Fairly Fun Day

With Ben, Maddie, and Jon having a birthday next weekend, we have been trying to find a way to celebrate. Unfortunately, next weekend is already packed with our family going in two different directions with scouts. The guys are all going camping for the weekend, and Maddie and I are doing an overnight at the zoo.

Allen and I made a bit of a last-minute plan as we realized that this weekend had no plans and it was a three-day weekend (Allen used a vacation day so that he had a long weekend with us.) Maddie had a sleepover for Audrey's birthday party, but we picked her up early and we all headed north. We got to Allen's parents' around 11am, grabbed a quick lunch, then all of us went and got on the DART train and headed to the Texas State Fair. A first for the kids and me!

We were a bit loony to go on the day of the Texas and OU football game (at the Cotton Bowl at the fair grounds), but we knew that going in and went anyway. 

We spent most of the afternoon wandering through exhibits -- checking out the new cars and trucks, seeing product booths, and *I* loved the creative arts building. I was a bit jealous that other people can find time to quilt and paint, but I enjoyed looking at all their creations. We enjoyed a marionette show and found corndogs for the kids and burgers for the adults for dinner. Ben and Will had some of our burger -- my burger was half-the-height of Ben's face -- it was HUGE... and, surprisingly, pretty tasty. After dinner, we headed for the midway.

We stood in line for the Ferris wheel -- the tallest ride in the western hemisphere. Allen and I were in with Ben and Jon, while Maddie and Will rode with Randy and Shelley. We got to the top of the ride at dusk -- though my knees were trembling, seeing the colorful lights AND the rainbows of dusk behind the city were beautiful!

We had enough tickets left for the kids (and grandparents) to ride another ride. Will, Nana, and Papa headed for some sort of centrifuge that I couldn't even watch without getting dizzy. Ben, Maddie, and Jon headed for the swings. All of them enjoyed their rides and Allen and I enjoyed standing still in the "quiet" for a couple minutes. One last dessert and we headed out for a long train ride home. It was a late night, but we all had a really good time!

We went to church Sunday morning, then Jenn came to say hi and bye, but Jason and the boys stayed for lunch and birthday cake. All of that busyness, then we rushed home so our three little thespians would make it to musical practice by 5pm.

The Hide Story

Will is taking Texas History at Venture this year, and one of the first projects was to create his life-story on a "hide." Will chose to wrinkle and smooth and chalk and ink a piece of brown paper bag to create the hide on which he told his story. He also decided to look up real Native American symbols and tell his story using those pictures. HIS story... started with God creating the world and going through Noah's ark. He claims that is all part of his heritage so he insisted the teacher accept it. She did.

Studying and Playing

I have been reading to Ben about Native Americans and Will has studied Natives of Texas in history. Who knew that would lead to this kind of fun?

Dear Mom

Celebrating 16 Years

Our kiddos spent the weekend in Waco with my parents (thank you!!), and Allen and I headed to a bed-&-breakfast in Georgetown to get away for our sixteenth wedding anniversary. Saturday we headed to Austin to visit Bill, a high-school friend who had recently undergone brain surgery to remove a tumor. Sunday, we headed back to Austin to spend an hour at Austin Panic Room where we worked with a team to break codes and find clues to unlock ourselves from a puzzle room. Lots of puzzles in an "art museum" type room AND the fact that we beat the game meant that we loved it! We were part of the minority who were able to solve the puzzles and break out in under an hour. Allen and I enjoyed several tasty meals, went hiking and shopping, and had a nice time just getting to talk without being interrupted by kids, pets, work, or chores.

Little Bird Blue...A Dream Come True

Let me tell you a tale of a little bird blue
Its siblings left the house, and they all flew
But when this one jumped, it couldn't quite fly

Hop, skip, jump, hop, flutter, flap, flap

Clumsily through the yard while its mama watched over
It couldn't move correctly, both parents sort of hovered
As the sun began to set, Sialia wailed a cry

Tweet, squawk, chirp, peep, chipper, tweet, tweet

Sarah wanted pictures so crept up to the baby
The parents didn't like that much and they went for the lady
With out-stretched hand and camera up, the bird still would not fly

Twitter, cheap, chipper, peep,...

Back in the birdhouse, Sarah put him
He snuggled in the nest, but then he tried again
He jumped his way across the yard, still unable to fly

This time silent, but parents watching on,
He may have slept until the dawn
But Sarah kept her distance.

A Wee Visitor

Will and Ben were playing outside in the backyard as they took a break from home school lessons today. It wasn't long before Will came rushing inside really upset about something. When he calmed down, he told me he stepped on a baby squirrel. I followed him outside to see what it was he was talking about -- I couldn't figure out how he would've done that. Sure, enough, there in the grass at the base of a tree was a little fuzzy, eyes-still-sealed squirrel. Once we realized he was still breathing, didn't seem to have any broken bones (from our inexperienced investigation), and its mama didn't seem to be anywhere nearby we brought him inside and put him in a box so our dog wouldn't eat it while we researched online. I made some phone calls and learned from a squirrel rescuer that we shouldn't feed it until we try to return it to its mama. On her recommendation, we put the little fuzz ball in a nest of dried grass in a basket that we tied to the tree we found him near. The lady checked with us through out the day to see if the mama had come for him or not. By dusk, the mama squirrel had searched on the tree he wasn't tied to, but she didn't get him, so I took the little one to the lady who would raise him and release him. It was an unplanned, but interesting, lesson for our first day of home school!