A Surprise Puffer Fish Encounter

January has turned out to be quite the busy month.  A few days following Christian's field trip, Carson's preschool took a field trip to the Heard Museum after learning about dinosaurs this month.  I am ashamed to say that this was going to be my first trip there too.  Carson and I loaded up in the car after checking in at the preschool and all caravanned to McKinney.   Once we arrived each child and parent was able to leisurely stroll through the indoor exhibits before heading outside to see the dinosaurs.

Carson checking out the dinosaur bones.  

Inside they had a Bug exhibit. I much prefer these colorful big plastic bugs

as opposed to this enormous live tarantula

When we rounded the corner into the next room which featured things you would find in the ocean we were amazed to find you guessed it....a PUFFERFISH!  Chad nicknamed Carson "puffer fish" a couple years ago because when he got mad Chad said he blew up like a puffer fish.  It is just a family nickname that has stuck a bit, but Carson will jokingly remind us or refer to himself as Puffer Fish or as we like to say, "Puff" for short.  Seeing this "real" puffer fish was quite a surprise so we definitely decided to take some pics to show daddy.

A future paleontologist?

Time to bundle up and hit the walking trail. He looked so cute I could not resist.

We had so much fun walking up to each dinosaur and deciding if it was a meat eater or not.  Right after this picture was taken the boys were surprised to hear this dinosaur "burp".  They could not stop giggling.

 Look at that face....."RUN"

On the lookout for a T-Rex

Found him.  Trying to get a snapshot of the three and four year old classes

Carson's wonderful teacher Ms. Kitty sat with a few of the students amazed at just how big T-Rex is

Next we went through the animal exhibit outside.  Carson said this raccoon was mad because he kept pacing back and forth.  As we walked back by him on the way out he said that raccoon probably was sad and missed his family so he thought that we should be his family and take care of it.

Once we left the Heard we all went to McDonalds for lunch before heading home.  Carson sat at a table with a few boys in his class as I sat at the table beside him with some of the teachers.  Once the kids ate their Happy Meals they all wanted to go into the play area to you know play.  The teachers decided they had time before they had to be back at school so I just cringed and said yes when Carson asked if he could play and then had to laugh with another mom as it was her kids first time to ever play in a McDonalds and the third time I could think of for Carson.  It wasn't the end of the world just the end to a wonderful morning spent exploring with my baby!

Fun Filled Day of Science

The second grade just went on a wonderful field trip to the Math Midway exhibit at the Frisco Sci-Tech Museum.  This was a day of firsts for Christian as it was his very first time to ride in a school bus and sadly his very first elementary school field trip.  Needless to say, he was anxiously waiting for this day to arrive and so was I.  After getting to the school to find that everything there was under control I decided to leave before the students boarded the buses so that I could get to the museum early and see how the day would run.  I am sorry that I did this though as I did not get any photographic proof of Christian actually boarding the bus.  He has often asked me if he could ride the bus to and from school, to which I give my standard reply...there are a lot of moms that are not able to drive their kids to school and be there in the afternoon to pick them up so you should be thankful that I am able to do that not to mention the bus drives by our house every morning at 7 am when I am just going in to your room to wake you up.  We have a hard enough time waking up at 7 am, I don't even want to think about 6 am.  By this time we are usually pulling into the driveway so this conversation can come to an end.  There is nothing wrong with riding the school bus, in fact I am sure I would find it much easier if he did, however, I never rode the bus to school and I don't want my kids to either.  But back to the field trip.  

Once all the students arrived (the busses took the "scenic" route as I stood out in the freezing cold trying to find and direct them via phone which way to go) we went in to the theater area for a group introduction and a few science experiments.  The students were amazed when one of the teachers was asked to stand up and swirl 2 glasses of water around on a board without the water spilling out.  It definitely kept everyones attention and had them laughing when the water finally dumped out.  (Don't try this at home.)

Next we all broke out into sessions and for Mr. P's class the chaperones each took three or four kids through the science stations in the midway.  I don't know that I offered any educational benefit to them, but we had fun. The square wheeled trikes were so interesting that I even decided to take a turn.

I must say that this was a wonderful field trip.  The kids were busy the entire day and never had a chance to get bored.  When it came time for lunch a few of the moms and I snuck away to grab a quick lunch at Best Thai.  It was yummy!  We ran next door to Peace Love and Popcorn and tasted Dill Pickle popcorn and picked up a couple treats too.  Christian LOVES that place and so do I.

Once the day came to an end Christian surprised me by asking to ride back home with me.  I thought for sure he would have wanted to ride back on the bus with his friends but he did not.  Instead he had a friend come home with us to play!  Fieldtrip #1 was a huge success.  I even received 4 or 5 emails from teachers the next morning with nothing but positive comments.  YAY!  Christian and his friends talked about some of the cool science experiments for days and I was just happy to be there.

