ACL

This past weekend was the annual ACL music festival out at Zilker Park. We didn't go last year, and were partially regretting it when you could hear all of the commotion from our front door. So when the opportunity arose to buy wristbands several months ago, we jumped at the chance. This was August's third year to attend, his first being while in utero, and the second time was when he was 9 months old. Needless to say, this was his first time to really experience the festival, or 'music show' as he refers to it...and he was a big fan! Of course his two year old energy and attention span made it a bit difficult to settle in and listen to an entire set of any one show, but we still managed to hear some really great bands. And we learned a bit more about August's musical tastes...the louder, more electronic the sound, the more his desire to get closer to the stage. And after a brief appearance on the stage during a Ralph's World set, he's now convinced he needs to go up to sing and dance on the stage at every show.

Snails

Continuing with our unintentional nature theme this week, I thought you would enjoy some photos of a couple of other little friends that stopped by for a brief visit. We had a nice soaking rain recently, which always brings out the snails. Being the fun, creature loving Papa that he is, Kevin brought in a couple of fairly large snails that he thought August would love to see. Boy was he right. August was completely enamored with the two little guys. He carried them around, played with them on the floor, and let them slither around all over him. Who am I kidding, we all had a fun time with these two little invertebrates! But thankfully we are a catch and release kind of family, so after our fun play time, the boys took them back to their happy little home.

Butterflies on the Brain

Shortly after our trip to visit the butterflies, August came across a caterpillar that he decided we needed to save from the trial. Like any good Papa, Kevin scooped him up in a water bottle, and brought him home to a happy little mason jar habitat. There was some research on what to feed the little guy, what type of leaves he needs, etc. But the very next morning, before I could even snap his first squirmy photo, our little caterpillar began morphing into cocoon. August is very familiar with the process thanks to one of his all time favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. However, because this green cocoon looked so much like a leaf, we don't think August quite understood what had happened to his caterpillar. Much to our delight, our little caterpillar shed his habitat and dawned his beautiful wings on the Sunday morning after a harvest moon. Knowing that his lifespan is so short, we let August gawk at our new little friend for a while, participated in a mini photo session, and finally took him to the park to be released. We're not sure how he really felt about entering our home for the week as he didn't even have the decency to stick around and thank us. As soon as Kevin lifted the green leaf out into the fresh air, and as quickly as you could blink, our friend was gone into the trees. August still asks us 'where buffwhy go?'

"where go?"

Field Trip Friday

Kevin was recently away on travel for a couple of consecutive weeks. As soon as he returned, he took that Friday off and we drove down to Houston for a somewhat impromtu family field trip. I had purchased a voucher for the butterfly exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science many moons ago, and seeing that it was going to expire at the end of September, we figure the time was now or never. Plus we figured August would be at a really fun age to enjoy it. That's a complete understatement! 

What began as a plan to see the butterflies for an hour or so, turned into an entire day of fun at the museum. We started with the butterflies, after a quick lunch break, we headed into check out the fabulous display of dinosaur bones. From there we wandered through the energy exhibit, the wild animal section, and the gem and mineral gallery before calling it quits after a mandatory stop at the museum shop. Once we had officially closed the museum down, it was time to swing by Starbucks for the caffeine-fix needed to make the drive back home. The day turned out to be so much more fun than any of us ever anticipated. We feel so blessed to have been able to take the time and enjoy this mini-adventure day together as a family!