SpringBreak 2009

Spring break was fun this year. We pitched a couple of tents out in the back yard and camped out for 2 days. We recently acquired a fire pit and cooked all of our food on it. You see, campsites in Austin are extremely hard to come by if you dont make reservations a year in advance for spring break. I checked all the state and local parks in the area and everything was full. Probably just as well, the kids had lots of fun and we had the comforts of home close by. The rules were:
No playing in the house
Use the house if you need to go potty
Cook everything outside
No electronics
No eating the local wildlife
I spent both nights in the tents with the kids and Emma joined us on night 2.
Day 3, Emma did a home schooling experiment and you would have to ask her what the verdict was.
Day 4, we bought the parts for our water bottle launcher.
Instructables - Water or Soda Bottle Launcher

Water Bottle Rocket Launcher

Power

DetonatorMechanism

We also hiked to a nearby part about a 2 mile hike.

 

Zilker Kite Festival 2009

Zilker Park Kite Festival Austin TX is a really big deal.

It is a good excuse to show off your bling.
If you take the CPR course, you get a free kite!!

The Yellow Cab of Austin is one of the sponsors.

Big Kites and weird people who like their picture taken. I charged him 5 buck for a copy.As you can see, the squid is chasing the purple monster and is about to eat him.We also have big caterpillars here in TX.Olivia is a "Super Star!""This kite business is a piece of cake.""Lets see... I don't think I need this stick thing..."A Plethora of Kites"The Kite Festival is so FUN!!"Biggest Kite Contest"Man I wish I could run out there during the demonstration."Seconds before the eminent collision...
I can hardly believe my eyes! They are not fighting! :)An Old Car Picture for Grampa

As you can see, I did not get any pictures of my kids "flying" thier kites. It was a strange wind day. It would blow for about 2 mintues and then die for about 5. It did this all day so I spent most of the time trying to get the kids kites up in the air and by the time I had 1 or 2 of them up, the wind would die and we spent the next 5 mintues finding and winding up the kites. Just when you get them all ready to go again, the wind picks up and you have enough time to let out the string and hand it to a kid before you start over again. Lots of fun. Seems to do this every year. The kids enjoy it though.