Today, Madeleine and Anne surprised the girls by coming through Austin on their way to Colorado. After their visit, we went to the Thinkery, got snow cones, and are now watching _The Goonies_. We did not take the kids to the pub next to the Thinkery, as much as we needed it afterwards.
Despite it being about five degrees too cold for river swimming, the girls enjoyed riding the rapids in San Marcos at Rio Vista Park, though Maggie opted for snacks in M.A.'s lap for the second half of the visit.
We then enjoyed dinner and laughs at Ivar's on the River.
Mary Claire, Maggie, M.A. and Uncle Ned drove to Austin yesterday and surprised Larkin and Logan. I will try to post the videos of the big reveal next. Yesterday, we had a late lunch at Central Market and then a relatively low-key night at the house. Today, we went to the Central Library and then an Austin FC game, where the girls had front row seats, and the adults were only a few rows back. It was quite fun.
Larkin's basketball team (the Sirens) wrapped up their season tonight with two games in the final tournament. They won the first and lost the second after a very hard-fought game. Larkin is a great defensive player and is still working to quell her reflex to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible when it's passed to her on offense. I told her I understood completely and that I always preferred if my teammates just didn't pass the ball to me at all! 😆
Larkin ran the "Get Your Rear in Gear" 5k this morning with the Lee Elementary running club to raise money for the Colon Cancer Coalition. Her amazing PE teachers both ran with the club. She zoomed through in 28:51, beating her last 5k time by about 9 minutes and winning the female 11-19 age group!! Thank you to everyone who donated to her fundraising page. ❤️
Larkin's friend Maggie from kinder-third grade at Pease was in town this weekend, so Larkin and I went to a restaurant today to meet up with her and other Pease classmates who stopped by. Left to right: Theo, Iris, Larkin, Maggie, and Pete
Logan talked me into buying a big rack of ribs at Costco today. She's currently chowing down on them for dinner. Even Larkin ate some rib meat cut from the bone, taking after her mama with the eating-meat-off-the-bone aversion.
Skating at the nearby basketball court is much cheaper than the skating rink, though somewhat more treacherous with lots of little pebbles all over the court. 😬
A trip to IKEA these days means that Logan gets one of her favorite meals in the cafeteria--Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green peas. And, thanks to bags of frozen meatballs and packets of powdered gravy for sale at the registers, she gets to enjoy the exact same meal the next day.
Thanks, Nana and Grandaddy! Sorry about the red dye on the bedspread and walls...😬
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