Mr. Doodle

 ...
When planning a trip to the arboretum for Dallas Blooms, I would have figured the highlight for all of us would have been all the beautiful flowers.

 or perhaps the storybook houses.

 Nope. Best part of the trip clearly went to our new friend, the doodle bug. I mean, how could he not be the most favorite? Look at how HUGE he is.

 We found him while trying to take these.

 and he just crawled all over their little hands

It was so exciting that even LUCY had to meet Mr. Doodle.

In which she immediately knocked him down Gabe's pants.

Bugs down pants.


It just doesn't get funnier than that.

 Pure joy captured in a blurry candid.

Here's to a funny buggy day.

**********************************

Totally unrelated! Just two days left for the giveaway so be sure to enter if you haven't. A couple of people said that they commented but for some reason, blogger deleted their comments. Eeek. Try again and if it happens to you just shoot me a message at crazymaydays@gmail.com and I'll try to put you in from my end. Silly blogger.

Hope your first official day of Spring tomorrow has a better weather forecast than ours!
Julie

GIVEAWAY!!!!

 ...
Every once in awhile, you find a baby/kid purchase that seems to be the perfect thing for your little. Something to years down the road, bust out the ole' baby box and just smile at. This special little item has captured a moment in your life that you never want to forget.

For us, it is this one hat for our special little Lu bird. You've seen the pictures all over this blog... I adore this hat... and of course the sweet gal wearing it.

So... you can only imagine how THRILLED I am to host a giveaway for my friend, Melody, the master talent behind Beautiful Mess Crochet. She is unveiling her newest design and y'all... it is stinkin' cute and just in time for Easter.

Bunny ears!!!

Meet Melody

"When I was 10 years old I asked my grandmother to teach me to crochet. With all of the wisdom of a seasoned grandmother, she taught me to do the most basic beginning stitch, a chain. So I proudly crocheted a chain with an entire skein of yarn and then remembered it was summer and forgot all about crocheting. 15 years later, I decide (a little more seriously) to learn to crochet. Over these past few years, I have been learning more and more about crochet and adding to my crochet skills. And last year before my son was born, I found the most wonderful owl hat I just had to make for my baby! And that is how Beautiful Mess Crochet got started. Everyone loved my owl hats and encouraged me to open an Etsy shop. Now here we are almost a year later and I am adding to my collection of hats. And I am happy to release my new bunny hat!"

 THE DEETS

The winner of this giveaway will receive an adorable bunny hat in either white/pink, brown/white or grey/pink in the size that you need for the little lady or man in your life. Order now for Easter or in advance for next fall! And since I know that you won't be able to stop with just bunnies, be sure to check at her etsy site to see all her amazing work. The dino hats? Adorable.

Your chances to win:

***Place a comment on my blog to receive one chance to win
***Become a follower of my blog and leave another comment to let me know for another chance.
***Like Beautiful Mess Crochet on Facebook and leave a comment about it for another chance

and finally

***Tweet/Blog/FB about this giveaway for 3 final chances to win. That's right. 6 separate chances to win. Just be sure to leave separate comments for each.

Giveaway will run today (Friday) to Wednesday Night @ 9pm. Good Luck!!!

Super

 ...
Ridding the world of evil is an arduous task. I mean, as parents, we can only take on so much. While secretly, we may just see ourselves as impeccably mighty, it is in our hearts that recognize our biggest strength and at times-- our greatest kryptonite.

It's them.

The ferocious livers of life

the stealth-like silly

 the determined destructors.

 Protecting the things that matter the most to them...

 fearless in the face of danger

 chaotic in a crowd

champions of laughter

 the experts at wishing.

They're the sweetness of our life...

the drivers of our caffiene addictions...

They are our very best work.

arriving in tiny packages...

 insatiable... always hungry... tiny packages

 of Super.

You celebrate super.

11 Months

 ...
We are now officially in the home stretch to cake

 Lu is pumped.

I really don't think that I possess the written ability to convey to you the amount of joy this girl adds to our family. She is the perfect balance to the differences between our other children and for so many reasons, I hope this never changes.

For a third child, I thought everything would follow in queue with the rest of the sibs. Our smorgasbord baby of sorts. I guess I just felt that if anything, her childhood would just be a composite of each of our kids' milestones all wrapped up in our daily existence. Yet, here she is. So many of her traits resemble neither of her siblings in any way.  She is just so beautifully unique...

Our wonderful mess. Want to test the limits of your texture aversions? Hang out with this gal for an hour.

Got a funny noise or face to make? Lucy can mimic it in an instant.

 I know that I keep saying it but I really think that this is month has been my favorite. Don't get me wrong, we definitely had some trials in there. Lucy had her first sickness this month and it was the dreaded tummy bug. Her budding independence has led to a bunch of falls and at any given moment she is attempting to eat something she shouldn't.

But the exploration of her ever-growing world, has been the best yet this month.

Lucy, this month you ate a snow cone, flew some kites and learned to "draw" vs. eat the sidewalk chalk. You did a somersault out of a swing and I caught you. Whew. You have pirated Gabe's "monkey bars" as your own and have fully established dominance over all our household animals. Somehow, they seem to love you more for it. You steal someones breakfast on a daily basis and make it look cute. This past week, you learned how to climb the ladder to the bunk beds. Believe me, we're thrilled about that one. Walking is juuuuuuust about here. You keep us busy, little miss.

Happy last month of "Zero"!

Let's go fly a kite.

 ...
The next round of posts are going to be flying at you at bit out of order and quite full of outside fun. Would spring have it any other way?

In the interest of keeping it nice and breezy here on the ole' blog... let's talk kites. LOTS and lots of kites.

The Austin Kite Festival is quite possibly my favorite little local festival here in the ole' ATX. I use the term "little" very loosely ... if there was any judge by situation parking, this festival has become quite big. Personally, I don't think there is any better way to celebrate spring and sunshine than a giant hot pink Barbie kite and the cute kid that goes with it.

Funny thing about that Barbie kite.

For as eager as she had been to fly it, the higher it went... the more eager she was to give reigns back to me. She told me it just became "too high and too exciting." Miss intensity has her limits.

And then there was this guy.

It isn't this photo above that had random strangers stopping to take pictures of our little man. Oh, no... it was the soundtrack. About two years back while visiting Dallas at Christmas, Gabriel rode this train and man... he was so full of joy that he just about doubled his normal volume to celebrate that moment. With the kite, I think he tripled it. Lots of WHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAASSSS and WHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOSH and wiggle-wiggle-shuffle steps. We were dying with laughter.

Even the curly girl rejoined the group because of her brother's reaction to his kite and for a minute... we were like this.

Funny thing about an excited 4-year-old, a blustery day and a whole lot of fancy dance moves. Those kites veeery quickly became one. It was intense moment cooled off by a Daddy's mad untangling skills and the quest for a giant snowcone. I mean, who doesn't love a snow cone?

Lucy definitely does.

All this time, Mommy and Daddy had been holding out on the good stuff.

Quite possibly her favorite treat to date.

Kite festival is a day that is very close to our hearts. Two years ago this weekend, I accepted a position at Dell Children's Medical Center and as a family, we decided to embark on this unknown, slightly scary Austin adventure. It was a decision that was capped off with one celebratory day at the kite festival. For all the highs and lows that come with adventure seeking, we still feel the magic and possibilities in this great town.

What a two years.