Bowling and more food

The kids had their first bowling experience Saturday night! Twisted Pixel had a Captain Smiley release party at, The Main Event, in Austin. Its similar to a Dave and Busters. Rowen has been asking to go bowling everyday since. The boys had a blast. Lily enjoyed being there but was too little to enjoy the bowling. She did have a turn though. And Brandon won her a stuffed bear from one of the games so that made her happy.

A rare family photo

Lily's ball veeeeery slowly going down the lane. She tried.

Corbin bowling

Rowen bowling

Corbin playing air hockey with Rowen

Rowen playing air hockey

The score card, naturally Brandon won, but not by very much, haha

I made Captain Smiley (his head) and Star cupcakes for Brandon to take to work on the release day to celebrate.

Lily rockin out with the horns (as well as she can, haha) on the way to the party

Corbin's rockin the horns with his mohawk!

And I'm still cooking/baking when I can. I decided to make the kids homemade granola cereal. Why buy when you make fresh! This is a Pumpkin Granola. I used Rolled oats and mixed in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.

I then mix pumpkin puree with applesauce, brown sugar and maple syrup and poured over the oats.

Baked and then when it cooled I added dried cranberries and raw pumpkin seeds.Voila! It is super yummy.

I also gave it a go at Carnitas! It was very easy and tasted AWESOME! I had left over frozen pork shoulder and didn't want to make pulled pork again. Then carnitas came to mind.

I browned it on the stove first then braised it in the oven with some garlic, a cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cumin and water. This is after it was done braising for 3 1/2 hrs.

Then I shredded away. I will definitely be making this again!

Park and Food

I've been very into baking/cooking lately. Even more than usual. Maybe its the change in seasons. Although it doesn't really feel like it in Texas since its still in the 80's and pretty warm. But still its cooler than the 100's its been. I made a carrot cake a few weeks ago when Tony and Coty came over (but we never even got to eating it when they were here). I shredded too much carrot and Lily found the bowl and decided she was going to take it and snack on the raw shredded carrots and share it with the boys. That made snack easy that afternoon.

With it being so nice out (especially in the morning) we headed out the the park one weekend morning. It was a fabulous 65 degrees! This time Lily didn't go in the creek.

We noticed this time odd looking stuff on the huge rocks. It looked like they were going hair but when we looked closer we realized it was big clusters of spiders.

Digging in the dinosaur pit.

Corbin was happy to finally dig an actual hole. He has been using this shovel in the house pretending to dig holes and plant trees.

Lily finding the buried dinosaur skeleton.

Having a nice snack before the drive home (its only like 15 minutes)

Boys making a goofy face while looking at pumpkins

A whole mess of cactus's at Whole Foods.

Some more of my baking. I decided to give a try at making Apple Cider donuts since finding them in Texas hasn't happened. They were pretty good, but getting them from farm stands up North was way better.

The end result. Good but not quite the same.

Corbin and Lily finger painting when Rowen was out having daddy time.

Having a PC I no longer have iPhoto. But I have a new photo program (thanks Mom Ford) and while adding pics to it I found this picture of Lily having pancakes with blueberry syrup that I find to very cute. She's licking it off the plate.

Happy 31st Birthday to me!

Today I turn 31! We went to the park in the morning then went home for lunch. I made some yummy red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and made delicious breakfast for dinner; Eggs Benedict and Grandpa's goop. Yum!

Waterfront section of Park with my babies.

Rowen riding in a spinning seat

We went for a walk around the park and fed the geese.
The brown goose decided to take a snap at Lily's forearm right after I took this picture, it was very funny (not to her though).
Best buddies!

School, Dogs and a new baby

Its been a very mild September. We are trying to get our financial status in check so aren't doing too much. And with school season here I've decided to do "school" at home. Not only so Rowen is kept up in his learnings before he goes to Kindergarten next year (eeeeeeek). But lately the kids have been, I guess you can say, tired of playing. Basically the entire day is free play. Yes we do coloring, read books, etc threw the day, but I am seeing that they need to more of a structured day. They also really need to have more time apart but that really isn't an option for for 5 of the 7 days of the week. And then when the weekends are here we also want to do family time so its a catch 22 I guess. What are ya gonna do.

Boys practicing letters. They both really know how to do all the letters (Rowen can even spell quite a few).

We learned about hygiene and why we need to wash ourselves and how to do it. So I made little "tubs" and they washed a few of there action figures/doll.

Lily colors while we do school.

Lily reading to her doll.
I gave the boys haircuts and Corbin very enthusiastically said he wanted a mohawk. Mohawk he got. Like father like son.
We went to story time at the Book People book store in the city for Petting Zoo story
time. I thought there would be more animals. Rowen and Lily petting a baby duck.

All of them petting bunnies.

Our friends Tony and Coty came over and Corbin really LOVES playing the dogs. Him and Gonzo were running around the house the entire day. They were made for each other.

More playing with Gonzo and Wicket.

We welcomed a new Nephew/Cousin to the family. Aunty Alaina had a healthy adorable baby boy on September 2. Grant Vernon Alter. Welcome to the family Grant!

End of Summer

OK, somehow I just can't keep up with posts. We haven't really done all that much the past month and half. We did visit another spring called, Krause spring. It was around the same area as Hamilton Pool that we went to. We went with our friends Tony and Coty. It was a very beautiful place, despite all the rocks you have you walk on (which seems to be the way of Texas). We sat in the spring for about 5 hrs, beer in hand of course. It was nice, calming and refreshing.

Coty and I had a girls day out a few weeks ago and I finally got the guts to chop off a fair amount of my hair. I was in need of an invigorating change. I really like it and think I may go even shorter soon.

Brandon went to the Comic Con in San Diego for a week at the end of July to promote the new game, Twisted Pixel has coming out called, Comic Jumper. He surprised out friends who we haven't seen in a long time.

I take the kids to story time occasionally at various places; the library, Barnes and Noble and a local book store called, Book People, in the city.

Lily in the middle of dancing.

One of Lily's many green smoothie mustaches.

New hair do!

Brandon at the Convention with our Friends Jef and Mark, who we haven't seen in 9 years ( I still haven't seen them)

The kids having a Snack at Krause Spring.
Tony and Brandon in the Spring.

Coty getting used to the cold in the spring.

One area of the spring.