Piano Recital

What a long way they've come from our first piano recital! This was the end of year recital and the kids did great, you can tell they've improved so much! They love piano and when I asked them if they wanted to take the summer off from lessons, or keep going, they both whole-heartedly and enthusiastically said they want to take lessons FOREVER!

This is one of Regan's songs (she played 5, but this was my favorite)


And here is the song that Riley wanted to dedicate to all our family from Louisiana!


And my personal favorite of Riley's, called The Mermaid:

Zoo Videos

I didn't get a chance to post these last week, but these are some videos from the zoo trip. You can see how "up close and personal" we got with the lions and tigers, and that annoying kookaburra!

Father/Daughter 80's Dance

This year the theme of the Father/Daughter dance was 80's. Regan was having none of it though. She told me, "I've seen pictures of you in high school, and your clothes were UGLY!" Hmph! I was quite stylish in high school, even if I do say so myself! What does she know of lacey gloves with no fingers, leg warmers, and big hair?! I was the queen of big hair! Anyway, she opted for a sundress and wanted her dad in a white shirt so he would match, and off they went. Since this was not even 2 hours after we got home from our big weekend, they didn't stay long, but had a great time.

Meanwhile, I took Riley out for a Mother/Son date and he picked Panda Express of all places. Blech. But we had fun, and he even spent $5 buying his sister a stuffed panda bear because he knows how much she likes stuffed animals. You can even see in the picture, her souvenirs from the zoo were 2 stuffed animals that got to go to the dance with her!

Then we met up with the Shenkins for some ice cream at Maggie Moos, and then met up with Dad, Regan and Papa to see Iron Man 2, which oddly enough, Regan has been bugging me to see. So we had a late night, but it was fun, and we spent Sunday afternoon laying around to make up for it!

Dr Pepper Museum

Dr Pepper

After the zoo, we ate lunch, then headed over to the Dr Pepper Museum for a little lesson in yummy drink history! We walked around and looked at the place, read all about the history of the drink, and the most fun part was sitting in the nice, cool theater and watching OLD Dr Pepper commercials! I remembered a lot of them from when I was a kid "Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too!" and the funny Diet Dr Pepper ones. Then we got to check out the soda fountain and have an old fashioned, made with sugar, not HFCS Dr Pepper that the counter guy poured with syrup and added the soda water and mixed himself! Then a quick trip to the gift shop and we were headed home! It was a neat place, and I can't wait to take Riley, he will love it. David, not so much, he hates DP!!

Roars and Snores

Waco Zoo

Our reward this year for selling ALL those Girl Scout cookies, was a sleepover at the Waco Cameron Park Zoo. This was by far one of the most fun trips ever! We checked in an hour after the zoo closed, got to set up our sleeping bags in the salt and fresh water aquarium, one was a giant wall of glass with a lot of really cool fish, and a bright green eel that Regan loved. Then we had pizza for dinner, went over the ground rules, and then headed behind the scenes to see what the zoo keepers do each night.

We split up, and our group went first to the lion's bedroom and as we walked in, Sam Jack, the daddy lion, roared so loud and I have to say, being about a foot from a lion when it roars is an awesome, and scary experience! The zoo keeper told us all about what kind of food they eat, how often, and how they give them "enrichment" activities to keep them from being bored.

Then we switched and headed to the tiger bedroom and watched them stare at us like we were delicious. One tiger kept pacing and staring, and it made me very glad for that chain link wall between us! They are beautiful animals and I really would love to snuggle one! If it wouldn't eat me.

Then we got to go pet a white rhino! That was cool, and they were muddy and scaly and very neat. Next up, the giraffes which I thought was the highlight! They were super cool, they bent down and checked us out, got close to the gate, and we got to feed them some chunks of fresh fruit. It was hilarious seeing their long purple tongue curl up around the fruit and bring it back to their mouths!

Then we headed back to the ranch house for snack and got to pet a hedgehog, a ball python, and a Madagascar hissing cockroach (I passed on that one). Finally, lights out in the aquarium around 11. Regan, however, must have realized she wouldn't soon get another opportunity to see this kind of stuff up close and personal, she sat up in bed all night watching the fish.

We were up bright and early the next morning for breakfast, got a good laugh at a very annoying kookaburra who would not stop his chattering while we ate! Then we loaded up the cars and got the zoo to ourselves for about an hour before it was open to the public. It was awesome! We got to see all the animals that we saw the night before in their bedrooms out in the open, playing around and having a good time.

