it as a drive through zoo. Very hands on... but with caution because man, those geese looked MEAN. They sure were fearless.

Duck...


Duck...
GOOSE!

March Madness

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Well, it seems that we have taken a nice break from all things indoors recently because quite frankly --- we've been there and done that. Unfortunately, our computer lives inside because I have yet to invest in a nifty sun screen for our laptop. So alas, it has been break from blogging too.

Wait a second.

Did I say sun screen? Oh yes, that is right! Let me catch you up... After months in hiding it seems that our dear friend, the sunshine, has decided to up and rejoin Dallas living. This sunny stretch was just about better than any major holiday. It is amazing how pale I look in the light. I'll take what I can get though.

Now, don't get me wrong here. March 1st arrived and decided to hang with the "in" group for awhile and keep it nice and consistently RAINY. A cold, wet, bad-for-grocery-shopping-but-clearly-out-of- food rainy sort of Monday. I was not impressed. But we survived it... after all --- we are no longer wet/snowy winter greenhorns here...

And then one day just like that, it stopped.

It seems our March decided to embrace individuality and let its little self shine... brightly for 6 straight days. So we threw a party and invited our friends...

And had cupcakes, of course.
Sunshine just never felt so good.

So now, the rain is back. The heater kicked on tonight for like two seconds and it had that house is burning smell to it. While it was an initial icky smell, it was also a nice reminder that we have not had the heat on in a while. Hooray gas bill. I like to think of this today rain as a chance for us to say hello to the house again, feed the forgotten cat, visit our indoor toys for the next day or so- you know, take care of business.

After that, bring on the sun because we have got some great places to go...

and we are ready.

Super Saturday!

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What a soggy Monday! Our poor backyard has slowly transformed in a swamp with what appears to be a torn up something or other throughout the yard. While I really want to blame Rosie George, I know that in my heart it was probably me that left some trash sitting out because I didn't want to lug it to our big bin. Ugh. Maybe the rain can just wash it to someone else's yard? Shameful I know.

Typically on a day like today I would be a little in mourning. You see, a Julie without vitamin D in abundance is really not very fun to be around. Luckily, today is not typical BECAUSE... this weekend we basked OUTSIDE in the gloriously rare and slightly warm SUNSHINE! It was lovely and quite possibly my favorite weekend ever. And that says a lot.

This weekend was the first one since I can remember that we were obligation free of EVERYTHING. No plans. No commitments. Just fun in the sun. Saturday was by far the most packed. We started early and loaded up for a family walk with the baby jogger. I think I might have referenced before that weekend walks (coffee in hand so not TRUE exercise) happen to be my most favorite part of my marriage. There is nothing better than having constant adult conversation about your hopes and dreams with the person you love most in the world. And... because my husband is brilliant and decided to use the splitter on the ipod for the kids to listen to we had UNINTERRUPTED quality talk time. That would have been enough right there.

We went on a long walk and ended up at our local elementary school playground. Rosie was so pooped that she took a nice little nap while Gabriel brought her around 17 quality sticks. That pup was SO tired. We played in the sun for a good hour before going home for nap time. After nap it was off to the arboretum. I have referenced before how much I love this place so I will spare the details... and leave you instead with some pictures...

This is a true riding-in-my-covered-wagon-world-is-against-me pout. Very little house on the prairie of her.
We ran home after the arboretum to grab our coats because it was getting chilly! We kidnapped one Nonnie and took to dinner by way of Trolley. Perfect ending to a perfect day.

So today I can handle the rain but tomorrow I am definitely hoping for more sunshine! Hurry up, Spring!!!