Olivia Visits the Dallas Zoo

Today after we dropped Sofia off at school, Olivia and I returned to the house briefly to pack snacks, water and load the stroller for a day at the Dallas Zoo. I figured since Sofia and I were able to enjoy the zoo with her class, it would be fun to have a little solo time with Olivia and the animals. The night before I asked her which animals she really wanted to see and listed off the options. She chose snakes! I guess the snake "in her baby monitor" is still making an impression! We arrived and headed into the zoo shortly after they opened. Before making it to the snakes, we stopped and watched the river otters swim around and also visited the tiger enclosure, but it was so large that we couldn't see them. We continued to the snake and amphibian house and it was actually very interesting and so many of the really poisonous snakes are absolutely beautiful. After the snakes, we visited the alligators which were enclosed in an indoor sunken room with a little lake - it was a little pitiful. But, she enjoyed looking at them and we read up on what they eat and how they live in nature.

From there, Olivia wanted to ride on the little train that is across the walkway in the former zebra and elephant holding areas. The train drove around a little loop once and then we were out and walking toward the ant eaters and Galapagos Tortoises. From there, I could tell Olivia was running out of steam, but we decided to visit the tigers once more and actually saw one of them chewing on a large bone of some sort. They are such large and beautiful animals but also so slender and long! Incredible!

From there we headed straight to the kid's zoo, since it was getting close to Olivia's nap time and she was getting restless. My favorite part of the zoo - the Savannah, which includes the giraffes, zebras, elephants, and lions would have to wait for another visit. Once at the kid's zoo, Olivia wanted to ride the horse which she loved and then she went straight for the little river to walk and splash in. A large group of preschoolers were there so it was a little crowded in the river, but she found her way and had a lot of fun! She got completely drenched and after about 20 minutes she was done. I gave her the last of the snacks, which we'd been eating along the visit, and we headed for the exit. Olivia saw the merry-go-round and wanted to go, so we bought tickets and loaded up on a horse. She loved it! It was really fun and a great ending to the day. We made it to our car and I stripped Olivia out of her wet clothes and into another set of clothes I brought with us. Then we headed home and she was asleep in less than 5 minutes. A very fun and successful trip to the zoo!

Olivia is ready for a fun day at the zoo!

Checking out the elephant statue

Reviewing the map

Watching the river otters

Visiting the tortoise

A close-up of Olivia wearing a Mimi-made top - perfect for the zoo

Looking at the snakes

More snakes

A snake close-up

Watching the iguana eat

Riding on the train

The ant eater

The huge tortoises

Such a ham!

The amazing tiger!

flamingos

Taking a horse ride

Playing in the river

Running in the river

Playing

Such a cute top

Riding on the Merry Go Around before we go! Such a fun day!

The Tooth Fairy FINALLY!!!

Sofia finally set out her two bottom teeth for the tooth fairy! Yesterday we had Ainsley and her family over for piano lessons and she told Sofia about the money she got from the tooth fairy. After they headed home, Sofia said she wanted to leave her teeth for the tooth fairy. I'm pretty sure the conversation with Ainsley prompted her decision. So, we took the two teeth out of the little container they have been in since she lost them months ago and left them on Sofia's cleared off night stand. She also left the original note that she'd written to the tooth fairy.

When I opened her door to wake her up this morning she was sitting up reading something. Apparently the tooth fairy left a card along with money! The tooth fairy wrote Sofia a sweet note and left her a five dollar bill, two quarters, a dime, a nickel and a little container of pixie dust. The note and the five dollar bill were covered with pixie dust and were very sparkly. She loved it! It was so sweet and Olivia wanted to write the Tooth Fairy a thank you note.

She was so excited by her container of pixie dust that she took it to school with her to show her friends and share and I reminded her that the Tooth Fairy's note said not to use it all in one place. She even sprinkled a little bit into Olivia's hair. It's so cute to see her so excited and now she can't wait to lose more teeth!

The tooth fairy's note and money

The tooth fairy's note

Sofia's note to the tooth fairy and her two teeth

Sofia reading her note

Sharing a litte fairy dust with her sister

Olivia inspecting her magic

Sofia with her fairy dust

Sofia's Fun Day!

