Ghost Tour

My MOMS (Moms Offering Moms Support) Group had a Ladies Night Out on Saturday that included dinner and a ghost tour in the historic downtown area of Round Rock. It was a blast! We started out at the Louisiana Longhorn Café (Louisiana because of the Cajun food and Longhorn because almost everything here is named after the University of Texas team) where the menu features frog legs, jambalaya and every shrimp dish you can imagine. I stuck with a salad and grilled fish but most of my friends were more adventurous so I was able to sample some delicious, and spicy, dishes.

After dinner we went to a 100 year old tea house next door to the café. It was here that our tour began. We learned the history of the building and the strange phenomena that has taken place there. Then we went to the building where the outlaw Sam Bass was fatally wounded in a shootout with Texas Rangers in 1878. The building is now a club and there was a band playing on the stage in the exact spot where the shooting occurred. From there we went to another building and learned about the filming of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the real-life case (in Wisconsin) that the movie was based on. Our last stop was at the Palm House Museum. The museum is in a house that is over a hundred years old and was donated by a family of Swedish settlers. The Palm family had eight children and one of them died in the house. Her ghost is reported to haunt it still.

Although I wasn’t too spooked by the tour I loved hearing the history of the area. The downtown area is my favorite place in town. I can’t wait to go there with Jed again and try to spook him with my new ghostly knowledge.

Pumpkin Patch

On Tuesday night I went to church and helped unload 1,500 hundred pumpkins for our church pumpkin patch. It was hard work and really fun at the same time. The church band played and there were about 75 people there working in big assembly lines unloading the pumpkins from a semi. The pumpkins came from a Navajo reservation in New Mexico and all profits go to build a house for a poor family in Mexico. It felt really great to be part of something that would make a huge difference in the lives of one family.

I volunteered to work the pumpkin patch for a few hours today and invited my CA moms group to meet there. Jared and Laine got to run through the pumpkin patch and play with their friends. I got some adorable pictures of Laine and her best buddy Kamryn. The weather was really mild and it definitely felt like Fall.

Laine's first day of school

Today was Laine’s first day of school. She is joining Jared at Sunrise Montessori. Normally a child has to be three years old to attend the school but last week they evaluated Laine and agreed to let her start one month early. This means she is the youngest, and also the littlest, child in the school. When I saw her lined up with all of the other kids and saw that she was several inches shorter than most of them it made my heart ache to think of my little one in this world of big kids.

I know Laine was scared but she bravely went to the playground with Jared and tried to join in with the other girls. She was doing fine until I said goodbye and then she started to cry and I wanted to cry along with her. I left her with her teacher and then secretly watched her through the window. When it was time for the kids to go inside I left.

When I came back at noon to pick them up Laine was as happy as could be. She told me all about her day, her snack of a banana being the most memorable thing for her. When we got home she told daddy about school and when I asked her if she wanted to go back she smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

I am crossing my fingers that she will still remember how much fun she had when I leave her on Wednesday.

Wedding in Austin

Last night Jed and I went to the wedding of one of his clients. I was thrilled to have a night out and Jed was looking forward to relaxing a bit and meeting new people. We hired a sitter and left the kids in her capable hands before heading out.

We drove into Austin and got terribly lost because I gave Jed the wrong directions. Eventually we made it to reception, after having just missed the actual ceremony. We had very interesting people at our table and enjoyed chatting over a delicious dinner and really amazing wine. After dinner we hit the dance floor. I enjoyed singing along to “Dancing Queen” and Jed impressed me with his ability to do the twist. When they started playing YMCA we decided that one would be much more fun to watch then to actually participate in. I have to say, there is nothing like a bunch of slightly drunk Texans dancing to the Village People classic.

Jared's First Day of School

Today was Jared’s first day of pre-school. Although he went to school in Japan and even a little bit in California we still wanted to make his first day special. He wore his new Spiderman shoes and Spiderman shirt and carried his Spiderman lunchbox. I left Laine with Jed so I could concentrate on being with Jared when we got to the school. I took him to the playground and stayed with him until it was time to go inside. He was fine with me leaving and did well the entire day.

Jed and I went back together to pick him up and we watched him threw the window for a few minutes before he caught us. Then he ran to us and talked about the little boy who kept taking his toys all day. He is in the middle of a tattle-tale stage. We went to his cubby (which we decorated with planets and spaceships) to get his lunch box and he got upset because we weren’t taking his cloth cubby home with us. He has been putting stuff in it at home for the last two weeks and he wasn’t ready to leave it at school. I finally convinced him that he would get to see it the next time he goes to school.

On the drive home Jared was quiet and tired. I think it will take him a while to get used to his new routine. Laine enjoyed her morning alone with me but I have a feeling she will soon start to miss her big brother.

Visit to Marcia and Jim's ranch

On Saturday we went to visit Jed’s Aunt Marcia (Bonnie’s sister) and her husband Jim at their ranch about two hours away from us. Darren and Melissa also went with their two kids. We all met up in Fredricksburg, a quaint German town a half hour away from their ranch. The town has a Main Street with cute antique and craft shops. We drove through town and went to a large park where Marcia had prepared a picnic for us. The kids fed our leftover bread to the ducks that were on the stream that ran through the park. It was a lovely afternoon.

After lunch we headed to their 101 acre ranch in the tiny town of Doss. Jed and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive through the Texas Hill Country. We even passed the one room schoolhouse (one of only two in the state) that serves the 22 children that live in Doss. The ranch is located on a windy road and as soon as we pulled up to I knew I would love being there. There is a large windmill out front and cows that graze on the property. The house has wood floors and a rustic front porch with old-fashioned screen doors. Everything about the ranch reminded me of my childhood summer vacations when we would visit my grandmother’s siblings all over Texas and Oklahoma.

We spent the afternoon touring the ranch and watching the four kids play together. After a wonderful dinner and a surprise birthday cake for Marcia (the kids blew out the candles) we left them at the ranch and headed home.

The drive home in the twilight was beautiful. Jed had a hard time concentrating on the road because the sunset and the clouds were so amazing. There were also lots of dips in the road which made it a mini-rollar coaster ride for the kids. Kind of like our beloved “Whoa Hill” in Laguna Beach.

Jared's girlfriend

On Saturday night we went to a party with about nine other couples that one of the moms from our weekly playgroup was hosting. For most of the party Jared played with Jessica, his new girlfriend. Jessica is the four year old daughter of Leila, one of the moms in my California Moms Group. All the way home that night he talked about Jessica and how much he missed her.

On Wednesday I hosted a cookie decorating party with my CA group. Jessica was there and once again they were inseparable. They even spent 45 minutes alone in Jared’s closet reading a book by flashlight. Then today we met up with Leila at another function and the two of them played together the entire time, even ignoring some of Jared’s favorite playmates. I have never seen Jared so taken with another child, especially a girl. I compared notes with Leila and she said the obsession is mutual. Could my little guy be in love? They certainly tell each other “I love you” often enough.

I am looking forward to watching this relationship develop. Will Jared get his heart broken? Or maybe he will be the heart-breaker?