Ten on Ten - May 2014

listening to one of my favorite book series as I get ready for the day

wrapping birthday presents

Heather decided to take the girls to Lowe's and I went along to help - the girls had so much fun!

we had time to stop by the park on the way to lunch....the girls had fun swinging!

family lunch at Little Italy - one of our favorite places!

starting the girls early!

helped Daddy work on changing out switches and outlets - that is a much bigger job than it seems like!

ready to head out for Phillip's birthday dinner.....but first Anna has to clean up her room!

gyros for dinner at Niko's - a relatively new eatery in town

no present can be opened without help when there are two little girls around

Linking up with other Ten on Ten bloggers here

Weekend with Anna

Back when Emily was almost 3 1/2, she came for a weekend visit to my house in Richardson.  Now that Anna is about the same age, I started thinking about scheduling a fun weekend for us too.  And since I live in the same town and see her much more often, I decided that we needed to get away from the normal pace a bit. Plus, a visit to Build-a-Bear was part of Emily's weekend and I wanted to do the same with Anna.

So, Friday I took a half day from work and picked Anna up after lunch at home.  She's never ridden in my car before, so the first thing she said was how "amazing" my car is!  I packed snacks and few of the toys that I keep at my house for the car ride.  One is a mini etch-a-sketch.  Mom still has ours from growing up and Anna commented that it was "just like Pearlie's, only smaller."

We drove to Ft Worth and checked into the hotel. Then it was time to head out for the first part of our adventure!

We headed over to Ridgemar Mall - home of the closest Build-a-Bear to Abilene.  Anna, not surprisingly, picked out a puppy.  And, as I did with Emily, we put in two hearts - one solid red and one gingham - one for me and one for her!  Meet Spot (I talked her out of naming him Snoopy 2).

They also had a pretty great playground and carousel, so we spent a bunch of time playing.... 

We headed to eat dinner and then back to the hotel for the night.  A bit of a challenge getting a 3-year old to sleep in a not dark nor quiet room......so I tried everything I could think of.

The eye mask trick didn't work, but turning off the TV completely and me sitting quietly next to her on the bed finally allowed her to settle and go to sleep.

This morning we headed out for day two of the adventure.....to the Forest Park Miniature Train! We had to wait about 45 minutes once we got there before the first train left, but Anna was a trooper and didn't even complain about waiting. She loves trains so this was a grand adventure.  Through the first part of the ride she was pretty quiet and reserved.  Then she sat in my lap the last half and really came to life. 

After the train, we tried to find the duck pond in Trinity Park and drove through the Botanical Garden trying to find a place for Anna to "run and play in the sun" but everything was packed. So, we spent a little time walking through the Montgomery Street Antique Mall (Anna found lots of "treasures" that did NOT come home with us) then drove past Pearlie's junior high (Stripling). Since Anna was bound and determined to play, we found a neighborhood park for her to swing and slide and run.

By this time, I was starving even though Anna kept telling me that she wasn't ready for lunch.  We were close to a family favorite spot - the original location of Kincaid's Hamburgers on Camp Bowie - and thankfully it was after the super busy lunch rush.  A burger for me and grilled cheese for Anna - with a chocolate shake to share! - and we were ready to hit the road back to Abilene.

Home in time to eat supper, run in the yard a bit more, a long playtime bath and then bedtime for Anna.  Can't say that I'll be far behind her!  I don't have quite all that 3 year old energy!  But I sure am thankful for the time I am being able to spend with these sweet girls now as they are young. I know we are building a great foundation for a sweet lifetime love and friendship.

And in a strange twist of coincidence, Anna chose to wear the EXACT same dress for Sunday morning church that Emily wore when she came for her visit.  

Adventure....

While I am definitely a person that thrives on structure and routine, occasionally the adventure bug bites me.  Earlier this summer I was able to mark one such adventure off my bucket list.

SKYDIVING!!

My friend Beth was given a birthday gift of skydiving by her brother and she asked if I'd like to go do it with her.  As skydiving is one of the things that has been on my "want to do list" for many years, I immediately said yes.  Another friend, Matt, decided to jump with us, so we worked on finding a compatible date and then booked our adventure!

