I can't believe my babies are 4 years old!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Downtown Austin Adventure
The whole group, getting ready to embark on our downtown Austin Adventure!
Summer has been so hectic, that I can't seem to get caught up with my posts! These pictures are from clear back in May. When Kaiya was baptized, both my parents and Jayson's parents came for the occasion. We have lived in Austin for twelve years now, and have already done the standard Austin tourist attractions many times, so I decided that we needed to do something a little different with all of our out of town visitors this time. After looking online, I discovered that there was going to be a big art festival downtown, which sounded like great fun to me. They closed off several blocks of 6th Street and had all kinds of vendors, food, clowns, etc. No one else would voice an opinion (except my mom, who also thought it sounded fun), so the plan was made.
Once we got to the festival, it didn't take us long to realize that it was a BAD idea! A couple days before our adventure, I had asked several friends if they had some small, single, umbrella strollers that I could borrow for the day, to avoid taking the "silver bullet". After my first three unsuccessful phone calls, I decided to give up. This might seem a little crazy, but having quintuplets has become so "normal" to us, that sometimes we forget what an anomaly we are to other people.
At the festival, there were huge crowds of people, and the quint stoller drew people to us like moths to a light bulb. It was CRAZY! I am used to people stopping me in the stores to ask me questions, but this went WAY beyond that---we could barely move without people stopping us or running over to take our picture. We stopped to look at a few booths (which would have been fun under other circumstances) but we soon realized we needed to switch to Plan B!
I love this picture of us at the festival---the looks on everyone's faces pretty much says it ALL---the only one smiling is me---the guys are looking around for the nearest exit route (bet they won't be so slow to voice their opinion during the planning stages next time!), and the kids were tired of seeing nothing but strangers and camera flashes.
We left the festival and walked about 2 miles through downtown Austin to get to Butler Park. The park is bordered on one side by Lady Bird Lake. In one area of the park, there is a spiral sidewalk leads up a small hill. At the top of the hill, there is a terrific view of downtown Austin. The park was awesome! It will definitely be added to our list of "standard" tourist attractions to take visitors to when they come.
Grandma Wilkinson and Mimi with the kids in front of a guitar statue we found on our city hike
Lady Bird Lake: Ryder, Kassidy, Kaydence, Kyndall, Rustin, Riley and Kaiya
Jayson pushes the Silver Bullet up the spiral sidewalk
Kaydence, Rustin, Kassidy, Ryder & Kyndall: At the top of the hill, somebody had put a piano---way too fun!
Riley and Kaiya
Grandma and Grandpa Wilkinson with all the kids
By the time we got done at the park, we were starving! We decided to try a well-known Taco joint called "Torchy's Tacos". We walked another two miles in the heat, dreaming of eating in air-conditioned comfort only to find out that the "restaurant" was actually a trailer! Although there was no air-conditioning, there was a covered patio, and the tacos were every bit as good as their reputation!
Walking to Torchy's
The Quints in front of the Torchy's Taco Trailer
Jayson and Rachelle enjoying our legendary tacos!
Mimi and Papa
Better than any playplace, the kids had a blast playing in the little sitting area. A few chairs and a napkin dispenser is all it took to make them happy!
The patio even had a small stage, which the kids enjoyed "performing" on.
Despite its disastrous start, everyone agreed that our Downtown Austin Adventure was a success!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Keepin' Cool in the Pool
Kaydence, Ryder, Rustin, Kyndall and Kassidy
A couple weeks ago we went swimming at a friend's house. The quints have been taking swim lessons for about 3 months now (once a week) and they can't actually swim (at least not well enough to keep them from drowning), but they have become totally fearless of the water. I found these floaties last year (called "puddle jumpers") that I absolutely LOVE. The kids are able to do all kind of things in the water and the puddle jumpers really help keep them safe. They are even coast guard approved as life preservers.
1-2-3 GO! I love the "wave" reaction on this one
Kaydence cracks me up---she is such a little fish. She is fearless and loves the water---which is the complete opposite of how she was two summers ago.
Riley and Kaiya take a turn showing off their jumping skills
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Watermelon Waffles
Between swim team and my summer school class (that I taught), our mornings have been super busy this summer. To make up for it, the day after my summer class ended, I decided to make a fun breakfast for the kids. After my friend, Kristen Duke (photographer extraordinaire) posted about these "watermelon waffles" on her blog, I knew we had to try them! They were actually quite simple to make and they turned out so cute! The kids loved them :-)
Kassidy, Kaiya and Kyndall get ready to dig it!
Rustin
Kaydence
To make them, I just simply used food coloring to die 1/3 of the waffle batter green and 2/3 of the waffle batter pink. Then I poured the pink batter in the middle of the griddle, the green batter around the edges of the griddle, and sprinkled some chocolate chips in the pink portion (for those that wanted "seeds" in their waffle). YUM!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Super Swimmers
This summer, both Riley and Kaiya have been participating in swim team. In past years, I have tried to convince the kids to sign up for the more challenging (and therefore less popular) swim events. (Being a statistician, I figured if less kids signed up for an event, that improved the odds that my kid would get a place ribbon.) All my attempts at persuasion were totally unsuccessful. This year, the rules for signing up for events was a little different. The swimmer was allowed to choose two events and then the coach would select the third event. The very first week, the coach picked Riley to swim the individual medley event---one lap in each of the four strokes. To my surprise, he LOVED it and has signed up for the IM every single week since. I decided the coach was a genius, since I know he would not have loved it if I had made him sign up for it! Every week he has been improving a little bit, but this week, he actually beat his previous time by 13 seconds and took home the first place ribbon!
Kaiya diving off the block
Even though swim team is very time consuming, I think it is so great for the kids---good exercise and it helps them really learn how to swim well. I am hoping that the quints will be able to be on the team next year!
Yay Riley!!
Diving off the block (in the team medley, not the IM)
Riley in the final leg of the IM---not only did he win, but no one else was even close! (it helped that there were only four people competing...)
Kaiya also got her first heat-winner ribbon of the season at the meet
Kaiya diving off the block
Even though swim team is very time consuming, I think it is so great for the kids---good exercise and it helps them really learn how to swim well. I am hoping that the quints will be able to be on the team next year!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Patriotic Toes
Last week while the boys were away on a playdate, the girls and I decided to give ourselves a patriotic pedicure!
Kassidy, Kaydence and Kyndall show off their toes.
Happy 4th of July!!
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