Father's Day

Wishing all the dads out there a Happy Father's Day!

(Chris and the kids enjoying a laugh over the card Nathan got him.)

The Great State Fair of Texas!

Friday we went to the State Fair. We've been going there every year for the last 8 or 9 years, I think.

The best thing about the fair is the food!

The new thing this year was fried butter. I really wanted to try it, but it was $4 for 3 little pieces. We would have had to buy 2 orders for us all to even taste it. I don't know, $8 for something that would probably lead to my death just didn't seem worth it!

Every year I get this really good fajita taco. The tortilla is flash fried and its filled with chicken and cheese and topped with pico de gallo and salsa. Mmmmm!

My son gets their quesadilla every year. And, even though its just a tortilla and cheese, he swears it the best!

The kids also have to have their annual funnel cake!

And don't forget the Texas Taters!

They have a thing for kids called Little Hands on the Farm. It's a play farm where the kids work and harvest and then sell their harvest all in about 10 minutes! They start at a silo and get some corn. Then, they water wooden peach trees and harvest a pretend peach, then they go to the hen house and feed corn to the pretend chickens and gather a pretend egg, etc, etc. At the end they take the stuff they harvested to the attendant and they pay them a pretend dollar. Then, they take the dollar into the little store and they can buy a treat with it. It really is a cute little activity. Both kids have always liked it although this was Nathan's first year not to do it because he's too big and cool now! :)

Oh yea, we also saw some real animals!

And they have a big sand pile for the kids to play in. My kids love this!

This year they had a mining demo. You could sift through a bag of dirt to find gems and "gold". Claire LOVED this!

Even Nathan got in on the fun...

One of Claire's favorite things was trying out the new cars in the car show! She doesn't get to sit in the driver seat very often so she got a real kick out of this.

I took so many pictures! I think my wordless Wednesday post this week will be the butter sculpture. Yes, every year there is a huge sculpture sculpted out of butter! It really is amazing!

Tomorrow I'm going to post about all the interesting people we saw there! Come back tomorrow if you need a laugh!

Our trip to downtown Dallas

Last weekend we took advantage of the Smithsonian's free museum day and went to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas.

We have lived in this area for 11 years and we have never really walked around downtown Dallas. My son studied US Presidents last year and I told him we'd take him to the Sixth Floor Museum at the end of the year. The admission is rather pricey, if you ask me, so we kept putting it off. Well, on museum day we got 2 free admissions so we went. In case you don't know, the Sixth Floor Museum is a museum on the 6th floor of the old Texas Schoolbook depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald was when he shot Kennedy. It chronicles Kennedy's presidency and assassination.

No photography is allowed inside the museum, but here is a picture of the kids and I on the famous "grassy knoll" where a fourth shot was thought to have been fired.

Here is the corner of the schoolbook depository building where Oswald was when he shot Kennedy. The building has 7 stories. So it is the 2nd window from the top on the corner. (in the building on the left) This view is from the sidewalk right next to the spot where the fatal shot occurred. They have Xs marked on the street in the 2 places Kennedy was when he was hit.

To add a little adventure to our trip we decided to take the TRE. (That's the train that goes from Fort Worth to Dallas.) We'd never ridden on it before and thought the kids would get a kick out of it. Claire really did! Nathan liked it too, but he's 11 so he doesn't admit he likes anything!

I'm not really a "public transportation kind of gal" though. It was ok. A bit expensive and there were some mechanical difficulties that made us leave Dallas over 30 minutes late. Oh yea, the Union Station in Downtown was a little scary too!

Here is a picture of a guy being arrested there. Scary? Well, a little, but entertaining too! It gave us something to do while we were waiting for our train!

We've been really busy lately so it was nice just to take the family to downtown and have a relaxing afternoon. We all had a great time!

In honor of Father's Day...

In honor of Father's Day this Sunday I'm posting some "Daddy shots" of Chris and the kids. They are mostly in order. I was having trouble moving the pictures where I wanted them!

Sailing on the Disney Cruise...

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. ~Author Unknown

Chris & "Baby Nathan"

Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again. -Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968

Nathan's first trip to the zoo.

