Water Balloon Fight!

Brit and Lydia spent part of Good Friday planning a water balloon fight for Saturday.
This partially involved calling Emily at work and asking her to bring home a water balloon spout attachment for the front spigot. It's fun to be at work and get a call from Brit and Lydia. You never know what to expect!
On Saturday, Lydia had a difficult time waiting for the balloons to be filled. But eventually, we had a basket full, and the party started!
The whole thing was a blast. Guthrie watched his crazy family run around the yard, while he stayed nice and dry.

The Last Nice Weekend before HOT

So, what do you do for fun on the weekend when it's NOT your birthday, but the weather is still so nice? If your us, you find a festival. Thankfully, that's easy to do in Austin, in April

Any festival worth its salt has a moon walk castle.

Afterwards, Brit, Guthrie (in the stroller) and Lydia found a nice kid-sized park bench (in Republic Square) where Lydia finished her chocolate covered banana. Particularly satisfying festivals have chocolate covered bananas.

Later, we finished our lovely day with dinner at the Central Market playground. It was Guthrie's first visit. He seemed very content.

Cascarones!

Lydia's godmother Mo has a cascarones painting party every year, usually on Palm Sunday. On Easter Sunday, we go to John's house to hunt the eggs, and break the eggs, we painted at Mo's the week before.

Here, Lydia paints with our friend Cheryl.












But before they can be hidden, we paint. Lydia was anxious to get to the breaking part, too.

Swing into Spring!

Guthrie tried out the swing in our backyard yesterday. He liked it. 

The Greatest Birthday Weekend EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So of course, while we were on the coast, we did other stuff, too.
On Friday, we had a birthday dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe in Galveston. It was very fun, and very fancy. They put sparklers in the dessert!

The staff sang to Lydia, and she seemed just delighted.

After dinner, we went on the Rainforest boat ride together. Here we are in the boat.

We spent the night at a hotel right on the beach. Here is a view of the beach from our hotel.

This is a view of our hotel from the beach. We're in the second room from the right. It was great.

So, as you know from previous posts, Lydia and I spend the morning on the beach.

About now you're probably thinking, "wow, this is the best birthday ever! What could possibly top this?"

Two words: Pony Rides! It's true. The weekend we were in Galveston happened to be the weekend of their annual Children's Festival. There were all kinds of great activities and crafts for kids. Lydia made "sand in a bottle" art, she went on a moon walk and gian slide, we fed animals in a petting zoo, and Lydia had her first pony ride.

But Wait, There's More!

We left Galveston early Saturday afternoon, and headed to Kemah. Our first stop was our hotel, a lovely new Days Inn. I learned an interesting fact at the Days Inn. They were founded by a man named Day. That was his last name. I'd always assumed it was named after the unit of time you were likely to stay, but no.

In any case, Brit and Guthrie checked out the beds while Lydia and I got all gussied up for the big birthday celebration. You see, Lydia and her Gan share April 1st as a birthdate. So, we met Gan, Grumps, Gigi and Aunt Mandy at a very nice seafood restaurant on the Kemah boardwalk for dinner.

Here, Guthrie and his grandfather enjoy the ocean view. This was Guthrie's first real view of the Gulf. (Other than looking our the car window, of course. Remember, he and Brit didn't join us on the beach in Galveston.)

Aunt Mandy, Guthrie and Lydia enjoy some bread while we wait for entrees.

Our waitress showed Lydia how to filet a fish. Our waitress was awesome!

Lydia and Gan were presented with lovely and delicious birthday desserts. Mmmmmm.

After dinner, Lydia rode the Ferris Wheel with Grumps and Aunt Mandy. In this picture, they are in the car at the very, very top.

Lydia and Emily concluded a perfect evening with a ride together on the carousel.

It really, really was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.

More Birthday Pictures

Here are more pictures of our beautiful and fun six year old, at the beach.
(It was just Lyds and Emily on the beach - Brit and Guthrie were resting in our hotel.)

Lydia's Birthday Part II

Lydia wanted to spend her 6th birthday at the beach in Galveston, so we did. We have a lot more pictures, too, which I will post soon.
However, this is probably the last truly beautiful weekend before the miserable hot begins, so we're going back outside now. And of course, we have pictures of our outdoor adventures from today which we will also post soon.
Love,
Emily

Lydia's Birthday, part 1

Lydia's 6th birthday was April 1st. Pappy's "half of 100. minus 1" birthday was on March 15th. So, the weekend right in the middle of the two, we headed to Denton to celebrate both. Here, Lydia takes a break from drawing in the fort she built in Grandma's livingroom.
It was a very nice weekend. Grandma cooked wonderful food for all of us, and we cuddled and laughed and played lots of card games. Lydia is particularly good at Old Maid.




Emily's sister Katie, and her kids Luke and Rachel, spent Saturday afternoon with us as well. Rachel and Lydia are very, very good friends, and Luke is genuinely good company, too. We're all smiling because Brit is acting like a giant goofball. I think he thought we were taking a picture for a Sears catalog.

Guthrie and Brit spent most of the weekend "hanging out", as you can see. Guthrie loves laying way, way back like this. He's a real cool dude.

Straight A's!

Lydia received her report card today. It was an excellent report card, so we went to Gatti-Land to celebrate. Lydia did very well on the games, and used her winning points to get this fan, and these wax lips. It's true! Our lips aren't naturally this red and full. We're both wearing wax lips. What a great way to celebrate a straight A student..... 

OMG!! - it's SXSW!!!

