the 4th

We had a wonderful 4th of July down here in Texas. We started the day with a small parade in downtown Mckinney. We saw plenty of cars, motorcycles, and horses. Our one Seattle connection, Kristen, joined us and we had a blast.

Sean: "Look, its Doc!!"

And some sparkly pink horses

It is kind of hard to see, but downtown Mckinney is actually a really fun, cute, old town square with great shops and places to eat.

Later we were paid a visit by none other than Roberto! Came all the way from Costa Rica to visit us (not really, but it makes a good story). We had a blast catching up, and throwing the kids at him. We missed you Paola!!

Hope you all had a great 4th as well!

Nana & Papa

We had such a great time with my parents in town!

Here are the kids waiting in the airport parking lot for Nana & Papa to arrive. They were showing me how excited they were:

Our first stop with Nana and Papa was the aquarium:

Penguins

Shark tunnel

3 toed sloth (super close)

Giant river otter

Manatees etc.

And there was the daily swim time in our community pool:

And special treats, like ice cream:

Thanks Nana & Papa for visiting! We had a great time and can't wait to play again soon!!!

Back-up Dancer

2 Peas

Sean and Molly are VERY different children. I could right many-a-post on their differences, however, Molly has been doing a couple things lately that reminded me of her brother when he was her age:

Example 1: The "I am going to force this smile out if it is the last thing I do" Smile

Example 2: Eating corn like it is going to get up and run away from you

Ah kiddos . . . Thanks for making me laugh!

waiting

it was 96 the other day . . . I melted. Here we are waiting for Ryan to get home:

The stake out followed.
He arrived (see his truck between bush and garage)

The sneak attack

Lots of splashing followed, then a trip to the pool. I am beginning to understand why all the pools down here are not heated.

Welcome to Texas

last night the tornado sirens right outside our house went off. We put bike helmets on the kids (ok, and on me also) and got in the bathroom.

I am pretty sure I just found two baby black widow spiders in our garage.

Awesome.

The Zoo

We celebrated Mother's Day by taking a day trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. It is a bit of a drive, but since it is ranked in the top 5 zoos in the nation we thought we should check it out (and see how Woodland Park measures up)

Some of the animals we saw:

They have the same dinosaurs that Woodland Park has right now, but they are spread all throughout the zoo (don't have to pay extra). That was pretty fun.

All in all it was a great day! fun in the sun with the family, I didn't wash a single dish or make a meal. It was amazing!

Oh, and I have to say I prefer Woodland Park Zoo still, although Fort Worth did have some AMAZING displays and some really unique animals.

Happy Birthday Sean

Sean is four! Our big boy turned 4 years old this last weekend on May 1st. We celebrated by passing the flu around. It was really special for him.

Soooo, we decided to try celebrating again, sans vomit this time.

The kids and I started the day by going to the Dallas World Aquarium. I failed to take any pictures, but I have posted some in the past when my mom and brother & Alicia were visiting.

The kids ate PBJ, oranges, and carrots on the car ride home at Sean's request. Once Ryan got home from work we headed out to get some cheese and black olive pizza. It was delightful:

Then the kids had a flex-off

I am pretty sure Sean won. Molly still has to work on her form a bit

Then, the waitress, who heard the whole it was his birthday but we were all puking story, brought Sean out a big bowl of ice cream. He LOVED it!

After dinner, again - no pictures, we walked down to the "sandy beach". A local park that has a boardwalk, sand volleyball courts, and a kids play area with slides, buckets, shovels etc. It is one of our favorites.

We finally headed home to have Sean's birthday cake, but we were all so stuffed we mainly sampled and will finish them off another day.
The cake was a delicious bundt cake from this local shop. Sean picked out the red velvet (with chocolate chips) bundlet for himself, and we got the chocolate chocolate chip one to share.

Happy Birthday big boy! We love you so and can not believe you are 4!!