Dallas World Aquarium

01.19.13

I cannot believe this is my very first time to visit the Dallas World Aquarium!  Even the entrance is cool with the twisty turns all the way up a big hill.  The first thing you see inside is a giant water fall.

My brave little Kinsey Girl let the worker put a blueberry in her hand for the Toucan to eat...Wow!!!

The seals were all over the place and they were fed right after we left them.  Totally missed it.

I had no idea this place had a wide variety of creatures!

This is the really big tank with the really big fish which is also where the water fall is located.

Beck and Kinsey had so much fun exploring with Lola and Aunt Katherine!

This is the ONE thing that Beck wanted to see...SHARKS!!!  We watched them being fed from up above the water and that's when Uncle Brian joined us.  He was at a dental meeting and took a break to join us at the end of our visit at the aquarium then we ate lunch.

This is one happy girl!!!

I can't remember the name of the Mexican restaurant we ate at but it was in the Deep Ellum area.  The place was packed when we got there and luckily, we talked them into letting us sit on the patio so that our kids wouldn't bother anybody.  They ended up opening up the patio to other diners.  The weather was really nice and we enjoyed the sun.  The picture below is really funny...it looks like our kids are trying to escape!

A big thanks to Aunt Katherine for meeting us and for getting us in the aquarium!  An extra big thanks for lunch!!!  The food was delicious and the company was even better!  It is time for Kinsey's nap which means I'll be burning the roads for the next few hours letting her sleep and I'm sure Mr. Beck will snooze too.  Beck is pictured out by this point!  He-he!  I'll return to talk about the rest of our day. (to be continued)

Road Trip to Dallas

01.17.13

We have been invited to Marcus' 3rd birthday party on Saturday afternoon and we could drive in on Saturday then head home after the party but I talked to Aunt Katherine about taking the kids to the Aquarium and that's when I decided to drive in on Thursday.  I like to make the most of my trips to Dallas so I talked to a few of my friends about meeting up with them so we could catch up.  Our road trip began after I picked Beck up from school on Thursday.  The kids loaded up their backpacks, they each have their own favorite blanket, Beck brought puppy and Kinsey brought Minnie Mouse, double stroller for the aquarium, my favorite pillow, a big blanket for me and a big suitcase.  Yes, we are packed for a road trip!  I almost forgot to mention the snacks I packed along with cups.  I spent all of this morning getting ready for our big trip.

We drove to Murphy which is where my friend Tracy lives.  She has a 9-year old son, Hayden and a 3-year old daughter, Annalise.  We took Beck and Kinsey to the playroom and Beck found a Polar Express train set that he wanted to play with and Kinsey found lots of girly toys. 

After visiting with Tracy for over two hours, it was time to grab a bite to eat and I already spotted a place.  But, I have to get pictures of all of us before we leave.  I really enjoyed chatting with Tracy especially since I haven't seen her since we moved.  I love her house and her decorating style!

Mexican food is my all-time favorite food and we have discovered that Beck loves it too!  So, the place we went to eat dinner is a fast food type of place but has a restaurant feel to it.  I really like this place!  Beck and Kinsey enjoyed it too!

It's crazy how close Tracy's house is to Dawn's house in Sachse!  I never realized it because I drove to their house from a different direction when I lived in Plano. Anyway, that's where we are staying tonight because I haven't seen Dawn since we moved.  Dawn and Steve have been married 20 years and do not have children.  They don't want any but they love to play with them so we all had a good time at their house.  (Background Info: Tracy, Dawn and I worked at a salon (Steven Maxx Salon) and we have been friends for a very long time.  I have known Dawn since 1994!  I can't remember what year Tracy started working at the salon.)  We are all pretty tired from traveling around and need a good night's rest because I've got a big day planned tomorrow!  Dawn is so sweet and thoughtful that she moved the guest bed next to the wall so Kinsey wouldn't roll off of it.  Thank you for letting us invade your house!  Muah! 

Footlights, Ice and Play Date

01.14-16.13

This is Kinsey's second time to be in (tap, ballet and gymnastics) class for 1.5 hours and she still loves it!  She's one of the youngest girls in this class and she's one of the few that listens to the teacher, follows instructions and is yearning to learn.  Most of the other girls run around and don't listen.  Maybe Kinsey will be like that when she's older (I sure hope not) but I'm proud of her for being a good girl.  Since the class is so long now, I'm going to drop her off, go to the gym to run then back to the Footlights dance studio.  This is my first time to do this and I'm really nervous.  I had my phone in front of me at all times in case something happened and her teacher needed to reach me.

