Halloweenies

 We've got two kittys trick-or-treating this year.  Here they are all ready for the 'practice round'.   Daddy got them all dolled up for this one and they hit downtown Apex for Trick or Treat on Salem Street with Grandma and GB, while Mommy was in Stone Mountain, Georgia at the Country Living Fair.  They had lots of fun and came home with tons of goodies, including new toothbrushes!

 Next, we have the famous Halloween parad at Libby's preschool.  All her buddies are in this group, ask her about her "BSS", Jillian.  (She might be saying BFF, or it might be something else she made up.  You never know with Libby!)

 Caramel Apple crunching next to the Jack-o-lanterns.

Indian Trail at night

 Finally...the candy victory dance!!

Notice Maggie, carefully working on the sorting.  I love that kids automatically know how to tear up trick-or-treat.  This year, she ran up and down driveways, clearly on a mission.  Maggie didn't stop until her bag was full, and  Libby hung in there pretty well.  We were pretty impressed with their stamina and their haul.  In the words of the great pumpkin (aka Rob) with beer in hand, "It is only going to get better."

Libanse

This is Libby.  She is typing on her homemade laptop (sticky note).  "Mommy, guess what I have on my computer?  Dot com.  I have dot com on my computer."

She asked me yesterday, "What does the gover man do?"  Good question.

She also calls fans "breezers".

Fall Festival Season is Here!

Look out for fancy kitties hiding out in garden centers, shopping centers, neighborhood pool parking lots, and anywhere else they are painting faces, jumping on bounce houses, eating hot dogs, cotton candy, or anything else fun!  Their mama can smell a free festival from miles away!

Beach!!!

Probably noone even visits this blog any more because I'm so bad about putting up a new post but once every 4 months.   The NCAustins played hooky on Friday and hit the beach for the weekend.  We had three perfect days at the beach.  The kids had a blast and couldn't get enough of the water.  Libby's favorite part was learning that she could pee right there in the ocean.  We had to keep reeling Maggie in because she kept wanting to catch the big ones.

 The girls found some new friends waiting for them on their beach house beds- that's Moonlight on the right, her birthday is on Halloween!

 This must be some kind of optical illusion, because it almost looks like I am more than 3 inches off the ground.

 We drove into Beaufort for a stroll this morning.  Cute little coastal town-I think Rob drove here purposely on a Sunday morning, because all of his girls were drooling into the cute little closed shop windows, and not just the ones selling ice cream.

 I have never in my life seen so many fish.  You could see schools of them swimming as the waves would start to break.  Rob would throw his net out, grab twenty or so mullets or little blue fish and use them as bait.  We dug giant "ponds" for them to swim around in, awaiting their fate on Rob's hook.  Those little suckers never give up though, they would jump like crazy to get out of the pond and back into the ocean.  The girls would pick them up and put them back into the pond or they'd send them flying back out into the ocean.  It was very entertaining for all of us.  Rob was able to catch a ton of fish, so he was happy, too.  We saw two dolphins, a sting ray, and a shark!!!  And nobody got eaten, except for a lot of those little bait fish.  Sorry.

1st Grader

 All ready for Maggie's first day of school!

And when Maggie's away...the cat's will play!

Lunch time tea-party

Upcycled Shoe Box

 Handsome Rob is not just another pretty face.  This man is a wood working machine.  Someday, I should take the time to photograph and brag on some of the very cool things he has created around our house.

 I have a tendency to collect garbage discarded treasures from the side of the road.  He has a tendency to roll his eyes, but then allow me to store such treasures in his garage.  Every once in awhile, we collaborate forces and create something awesome together.

The wood for this project was originally a neighbor's fence.  We built it into a giant birdhouse/playhouse for the girls to romp around in the garden.  They didn't really play with it, so I tore it down one morning so I could make a piece of art for the living room.  (You can see that crafty delight in a previous post from a few days ago, my daughters are sporting mustaches in the foreground.)  Rob used the remaining scraps to build this beauty.

 I thought it needed a little extra personality.  I saw an old Converse shipping crate, and was close to copying that image.  Since I'm the only one in this family that sports the Chuck Taylors, I thought we'd just come up with our own brand.

 Before winter, I'm hoping we can come up with a coordinating coat rack/shelf piece to hang above it.

Killer Whales Win Again!

 I'm really trying to do some catching up here....
June was all about swim team, Maggie's second year with the neighborhood pool.  We'd be at the pool at 10:30 every morning for practice, and we usually hung out there all day.  Pool rats, if you will.  These are some pictures from the last meet.  We went all out with the red hair paint, the intimidation factor is huge among the 6 and under age group, as you can imagine.

They have a big pizza banquet at the end of the season, including a nice, big trophy that wasn't as impressive to her this year, "everybody gets one, you don't really have to do anything." 

 I love that this kid is 6 years old, and she gets it.  If they gave out McDonald's fry coupons for the heat winner like they did at the Elk's Meet at Westside, that would be a different story.

Summer Bucket List 2013- #9 Bike Riding

Magario and Libigi

Uncle Danny was kind enough to give us his Nintendo Wii at the beginning of the summer.  Eventually, I got around to hooking it up and letting these two nutballs play a little bit.  Danny gave us a stack of games, but these two only play Super Mario Bros.  (and they call it "bros", not brothers.)  

We have also discovered that Netflix carries the Super Mario Bros. Show, circa 1989.  The other day, I was perfecting my role as supermomio, and let them watch 4 hours of this program.  (In case you are thinking of turning me in to child services, this was only one day, and Maggie not only plays the Wii, she also READS THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL. ) 

They even choreographed a dance routine to match the opening of the show.  

And, in case you were wondering....the answer is yes, they wear their mustaches out of the home, to the grocery store, library, the art center for crafts, picking apples by the railroad tracks, and wherever else our day happens to take us.  

Game Over. 

Slip n Slidin'

The Austin girls may have finally hit our lazy days of summer.  Swim team, Bible school, a 4th of July visit to Pittsburgh, and Mom's trip to Salt Lake City were highlights.  (Photos and more blog posts are on my to-do list.)  Dad gets to go fishing next week, assuming tropical storm Dorian behaves, and then we might have to start thinking about back to school.  We still have some things to check off of the summer bucket list, so I don't imagine we will be all that lazy, but slip n slide in the back yard is always a fun boredom buster around here.