Going to the Park with Friends

We try to meet Miss Allie and Luke on Fridays, but it doesn't always happen due to illness, conflicts, illness, weather, and illness. But last Friday, the stars all aligned, and we had a lovely time at a park down in Dallas. After the park, we went and had lunch on the patio at Whole Foods, which is so much fun for a brief shining few minutes. Grown-up food, great kid choices, beautiful weather, decent scenery, nice conversation, and another child at our same "energy" level. Then the brief shining moment ends and they start getting out of their chairs, running down the sidewalk towards the parking lot, throwing lava rocks out of the flowerbeds, etc. But it's worth it for those brief fun times!

I love this little park b/c it has some new play structures and also vintage equipment like the turtle and the merry-go-round. There aren't many merry-go-rounds these days due to liability. Ugh.


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Just some random moments with Henry. We were at the gas station on the way home.


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Band-Aids

Lately, Henry has been asking for a band-aid every morning before preschool. On this particular morning, his ensemble included two small squares on his forehead.


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When Todd came home that night and saw him, he said...."Well, the horns finally came out and you had to cut them off, didn't you?" I laughed and laughed!

Henry's Thanksgiving Feast

Henry's school had a T-Giving feast for the whole school. Each class prepared a dish to share with all the other classes. Henry's class made banana bread. He was very excited about this...they made it on Monday and didn't get to eat it until Wednesday. Talk about torture. He woke up on Wednesday morning talking about the feast. While he was eating, he asked me ... "mommy, where's the feast?" I explained that this WAS the feast!


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I wouldn't have worn a skirt if I had known I would be on the floor.


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Thinking Maps

At Leo's school this year, they are really emphasizing Thinking Maps. They teach the kids all different types of visual organizers that help them organize their thoughts as the prepare for a project. Leo's teacher said that she wondered at the beginning of the year how meaningful this would be for first graders, and she has been shocked at how well they have learned to utilize the maps.

So, below is Leo's thinking map that he made at school the Monday after Halloween weekend.

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Notice how sparse this is. Notice that he put "TV" on Saturday. Here is how mine would have been:

Friday: Took two children to the school carnival before Todd came home. Made two homemade pizzas for the family.

Saturday morning: hosted a halloween party in our home for the neighborhood children for two hours.

Saturday afternoon: collapsed for a nap

Saturday night: Attended neighborhood hot dog/dessert gathering. Took children to 1st Grade Teachers House. Came home and walked children up and down the street to trick-or-treat.

Sunday: Ran 13.1 miles.

Camping at Loyd Park in Grand Prairie

After our last camping trip to AR where Henry screamed his head off for eight hours on the way home...Todd said he would no longer travel any farther than three hours with him. He said he would really prefer two, if we had to get in the car. So, I found this little park in the middle of Dallas that has cabins. Our boys love to "camp," so I knew they would want to this fall. We had to make the reservations months in advance, and we lucked out with gorgeous temperatures.

Our friends The Posts rented the cabin next to ours, and we so enjoyed hanging out with them.

Some of my memories from the trip:

*Our children still get up at the crack of dawn and they hit the floor running. They were up by 530am every morning and ready to go. Until they stop this, we really can't call any trip with them a "vacation."
*They had a great time exploring the grassy field and lake in front of our cabin.
*We were definitely out-camped by the people tent camping behind us. We had a hand-cranked lantern that barely worked and two or three measly flashlights. We could hardly see to cook at night or to make our plates. These people had lanterns, flashing XMas lights strung in the trees, music (tejano, polka, and country - still trying to figure that one), and TONS of people. It was pretty humbling, haha. We have a long way to go.
*I found toasted coconut covered marshmallows and also got Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate - these ingredients take smores to a new level.

some pictures:


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Roasting weenies and toasting marshmallows:

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Brie and crackers. Fancypants camping.

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Trying to see if the meat is done...

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