Fall Break 2012 - Zoo Fun

Emily is on Fall Break the end of the this week so I am taking a few days off and we are going to do the "funnest things we can think of".

Today our funnest thing was a trip to the zoo.

My pictures are out of order, but that's okay.

I wanted to get Emily and Noah's picture in front of this little brass elephant figure, but Noah was not too thrilled.  This the best one I could get. I think he was a little scared.

This was the first time I'd been to the new Elephant Habitat at the zoo. It was really cool.  There was an elevated walkway that overlooked the elephant play yard and you could see down into their house where they lived.

There is a new(ish) baby elephant name Malee.  Here she is with her mom and her aunt.

We also went over to the aquarium to check out all the fish.  We let Noah out of the stroller and he ran around the place yelling "Look!  Look, Mama!"  This picture was at the sea lion viewing area where they dive down right in front of the window.

We saw this giant anteater.  (Of all the animals at the zoo, I ended up taking a good picture of an anteater? Really?)

Noah was checking out all the animals. And he didn't even have to trudge up and down all the hills at the zoo.  Lucky.

Emily really enjoyed the zoo. She had gone with her camp this summer so she was telling me all about the different animals and where to go.

We rode the tram to see all the animals we didn't get to see on foot.  At first, Noah seemed to be excited to go riding on the "train". But after it started, he really wanted to get down. I told him that the conductor will make us get off the train if he stands up. That didn't help.

There is a new Children's Zoo.  It had a waterfall that ran down to a pond full of the Koi fish above.  Emily thought those were really neat and just so huge.

There was also a petting zoo, but Emily said "no way" to that.  Also there was a Lorakeet exhibit with some little birds that land right on you and you can feed them nectar.  But Emily said no to those too.

So we settled for these pink flamingos.  Very awesome.

We all had an awesome time at the zoo.  It was pretty windy, but not too cold.  I think we picked the perfect funnest thing we could think of.

Who knows what we'll do tomorrow ....

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Story Time

Look who has taken over story time at our house.






Also, this has started happening ...











Oh boy!!!


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Milk's Favorite Cookie

Noah is a big fan of milk's favorite cookie.

He likes to split the two halves apart and separate the cream part. Then he dips the cookie part into his milk and eats it all up.

And after that, he likes to hold the cup of milk himself and drink it up.

He says this is "yummy!!"





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The Trains!

Noah loves to play with his trains.  He has several different sizes and types of trains.

Here, he is lined up his miniature trains on the floor.  Sorry about the bad picture. It's from my iPhone. I need to start using my other camera, but I can't find the cord to upload the pics to my laptop.



You can't really see it in this picture, but Noah was wearing his Thomas the Train shirt this day as well.




And he was also watching Thomas the Train on TV.





Sorry about the fuzzy picture, but what can I say? He loves his trains.



   

Also, Noah went to the doctor one last time to make sure his leg was okay.  The x-ray looked good.  The doctor said to give him another month before he starts back to sports. (What two-year-old do you know that plays sports?)  He also said to get rid of the trampoline and the monkey bars because they see more injuries and broken bones from those two things than anything else.

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History

I have finally figured out why history class in school is important.

It's so that you'll know the answers when your child quizzes you about what she's learning in history class in school.

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First Tee

Emily started First Tee on Saturday. The kids will learn the game of golf and life skills.

The first class, they did some putting. Emily is in all pink. Her friend Madison is also pictured.










On the way home, Emily asked when her next class was going to be. We told her it would be next Saturday. She said "I want to go back tomorrow."

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Happy Birthday Noah!

We had Noah's 2nd Birthday Party at Andy Alligator's Fun Park. 

He had a Sesame Street cake.  It came from our favorite bakery and was delicious as usual!


I also made some confetti push up pops as party favors.  Everyone seemed to think my push up pops were better than the bakery cake.  I made homemade buttercream frosting.




The kids had pizza and cake and then they went and played on all the games.





Noah was just so excited and running back and forth between all the games and his friends.



But after the party he was so so tired.  He didn't like me trying to talk to him in the car.  Poor sleepy guy!







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2nd Grade

Emily started 2nd grade today. I took this picture before we left for school. Isn't she pretty???




Her shirt says Smarty Pants. Yes, she is.

Before we got very far down the road, it started sprinkling. Emily saw a rainbow in the sky. She saw it first - its very important to be first on certain things and this is one of them.  I told her that it was probably a sign that she was going to have a good year in 2nd grade at this school.  But she's too smart for me. She said it was probably just God's sign that He'll never flood the earth again.  Of course she's right.

By the time we got to the school, it was pouring down rain!  Luckily, I had a small umbrella in my car but we were still soaking wet by the time we got to the school building. When I got back home, I had to change my clothes. 

When I picked Emily up from school, she said she had a good day.  Some of her friends are in different classes this year, but she still gets to see them during the school day.