It was a busy weekend for the Leuba Jones family. As a musical family, South by Southwest is a pretty big deal for us. Sure, how we spend the week has changed since the two kids came along, but we still try to get out and hear some music. Only now, instead of going from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., we go from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. And we spend a lot less money doing it.
For us, the week started on Thursday, with Brit's Austin American Statesman show at Bourbon Rocks. It was a good show, although the venue wasn't the best. #1 - the stage was made of tile. Who's idea was that? Nate's drums were sliding all over the place. #2 - the sound in this place was terrible. It was really muddy and tinny at the same time, and that's quite an accomplishment. But the mighty Stickpony sounded great. This was their first show with Mike Stickpony, the new guitar player. Good show. This was also the first time Emily has seen Stickpony play in many, many, many months. Thank you to Gan and Gigi for staying home with Lydia and Guthrie. Brit's dad was at the show too! He had a good time, although he agreed the sound sucked.
Where do you go after an afternoon Stickpony show?
The Hole in the Wall, of course. Here, Baby Grant Johnson (from the New Vintage) plays with Rich Mullins (from Ol' Yeller). Very, very good. Grant is an old friend, and we love him. Rich is a new friend, and we love him too. These guys sounded great.
And where do you go after an afternoon show at the Hole in the Wall?

The Showdown, of course. Gan, Grumps and Gigi had to get back to Katy, so Emily went home, fed the fam, and packed the kids up for some back-porch action at the Showdown. (Settle down Mom - were were only there for an hour.)
Brit, Mo and Kirke - hanging on the porch with Lydia and Guthrie. (You can kinda' tell, from the picture, that Brit and Mo did NOT take a break and head home to hang with the kiddos, like Emily did. But that's okay. These things happen during SXSW).

Pete and Al, "The Godfather's", take a moment together, to bask in the collective glory of their wisdom and guidance.




From there, Emily and the monkeys headed home, and Brit wasn't far behind. (He had some rock stars to hob nob with first, of course.)


Friday morning found Emily at work, bright and early, but not for long. By 2:30, Emily was on her way home, with a quick stop at El Chilitos for tacos and the base ingredient for a couple of Moiras. What, you ask, is a Moira? At El Chilito you can get a delicious Mexican hot chocolate with a shot of espresso in it. Pretty good stuff in and of itself. Add a shot of Irish Whiskey, and half a shot of Kahlua and Irish Cream, and you have a Moira, named after one of our favotire women, an FW who happens to be half Mexican, half Irish and all Beautiful. And just what Brit needed before hitting the SXSW trail again. (The beverage, not the lady.)
Our first stop on Friday? The Bloodshot party at Yard Dog. This is Lydia's annual opportunity to see her godfather Pete's band, The Meat Purveyors, a great live act, and a hillarious take on the punk rock blue grass hybrid. Great show. Uncle Pete is definitely one of the very best mandolin players there is. Lydia and Emily had to struggle to find a place where we could see Pete, but it was worth it. Miss Lydia was rocking out the whole time.
We saw a lot of friends at Yard Dog, too. Francis and Mike McCoy were here from Lawrence, KS. Frances helped Brit amuse Guthrie while Emily and Lydia were wathcing the Meat Purveyors.

Baby Grant Johnson was making the scene, too.




Darcy Fromholz was there too. She played "would you rather" with Lydia, Emily and Guthrie while we waited for Pete and Brit to finish watching the Waco Bros. Darcie is really good at "would you rather". She would rather eat a food she's never tried before than lick a tire. Me too.


After Yard Dog, we went to Pete, Kim and Loretta's house for dinner and some good old fashioned hanging out. Have you been wondering what Guthrie would look like in Loretta's Bumbo? (http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7651/1424/1600/bumbo%20finger1.jpg)
Here you go!

If you're wondering if it's just the camera angle that makes Guthrie's leg look so chubby, the simple answer is no. It's the super-chubbiness of his leg that makes his leg look so chubby.

Take a deep breath, maybe get yourself a glass of water. Only one more day to go!

Saturday, March 18th. The Pop Culture Press party at Dog and Duck.

This is a favorite of ours. Uncle Bubba's band, The Golden Apples, play every year. And we always see lots and lots of friends, of all ages, at the show. The Golden Apples sounded absolutely great, as always. I was hanging in the back, though, with a sleeping baby, so I didn't get any pictures. Lydia was with Aunt Mandy, rocking.

Here is Guthrie, in his Stickpony shirt that our dear friend Sharon Calcote made for him. It's important to wear your best rock and roll clothes at the Pop Culture Press party. You never know who you'll see.

Over the course of the day, we saw Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs, Translator, Golden Apples, the Wannabes, Steve Wynn (from The Dream Syndicate) and many, many friends.

Trip, Roxy and Lydia take a break from playing to have their picture taken.

This is Harriet. Her parents are Missy and Claude Bernard. She looks just like her dad. I used to tell people her dad was my little brother, and they believed me.

The evening (and our SXSW for this year) ended with Brit and Lydia enjoying the Wannabes together. Here they are from the back. You can see the band, and Uncle Al, too.

This is them from the front. They loooooove hanging out together.

Where are all the picture of Guthrie? Mostly, he slept in his stroller with his ear plugs in, although he also spent every waking moment in Aunt Mandy's arms, being promenaded around.

And now it is Sunday, March 19th. It's nearly 3:30 in the afternoon. We've had a big, fancy formal breakfast of gingered banana blueberry pancakes (served on a cake pedastal) with fresh fruit and orange juice served in our wedding crystal. This is the after picture. Lydia is now watching cartoons, and Guthrie and Brit are in the guest room/office with me, reading and gurgling, respectively. And, we're all still in our pajamas. It's a good thing SXSW only happens once a year.