The girls had a blast, and for once, the parents did too! Even though there were no showers there and we all had a sponge bath in the public bathroom and felt disgusting in the heat and humidity, this was a really fun event, and I hope we can do it again sometime!

Dr. Pepper Museum

Woo Hoo!

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Zoo Snooze

This is SO cool! We've gone behind the scenes at the zoo, saw lions and tigers UP CLOSE, got roared at by the daddy lion, and hand fed giraffes. This is the perfect trip for my future vet girl, and I'm loving it too!

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Purple Face

This is what happens when I send the kids to bed, and ignore them while they play around in the bathroom. Not sure if you can tell by the picture but her face is entirely purple from lipstick. This was after they gave Riley a purple beard and mustache.

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Baskin Robbins!

With Kenzie!

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Cookie Award

Regan got an invitation to come to the Girl Scout award ceremony, and we figured it was for being one of the top 10 cookie sellers. And sure enough, she was #7 for our whole service unit, with a total of 752 boxes sold! Her friend Marillah was #1 with 1136 boxes sold! They had awards, and then a reception, and the girls got these cute corsages to wear, they were so proud. Regan has already declared next year she WILL sell 1000 boxes, so start working on your Thin Mint appetite now!

Our Next Project?

This is something I would *love* to have! A chicken coop in my backyard! After our field trip, we went to some friends house, and they just got some chickens and built a nice coop in their backyard, for school! How fun (and EDUCATIONAL!!) would that be!? I don't think I could talk David into it though. The kids loved it, and then we went swimming with them, and played with the chickens some more. They're super cute.

Crowe's Nest Farm

We met up with a new home school group and headed out to Crowe's Nest Farm today. We love this place and haven't been here in a while! We went on a hay ride and watched them feed the bison and ostriches, then went to the dairy barn to learn about milking cows and how the milk gets to the store, and then we got to walk around, to the butterfly house and the Fairie Woods. They have a ton of animals and really pretty gardens there, so we had a good time running around, checking out all the goats, llamas, prairie dogs, owls, etc.

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a nice Mother's Day! Regan and I went shopping at Walmart after her Girl Scout event, and she wanted money to buy me something, but she wanted it to be a surprise. So I told her to pick something out, and I would give her some money to go check out by herself, and she could put it in a bag and hide it from me. Well, she picked out a dozen red roses! Very sweet, but kind of hard to hide in a bag, but I was *very* surprised the next morning!

Riley made me 4 "Get Dad Off the Xbox" cards which David says technically aren't valid, but hey, I will take what I can get! We had a great time with the family (and Alex, Melissa and Sydney!) after church over at Pam and Dave's eating lunch, burgers, Whole Foods potato salad, pulled pork, peach cobbler, and chocolate pie.

The picture is for some reason, the only one I got on Mother's Day, and it's Regan showing off her new skirt!

Pop Stars

Regan and I had our annual Girl Scout Mother Daughter event today, the theme was "Pop Star"! It was fun, set up like American Idol, they had a big dance area, a stage with mic's turned up loud, and a bunch of little girls screaming along with Taylor Swift, Jordin Sparks, and Miley Cyrus. First we stopped off in the make up room and I put some shiny eye shadow on Regan, she got these cool 80's style glasses, I painted her nails, then we sang, and at craft time, she got to make her very on microphone. She had a blast!

Hardcore Parkour!

What is Parkour? Click HERE for a quick, funny description by one of my favorite TV shows (The Office).

So, after seeing that, Riley has been Parkour-ing and Free Running all over the place. I heard about a Parkour Workshop where they teach safety, how to land, how to jump, and not break any bones, so I thought that was something he could benefit from. He was a little disappointed however, when we got there and he realized they weren't exactly teaching him how to jump off buildings. I think he learned some good tips, but it wasn't extreme enough for Riley, nothing ever is! I took several videos, the pictures were all blurry, but this is the most "exciting" thing they did there. I can see where he would be bored, he does double back handsprings in gymnastics, and they're just teaching him how to do a somersault, but oh well, it's all about safety!

Flying Fish

What's more fun than having Goldfish shot at you from a leaf blower? Our Kids Church ROCKS!

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