Fishing Buddies

Miles and Tyson have decided that they are now expert fisherman. They think that it is so cool to fish in the ponds around our house. Grandpa is such a good sport to come go with them.
Grandpa and Tyson.

Miles showing us how you need to hold your pole and mouth just right to catch some fish.

Field Trip Wednesday - Erwin Park

Since we have been doing our field trip days, the kids have wanted a day were we didn't do anything else but letterbox. So, we found a park in McKinney that had about 6 different letterboxes hid around it and went there to send the day.

And we are off! Our letterboxes were hid along a biking trail, so the kids lots of energy out today chasing each other along the path.

Here we are at one of the boxes getting our stamp. We also brought along our friends the Harris' for the day.

Kathy and I loved this tree. If was a huge tree that we came across on our hike. It was covered with these huge knots. We thought it would be so cute to take a picture of it and hang it our house and when the kids are "naughty", make them sit under the "knotty" tree.

After our hike we had a picnic of snacks and watermelon. I love watermelon it is one the foods that associate with summer. Our family has eaten a ton of watermelon this year. Tyson wants us to grow our own watermelon next summer - we'll see if that happens. :)

Of course if there are funny looking bugs, you will find the kids looking at them and investigating.

Field Trip Thursday - MOVE THAT BUS!

We were watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition on Sunday and during the show there was a news commercial that said something like - they are building a home in Lancaster - details at 10:00. Miles looked at me and said "are they here in Dallas?" After a quick search I found where they were building and the schedule and asked the boys if they wanted to go down and watch them move that bus. Of course they were all about that. I asked Troy, he gave me the look of are you kidding? So I asked Kathy if she wanted to do it for our field trip day. I think that we are both crazy and willing to do anything together...and so that is how we got here.

When we were looking up on the website just before we left it was showing that the family was going to be there at 2:00. So we got there about 1:00 - with like the 15 day of over 100 degrees, neither one was very excited about spending the whole day in the sun.

We let the kids make signs while we were waiting. This is the sign that Miles made for the family.

They did take after take of the crowd. Here is Miles standing there proudly displacing his poster for the camera.

It was so hot, and we were watching people all around faint from the heat. We came with a cooler packed with Gatorade and they had totes of iced water bottles for us, so we were constantly making the kids drink, snack and stand under umbrellas to try to keep cool.

One of the many takes of the police officers escorting the limo to the house. They did all the stock photography for the show from about 1-3, so the kids were excited to get to watch all the officers come in on their bikes, and cheer for the limo. Yell "Move that bus!" Then do it again for another take.

When were first walked in we walked past rows and rows of police cars, and row of police motorcycles. We commented on how many police there was, and then I remembered the story of the Marshall family. He was a Dallas SWAT officer that was serving a warrant and got shot. He is now paralyzed, but it made prefect since at that point why it seemed like every officer in Dallas and all the surrounding areas was there.

After they did all the camera shots of the crowd we heard through the grapevine that it was going to be closer to 4:30 when the family got there. I started talking to some of the crew members that were walking around and they told us that they got all the crowd shots that they were going to get. At this point it was just going to be shots of the family. So we found a tree and trying to enjoy the shade until the family got there.

The family actually didn't get there until about 5:30. Before we could see the house and where the family was going to be stand when they got out of the limo. But when the family actually came in all of the volunteers and officers stood between us and them so we were not actually able to see anything when the family got there.

When I got in my car after everything it was 111 degrees, but I still think that it was a great experience. I love this show, and like for my kids to watch because I feel like it shows them that there are people who live in a bad situation but are still able to help others. I also like to see how many people come out to support the families. I hope that being apart of that today will help my kids remember that idea, and that they will always remember to help others.

Miles Art Show

A couple of days ago, Miles went to Peter Piper Pizza with a friend. They were have a hero's day and there were going to be firefighter and police officers there to meet with the kids. Miles came home and said that he had a lot of fun.

Since then, he has been asking if we can go to Peter Piper Pizza as a family for dinner. We finally made it over there tonight and as we are paying for our dinner there is a wall of pictures that have been colored, and Miles pictures that he colored were on the wall. They are the top two on the right. He was so excited to see them up there....it made his night!!

