Park Day Fun!

We got together with our friends from co-op for a park day.  The weather had been beautiful, but this morning a cold winter wind came and the park was quite chilly.  The kids still played and had a blast.  They really enjoyed spending time with their friends.  We are so lucky to have great families that we get to hang out with!

Grant on the twirling thing.

Teenage girl fun

Silly Grant

Cute Bug

Teeter-totter fun!

Celebrate!

We had the family over to celebrate Tiffany and Bree's birthdays.  It is always fun to get together and celebrate... and eat yummy desserts :)

Happy birthday girls!

Chores!

Lorna loves to do chores.  I think it's because she doesn't have an official chore and she just gets to help.  She wants to be like the big kids and they do chores, so she should do chores.  I will be redoing the chore assignments and she will now be included in the list.  I love seeing her work and enjoy helping take care of our home!  She is a cute little worker bug.

She's working so hard with that vacuum!

 So proud of herself.

Curb Appeal

Our house is seriously lacking in curb appeal.  We have been steadily removing overgrown trees as we try to reclaim some sort of order to the yard.  We were debating on whether or not we should remove the trees right up at the house.  They were really big and blocked the overall view of the house.  We have lots of fun ideas of how to update the front area, but these trees seem to really take over the area.  It was time to clear them out and open up the front of the house.  

Before (actually, before we moved in)

 After!

The huge pile of trees that are now on the side of the house waiting for us to break them down for the trash.  

I have dreams of shudders and a nice paver patio with potted plants.  I'm so happy we are starting to change the look of the house and see what curb appeal we can capture!

Boy Scout Museum!

The Boy Scouts of America Museum is getting ready to relocate to Philmont Scout Camp in New Mexico.  Before they move it they are doing free admission.  We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and took a field trip with the cousins.  Everyone had a blast.  There is so much to do!  They have cave exploring, canoeing, pinewood derby racing, shooting, camping .... and more!  Here are a few pictures of the fun!

Mhari, Lorna, Bree, and Clark all ready to go into the cave!

Derby car racing!

Sandra and Ella shooting

More racing

Tiffany with the creepy statue guy.... they were a little too real looking.

 Ella and Sandra learning to canoe

The cave entrance

Sandra in the kayak!

Friday Night Lights!

Jeff's soccer season is in full swing.  This is what we do every Friday night :).  Jeff and Nathan play and Tiffany and I cheer!  I really enjoy watching Jeff play!  He does such a great job!

I need to work on getting better photos... it's hard when they move so much!

Sweet Valentine's

Talmage was so awesome and made the family chocolate covered strawberries!  He kept it a secret (as best as he could, since I bought the ingredients) and surprised us all!  They were a bit messy, but they sure tasted good!  I really enjoyed getting to eat them... and share them with the family :). 

I surprised Jeff and took him out to go-cart race on his lunch break and then out to eat.  It was fun to get him away from work for a bit and especially avoid the holiday dinner craze.  Racing was fun.  We ended up sharing the track with another couple.  The wife drove really slow, but otherwise we had a good time.  We will definitely go back and race again!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cousin Fun

February is a great time to swim... if you are a kid and it happens to be warm.  Our kids are so funny.  They like to be out swimming, but the water really is cold so they don't really get in.  They ended up working together with the cousins and building a long line of tubes and everyone taking turns crawling along the top to get across without getting wet.  It was so funny to watch!  

Sandra and Ella were the only smart ones, who stayed out of the water ;)

Lorna and Clark getting warm in the sun.

 Clark connecting the tubes to the other side :)

Bree wriggling across the tubes!

Staying dry!

Happy Birthday Girl!

It was Tiffany's birthday so I took her out to celebrate!  We went go-cart racing!  It was our first time going to this place and it was really fun.  I got to almost lap Tiffany so that was nice ;).  Then we went out to a nice lunch at Salt Grass Steak House.  The food was yummy!  I'm so glad we live so close that we can enjoy each other's special days together!  

Poor Dog

Clark woke up with an ear ache last night :(.  Grant was good to come down and tell me so I could go up and help Clark out.  He was up again about 6:30 with his other ear hurting.  I helped his other ear and had him rest some more... this time by Daddy who was still sleeping.  I didn't want him to get worse so I scheduled a Dr. appointment to get his ears checked out.  He had an ear infection and we went and got his prescription filled before heading home.  Since it's almost Valentine's Day there was lots of cool stuff at Walgreens.  He really enjoyed looking at all of the cute soft animals.  He even found a bear almost as big as he was! 

While at the Dr.s office they did his height and weight.  The nurse mentioned that he was really tall and then when the Dr. came in he said the same thing.  One our way out the Dr. said that Clark was as big as a 9 year old!  It's so true, he's a big boy! 

He was so cute sleeping by his daddy!

Clark with the cute bear!

He seems to be feeling better now so that is a blessing.  He is a great kid and it's no fun to be sick!

Harpy in Danger!

We went to the Dallas Zoo to do their Nature Exchange.  The kids spent quite a bit of time talking to the naturalist and turning in their stuff they had collected.  It was a colder day and there was literally like 20 people at the whole zoo.  It was crazy, but pretty awesome too!  They did ask us to stop with the naturalist stuff to come see their calves pick the Super Bowl winner.  It was sad that they were that desperate to get a crowd to come watch it.  I'm sure it was so important because it was being recorded for the news.  Anyway, once that was done we finished up a the nature exchange.

After that we walked around and decided it was a good time to stop for lunch.  At the eating picnic area there are cages all around the perimeter.  The kids saw the harpy eagle was stuck and hanging by her claw at the front of her cage.  They were very concerned and told a zoo employee who got help.  With so little people at the zoo it was a good thing the kids saw the danger and got help.  Who knows how long she was hanging there... and would continue to hang there waiting for help.

When we did the zoo talk about the harpy eagles last month the kids learned that this harpy eagle likes to get stuck like this.  That is so sad.  I think the worst part was watching them try to free her.  After several different attempts she was finally free.  It's just too bad that she will be stuck again :(. 

He started at the top of the cage, but couldn't reach well enough to get her talon untangled.

They got the big ladder to get a better angle.

 He finally freed her!

Lorna was so exhausted!  She fell asleep on the way home and slept for several hours afterwards.  I think she's been congested and hasn't been sleeping well at night.  She's such a cute little bundle!

Yay for awesome kids who love learning and helping animals in danger!

Crazy Hair!

Another fun Co-op dress up day!  We had lots of people participate this year for our crazy hair day!  It's fun to bond together as we act a little bit silly!

Or just plain crazy :)