Library Play Date

10.13

Beck really enjoyed making his craft at the library today. He glued a black tree and black ground on an orange card stock paper then added Halloween stickers. He did a great job putting the stickers on the paper!

The "regulars" that attend story time at the library planned on meeting at the Spring Hill park to let the kids play together and we all brought a picnic lunch. This was so much fun! Some of Tiffany's kids turned on the splash pad and got soaking wet! Heather's girls got a little wet too. But not Beck...he stayed far, far away from the water! I brought a basketball so the kids could shoot some hoops. Tiffany's little girl, Mallot, was so wet that she laid on the ground to dry off and Kinsey was very concerned about her. I thought it was cute and sweet that Kinsey kept checking on Mallot.

All of the kids had so much fun playing at the park together! I hope we can do this again soon.

Hair Cut

10.12

I've tried four different routes to get Wendy and finally found the best one and it just so happens that my new route goes right by Wendy's workshop. I've always wanted to know where her workshop is located and she was able to show it to me. Now, I can pick her up at the workshop in the morning instead of waiting until she gets home. This is awesome!!!

I've wanted to get Beck's haircut for a while now and Wendy wanted to get her haircut so we went to the place that does her hair for free, Cuts Galore. The lady that cut Beck's hair did a fantastic job! In fact, this might be the best hair cut he's ever had!

Then, we ate lunch and played at Chick-fil-a. What was really funny is Beck told a couple of girls that showed up to play that they could not touch "my girl"! I love it when he refers to his sister as "my girl"! He's so protective of his little sister.

We dropped Wendy off at the workshop then headed home for a much needed afternoon nap. I will be taking my second Zumba class tonight and I'm looking forward to it!

My Aunt and a New Trail/Park

10.11

It took two months for us to schedule time to meet my Aunt Vickie and she wanted to show us the trail that she likes in Longview. She came to Gilmer so she could ride with us and show us how to get to this trial. I fell in love with it once we started walking on it because the trail is wide enough for my double wide stroller plus a biker can pass by us AND the scenery is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It is surrounded by trees so you are not in the sun the entire time which is totally different that what I just came from. The trail by our house in Plano was wide open, in direct sun the entire time with power lines above you that you could hear buzzing.

After walking on the trail for one mile, we arrived at the Lois Jackson park and I fell in love with it. It is also somewhat shaded by trees and there's plenty there to keep the kids entertained. Off to the side of the park is an old racquet ball building and the door to get in is very low. Like it was meant for kids only but it's big enough for adults to play in. I wish I knew the history of it. I also like the painting on the side of the racquet ball building. It was fun watching my Aunt Vickie play with the kids. She chased them and helped them get around. When we loaded up the kids in the stroller, she told me that's the most fun she's had in a long time.

I can't wait to go back to this park!

Tickets, Dinner and Pets

10.10

Tickets for the Yamboree Queen's pageant goes on sale Monday, October 10 at 8am which means I need to get up there early because I want a good seat. My baby-sitter's house (Kiki and Pops) is infected with the nasty stomach virus that's going around so I had to resort to Plan B. I picked up Wendy from her home Sunday evening so that she could be here while the kids slept and I stood in line for tickets. I have not attended this pageant since I graduated high school so I was super excited to finally get to see it again which is why I wanted a really good seat. This is the interesting part of the story...Brent called me at 6:20 letting me know that about 20 people were already sitting in lawn chairs at the Civic Center. So, I threw on some clothes/make-up/hat and grabbed some magazines, oj, breakfast bar and a lawn chair. There were two clipboards leaned up against the door...one was for Wednesday night and one was for Thursday night. I was the 20th person on the list for Wednesday night and noticed my high school friend Karen (her daughter was Yam Queen last year) was the 7th person on the list. I chatted with a couple of mom's as I looked through my magazine and watched the sun rise. It started getting "busy" as it got closer to 8am. I found out that Karen went up there at 11:30pm, signed her name then went home and slept. The other older people sitting in lawn chairs had been up there all night! How crazy is that!?! If I get to go next year, I'm doing what Karen did...sign my name on the list before I go to sleep then show up at 8am. I ended up leaving the Civic Center at 8:40am with three of the best seats in the house (smile). (Surprisingly, I did not take any pictures.)

I can buy so much more food when Wendy is with me so we went to the grocery store and stocked up on groceries. Then, we went to Longview after the kids woke up from their afternoon nap. (This was Brent's night to meet the school board.) Since Beck has grown out of last year's winter clothes, I wanted to see if I could find some really good deals. The fun part about shopping with Beck these days is that he tells me what he likes...this is a good thing and a bad thing. BTW, he has worn his rain boots every day since I bought them! He LOVES them! He found a jacket that he liked so we tried it on and he wanted me to teach him how to zip it up...we are still working on sticking the long piece in the hole and keeping it there while pulling up the zipper. We also got him a couple of pants and a couple of shirts for the upcoming cold days.

We ate dinner at Luby's which was some what stressful. This time, I put Kinsey in the high chair when we walked in so I'm pushing her and two trays. Beck is telling me what he doesn't want and Wendy is trying to order the most expensive meal they have to offer AND the lady behind the counter has no patience for what's going on and wants to know what sides I want on all of the plates I have ordered! Oh my goodness!!! Beck dropped his drink on the floor before we got to our table. The water in the restroom only has one temperature which was HOT so it was almost impossible to wash the kids hands. I might not go back to Luby's for a while.

The pet store I love is located right behind Luby's so we walked over there to visit the animals. We have a great experience every time we go there!

This snake was actually biting the top of the cage. I guess he wanted out!

Wendy opened the cat's cage and held one in her arms.

The birds are so pretty and colorful!

We all had so much fun at the pet store! Great way to end the day!

Park in White Oak

We ran into Brent's high school friend at Chili's Friday night and he and his wife told us about two parks that we should visit. One is in White Oak and the other is near Stroh's in Longview. After spending time with Kiki and Pops, we took a road trip to White Oak and found the park. It's very nice but I have to admit that my favorite is the one in Spring Hill. An oil pump is located right next to the park so we had to explain to Beck what that thing is and does. And, this park also has a splash pad for those hot summer days.

Beck and Kinsey had a blast and Beck especially enjoyed ordering food and placing orders with Daddy at the window seat.

Before we left, I wanted to take pictures of the kids sitting next to this really nice looking water fall but they were both tired (as you can see from the wet heads) and just wanted to go home. Plus, it was getting really dark.