surprises, good & bad

i've mentioned before that hazel and lucy are part of a preschool group. this month they have been learning about forms of trasportation: automobiles, trains, planes, and boats. on saturday, we went on our first fieldtrip:

the girls were excited. we packed lunches and headed to our friends house, where we parked our car and loaded up in the stroller to walk to: 

the nearby metro station. the kids were all excited to ride a train to the park (the same park that grant and i have unsuccessfully tried to go to several times): 

and as luck would have it:

so sad. we walked back to our cars and met up at another nearby park:

this is a tried and true park that we all enjoy:

that was the best picture i took. we all had a good time despite the heat.

hazel and lucy's newest extracurricular activity started monday afternoon:

swimming lessons!! the girls were pretty psyched to go. grant and i, on the other hand, weren't 100% possitive this was a good idea. hazel is kind of a wimp (i don't know where she gets that *cough*). i was sure she'd freak out as soon as she realized she'd have to get in "deep" water. i was not worried about lucy. i purposely waited until she was old enough to take lessons with hazel in hopes that her dare-deviledness would rub off. while we waited for the teacher to show up, lucy kept exclaiming, "i want to dive! i don't want to swim! just dive!" we convinced her that diving comes later and once the lessons started she was all smiles:

she had a hard time sitting still between turns. she'd stand up, run in an excited circle and sit back down. repeatedly. it was kind of hilarious. hazel surprised us by doing awesome. she raised her hand when the teacher asked questions, listened attentively and bravely jumped right in: 

the only hiccup came when lucy, who kept doing this:

fell in. luckily the teacher was right there and yanked her out immediately. lucy didn't seem upset, just surprised as she wiped the water out of her eyes. it did effectively calm her down for a little bit:

this next picture cracks me up:

the last activity was jumping in:

and the lesson was over:

someone didn't want to leave. 

both had a great time.

we gon' party like it's yo birthday

it was my birthday yesterday and let me tell you: it was fantastic. the day began with grant letting me sleep in until 9 am! heavenly. after breakfast, i dropped grant and the girls off at the sprinkler park and went shopping. i found a super cute sweater that i won't be able to wear for a couple more months (don't be shy, fall), tried on several pairs of unflattering  pants (sigh) and a pair of heels that actually made my feet look fat (really?). it was still lots of fun taking my time in the shops. when i got home, i laid down in my room and read a book until i was sleepy. after my nap, we went to my favorite burger joint: smashburger. i had my usual (the spicy baja) and it hit the spot. back home, grant served up the cake he and the girls sneakily baked for me. he made pioneer woman's chocolate sheet cake. it was the right choice:

to the cake he added a side of blue bell's butter crunch ice cream:

it was killer. the cake was so moist and chocolatey. i couldn't even finish it. grant deemed it a success once he saw that not even my sweet tooth could handle it:

that was when we realized we were missing something:

party hats! that's better. at hazel's suggestion, lucy became a unicorn:

grant, still contemplating his victory:

and here i am showing every bit of my age:

ahhhhh! wrinkles!! *shudder*

i was finally allowed to open my present: 

look what i got:

so pretty! it meant i was able to get rid of these battered beauties:

they did their job well: three 5ks, three 10ks and two half marathons. nearly 560 miles in 13 months. thank you, old shoes.

hello, new shoes:

29 feels good.

follicles, fire & a flower

lately . . .

last saturday night, i decided to chop off lucy's mullet. of course, hazel wanted in on the action. she said, "i want it [her hair] up to my eyes!" i compromised with her chin. i didn't really like it that night and berated myself for getting carried away. hazel, on the other hand, loved it. she kept shaking her head around like she was in a commercial. sunday morning it looked better and then i styled it:

it really suits her and she still loves it.

tuesday night, grant and i went for a run along the bayou near us. i took this picture with grant's phone just before we turned around:

that's smoke from a fire northwest of us. it looks like it's mostly taken care of but we sure could use some rain down here. i think we've offically experienced every type of extreme weather houston has to offer: a hurricane, snow (twice), flooding, blistering heat, lightning storms and now drought. thank you, houston, for making us so mother nature savvy.

yesterday we headed for the zoo. i had heard about the blooming of a corpse flower and wanted to see it. the girls took their nap on the drive over and slowly awakened as they ate energy bars before entering:

once inside we made our way to the african forest. we paused at the komodo dragon so lucy could play peek-a-boo: 

the girls drummed on the fake elephant:

and admired the real ones:

after a quick gander at the ankole cattle:

we were there. meet pewtunia:

sadly, she was on her way out. i wish we'd been able to go the day before. oh well. (matchy-matchy. you'd think i'd planned it...) we still had the rest of the zoo to see. starting with the chimps:

the rhinos were actually out:

and playing in the mud:

then came the giraffes:

that's when we came across the lion king looking over his pride:

by then we were dripping with sweat so we ducked inside the reptile house:

grant was enamoured with this snapping turtle. it was holding perfectly still while wiggling it's stringy, pink tongue. i thought this lizard was kind of cute:

both hazel and lucy showed their skills as snake charmers:

and we finished our trip by lounging in the fish tunnel: