Zoo fun!

The kids' grandparents gave them a zoo membership for Christmas.

Claire and I took Chris on his last day of vacation.  (Nathan was at a friend's house...we didn't just leave him behind!)  Chris hadn't been to the Dallas zoo in about 12 years.  It used to be a pretty pathetic zoo, but they have made some wonderful improvements over the years.  He was shocked...it didn't even look like the same zoo to him!  One of their improvements is the new Africa area...



Another one of our favorite areas is the aviary in the kids part....



The thing my kids like best about this zoo, and why I wanted a membership there instead of Fort Worth which is closer, is that they have a nature exchange.  You can take it nature items, trade them in and get points that you can spend getting an item someone else traded in.  They have some very cool stuff there and my kids LOVE it!  I'll have to take pictues inside the nature exchange next time we go. :)

And don't forget...today is Tiggerific Tuesday at the Magical Mouse Schoolhouse so bounce on by to join the blog hop!

Postcard Friendship Friday #83

This is another card I picked up in Hannibal, MO.  The back is actually upside down when you turn the card over.  I thought that was different.  For some reason the scanner didn't scan the bottom of the back of the card.  Its is signed As Ever, Cousin Louis.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Our year in pictures

I think its fun to look back through my pictures from the past year and remember what all we did. 

 January: we had a huge snow/ice storm.  We were iced in for days!

We live in Texas, so, yes, this was huge!

February:  I became the mother of a TEENAGER!

March begins Little League Baseball...

And there was Easter in April...

May was particulary fun since we took a vacation to Missouri.  We visited all of the Mark Twain stuff in Hannibal, but after we caught a Ranger game in Kansas City, of course!

by the Mighty Mississippi...

June brings one of Claire's favorite things:  VBS!

Being that we are in Texas, my post includes a huge snowstorm and a heatwave!

In July it was HOT!  We did all we cold to stay cool....like ice skating...

...and swimming!

It was still hot in August.  That's why we start school then. 

We prefer to have May off for summer vacation instead of August.  Works great for vacations!

Speaking of vacations...

We headed to Southern California in September.

To visit Disneyland, of course!

And we couldn't go to Anaheim without catching a Ranger game at Angels Stadium!

October is always very busy and 2011 was no different! 
Claire's birthday and Halloween added to the excitement.
.

November was busy too...the kids had way too much going on this last year!

That's why it was nice to stay home at Thanksgiving and enjoy some homemade desserts!

December, of course, was filled with lots of Christmas preparations,

Mass on Christmas Eve and

lots of Christmas morning fun!

We had a great year and we feel very blessed
I wish everyone a very happy new year and a wonderful 2012!