Dallas Zoo

Since Tom has been MIA lately, [Well, he's been working on a rig somewhere out there. Honestly, I have no clue where he is.] I decided to change up mine and Micah's routine a bit. Instead of going to the gym this morning, I decided to venture down to Dallas to visit the zoo. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've actually gone down to Dallas since we moved here. I know. Strange, hunh!
Anyway, after the hour drive and two wrong exits, we arrived. [I really need to bite the bullet and buy that GPS.]

For the first 10 minutes or so, Micah did really well riding in the stroller.



After that, he adamantly said, "DOWN". And, so he got down out of the stroller. For the first hour and a half, the zoo was quiet except all of the animals. Then, all of the school field trips arrived and it really turned into a zoo. Micah managed to walk the entire 3 hours we were there and enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are some photos from our trip.







































Mmmmm. Sweet smelling honeysuckle.



This clip gives a whole new meaning to the term "mud bath"

Picky Eater

Some say the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I say the best way to get a little man to eat his vegetables is with M&Ms.





Most of you know that I was once a ridiculously picky eater [Yeah, Yeah, I'm still pretty picky too]. Well, my son has inherited the gene from his mommy dearest. We're still feeding him baby food vegetables just to get them in him, and lately it has become a real chore to get him to eat those veggies. He has issues with textures. What can I say? I did too. I still do. But, I've got to get them in him somehow.

I've found that if I wave one M&M in front of him and let him know that if he eats half of his veggies he gets the M&M. Works like a charm. I even offered a second M&M if he finished them. In the end, I had a happy little man full of squash and two delicious M&Ms!

Project

It was a little over a week ago when I completed this project, and I told my mom I would post some pictures. I've been a little busy since Tom's been doing alot of traveling, so I'm just getting around to it.

My project was making a window seat cusion for the kitchen nook.

Here are the supplies I used.


I started by getting Tom to cut two pieces of plywood 4'x 13" each to fit inside the seat shelf. I used this as the base of each cusion.




Second, I traced the wood pieces onto the 3" thick foam.




After tracing the wood on the foam, I used an electric meat cutter to cut the foam.

Next, I measured the fabric and cut it to wrap around the foam and wood. Then, I used the staple gun to attach the fabric.



And, Ta Da.



Sweet Pea sure is glad I finally completed this project.



Here's a sneak peek at the fabric for the window treatments. I'm not sure what I want yet. Hmmmm....


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The count down is on. Only 2 more days until the pool opens! Wahoo!

Grandpa Deen Visit

Last Friday Tom flew to Illinois to visit with his dad, brother, and grandma. Then on Saturday he drove with his dad all the way down to our house in Texas. Micah was excited to see his Grandpa Deen.

Grandpa Deen didn't come to Texas empty handed. In fact, he hauled a trailor with all kinds of goodies including these:





The fishing boat was Tom's Grandpa Sawyer's boat. Since the motor hasn't been in use in over a decade, we're hoping it still has some life left in it. We need to take it to someone to check everything out. I'll keep you posted.

The rocking horse was Tom's when he was Micah's age. His Grandpa [Hessie] Deen built it for him. Micah hopped on and rode away as if he'd been doing it for years. It's now his favorite place to sit and watch tv.








Also over the weekend, I started a flower bed around the oak tree in the backyard.

...But not in my cookie

Not only did we run in the bluebonnets Friday, but we also spent some time on the playground.


My little boy is getting so big.






He's also mastered the climbing wall all by himself.


_____________________

I have a question for all of the mother's out there. My son will gobble down a box of raisins. For several weeks it was hard to keep cinnamon raisin bread in the house without the munchkin eating it all. So, one day I decided to make a special treat for him, oatmeal raisin cookies. Someone please tell me why he'll eat the entire cookie and spit out all of the raisins. Ugh.

Bluebonnets

For the last several days I've noticed cars parked on the side of the road at a rather old cemetary I pass on a daily basis. I finally started to look a little closer as I drove by, and I noticed that there were people out there taking photos in the wild flowers. There are bluebonnets everywhere. So, Friday I followed suit and decided to stop with Tom and Micah to take some photos of them running around in the wild flowers. I even broke out my 35mm SLR that I haven't used in several months. There was a roll half exposed in my camera when I picked it up off of the shelf. I haven't gotten those rolls developed yet, and I'm extremely curious what's on that half exposed roll. I'll try to remember to drop those off while I'm running errands this week.

Here are some of the photos I took with my digital point-and-shoot camera.

















And today I received an e-mail from Chris, my brother-in-law, containing this photo warning about the snakes in Texas...EEEEEEEEK! I'm glad he sent that e-mail today or else I never would have stepped foot out there.

Recess

...I got creative during outside recess. Too bad you can see my shadow in the picture.


Sorry, there are alot of shadows in these photos.

Micah wanted to say "Thank You" to the Clarks for the golf set. He's had lots of fun with it.