Cousin Fun: Ft. Worth Museum of Science & History

When my nephew comes to visit, we try to think of fun, kid friendly activities we can go to. Because of my friend Ashley's recommendation (thanks, Ash!), we spent an afternoon at the Ft. Worth Science and History Museum. I've been to the Dallas one many times, but this was all new to me.

I loved how all my lovely boys matched ;)

This display was for retro/antique toys. I saw a Cabbage Patch doll and was quite offended. Kara, Greg, and Jarod (my dolls) would also feel the same.

I loved this giant Lite Brite. I kept examining it, looking for a way to recreate it.

Grant and Fletcher showing off their art they made with Daniel.
This is a dino footprint that apparently Fletcher thought was a hot tub.This was take before the 4D movie about the Barnett Shale. Enthused I'm sure.

Animals: Wanted Dead or Alive

Spring Break we spent several days, all day outside working on our house. Grant was so excited to see that the butterflies that were emerging. He kept yelling, "Mommy, look at the beautiful butterflies!" then he'd try to chase them. So I decided to get him a butterfly 'growing kit' that they had been advertising in catalogs and on TV.

You get this net cage type thing and send in for some live caterpillars. There is built in food in the jar. They about doubled in size everday for about a week and a half then made their cristalises (spelling?). Thats when we moved them to the netted cage. About a week later, we had 5 pink lady butterflies!

Although Grant looks happy in this picture, so much so you can't see his eyes, he was mad we had to set them free.

This past weekend we took a road trip to Glen Rose, TX. First stop, Fossil Rim Wildlife Park.

Buffalos were the first attraction. Everytime I see these things, I'm reminded of my family's vacation to Yellowstone National Park. That was some fun times!

Grant was so excited, and the weather was nice and cool. Not too hot.


I tried all day to get a good picture of Grant and I. This is about the best one I could get.

Grant loved pretending to drive the truck with Daddy.

These zebras are actually called "Grant's Zebras".

He was our official map reader.

Sleepy rhino.

Rude deer.

You can't see it really well, but this deer had some really jacked up teeth!

We fed all kinds of animals, but they weren't as active as our last trip there.

Next stop, Dinosaur World!

Coolest trashcan, ever.

The Dinosaur World consisted of a museum, playground, fossil dig, and a mile trail with life size dinosaur figures.

"Longneckies" as Grant would say.

Grant was great a stopping, posing, and saying cheese for me.

Everything that was large with short arms was a "T-Rex"

"Spikey"

This one was just weird. There were many dinosaurs that I'd never seen before or heard of. Grant ran through it so fast though, I didn't have a chance to get really educated!

According to the show "Dino Dan" on Nick, Jr. that we watch, these dinosaurs used those things on their heads as a horn to communicate with each other.

Inside the museum with a stegosaurus.

Scary....

Adorable...

On a fossil dig.

This left handed digger found several fossils to take home.

As you can see by that beet red face, the TX sun was beginning to get warm that afternoon. From there we went home for a long nap ;)

Cowboys, Clownfish, & Christmas

Beauty in the Common Things: My husband taking on some extra 'chores'. Due to my recent injury...see below...Daniel has to do all the dishes, which he hates. So shout out to him, thanks!

Listen In: Watching "The Office" from Thursday for the second time. So good. "She's one sassy black lady!" Buhahahha!

View from the Kitchen Window: Christmas lights twinkling. I heart the holidays.

Dinner Plans: left overs from lunch with friends. Good times!

Fletcher came in a for a weekend visit (anticipation of this can be seen in the previous post). We visited the Dallas Children's Aquarium which recently got a makeover. It is small, but interesting.

They have a covered outdoor area where you can pet small sting-rays.

Awesome eel.

The stingrays were quite hungry.

Watching the anticpation of the stingrays was the best.

The lady in the background fed the sharks and stingrays while we watched. I decided it'd be a great job for Daniel. Fletcher and I liked it, too.

Fletcher loved this sea turtle. You can't see it, but it was handicapped. So sad!

Two cousins who had a good day!

The week before Thanksgiving, the stomach virus hit our house. It was a busy week that did not have a slot for the virus!

That Thursday, Daniel and I were to take my Sports and Entertainment Marketing class on a field trip to Cowboys Stadium for a tour. It had been in the works for months and I had 20 kids counting on going...Daniel and I could NOT get the virus! We had a great day with my students. All were well behaved and enjoyed the tour. Thursday evening is when Daniel got the virus. We were supposed to go on vacation that weekend, but we canceled in anticipation of the virus finally getting to me. I ended up being safe and we went on with our Thanksgiving plans as usual. We went to visit Daniel's family and had a good few days.

"Jerry's World"

Each student got a picture of themselves on the prestegious blue star. The photographer figured out that Daniel and I were married and made us pose like this. It was kind of embarassing to do in front of my students. Daniel is a huge Cowboys fan. I even looked into getting married at Texas Stadium when we looked into wedding venues. Yea, it was way too expensive and I'm not sure I would have anyway. All bathrooms in that place were scary!

View of the Ballpark in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers. A possible field trip location for next semester? If I get brave enough again!

After tour, we took them to CiCi's Pizza. Some student told me the food was the best part of the field trip. Well, I was glad to spend 3 months planning this trip just so you could enjoy some pizza!! Anywho, most of the students were male...so guess what they did after eating.

You can tell Daniel was ready to go. So bored, he tried to ride the 'quarter' horse.

Back to school we went and prepared for a long week ahead of us. D and I sponsor a club at our high school called Interact which is a community service club affiliated with Rotary. Our fundraiser this year was "Breakfast with Santa". All week we prepared for the Saturday morning event. More members came to help out than expected, even parents showed up lend a hand (which is actually rare).

To advertise the event, we collaborated with FFA for float in our town's annual Christmas Parade of Lights.

Here is Corbin and Grant waiting for the parade to start. Haven't I seen this before???

Our float wasn't as decorated as some in the parade, but we got our point across. We handed out invitations and candy to the children for "Breakfast with Santa".

Here is Amber and I with our little ones. We kept them bundled during the parade as they yelled "Merry Christmas!" Grant enjoyed it so much. He didn't care about his hands freezing!