(It was Halloween. That's why he's dressed like a dalmation!)

"Look, I can dress like Daddy!"

Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys. -Unknown

Chris and "Baby Claire"

There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself. ~John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994

Chris & Claire on the [fake] snowhill at Six Flags.

It is a wise father that knows his own child. -William Shakespeare

Riding Casey Jr.'s Circus Train at Disneyland





On the Disney Cruise Ship


"Noble fathers have noble children." -Euripides




At Disney World

Chris and the kids at the Alamo.

Any fool can be a Father, but it takes a real man to be a Daddy!! -Philip Whitmore

wonderful wedding weekend

We just got back from my brother-in-law's wedding. What a great time we had! They got married at Barton Creek Resort in Austin. It's a beautiful place. I took lots of pictures!!

Here's a picture of our room...

When we got there we hung out by the pool for a while.

Then we played a little miniture golf.

When Claire plays, its more like hockey...she kinda just slides the ball into the hole!

The 18th hole was REALLY difficult! This is where my ball ended up! In case you can't tell from the picture, its in a little stream of water.

Claire was one of the flower girls. She looked so pretty in her dress!

We had a great time at the reception. Claire loves to dance and she was happy to have her little cousin to get out on the dance floor with!

Then she took her paw paw out to dance!

Nathan gave out around 10:00. He's not overly fond of weddings or dancing. He stayed long enough to have some cake and then asked if he could go upstairs to go to bed!

But Claire was still dancing!

It was a Jewish wedding (I had never been to one before.) They have a really fun tradition of lifing the bride and groom (and their parents) up in chairs. It was lots of fun to watch!

Lots of people retired to their rooms after that, but not us...and not Claire! Even though she was tired she got out on the dance floor every time a song started. This is her dancing with her uncle Keith...sometime past midnight!

It was lots of fun, but boy, we are all so tired today!

Mother's Day

Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother.
~Ann Taylor

In honor of mother's day I have posted a few "motherly" pictures. I realized in doing this that I hardly have any pictures with my mother. There's one when I was a baby and then one on my wedding day! All you moms out there--hand that camera to your husband every once in a while so your kids will have pictures with you!

This quote reminds me of my mom...
A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

My mom and I on my Wedding Day.

Me and my grandma!

She baked every Saturday and I loved to help her!

I miss her so much!

My mom with Nathan when he was a baby.

My mom with Claire.

My mom loves being a grandma!

And I even put one of myself on here. (My kids are lucky to have a mom that likes Disney so much! We've taken 2 Disney vacations in a little over 3 years!)

The kids and I on the tea cups at Disney World.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Tonight's dinner conversation

We went to the animal shelter today to renew our cat's license and the kids found a kitten they wanted to adopt. Over dinner they asked my husband if they could have another cat and he, of course, said no. Then the whole pet topic got a little crazy!

A couple things to know: I love turtles! And Claire has 4 snails from our backyard for pets. (I need to do a whole separate post about those snails!)

Hubby: We can't get another pet. Mommy doesn't want to take care of it.
Claire: I'll take care of it.
Me: How many times have you cleaned Simba's litterbox?
Claire: Well, she's your cat.
Nathan: What about a rabbit?
Me: Yea, I found a place to adopt rabbits.
Hubby: Can we let it get really big and eat it?
Everyone else: NO!!!
Hubby: Then we can't get it. You can only have a pet we can eat.
Claire: I have 4 snails.
Hubby: We can eat snails. We ate escargot.
Me: I think those are different snails, Honey.
Nathan: Then, I want a pet spider.
Me: NO!!!!
Hubby: What about a turtle? We can eat a turtle
Me: NO!!!!
Nathan: Then, I want a pet elephant.
Claire: Can I have a pet giraffe?
Me: There are laws that say you can have those kinds of animals for pets.
Nathan: What about a penguin?
Me: Well, that might be ok. I don't think a penguin would be any trouble.
Hubby: I don't know, did you ever see that penguin on Batman?

This whole conversation just cracked me up so I had to post it!