The girls learned how to do forward flips and they jumped on a really long trampoline.

On Tuesday morning, we woke up to some chilly weather and I peeked outside but didn't notice anything such as snow so we got ready to take Beck to school.  I went outside a few minutes before we had to leave to let the car warm up and found the vehicle covered in ice!!!  Ironically, Beck got a little teary-eyed this morning telling me he did not want to go to school.  There was no way I could get the ice off the vehicle to get him to school on time and I hate being late.  So, I took Beck outside and showed him the ice that was all over the vehicle and told him that today was his lucky day and he knew exactly what I was talking about!  I also had a play date set up with Bonnie and her girls, Laila and Olive.  After letting the car run for about 15 minutes, the ice was finally melted and I drove to Bonnie's house.  Beck and Kinsey had a blast playing with Laila and Olive while I went to the gym to run.  After I picked them up, we went home, ate lunch then Kinsey went down for a nap.  While she was napping, I went outside and captured some really cool pictures of the frozen landscape.  What looks like drops of water on the leaves is really frozen water.  What a day!!!

Bonnie has a lot of costumes which Kinsey truly enjoyed wearing.  Beck did not want to wear the girly clothes so he sat and watched them dress up and Tom and Jerry.  This inspired Beck and Kinsey to play dress up with our costumes and I love that Kinsey will wear Darth Vader and a Power Ranger costume.  I love my protectors!

On Wednesday morning, Laila and Olive came over to play with Kinsey and they loved her costumes!  We had so much fun that the time flew by!  I really hope this switch out thing works because Kinsey loves playing with them. 

Kid's Station

01.12.13

We spent this rainy Saturday morning at a place we haven't been to in a long time called Kid's Station and the kids had so much fun.  Brent and I enjoyed watching them play.

This machine got the best of me and Beck.  He started trying to get a piece of candy and gave up after many tries so then I took over and I was determined to get something!  I'm not sure how many times we dropped the grabber but I finally won a peppermint candy.

This is what 300 tickets will get you...a jump rope, 2 finger puppets, 2 grabbers, 2 little plastic puzzles and a ring.

On our way home, Beck enjoyed golden cookies!  And, we forgot to take Tacky with us!  It's probably best because we might have lost him.  However, Tacky spent lots of quality time with Beck last night.  It was so cute to see Beck want Tacky to sleep with him.

This afternoon, Brent worked on my vehicle and Beck found some poppers that we had bought for New Year's but didn't get to use them because he was so sick. He and Kinsey threw all of the poppers on the ground and loved hearing them "POP"!  We also busted out the sparklers.

Kinsey made the mistake of touching a sparkler that had burned out but it was still hot.  Poor baby got a little blister on her finger.  She is not happy!

Daddy enjoyed shooting the Roman Candles.

Our little fire starter!  Beck loves burning things with his sparkler. 

The next morning, Beck wanted to take Tacky to church with us.  It has been fun having Tacky as our guest and he will be missed when we take him back to school on Monday morning.  Mrs. Mason will read to the class all of the things that Tacky did with us over the weekend.  I'm proud of Beck for taking really good care of Tacky!

Friday Family Fun Night

01.11.13

When I picked Beck up from school today, his class had just finished reading a book about Tacky the Penguin and Mrs. Mason picked Beck to take a book about Tacky, an activity (write down all of the things we did with Tacky) and a stuffed Tacky home with us for the weekend!  Tacky is going to have fun with us! 

We told Beck that we would take him to Chuck E. Cheese's Friday night if he would eat breakfast every morning this week before going to school.  He ate sausage, cheese toast and pig in the blankets without crying, without me forcing him to eat and without going to time out.  This is one happy momma!  I am more than happy to take him to the place that he loves and Tacky is going with us too!  On the way to Longview, Kinsey wanted to wear her sunglasses like Mommy because it was bright outside.  (Beck did not want to be in the picture.)

I love these sketches you can get at this place!

This is what 200+ tickets will get you...a snake, sponge gun and some candy.

Then, we went to a yogurt place we've never tried before and it was yummy!!!  I only put four gummy worms in Beck's ice cream and after eating them he decided to go back to the goodie bar and get more.  He didn't realize that we have to pay for those worms.