More B-Day pics

From three weeks ago...  That's been my style lately.  Plan something, then get around to it several weeks (months?) later because we're still catching up on things we planned weeks before that.

Banana cupcake (frosting already licked off)!

Cheatin at washers.

Now that it's 90+ degrees, no one in their right mind would wear pants to the lake.

Working on his lefty crank.

Simon's Second Soiree - strawberry style.

Kid's first birthdays are generally the big one, but I'm not really sure why.  Most of them still aren't aware enough to get what's going on.  This time last year Simon still wasn't walking and was only saying a few words.  This year though, he's running and shouting in full sentences.  So we all had a fun excursion to pick strawberries at Sweet Berry Farms outside of Marble Falls last Saturday.  A couple of Simon's friends joined him in the picking.

It took him a while to figure out we weren't collecting rocks and dirt.

Simon and Henry got right to work.



As you can see in this video, Simon realized that the basket was just a waste of time and decided to cut out the middle man.

 More grazing.

Simon tells the goats Good Morning in this video and gets a little jittery when they jump up on the fence.

 Group shots

And since we were in the area, might as well stop at Opie's in Spicewood for BBQ.  It was good, but not out of this world.

Crawfish with the family

Crawfish season is in full swing and man are they big this year, at least compared to last year.  Picked up a 32 pound sack since we had family in from New Hampshire.  That ended up being more than enough since there were several in our group who were satisfied with just one.  And to be fair, that's one more than I thought they'd eat.

The great Purge begins.

Simon was a little skittish around the live ones.

They didn't stay that way for long.  Corn, potatoes, crab boil, onion, garlic, artichokes, shrimp, sausage, and of course, crawfish.

 We were lucky to be joined by Margaret, Bill and Chris.

Uncle Bill and I did our share.

Let it Snow

This past Saturday Mark, Henry, Simon and I took the early morning drive out to Lexington, TX to hit Texas Monthly's choice for Best BBQ in Texas, Snow's. Their brisket is definitely in the top 3. Their ribs and sausage could use some work. Still tasty, but not quite on the same plane as their brisket.

 Henry and Simon belly up to the table.

Ribs, brisket, and a fairly dry piece of sausage in the back.  Standard trifecta.

Simon works on a rib.

After eating it's time to play cars on the steps to the bathroom.

... or play in the town gazebo.

... or hunt for cats.

So far, Simon's hit Kreuz's, Salt Lick, City Market, Snow's, Franklin, Louie Mueller...Not bad for a Californian.  He's got a lot to teach his little brother.

Simon's jams

Austin may be the "Live Music Capital of the World."  And there's no better place to exemplify this than in the playroom.  Simon routinely pulls down the guitar and sings all the songs he's learned recently.  His favorite songs are the ones sung by Mrs. Carol at school.



For this one, he starts off singing Joe McDermmott's "Everybody Plays Air Guitar". Click here for a listen to the original. Erinn and I then try to get him to sing Mrs. Carol's "There's a dinosaur knocking on the door..."
This how he usually closes a show, with a medley. It goes Bim Bam/ Baby Shark/ Bim Bam Shabbot Shalom (Hey). And then he tunes his machine.

Easter morning

Simon greeted Easter morning the same way he did on Christmas, with wide eyed awesomeness.

Started with his basket:

Then had breakfast, got dressed, and went out the front door...

.... to discover that....

... holy Jesus.  You guys have to see this....

Over there!  Someone has "hidden" our dyed eggs right in plain sight!

Here's one!

And another!

Look at all these eggs!  I'm going to dump them out of my basket and onto the hard concrete.

Then it was onto Mass at St Eds. And then over to Erinn's parents where there was more awesomeness.

Another Easter basket!!

And more egg hunting with Olivia.

Simon was way too into the goldfish in the plastic egg to pose for a picture.

Happy Easter yall.

Edit from Erinn: Yes, I look pregnant in the picture because I am (in case any readers did not yet know our news). We are due in early October!

Addition from Andrew:  I really haven't told anyone yet.  So now you know...  And knowing is half the battle.

Preaster

For Easter prep, Simon got to dye his eggs.  Outside and without clothes on, because that's how Dad likes to prepare his eggs.

Erinn put the egg in a whisk so he could dip the eggs in the dye.

As you can see, there are only 9 eggs here.  We started with 10, but when Erinn told Simon to drop the egg in the dye, he didn't hear the last part and just dropped the egg onto the deck, cracking it.

Rodeo time

Also known as State Fair Light. 

I was really looking forward to taking everyone out to the Rodeo for the BBQ competition.  Even with the unseasonably cold weather and gale force winds, we loaded up and rolled out to the Travis County Expo Center.  It was colder and windier once we got there and Erinn let me know about it.

We hopped from tent to tent.  The first stop fortunately for Simon was the Kids Tent with the petting zoo.

After a heavy lathering of hand sanitizer, we headed across the parking lot over to the BBQ setup where we saw some sweet rigs, like this one:

Plenty of hospitality, but in the end it was too windy to continue.  So we headed to the see the world's smallest cowboy, Whiplash.

Simon and Erinn waiting for Whiplash.

Whiplash is a monkey that rides a dog.  And when I say ride, I use that term loosely.  He's strapped onto the dog.  Whiplash corrals some sheep and gets all the credit.  But honestly, the dog's doing all the work.

I couldn't get a good shot of Whiplash, so here's one the Dallas Morning News took.