Our day in Austin

My parents came out for a visit Oct 15th and we had a great time. On Wednesday the 16th they accompanied me on my usual routine of taking Norah to preschool, grocery shopping and taking Alice to story time. It was really nice to have all the extra help and show them our day to day life. It was fun for Norah to show them her new preschool building and she was so proud to introduce everyone to her grandparents. In the afternoon they took the girls to Monster yogurt and Norah was telling anyone who would listen that she had her grandparents with her and what their names were and how they were going to San Antonio.

On Thursday we packed up the Sienna my parents rented and headed for Austin. We made a special stop at Zilker Park to ride on the Zilker Zepher which we all enjoyed – even Alice despite this picture. Then we toured the capitol building while Norah napped in the van. The highlight of the tour for me was when we went through the metal detector and the Texas state trooper handed us a bin for our '”coins, keys, jewelry, knives” I said “knives?!” and he said “yeah, just to walk through the metal detector – you'll get them back.” He caught on that I was surprised and not protesting so just to tease me he added “you could take a gun in if you had a permit.” and then asked if we were Texans. I’m not really sure why they bother having a metal detector . . . Then we walked up and down Austin’s hip 6th street – and I carried Alice pretty much the whole time because she was being clingy. This is what it looked like when Bryan held her and what it looked like when I held her It made for a very long walk. After some pizza we went for another very long walk to Congress bridge to see the bats. Bryan and my dad went for yet another long walk to move the car closer so we wouldn’t have a long walk after seeing the bats. All in all they walked 7 miles!The girls were very excited to see them when they got back.The pretty view from the bridge You can see the pretty capitol building behind Alice’s head Watching the Austin bats below the bridge They did not disappoint – it was amazing

Norah the Activist

Today I saw this video on Facebook today and since my kids are TV deprived they rushed over to watch it with me.

Norah of course had a lot of questions. When Bryan came home she gave him a brief synopsis of the video and then this conversation happened:

N: Palm oil is destroying the rainforest and that’s the orange gorilla's habitat! B: Oh no N: We can change our opinion in our family. Let’s find a solution. B: Okay what’s your solution? N: We need to stop eating palm oil and save the rainforest. L: We can’t eat anymore Oreos and we need to buy different peanut butter then. N; That’s right. (2 minutes later) B: Okay who wants Oreos??? N: I do I do B(laughing): The Oreos have palm oil N(hanging her head): I don’t want any

I’m not sure how I feel about this video. It has a good message and it was obviously effectively conveyed but it felt manipulative. I showed it to Bryan and he was actually predicting the lines. I felt sorry for Norah after Bryan teased her with the Oreos so I offered her an ice cream cone instead and when Bryan pulled out the ice cream he pretended it had palm oil in it too. He’s so cruel! I told Norah he was just joking and assured her it was palm oil free and she was like “Why was daddy joking about palm oil in the ice cream?” Oh the burden of an environmental conscience!

The Life and Times of Big Tex

Bryan took last Tuesday (Oct 8th) off work today so we could go to the State Fair as a family. It brought back a lot of emotion I felt last year when we went to the fair the day after my mom told me she had stage 4 colon cancer. I found out late at night and we had already gotten Norah excited about going to the fair so we went anyway. I was very sad and it was kind of surreal to walk around carnival rides and cotton candy. I think I cried while we were there but I was also really glad we went because it felt good to do something so fun and memorable with my family. Life is precious and I want to have as many good memories with my family as I can. Since my parents came home from Cyprus I’ve seen my mom 10 times. I’m grateful she’s been able to travel so much and I’m looking forward to seeing her again this week.

Norah was very excited to go to the fair and she frequently reminded us by saying “I’m so excited I’m so excited I’m so excited. We get to see Big Tex!!! He’s going to be even bigger than before!” She was so excited she posed for a picture with the height chart by the rides just because he was on it.You can see Henry in this picture – Henry and his Mom Erin went with us for a few hours in the morning Norah telling me she needed sunglasses Seeing the new Big Tex I love the architecture at Fair Park. It’s Art Deco at it’s best. Isn’t this beautiful? Each of the buildings is this beautiful with statues and murals. We saw three shows: The African Acrobats, a dog trick show and the “World On A String” puppet show. Norah was chosen as a volunteer to interact with some of the marionettes. Thankfully, these Wizard of Oz marionettes were the least creepy in the show. Afterwards we walked around the Arts and Crafts building and saw all the awards – it was amazing how many different categories there were – there was a crocheted afghan category! I loved seeing all the jams and all the quilts. Way to go Betty! We had a great time and it took only three minutes for Alice to fall asleep in the car on the way home

Norah in September

Norah started playing soccer this month. She joined a team with three of her friends from Spanish House: Benjamin, Frederick and Tristan. Benjamin and NorahBenjamin and Norah with Coach Molly getting ready to capture soccer balls. Frederick is in the green shorts and Tristan is in the blue shorts.You can see all four of them in this picture with Coach MattNorah and Frederick

Alice in September

I’ve been taking Alice to Boogie Woogie Books at the White Rock Hills Library every Wednesday morning while Norah is in school. It’s our special time together and I look forward to it – and so does Alice! Miss Jenna is one very special librarian. She leads us in songs between books and Alice loves it when she gets to use the shakers And afterwards she gets to pick out a few books for the week

Pumpkin Village

I think the highlight of fall here in Dallas is the Pumpkin Village at the Arboretum. I’m sure these are just the first of many pictures here this fall:

Norah is making a weird face here but she was picking her nose in the other ones – I honestly debated which one to post.Our attempt a group photo. Norah, Alice, Oliver, Henry and Frederick. Where is Jayden?! This artist does face painting at the arboretum on Monday’s and Tuesdays. He is soooo nice to the kids. Norah wanted to be a yellow and black butterfly. Who knows what Alice wanted to be?! I guessed a pink butterfly for her. I wish she talked more. We saw our old neighbor Gene there. He and Paula both volunteer at the arboretum. We miss living next door to them. They were the best neighbors!

Zooday

We go to the zoo pretty regularly so I hardly ever bother to take pictures anymore but when we went with Bryan it felt a little more special. This is such a great time of year in Dallas. We packed a picnic and had a great day.Something I really enjoy about the Dallas Zoo is that the elephants, zebras, ostriches, impalas and sometimes the giraffes all share the same habitat. You can read about it here:http://www.dallaszoo.com/news/elephants-and-giraffes-and-zebras-oh-my/ They are the first zoo in the US and the only the second in the world to do this. It’s pretty amazing and definitely my favorite area of the zoo. You can see a zebra and elephants in this picture.These girls had already played hard at the park this morning so we spent a lot of time in the comfy chairs at “base camp” watching the elephants and ostriches We even got to see the Ostriches strut down to take a bath.