A Walk On The Wild Side

This morning I got on to blog about our trip to the wildlife park and I couldn't remember how to sign in! I guess it's just been too long...

Last Wednesday we went to the wildlife park in Glen Rose. (It's also the home of some true-blue dino tracks, but we didn't have time to see those before the temps reached 101 and naps were needed.)

In honor of those historic roots, I had my children take a picture in front of this giant dino statue. There is a similar one with me and my siblings somewhere in my mom's house, but I haven't seen it in years.


After paying for our tickets, buying a bag of animal feed, and listening closely to the "don't feed the animals by hand" "stay in the car at all times" and "follow the marked trail", we loaded up the car for our wildlife adventure. Just look at the optimism!

Look at the excitement!


This was our very first animal sighting. I'm not sure what they are and I've lost (thrown away) the handy brochure they gave us for identifying animals.


Then we saw this lovely creature and Carrie (the driver) flipped out, screamed, and rolled up her window. "Sister" (as Phoebe calls her) is not so brave when it comes to wildlife.


So much for Rule #1


Happy Girl!

I almost broke Rule #2 while leaning almost completely out the window to capture this picture. It was worth it, though. Things went a little south for Phoebolicious after this.

What a nice reindeer-like animal!


And friendly, too!


Phoebe was not as thrilled with this turn of events as you might think.


"What was that thing?!"


There was a petting zoo at the half-way point. Phoebe was still having nothing to do with any animal!

Notice how great my hair looked. Humidity does wonderful things for my hair!

Eli, however, had a tender moment with a billy goat.


We got back in the car and I had an up-close moment with a deer.


And a zebra.


I don't think I've ever been this close to a zebra before.


I tried to get a good picture of Phoebe and "Sister", but somebody was too concerned with the animals.


A little snack made a big difference!


This giraffe didn't really want to have anything to do with us. He made us think he did, but he didn't.


See the disdain.


A few more animals fed.




And then it was time to leave. I think waving "bye-bye" to the animals was Phoebe's favorite part!


We headed to a Texas Stop Sign for lunch before we headed back to the Big D. I love me some steak fingers and a dilly bar!

A good time was had by all.

Summer Is...

...the liberated feeling you got as child when you played outside after your bath.

...eating ice cream on the back porch at dusk.

...swimsuits lined up on hooks to dry.

...a bowl of red, ripe cherries.

...the smell of sunscreen and chlorine.

...an impromptu backyard bar-b-que with friends.

...sleeping with the windows open.

...eating watermelon with my grandparents.

...the sound of crickets and cicadas singing in the afternoon heat.

...minor league baseball games.

...grilled chicken. Or steak. Or fajitas. Or burgers and hot dogs.

...the song of an ice cream truck.

...roadside produce stands.

...flip-flops everyday.

...the freckles on Eli's nose.


What is summer to you?

Effortless

I have never done anything effortlessly in my life.

When my brother and I went skiing with the church youth group when I was in high school my brother "effortlessly" began snow skiiing. The sponsors said it looked like he had been snow skiing for years. I spent my trip learning how to fall gracefully.

My sister makes friends effortlessly. Always has. People usually don't like me the first time they meet me. All of my very best friends admit to this.

Brad has an sense of direction that rivals any flock of geese and it just comes to him effortlessly. I call him my very own personal GPS. I tend to get lost in towns I have lived in for years.

Apparently Eli can dive effortlessly.

We were swimming yesterday at my sister's pool. My brother got on the diving board and dived off. He says it's the best way "to get used to the water". Eli climbed right up after him and dived off, too. He had never done that in his life!

Everyone was cheering and congratulating me on teaching him how to dive and I was standing there, completely awestruck, because we had never had such a lesson. He just did it...effortlessly.

And continued to dive the rest of the afternoon.



I know it looks like he's about to do a belly-flop in this picture (and he might have...he probably was "overthinking" the dive), but trust me, the boy did some pretty fantastic dives!

While not an Olympic perfect 10, he certainly impressed his mommy.

What do the people in your life do effortlessly?

Rock N' Roll Soda Shop

Our neighbors to the South have some pretty cool stuff going on. Besides the obvious, Palo Duro Canyon (did you know it was the second largest canyon in the US after the Grand Canyon?) and Texas, they have a really keen little diner on the square called the Rock N' Roll Soda Shop.

We went last weekend for Dayton's birthday party. Dayton is the biggest Elvis fan I have ever known. In fact, he's the only Elvis fan I've ever known under 60. He inspired Eli's brief fascination with Elvis. The boy cried at Elvis's grave when they visited Graceland over Spring Break! Of course, he had to start his party at a 50's soda shop.

Did I mention it was a dress-up party? It made for many a photo-op!

Phoebe was being especially "ham-y" in front of the free juke box. That's right, folks, Free Juke Box.


It also has one of those long counters with red bar stools where you can sip your shake.


A couple of teeny-bobbers,


Some soda jerks,


And ice cream served in a car. What more could you ask for?



Well, maybe some really good junk stores.

Just like the ones on the Square in Canyon! How convenient. :)

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

I was thinking I'd try to do a birthday post with my adaption of Casey At The Bat, but the creative synapses just aren't firing this week.

I also forgot to take a picture of the way cute (and exceptionally simple) birthday invites I made for Eli's party a few weeks ago. I just wrote the party information on an actual baseball. (I competely stole this idea from a children's birthday party publication. Sixty percent of creativity is knowing what ideas to "steal".)

We celebrated our party with Corbin again this year. I had hoped to have this little shindig in my backyard, but we still don't have any grass or lawn furniture so we decided to move it downt to the Commons Area of our neighborhood. It was an inspired idea.


Of course, we had hot dogs, but no peanuts or Cracker Jacks...mostly because I accidentally left them at the house and didn't even think of them again until I sat down to write this post! Please notice the cute hot dog holders I purchased at Hobby Lobby. They kind of inspired this whole baseball party!


After dinner, a game of baseball ensued. We didn't really have teams or keep score, but everybody got to bat and run and have lots of fun.




I love that he runs with his tongue out!


When you got bored, you could swing...



...Or eat some more watermelon...


...Or play with a water pump.


Cake Time! I made this little cake and 24 baseball cupcakes that the kids ate. Cupcakes are so much easier to deal with at a birthday party. About halfway through the decorating process, I wondered again why I feel the need, every single year, to make and decorate my children's birthday cake. I perservered and they all turned out pretty cute.






For it's root, root, root for the home team!

The t-shirts were the party favors.

Phoebe got a bad splinter during the party. Thankfully, my friend, Kasey, was there and she's a nurse so I let her do the splinter extraction because I have terrible fine motor skills. Although Phoebe complained about her hand "hurt" for the next three days.


My sweet family. Phoebe did not get a matching shirt because it would have been an extra $15 to make a smaller screen print and then $5 for the t-shirt and I didn't want to spend $20 on a shirt she was just going to wear once. (I know she could wear it more often, but she's a girl and there are so many more wardrobe choices to choose from!)


Our wonderful friends, The Grays.


These boys break my heart.



For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.

*Spellcheck wasn't working this afternoon so please, please, please forgive all my typos!