Spring Break and Easter

With the baby coming just before summer, we are not making any big plans for summer vacation. So, I thought it fair to do something for for spring break.  We reserved a little cabin at Sea Rim State Park, on the coast really close to the Louisiana boarder

I made the reservation simply because it was near the beach and available during spring break, little realizing it was also mostly swampland inhabited by mosquitoes, poisonous snakes, and lots of alligators, not to mention lots of dead jellyfish along the beach.....Maybe not the greatest place to take small children, but we had fun anyway. Mom and Dad just had to be a little more vigilant with our small brood.

Our cabin overlooked the boat dock and waterway that went back into the marshes. We had a friendly alligator hanging out right next to us and we could see him out the windows cruising around. Needless to say, we didn't spend much time outside around the cabin.

The only morning he wasn't in sight, we let the kids do some "fishing"

which consisted of lots of splashing in puddles,

lots of patient waiting,

and finally a big catch! ... Somehow a minnow managed to skewer itself on Matt's hook.  We turned it into bait.

We did, however, have lots of fun catching crabs!

Michael, especially, had fun with this.  You simply lower a turkey neck into the water and wait a few minutes until you see the bobber starting to move, then slowly reel it in.  The crabs are so greedy they refuse to let go until they are well out of the water. Then they fall, plop, back in. --You lower the turkey neck back in the water and the process endlessly repeats itself.

One morning, (to avoid too much time around Mr. Alligator), we loaded up the crew and headed into Beaumont. We had a great time visiting the Fire Museum there. They had lots of fun, interactive exhibits

and some really cool old fire equipment.  I was quite impressed. They fit a lot of history into that little building.

The giant fire hydrant in the front was also quite impressive.

We also stopped by Spindletop and Gladys City Museum. (You can read a quick summary of the history here: https://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/spindletop/spindletop.html ) We got to see a reenactment of the gusher, tour all the old buildings,

and play some fun "minute-to-win-it" games like fill the watering can with a sponge,

shave a balloon,

and, Joseph's favorite, the cow patty toss.

We did spend quite a bit of time on the beach swimming, building sandcastles, and beach combing ... but I wasn't thinking and didn't pack my phone/camera for the beach trips.  Oh, well.  The kids can't wait to go back .......but I think Mom is going to wait til the kids are bigger than bite-size.


Two weeks after Spring Break, we celebrated Easter!  We kept everything simple this year and had an Easter Egg hunt in our own back yard.  Of course, Nana and Popie and Uncle Stephan came over too.

A few days before, we hosted our playgroup to make Easter cupcakes

and, of course, we dyed eggs.