Cinco de Mayo

As y'all know Saturday was Cinco de Mayo. No we are not Mexican, but we VERY much enjoy celebrating the holiday and this past one was no exception. 

We had already planned for a fun family day downtown but had not planned on Jack having a strong desire to buy a piñata. Why you ask? I don't know, but when Jack gets something in his head we always see it through.

So Piñata buying we went!  Jackson had just woken up from a nap so he must have thought he was in a dream or something when we put him in the middle of all these piñatas! 

He then became VERY interested in them and ooooooedddd and wowwwwwweddddd...

 And when the store owner handed him a stick...Well forget about it...he was in heaven. 

Check out 'Burro'. He came home with us and stared at Jackson the whole way home. Nah, this isn't at all scary folks. 

Piñata shopping wore us out so we then headed to Lucy's to have some delicious fried chicken...

                                      
 And we're fairly certain Jackson can tell when we're around Town Lake (downtown Austin) because he always starts saying, 'agua, agua, agua' around Congress and Cesar Chavez. I mean, it's his 2nd favorite word anyways but he just always seems to know when there is a body of water that he must get in to.

We are not the type of parents to disappoint our lion cub so to the 'agua' we went. His FAVORITE place on Town Lake...Butler Park.

This place has a splash pad that this kid is CRAZY about. We had one cool Cinco de Mayo, hope y'all did as well :)

A Hell of a Run

Today our lion cub participated in his first race ever. His uncle Bibi had signed up for the Hell Run here in Austin a few weeks ago and asked us if we would go cheer him on. We OF COURSE were ready to yell our lungs out for him until he crossed that finish line! 

 Only, once we arrived and were getting ourselves situated, Jack decided that he too wanted to run so he bought a course packet and joined in! Here he is starting the race...

 Jackson thought the countdown, starting gun and Dada running by were too funny. He started running after him but alas, was left in the dust...

 I told him Tio Bibi and Dada wouldn't be gone too long so we sat around and waited...

 and waited....

 And then Tio Bibi ran by! He was ROCKIN' it! 

 Jack was shortly behind--climbing, running through mud, and apparently a ring of fire...this Run really was Hell!

Tio Bibi and Dada did an AWESOME job and the cub and I are really proud of their time, endurance and overall tenacity.

 And I leave you with a proud Tio doing his best Tim Tebow impersonation...

Jackson goes Tagging

OK, not really--heads would roll if we even joked about tagging. We actually just admired the artwork. Thank goodness for Jack in our lives--he keeps us legal ;). 

The Baylor Street Art Wall is the largest outdoor mural in Austin. It is owned by my old boss and he in turn donated it to the H.O.P.E. Project for the next few years to raise awareness about their campaign. 

 Honestly I wanted to see what had become of his beloved 'Castle' (the castle at the top of this picture) because back when I worked for him, part of my job was managing the castle and the surrounding grounds. You better believe I kept this place in PRISTINE condition so when I found out the following had occurred my mouth dropped.

I can't complain too much though, the man did donate the space and eventually it'll become some pretty cool condos (initial plan for this space). 

Also--Jackson had a blast wandering the grounds and it made for some pretty colorful pictures...

 He was pretty scared of that giant rabbit structure and I don't blame him that thing is SCARY! Here he is too distracted by the thing to even look at the camera...

 BOO! 

All in all it made for an interesting and COLORFUL afternoon. Hope our cub doesn't get any ideas though.

Squished

Jackson thinks being squished by his momma is the funniest thing ever. He purposefully gets behind me whenever I'm up against something just so I can squish him. Jack and I think his laugh is absolutely infectious :)

Baby Disco

Baby Loves Disco is a nationwide event held at different venues across the country where babies (and their parents) enjoy some great tunes, open bar (milk and snacks), and the company of other babies.  The disco party takes place at a local bar and apparently these things usually sell out because they are that popular. 

When we told Jackson what we were doing today he was alllllllll about it. Him and I usually have dance parties in the kitchen so he really wanted to show off his moves. 

Austin's baby disco was held at the Rattle Inn. I put Jackson in what I thought was a rattlesnake shirt in honor of the location but Jack tells me it's actually a king cobra. Whatever....he's wearing a snake shirt. 

To say he was excited is an understatement. Check out this picture of him walking in! 

Once we got inside Jackson saw his friend Samaya and he said, 'Hi-yayaya (how he says Samaya) and told her she looked really nice in her dress. 

The cub loved the songs the 9-year old DJ was playing. A lot of the tunes are the same ones we listen to at home! 

He danced by himself for a little while...

 But he really prefers dancing with his momma, so we did our business on the dance floor...

 After a few songs Jackson was THIRSTY so he pulled up to the bar and ordered a drink...

We think he had one too many because he was walking around a little disoriented. We took this as a cue to head on home for a nap. 

 Jackson had one HECK of a dance party! 

An El Paso Easter

As you can tell from the title, we spent Easter in the West Texas town of El Paso. It was lovely. This was not, however, Jackson's first rodeo. If you recall, he's got the Easter thing down from past experience. 

What was new to our little cub is the whole Easter egg thing. He couldn't quite grasp why the things he eats in the morning were thrown all over Gigi & Abuelo's backyard. He didn't question us for very long though and just went with the flow when we asked him to collect them...

He very soon realized that they were confetti-filled eggs (GREAT job mami!) because being the destructive little boy he is, he enjoys throwing/smashing/crushing things on a regular basis. It just so happened these things were actually filled with something fun (other than yolk)!

He searched long and hard, and near and far...

and stopped to eat some violets (which are actually edible. Did you know? He is a foodie after all so Jackson of course knew)

and this boy found his eggs. Here he is in front of his garden. My mom planted it, cultivated it, added woodland creatures, a bench and a St. Francis statue just for him. She did it all when I was still pregnant. He LOVES sitting on his bench under his tree and smelling his flowers.

We won't tell my mom what he really thinks of St. Francis though, she may have a heart attack...see I told you, destructive...

but back to our Easter post...Jackson got a little tired of running around and looking for eggs so he asked his daddy to wheel him around instead.

They finished off the hunt with a bang, of the eggs that is. All over our boy's head. It was perfect! Easter numero dos--HUGE success...