Tipper Update

I know I am a blogger slacker. I had some helper get a hold of camera and now my camera card is missing along with all the pictures that I never downloaded to my computer. So, as soon as I find my camera card, I will do some updates.

We have not found Tipper. I have thought a couple of time that I have heard her barking in the greenbelt, but when I go looking for her, it is not her. So, I just hope that she was taken in by a nice family and was killed during the storm. It took the boys almost 2 weeks before they noticed that she was gone. Then the conversation went something like:
"Where is Tipper?"
"I don't know, she ran away and we can't find her."
"Oh." That was it....

The boys have not been sad about it at all. Even when I gave away her stuff. It make me feel sad, that she is gone, and it seems like the family hasn't missed her. I think that we definitely wait along time before we consider a new dog.

Here is Tyson's explanation of where Tipper is. He told this to me at breakfast while I was making my "To Do" and I thought it was so cute. I had to write it down, so that I could remember it.

"I know where Tipper is Mommy."
"You do? Where?"
"I think that she ran out of the backyard during the storm and was running so fast that she didn't see the roller skates in the road. So, she stepped in the roller skates and then hit a big, huge ramp and it shot her into the sky. And now she lives in outer space."

So, there you have it. Tipper has found a new home in outer space, according to Tysie.

Drews Obsession

Drew has a beyond normal obsession with Corvettes and Hummers. When we are driving down the road from the backseat I hear "HUMMA" (you have to say this in a low grumbly voice and exaggerate the "M" sound)or "GWUVETTE". When we walked into the mall today Drew saw the corvette and started yelling "GWUVETTE!!!" and started trembling with excitement. I let him down, and he ran full speed to the corvette and started checking it out. Kathy was laughing so hard, and said that she has never seen anyone get so excited over a car.

Drew is in the orange shirt almost to the car, Tyson is in the blue shirt trying to keep up.

Drew checking out the tires - he must have learned this from Grandpa.

Field Trip Friday - Grapevine

Today we had intentions of going to a church in Grapevine that does a free play day for the kids. On their website it looked fun, but when we got there it was closed. They only allow a certain number of kids in, and they close it. It would have been nice if they advertised that on their website so that we could have been there earlier, but we actually ending up having a fun day.

Downtown Grapevine is a really cute little town. We went to the old train depot which is now a museum ran by the chamber of commerce. They were so excited to see us walk in with all our kids. They gave us a nice tour and we learned that Grapevine was originally called Grape Vine Prairie and they grew cotton. The huge cotton crops that they grew is why they got the train depot. But when they built DFW airport the land because to valuable for crops, and there are no more cotton farms in Grapevine - interesting huh!

After did our tour, they told us to go see the sculptor across the road and the glass blower. So we did. The sculptor was very nice and let the kids come in and he showed them how he make sculptures out of clay first, and then they are used as a mold for the iron casting. The thought it was great. I was also impressed the gentleman, when we asked him how he got into sculpturing he told us his story of being a cowboy in Australia and was hurt really bad in an accident. He was confined to a wheelchair for years, and during that time he started sculpturing. He is now a world renowned artist.

The glass blower was fun - but made me so nervous. As we were walking in through the store I started noticing the prices on his glass products. They ranged from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars. All I could think of was my little Tasmanian devil Drew getting loose from me and see everything come crashing down.

After our impromptu tour of old town Grapevine we took the kids to Rainforest Cafe. Miles and three of Kathy's kids had earned a free lunch from school....so we thought why not reward our great kids. They kids loved the cafe, and watching all the animals come to life every few minutes.

Then it was out to brave the Texas heat of the afternoon with Letterboxing. Today we found our first hitchhiker. We caught the "Swine Flu". I hitchhike is a stamp that you find, and then you take it with you and move it to the next letterbox that you go to. So we took it and will hide it next time. We were trying to find 4 stamps today, but we only got the first one. When it got to the second one, it was covered with poison ivy, and it was to hot to continue on to the next one. This one that we were trying to find was on the bike route that went around the lake. I told my kids that we would try to do it in the fall after the poison ivy dies and bring our bikes.

Me and Kathy - we are the two crazy mom's that take off with 10 kids and are having a fun summer doing it.