Weekend Adventurers

I don't know what the weather is like where you are but here in Austin, it has been a hot dry miserable and sometimes smoky summer. Now that things have begun to cool into the low 90's we've been getting back outdoors and doing our best to take advantage of the weekends.

Saturday morning we woke up in the pre-dawn hours as usual and started packing our bags for an adventure. We asked our three(and a half) year old what he wanted to do. His answer, "I want a go to a state park." So, following his direction, we pulled up the state park website and quickly narrowed down our choices, thanks to the recent wildfires. We settled upon Pedernales Falls and we were off.

After a short hour and a half drive we arrived. We decided to check out the swimming area and were surprised that there were no other cars there. As we walked down the half mile trail we quickly surmised why. The water was less than two feet at its deepest point. The rock that you can stand on in the middle of the swimming area stood five feet out of the water and the dock stood a full thirty feet from the water's edge. you could say it was a little dry. But, not one whose fond of crowds, I loved it. We spent the afternoon trying to catch fish by hand and skipping rocks in the "river." I think most of the rocks simply bounced off of others but I wasn't going to say anything and crush the pride I saw in their faces. There is nothing more natural or enjoyable than seeing that inquisitive spirit of a young child when it meets raw and uncontrolled wild.

Don't tell the kids, but there is learning there, too. It comes from questions and inspections and interactions with things not seen before. You have the option of playing games or instructing or geocaching but much of the time the majority of what they will learn is that which they try and find out themselves.

Finding movies your boys will love

Our Netflix Queue is full, at last glance there were over 150 movies and I believe maybe three were for Mom and Dad. Sometimes it can be difficult as parents to figure out if the movie you are about to put on for movie night will be a hit or if the kids will start wrestling and playing around as soon as the popcorn's gone. Rather than try to put together another top 100 list I decided to provide the resources and let you decide.


100 movies for boys- Boy's Life Magazine
Great Animated Movies for Boys Part I
Great Animated Movies for Boys Part II
Great Animated Movies for Boys Part III
10 best movies boys- Made Manual
Movies for 5-10 year old boys- WSTW Blog

I remember sitting down for movie night and I was so excited to finally watch Disney's Peter Pan with my boys. I had great memories of watching it with my dad and thought it would be a wonderful experience to watch it again through their eyes. Oops. It ends up that my oldest was going through a stage where he was just starting to understand fear and one of the things he is most afraid of is....Crocodiles. So to avoid situations where your little one is up four times and ends up sleeping in your bed with the covers pulled all the way up, here is a very helpful link:

Common Sense Media

And a recent piece they did for Halloween:

Scary Movies Tips