Pre-Halloween @ Kiddie Park

One of the reasons for our trip up to Oklahoma this past weekend was because it was a special weekend at The Kiddie Park. Normally, it's only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But, it's open for 1 weekend in October for "Spook-A-Rama" and all the kids wear their halloween costumes, and the place is covered in Halloween decor. I have to say, it was SO nice to have cooler weather, since we're normally there when it's scorching hot!

2 of our good friends from our church joined us: the Hambys and the Smiths. It was perfect because they each have 2 kids, aged 2 and 4. So, we had 3 2 yr olds and 3 4 yr olds all weekend. 

I will let the pictures do the talking:

sophie's first experience with cotton candy:

Yes, that is me in the orange shirt. What you can't see is how fast we were spinning. You know, it's one of those where you spin it as fast as you can and then hold on for dear life. It was so much fun. If I'm going to be totally honest, I would have liked to ride that sans kids to really see how much speed I could generate:

 Hudson and Lilly:

Not sure if you can tell, but William is "flying" the plane like Superman:

the last of the night and favorite:

Our only complaint about the evening was it was SLAMMED. In the summer when we go, we typically don't have to wait more than 2-3 minutes for each ride. This time, we had to wait at least 10-15 minutes per ride. It was a real bummer, but the kids still had a blast! 

Field Trip

This past weekend we went up to Oklahoma for a little camping trip and Kiddie Park trip. I got up there on Thursday evening, and Dave flew in Friday morning. Since our friends weren't going to arrive until late afternoon on Friday, we decided to go meet my dad and Garrett for lunch in Wynona. Wynona is the town where my dad's workshop it, and a lot of his leases are also located there. It's the tiniest town I've ever been to (about 300 ppl)...it has 1 restaurant, 1 gas station, and NO stop lights! 

Here are the kids looking at some of Papa's equipment:

After lunch at DJ's hamburger joint, dad wanted to take us to this ranch where he was going to be borrowing some hay/trailer for a hayride. My dad knows these ranchers because some of his leases are located on the land. It just so happened that the rancher was having his cows "worked on"-- castrations, brandings, ear piercings, vaccinations, etc. So, we got to observe a little bit of it:

 (yes, that's a bucket full of cow testicles)

After the science lesson on the ranch, we headed to check out some of Papa's leases.

He showed the kids how to stop/start a well:

 Then, he showed the boys "what money looks like"

 Total Papa's boy:

 going up to measure the level of oil in the tanks:

 Garrett had to do a quick repair:

It was so fun to show the kids that side of life-- of Papa's life now and of my life as a kid. I have so many memories of coming to these exact leases when I was their age (and older). 

William's First Date

Our next door neighbor's have a little girl who is about to turn 5. Her name is Savannah, and William loves to play with her. We don't see them much in the dead of winter or the blaze of summer since we're inside either keeping cool or keeping warm! So, William and Savannah play together out front in the spring and in the fall.

Savannah recently got a Barbie power car, and it's the hit of the street. She graciously (and sometimes not-so-graciously) takes turns with William in the drivers seat.

Here they are, taking a stroll down the street. 

This picture below KILLS me. Not sure that baby would survive should they get in a crash...

Grandma!

The kids have been looking forward to the visit from Grandma (Dave's mom) for awhile now. It's always a nice treat when she comes to visit because the kids get royally spoiled! (which, by the way, we're on detox now...) :-) It's ok...it's worth it...I got a little spoiled myself (shopping on Grandma's $$ at White House Black Market is never a bad thing!)

We spent the better part of Friday at the Fort Worth Zoo. We have a membership there, so we get there pretty frequently.  The boys never get tired of it (and frankly, neither do I). The MOLA (Museum of Living Art) is the newest addition to the zoo-- and it's filled with all kinds of amphibians and reptiles. Normally, I'm not a big fan, but they have done an amazing job with this. The boys LOVE it-- and their favorite thing is the Komodo Dragon.

 checking out the Gorillas:

On Saturday we went to the Pumpkin patch. The boys were SO excited to show Grandma the pumpkin patch that we go to every year. Even though Hudson isn't looking at the camera, I LOVE this picture of him looking at Grandma:

Saturday night, we went to Joe T Garcia's for dinner. This is a famous Mexican restaurant that's somewhat famous in these parts. It's all outdoors with lots and lots of trees. The atmosphere is amazing-- fountains everywhere...a very tropical feeling. The weather was perfect for this. The food is average, but it was surprisingly good that night. They serve fajitas or Enchiladas. It's nice to not have a lot of choice.

It was a great visit, as usual. The kids are very excited since they only have to wait about 5 weeks to see Grandma again, at Thanksgiving.

40

A close friend of mine just turned 40. Being the totally awesome friend that I am, I organized a huge surprise party for her. :-)

It was a blast, and I feel certain that she had no idea it was going to happen:

And what's an over-the-hill party with a really mean, but equally hilarious cake?

 (in case you can't read the "road sign", it says "It's all down-hill from here.")

Cooler Weather?

Last week a few of us friends thought we'd take advantage of the cooler weather and take the kids to the Botanical Gardens for a picnic and frolicking in the grass (actually, we were planning on going to the Mini Train, but it was unexpectedly closed that day, so the B.G. was Plan B). It was beautiful there, and the kids had a blast.

The problem was, it wasn't cooler weather like we thought it was going to be. It was a cool 97 degrees, muggy, and NO breeze. It was still fun, but we didn't stay too long because we were all sweating buckets!

Quick Getaway

We decided to take the kids on a little mini-vacation this past weekend. We didn't go on a family vacation this year because we're planning a big one next year.

San Antonio seemed like a great place: Sea World and the Riverwalk- a little bit for everyone!

Our first stop was Natural Bridge Wildlife Park. As you can see, it's a drive through park, and you get to feed the animals from the car. The boys LOVED it!

Our next stop was the Children's Discover Museum of San Antonio. It was only a few blocks from our hotel, and the boys loved it.

After a little swimming in the pool on the rooftop of our hotel, we headed out for dinner on the Riverwalk. It was yummy, and the boys thought it was super cool to be sitting right next to the river while we were eating. It was a such a nice evening.

On Friday, we headed out to Sea World. The kids didn't know where we were going until we got there. When we got there, William spotted the Shamu statue at the front, and he said "Mommy, look at that Shamu!" I said, "So, where do you think we are?" He looked at me with wide eyes, and said "SEA WORLD?" He was thrilled!

Thumbs up for the Shamu Express:

It was a such a fun day, and a fabulous mini-vacation!