Bonjour!

Jackson asked to be Parisian for the day so I did my best to make him look 

très français... 

Kite Festival

The Annual Kite Festival in Austin is the nation's oldest Kite Festival. This year marked Austin's 84th year and Jackson's 1st! (Well if you count outside the womb).

I of course bought him a lion kite for the special occasion and he LOVED it! 

He ripped it out of the packaging and helped Jack put it together....

 

And watched in utter amazement as it flew with the hundreds of kites in the air...

Our friends Kari and Dillon met us out with their sweet son, Gage. Dillon is a tennis pro and has promised to give Jackson lessons once he's old enough. Jackson and Gage have some serious court time in their near future, but for now they can just enjoy being babies...

It was a GORGEOUS day out--perfect day to fly a kite and just be outside. Jackson truly enjoyed himself. We can't wait to bring him back year after year...

Franklin BBQ

I don't always talk about the places we go eat, but Franklin BBQ was an EXPERIENCE, so it is deserving of it's very own post.  

Franklin's has become a famous place to go eat BBQ here in Austin and when I heard the wait to eat there was 2-3hrs I HAD to try it. Apparently they open their doors at 11am everyday (except Mondays)  but if you want to eat there you have to start standing in line around 9am AND they sell out around noon! 

After mapping out our plan of attack all week (yes all week people) we decided it would be best if Jack waited patiently in line while Jackson ate, slept, and did his business. I dropped Jack off at 9:30am and Jackson and I met back up with him right before 11am when he woke up asking for 'Da-deeee'. 

As you can tell the line was already ridiculously long...

Jackson didn't like the long line at first. Here he is yelling at EVERYONE...

But then we told him about the food at the end of this line and he walked around high-fiving the crowd.  Seriously, he high-fived this man about 5 times...

We had some time to kill because even though they open their doors at 11am you don't necessarily sit and eat until 30 mins after that. We finally ate at 12:30! Which is why I took SOOOO many pictures. 

Jackson made a lot of friends that day but one in particular was a little girl named Adele. She LOVED Jackson. She held his hand, gave him kisses and hugged him endlessly. 

Once inside we said 'buh-byyyyeeee' to Adele and 'hi-yayaya' (hello) to David the gnome...Jackson was TERRIFIED of him. To the point of tears. It was sad/hilarious.

When we FINALLY reached the Holy Grail of BBQ we decided that it was in fact worth the wait (or maybe we were just starving?). The brisket and sauce were to-die-for. The ribs fell off the bone. The pulled pork was perfectly moist. Just ask Jackson--the boy went to town...

Boy Bacchus

Similarities no?

He is part Greek...

Guineas

We live in a neighborhood in Austin that used to be a farm. The owner's of the farm apparently kept guinea fowl by the dozens and when they moved out and the land became divided and sold, the guineas decided to stay. 

It was one of the reasons Jack and I decided to buy the house we currently live in. We liked the idea of living amongst these crazy birds. I mean, don't we all live amongst crazy birds?? At least we're being literal about it...

Surprisingly they don't really spend a whole of time in the trees so these pictures don't do them justice. They love grazing in our front yard, back yard, on top of our fences and we've even seen them sunning on our mailbox before. They keep reproducing so they're pretty much here to stay. They are loud, obnoxious, poop on the sidewalk and we love/hate them.

 Chaucer HATES them...

and Jackson likes to watch them, comment on them, and then go back to his bike.

Jackson gets Ashed

As you all know today is Ash Wednesday. We of course went to mass and received our ashes since we are NOT about to face the wrath of my mother, or the Catholic guilt that haunts us daily.

Jackson was a rock star at church. Which was surprising because he typically doesn't behave too well at Sunday services. He tells me he's turned a new leaf and promises to be good during this Lenten season. I'm not sure he realizes how long 40 days is, but I'm holding him accountable none the less.

Here are some pics after mass as we enjoyed in our 90 degree February weather outside... 

 Why so serious cub?!! 

 The boy has recently become OBSESSED with his bike. If we are in the garage for more than 5 seconds he walks over to it and starts pulling it out to ride it. The other day Jack and I pushed him around inside the garage because it was raining out (he insisted).

Here he is bypassing his momma to get back to his bike (he NEVER bypasses me people). We title this video, 'MAN ON A MISSION'...

Valentine's Day

Well....more like Valentine's week. Jackson's Valentine's began on Monday and has continued through today. 

We started our V day celebration at J's friend Samaya's house for a play date. I don't think I've ever talked about the cub's play group. It includes 2 girls; Samaya and Camilla and 4 boys; Malcolm, Jalen, Salvador and yours truly. Jack calls them the 'UN of playgroups' for obvious reasons... 

Camilla

 Samaya

 Salvador 

Anyways, we get together once a month and this month we decided to give pictures of each other's kids as a Valentine. The kids LOVED looking at pictures of each other. Jackson however LOVED looking at his own picture. In case there was any doubt, he is my child. 

 Tuesday (actual V day) we started off by going to music class and after came home to a nice surprise!

Jack got me some gorgeous flowers and got Jackson some new balloons. It was so sweet to open the door to that. Thanks doll! 

In return, I made Jack lobster pot pie (mami--click on this and you'll have the recipe) and bought a tasty bottle of champagne so once we put the cub to bed we had a nice relaxing evening. 

 Oh and Jackson had some lobster meat and LOVED it. It was gone 1 minute after taking this picture...

 And finally today we went to visit our Auntie Jo at the capitol where she had the most beautiful presentation of cake balls I have ever seen. Jackson and I LOVED them and I wish I had a picture to show y'all but we ate them so fast Jo didn't have an opportunity to take out the camera. FAT KIDS!

Instead I leave you with a picture of Jackson and I working off our cake balls this afternoon. Chaucer insisted on joining but after chasing some guinea hens we stuck him in the trunk for bad behavior...

Hope y'all had a lovely Valentine's day!