I think 2nd grade is going to be a good year!

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Where Have We Been?

Hello everybody!  We have been busy and living life.  

The hard part about blogging is that it's hard to keep up.  And the hard part about taking a blog hiatus is that it's hard to catch up.  As I get time, I will try to go back and add some pics and some notes about the past few months.

But in the meantime, here's our life in a nutshell: 

• Emily turned seven years old recently.  She had a party at Cheesecake Factory and was so thrilled to see everyone. She got lots of neat gifts - lots of arts and crafts supplies, books, clothes, etc.  Emily has completed the first grade.  She loves to read and play on the iPhone.  She doesn't like to go to bed!

• Noah fell and broke his leg.  It was the day before Mother's Day and we were playing at home that morning.  I was going to go put his play clothes on him.  But as I was walking toward him, he took off running from me and just fell down immediately.  When he fell, I heard a pop.  I knelt down and scooped him up before he even started crying.  Then he started screaming. I didn't even know what body part was hurting, but I knew that we needed to go to the emergency room.  More on this later, but Noah is not even two years old and has had his leg in a cast for the last six weeks.  We have about two more weeks to go.  

• Our house is for sale.  We're hoping it will sell soon so that we can get moved and settled before school starts in a few weeks.  I'm not sure that is going to happen, but we'll see.

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Emily Says

"I can't believe my brother can walk!!"

Noah took a few steps tonight. He walked from me to Emily.

We couldn't get a good picture or video of the big event. Maybe we will get it on video soon so that you all can see.

Yipee! We have a walker!


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Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day everyone!

I hope you all are having a great holiday weekend.

I feel like I have a lot of things to talk so I'm going to break them down into smaller bites.

Friday Night Lights

On Friday night after work, Mike and I went out to dinner with some of his friends from work. One of his co-workers recently completed her cancer treatments and we wanted to help her celebrate!

We went to Cheesecake Factory. We had lots of good food and lots of good conversation. We hardly ever get a night away like this so it was a nice change for us.

Mike's mom and dad watched the kids. I texted them several times during dinner because Noah was not really feeling well. I think it is just from teething or maybe from the shots last week but his tummy has not been feeling very good this weekend.

Sooner Saturday

On Saturday, we got up and went to pick up the kids. Then we ran our errands. We went to Sam's and got a brisket and some chicken breasts to smoke this weekend.

Then soon enough it was time to watch the Sooners play on TV. The kids were headed to bed pretty soon after the game started. And I had to log in to work for a bit. So Mike had to watch the game alone.

Winds of Change

When we woke up on Sunday morning, the weather was a lot different than it had been the last several months. Gone were the hot days of summer. In their place was the cool breezy days of Fall.

We only had one little girl in our Sunday School class. We invited all the baby dolls to story time so that we would have some company.





After church, we went to Cheddars for lunch. With the weather changing, it seemed to be the perfect day to go get a chicken pot pie. So yum. Emily always shares the chicken pot pie with me. Noah had some chicken pot pie and a lot of French Fries with ketchup. He likes anything with ketchup.

After lunch, we all went home for nap time. Noah napped pretty much all afternoon. Mike spent the afternoon prepping his brisket. When Noah woke up, it was time to go over to Aunt Charlene's for a cookout.

We had a good time hanging out and visiting with everyone who was there. The kids ran around and played in the yard most of the time.

We had a lot of good food - hamburgers and hotdogs, baked beans, pasta salad, lots of yummy desserts. Mike had a brownie fudge sundae. I had some four layer delight.

Noah did some swinging out in the yard. He seemed to really enjoy seining high!







Aunt Pat invited Emily to spend the night so she went home with Aunt Pat and Mason. Mike went and picked her up this morning and she had a good time.

Celebrate

Neither Mike nor I had to work ob Labor Day Monday. Emily was over at Aunt Pat's and Noah slept late.

When he finally woke up, I thought he looked so cute. I had put him to bed wearing some long pajamas with feet. He just looked adorable wearing them. I am not sure if he knew what to think about having long sleeves on his arms. When I first put them on, he kept pulling at them.

It is hard to get good pictures of Noah these days. He is always so busy that the pictures turn out blurry.














Today, we have just been catching up around the house. We got the brisket out of the smoker this morning and then smoked the chicken breasts. We made some homemade ice cream too.

It's been a busy weekend, but it has been a good one. I'm so thankful for the cooler weather. And for my family.


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Little Train Engineer

Noah is becoming a very fun little train engineer. The Thomas the Train toy is one of his favorites. Check out this video and see how he pushes those buttons. He's so cute.

This is another little video clip of Noah doing a little train engineer dancing.

And what about this one? Every little engineer has to work on their engine every once in a while.

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Play Ball

Noah and I played catch tonight.

(Ignore my voice. I can hardly believe I sound like that.)

