Day #9: Pictures from our Monday

We woke up to thick fog and drizzle in Austin this morning. Mild temperatures. We had hoped to spend most of the day outdoors; and in fact, Jackson had another T-ball game scheduled for early evening that was subsequently cancelled because the field was too soggy. Jackson's cold had improved enough for him to return to school today, and Olivia had school and after-school band practice, so Karis, her mom, Grandpa Jones and I tried to make the best of the rainy day.

The Hula Hut on Lake Austin

We decided to go to the ONLY place I purchase card stock, The Paper Place, and do a little shopping. Since I only get to visit this store twice per year, I buy a bunch of pretty paper for making cards. They have a great selection of pre-cut paper, and I always shop at their clearance rack and get everything 50% off. I spent about 40 minutes shopping in the store and got a whole bunch of beautiful new paper, and three caligraphy pens for just about $26.00!

I've also been looking everywhere for art stencils ~ we have a bunch of them at church that our preschoolers love to play with ~ so we stopped at one of those cool teacher stores and I did find some stencils ... not exactly like the ones I use at church, but nice ~ as well as some really fun templates of 12 different flowers that make beautiful texture pictures (you put one under a piece of paper and use a crayon to make a rubbing). And then we drove over to Lake Austin and ate lunch at the Hula Hut ... basically because I LOVE their home baked tortilla chips and amazing salsa.

Karis was so tired by the time our shopping excursion and lunch were finished that she fell soundly asleep on the drive home. We had a quiet afternoon at home ...

Our energy was renewed by the time Jackson came home from school and we were ready to play again. I made us a bunch of paper airplanes which we tested out all over the house. Sabrina has a nice two-story great room with a balcony overlooking it that made a great place to launch our planes. You can't believe how much fun it is to make paper airplanes with little kiddos! So we played a bunch of different games, checked out all of the neat toys the kids have, ate a nice dinner, played some more ... and now all of us are exhausted!

We're having a wonderful time in Austin. Tomorrow, we are taking a little side trip to Houston to see Mr. Jones's sisters and go to the rodeo, but we'll be back for more fun in Austin Thursday afternoon. If I have time, I'll try to post a few pictures from Houston ...