Snow Day

We picked the boys up from Pa Pa's house Sunday morning after they spent the night with him the night before.  We ended up staying several hours visiting with him and Edwin, Bert's brother,  before we all decided to go to Mom's cafe in Aubrey for lunch.  YUM!  On the way home Chad decided we needed to have a little fun so he went to an undisclosed location and did donuts in the parking lot!  The boys laughed harder than they ever have while I held on to the door handle for dear life, laughing and reminding Chad his entire family was in the truck.  Chad did not even have time to stop the truck completely before Carson pleaded for him to do it again.  We laughed and Chad spun us all around some more until he decided there was only so much time you could do this with out getting caught so we better head home.  On the way, Christian asked if we could go to the farm and sled behind the truck like we did last year but Chad said it was too wet since it had rained so much before and it would tear up the pastures.  As soon as we got home the boys put on the warm layers, I grabbed the camera and we went out to play in the snow.  Chad decided to get out the little OLD tractor that could and pull the boys on the sled around the house.

The boys decided mommy needed a turn so they piled on top of me and daddy pulled us all.

Where's Christian?

Pulling the boys down the road and back Christian decided to do snow angels with his arms.  When they got back he was soaking wet and freezing!  Time for a fire and hot chocolate!

Hard to believe this snow would stick around for 4 or 5 days as it never got above freezing.

Christian's Big Surprise

Last Saturday was Christian's first basketball game of the season and we had a BIG surprise in store for him.  A secret person was going to come to his game.  I had texted earlier in the week to let him know about Christian's game since he had not gone back to school yet and he instantly replied back that he would be there.  I decided not to tell Christian anything yet in case for some reason it did not work out.  So, Saturday morning when I got a text to know he was definitely coming I decided to just let it be a big surprise.

Our doorbell rang a little after 2 pm and Chad went to the door.  The boys and I were in the kitchen getting ready to head out for Christian's game when in walked.....Jake (Ross' best friend)!  To say that Christian was shocked is definitely an understatement.  In fact, his reaction surprised even me a little.  He literally stood their speechless for what seemed like forever after his jaw hit the floor and his eyes got as big as saucers.  I don't think he moved until Jake came over and gave him a big hug to let him know it was real.  At one point I honestly thought he was going to cry!  It was so sweet.  He then handed the boys their Christmas presents. They both eagerly unwrapped them to find an awesome new Auburn jersey for each of them!  The boys loved them!

We then all piled in the car and headed to the game.  We made it to the game early so Christian took Jake and sat down with the rest of his team to watch the end of the game that was playing.  During Christian's game Carson pretty much sat in Jake's lap the whole time.

Christian was a defensive animal but unfortunately they lost 21-6.  It was devastating.

I guess he found it hard to smile after just losing

We all had such a wonderful afternoon and I will never forget that day.  It meant so much to me that Uncle Jake would take the time to come and be there for my boys!  Here they are decked out in their jerseys, which they ended up wearing for three days straight.  They wore them the rest of the afternoon, slept in them, wore them Sunday and again on Monday since that night was the Championship game.  Luckily I was able to convince them Sunday night to take them off so that I may wash them so they would be clean for school the next day.

 We love you Jake and we love our jerseys!  

Ringing in the New Year

Chad and I brought in 2011 at Jim and Brenda's house surrounded by good friends, good fun and good food.  It was nice to have an adult night knowing the kids were having a blast at the lock-in until I received word at 12:10, through a call from a friend's son, that Carson may not be feeling well.  It ended up he was fine and the festivities continued.  Here are a few shots of the evening thanks to Brenda's son who was paparazzi for the evening.

Chad and Brenda

 Honey, Kara and I

Chad and Joel

Peace

Chad holding court with the ladies

Jim made the mistake of passing out with a house full of people and a wife that thought it would be funny to get him with shaving cream!

Brrr...last shot of the night!  Happy New Years

We look forward to another wonderful year full of love and laughter with our amazing friends and family!

A Little Fresh Air Never Hurt Anybody

This has been the most relaxing break ever as we have spent the majority of the time since Christmas as a family at home in our jammies.  This is definitely not a normal occurrence for our family as we are usually always on the go.   This week though we have watched A LOT of movies, played many games of Battleship, Jenga and ping pong, the 3 boys have spent hours playing PS3, we have had more than our fair share of hot chocolate and cookies, and I have organized the house after Christmas.  It has been wonderful!

I decided one day that we needed to get outside and take in a little fresh air.  The boys immediately decided to ride their new scooters and show us their crazy mad skills.  I was actually impressed with Christian's little bag of tricks. 

Christian thinks his Spark scooter is SO cool!  He kept lifting the bottom up though to gauge how quickly he was losing his spark bars.  I kept telling him to relax and just enjoy making the sparks because Santa left a box of extra spark bars too!

Carson is one cool dude in his sunglasses while he is trying to keep up with his brother.  He kept saying, "even I can do this, watch".

I don't know how many times I can say this but they are both growing up entirely too fast!!

Next it was time for basketball

Is this Ross Jr. or what?  He has started making this face and every time he does I immediately think of Ross and that chin. 

Dad showing Christian he is still cool and can do donkey kicks and other tricks on his bike

They got just about everything out of the garage today...scooters, bikes, dirtbike, tractors, and skateboard.  Chad raised Carson's training wheels up on his bike today too.  Here they are making me a nervous wreck riding the skateboard down the driveway and trying to land in the grass.

Now onto a little yard work.  Christian is quite the helper.