Joseph called me in to watch him balancing like this on the climber. He's pretty proud of himself, and I can definitely see why!

It's Tim's birthday, the last of our series of celebrations from Nov to Apr! Here he is opening some gifts for summer fun, including a kite, beach blanket, book about building sand castles, and ball that bounces on the water.

He got some new shoes from my parents, some board games from his, and this beautiful scrapbook of childhood photos made by his mom. His dad mentioned on the phone that he was about the same age in the photos as Tim is now!

Joseph once again created a very thoughtful birthday card for his daddy!

We spent a little time playing with Tim's new gifts together before enjoying some Papa John's pizza, and now it's time for the traditional chocolate cake! Tim had insisted we would again be able to use these candles we bought for Joseph's and Rosalie's first few birthdays, so I couldn't pass up a chance to prove him right! In any case, happy birthday to the best hubby and daddy in the world!

Here's Rosalie's version of the Doggy Song!

Here we are this morning at the San Antonio Highland Games! Although there are plenty of varied activities, including Scottish clan information, Celtic music and piping, Scottish heavy athletics such as hammer throw and caber toss, and Scottish dog competitions and parade, we are spending most of our time watching the Scottish and Irish dancing and the Viking historical reenactments.



Here are a few highlights from the Scottish Society Highland Dancers...





and here are a few from the Viking Invasion battle reenactments. The fellow with the dark hair, brown shirt, and green pants calls himself Bjorn, and he is definitely the one to beat!

The fact that our stroller has Maclaren written across the top was helpfully pointed out by the representative for the MacLaren clan tent as we walked by. I told him that was probably our closest link to Scotland, but that's not entirely true, as Tim and I both have ancestors from Scotland. In any case, we've had a lot of fun at the Highland Games today!

Although they may look like Joseph and Rosalie, these two individuals are really Moseph and Fosalie, on a road trip to visit their grandparents in AZ! They make frequent stops to go potty and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but their car must be extremely efficient, as I haven't yet seen them stop for gas. The yellow step stool is Rosalie's wand case, and I see they have a nice stack of books ready for entertainment along the way. I hope they have a fun trip!

Rosalie told me this morning that she wants to start wearing undies again! We made some efforts at potty training last year, but her interest quickly waned, and I decided it would be best to put it aside for a while. I figured she would let me know when she was ready for another try, and that's exactly what she did. It seems a lot easier for her this time around, and I predict those undies are here to stay!

This morning after a pancake breakfast, the kids headed off to explore the big hill above our campsite. I love the way they take such good care of each other!

We packed up camp and headed to the park office to rent a canoe, slathered on a little sunscreen and launched ourselves into the lake. The kids were a little nervous about the tipsy feel at first, but they're now directing us around the water with glee!

After returning the canoe, we headed back to San Antonio, bidding the tall Lost Pines adieu. After a nice warm bath, here's Rosalie with the creepy rubber spider we found under our tent while we were packing up. I'll admit that it gave us a bit of scare at first, but after good laugh at our own expense, we cleaned it up and Rosalie snatched it out of our hands. She has been carrying it around ever since, even into the tub tonight where it tickled her under the bubbles and gave her another scare. What a great souvenir of our fabulous trip!

A week or two ago, Joseph asked me if we could go camping sometime soon, and I told him that sounded like a wonderful idea. So, here we are this lovely afternoon setting up camp at Bastrop State Park!

After all that hard work, it's time for a little snack...

and now we're off to explore!



Rosalie is spending most of her time examining various found objects...

and Joseph is spending most of his time studying the park map, directing us where to go. As we all keep saying to each other, it's so nice to be here camping!

Perhaps this isn't the most exciting video, but I just love how our kids love books!

Here are just a couple more shots of Rosalie's gorgeous hair. I'm so happy I discovered the book Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey because I would have never figured out how to treat her hair properly on my own!

An interesting side-effect of my research into curly hair was my realization that my hair truly is wavy, and needs to be treated differently than straight hair just like Rosalie's. I have brushed and blow-dried my hair every day since middle school, always lamenting that I couldn't let it air-dry for fear it would flip out in strange and unattractive ways. I guess that was my hair trying to tell me something! I've now stopped using my hair brush entirely, and am experimenting with different products and techniques for bringing out its natural wave. I think it's looking better already!

We were out for a walk and bike ride today on our neighborhood nature trail when Joseph spotted this prickly-pear pad with its very own eye and mouth. It's fun to have kids old enough to get excited about silly stuff like that!