I volunteered to drive since Matt's sister Holly and parents were also going to come along to cheer us on.  We all loaded up bright and early to head about 40 miles east.  Easy drive out there, interesting directions across some somewhat sketchy terrain, but finally we arrived at an airstrip.  But things looked a little off......there was no one around and certainly no planes.  We were only about 15 minutes earlier than we had been told to get there, so it seemed suspicious.  We called the number from our reservation and received some interesting news.  Apparently that particular airport wasn't allowing them to jump anymore.  What we all wondered at this point was why none of us had received a call letting us know that we needed to be somewhere else.  

After talking with the staff, we decided to go ahead and make a day of it and head for the other airport - even though it meant completely retracing our steps and then driving another 50+ miles to the west of our original starting point!

Once we got to the new airport, there were a few more snafus for us to wait through.  Sick crew members, planes at other airports, etc. But, we persevered through the wait and finally watched the girl in front of us head up.  And then, about 30 minutes later it was time for Beth and I to jump.  We put on jumpsuits and then were strapped into our harnesses.  We squeezed into a tiny plane with our two tandem instructors and the pilot and we were off!!  

me, Beth and Matt with our tiny airplane

Beth and I suited and harnessed up - ready to jump!

Smoothest takeoff I've ever experienced and my first experience on a grass runway.  About 20 minute flight to get up to 10,500 feet. Hooking our harnesses up to the tandem instructor and a reminder of the process. Open the door. Step out and then 40 seconds of freefall and about 4-5 minutes of canopy float to get back to earth.  

me on the left with the  multi stripe canopy - Beth is on the right with the red, white and blue canopy

coming down!

in for the landing!

landed perfectly standing up!

Beth and I in our Top Gun moment walking back from the plane

with my tandem jump instructor Scott

It was completely amazing.  Breathtaking for sure.  Exhilarating.  Exciting.  If I could have hopped back on the plane and gone immediately back up I absolutely would have done so.  The plane would only hold two jumpers at a time (with instructors), so we watched Matt jump next.  After all that excitement and driving all over creation, we were hungry!  We stopped at a great restaurant on the way back home.

And if my description above doesn't answer the question for you.....I can't wait to go again!!

Joseph!

This past weekend 4 out of 6 of my girls were here to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I first saw this show in college and absolutely love it. This interpretation was a little different with the addition of rap and stomp style dancing but oh so fun.


Mollie's daughter Mattie especially loved the show. It was her first live theater production and for a 5 year old, she did a great job. She was riveted and sang along with many of the songs.


If you are in the DFW area, go experience your local theater offerings - we are partial to the musical theater offerings, but I'm sure there are many many plays that are great as well. Joseph was a presentation of the Dallas Theater Center at the Wyly theater downtown Dallas (and is showing until August 5 - you still have time to go!). The Dallas Summer Musicals are always great shows as well.

Weekend with Emily

Friday, I met Heather, Mom, Emily & Anna about halfway between to pick up Emily for her first solo weekend at my house.  Friday night when we got home, we made pizza, watched Monsters, Inc and enjoyed a treat of "poptorn" and m&m's.

Saturday morning, we got up and got ready to go out on the town.

First stop, the playground at Cottonwood Park.

After playing for a while, we wandered through the Arts Festival and Emily enjoyed some time drawing on a chalkboard in the kids area.

After the arts festival, we headed to Northpark. While waiting for the crowds to die down a bit at Build-a-Bear, we headed to the Dallas Public Library branch.  Emily LOVES to type and so she really enjoyed some time on the "patuter."

She also enjoyed playing a game of Dora.

Finally we made it to Build-a-Bear.  Please meet "Owl."

I think Emily loves him. :-)

After lunch at Chick-fil-A, we headed off to find another playground.  The day was warming up, so some of the equipment was kinda warm, but Emily still really enjoyed playing.

We wandered through the flea market at Junkadoodle and then headed home.  Emily loves playing with my yo-yos - though not in the usual way. She just winds and unwinds the string - over and over and over and over again.

And finally, crashed out at the end of a long fun-filled day.  (the night wasn't quite so peaceful for me - I was up sick all night long. boo.)

Today, Emily had no interest in going to her own class or to Kidz Journey at church, but she was very well behaved regardless.  We had lunch at Wild About Harry's and I think she thoroughly enjoyed her chocolate custard with sprinkles. She was even so kind to share with me (though I certainly didn't enjoy it the way I normally would)!

After lunch we headed back to the halfway point for the exchange.  I was very, very sad to see her go.  Will definitely have to start planning her next weekend visit!!  


Emily - I love you very much and I'm so glad you came to visit! Come again soon!!