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First Grade

I had the privilege of taking Emily to her first day of First Grade this morning.

She wanted to wear her San Antonio T-Shirt this morning. And she wanted her hair in pigtails with her bow just a certain way.





When we got to school, her teacher and class had already gone down to the gym for the morning assembly.

So we walked down there to join her class. On the way, we saw Mason in his classroom.




And we stopped to snap a quick pic.




When we got to the gym, we saw Madison. She wanted to hold Noah for a minute. Noah was very interested in checking out all the kids.




Emily went to sit with her class. That's her friend Jaydon on her right. She was not unhappy to be there. She was just tired of getting her picture taken.




When I picked her up from school, she said her day was "great" and that she wanted to go back to school tomorrow.

She said that her class sat in a circle and passed a ball around and whoever has the ball has to say their name. Then they went around and said their last name. Then they went around and said their favorite color. She said her favorite color was purple.

It sounds like we are off to an excellent start to first grade.






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Spaghetti Rascal

Noah loves Mom's spaghetti.





He likes to make a huge mess of it.




But when he's done, he's done.





And he throws the rest on the floor.





Spaghetti Rascal!

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Meet The Teacher 2011

Tonight we headed over to the school to meet Emily's first grade teacher.






Emily had a teacher in mind that she wanted. We had been talking to her about how we don't get to pick our teachers and how God knows which teacher is best for Emily this year.

Well, Emily did not get the teacher she wanted. But she found out that a few of her friends were going to be in the same class she is in. So she was pretty excited.

Her teacher's name is Mrs. Weaver. She only has about 15 kids in her class this year. They also got a new smart board for their classroom this year. That's going to be very cool.

School Supplies

When my sister was here visiting the other week, she gave me a hard time because I ordered Emily's school supplies through the PTA. They sell a pack of everything on the school supply list for a set price. Heather said it takes the fun out of going back to school because you don't get to pick out all your fun supplies.

The school supply packs were supposed to be in the classroom tonight, but Emily's was not there. I asked the teacher and she said I would need to check with the PTA. The PTA said they did receive some extra packs that did not have names on them so they would need to sort it all out. They are supposed to call and let me know if they found Emily's supplies. If not, I guess we will be going shopping tomorrow night!!

I think next year we will be going shopping for supplies on our own.




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The Best Meal I Ever Ate - Part 2

On Sunday, I made the best Ice Cream I ever ate. It was Coconut Cream Ice Cream.




Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 2 cups heavy or whipping cream


• 1 cup milk


• 1 can (15 oz) coconut cream, such as Coco Lopez

Whip the eggs until light and fluffy. Add in the sugar a little at a time and continue whipping until completely combined. Pour in the cream and the milk and the coconut cream and blend well.

I froze this in two batches. The ice cream freezer suggests that you only fill the container about 60% full. I did that with this recipe and it still made a full container of ice cream.

This recipe makes a very smooth and creamy ice cream. It froze very well and was just like eating premium ice cream, only better. The Coco Lopez has tiny bits of coconut in it. It's not like coconut flakes. Much smaller. So delicious.

I thought this recipe was not as sweet as some of the other recipes we have used and I liked that better. You can use this same base recipe without the coconut cream. I think next time I will make vanilla ice cream using this base recipe. Or maybe chocolate? The possibilities with this base are endless.

Everyone in my house agrees - this is the best ice cream we have ever eaten.


What is coconut cream? Where do you find it in the grocery store?

It's in the mixed drinks section. It is often used in pina coladas.







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The Best Meal I Ever Ate - Part 1

Yesterday afternoon, Mike made the best babyback ribs I ever ate.





He used the 2-2-1 Method.

First, he rubbed plain yellow mustard on the ribs and then sprinkled them with Head Country rub.

Then he put them in the smoker with some good old hickory wood at 225 degrees for two hours.

Next, he pulled the ribs out and wrapped them in foil and put them back into the smoker for another two hours.

After the two hours were up, he took them out and unwrapped them. And put them back in the smoker to firm up and get some of that good bark on it.

At the thirty minute mark, he basted the ribs with some Head Country BBQ sauce. Then we just had to wait for the ribs to be done.

And then they were done. And they were so good. They were just fall-off-the-bone tender and so tasty with the Head Country seasonings.

We inadvertently ate about a half rack that night. Then we shared another half rack tonight for supper.

Do you want to come over for some ribs? You're invited. (But call first! Haha.)

But just wait ... You haven't even heard what we had for Part 2. Mmmmmmm!



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Party Party

Yesterday, we went to Aunt Pat's birthday. We all met at a local Italian restaurant for lunch.





It took quite a long time to get our food, but we had a good time visiting. And the food was really good when it finally came.






I didn't get any pictures of the birthday girl. She was sitting way down at the other end of the table from where we were.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT PAT!!!!

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