Yesterday Sofia's entire school had Fun Day at Colleyville City Park. It turned out to be a perfect day for it with a nice cloud cover and 82 degrees. I left Olivia with her sitter, Ms. Katy, and arrived around 9:30am so I missed the gunny sack races. Her class was heading over to do tug-of-war when I got there, so I gave her a hug and headed over with the other parents to the sand box where tug-of-war takes place. I don't know how the school organizes the activities so they are all on time and all the different classes keep moving and keep out of other classes' space, but they did a great job. The tug-of-war started and Sofia wasn't terribly interest in pulling the rope. Her side lost a few rounds, then it was "boys vs. girls" and she really got into it then. The girls side also included Mrs. Schultz and Mrs. Dean and they just barely won! The girls were super excited! From there, Mrs. Schultz class went to the Tube Tug, where the first graders get separated into four groups with each getting assigned a number. A rubber tube was in the middle of a box and when their number was called, four kids from each side run out and grab it and try to pull it over to their cone. It was really fun to watch and Sofia was tough and really got into it and pulled with all her strength! She wouldn't budge but she finally fell and had to return to her side. After the Tube Tug, all the 1st graders headed over to the field to do the Water Relay. Again, the kids were split into four lines and at the front was a bucket that they needed to put water into from a sponge that they would fill by running individually over to a kiddy pool and soaking up water. However, once it was full of water, they had to run to the back of the line and pass it over the heads of each kid until it reached the front and was rung out! Of course the kids LOVED it and some got pretty wet, including Sofia. They all did really well too and Coach Base, who was in charge of it said the first graders actually had the closest water levels of any of the classes. Sofia's team got third, probably because they were really goofing off at the end and squeezing water onto each other instead of into the bucket.

After that, they headed over to lunch, which was an In N Out truck! I stood in the grilled cheese line with Sofia, even though I really wanted a cheese burger, but the lines were really long and I wanted to stick with Sofia. The food was good as usual, but the wait was long and the truck got very backed up! I later learned that for the $5 we spent toward our grilled cheese, chips and drink, the school was given $3.50 and In-N-Out donates $1.50 to a charity! Very cool! Sofia and I sat with her class next to the tennis court and ate our meal. After we ate, her class walked over to the Obstacle Course where they split into two lines and had to jump over little obstacles, throw three footballs and then run up an inflated slide and slide down. It wasn't really competitive the way they set it up, but the kids had a lot of fun and kept moving. The kids finished up and it was time to return to school, so I walked with Sofia to her bus and gave her a hug and kiss before she loaded onto the bus. I wish I could sign her out of school and take her home, but the school now has a rule that they must attend the entire day or they are considered absent, which stinks.

It was so fun to hang out with her and see her interact with her classmates and friends, since I don't get a chance to very often. It seems like 1st graders are in the mode of playing with whoever is around them without a lot of craziness about "best friends" etc. I did notice something I've suspected, which is that Sofia does not interact with the 'trouble makers' and stays away from the loud and annoying kids too. She's a serious rule follower at school and adores Mrs. Schultz. It was so fun to watch her have fun and get involved in all the activities and get a peek at her school life. What a fun day!

Getting ready for the tug-of-war

Victory!

The Tube Tug

Happy she's wet during the water relay

Passing the sponge

Having way too much fun!

Running with the soaking sponge

Their team got second

Ready to run in the final event

Getting started!

Cousin Jackson Turns ONE!

After Sofia got out of school on Friday we headed to meet CK at the Arlington Airport so we could fly to Atlanta and spend the weekend celebrating Jackson's 1st birthday and see Cynthia and Jay's new house in Marietta. The flight went very smoothly and CK Sr. picked us up at the airport. We arrived around 9pm local (8pm TX time) so both girls were ready for bed and we were all hungry. The girls had granola bars, bananas and fruit snacks on the flight so they weren't exactly starving. We ended up stoping at Wendy's for a quick bite since we didn't have any idea of other options. After eating possibly the worst food ever (the girls and I haven't ever eaten there before), we arrived at Cynthia and Jay's new house! The subdivision is still under construction and since it was dark out we weren't able to get a sense of how it all looked, but we were given a tour of their house and it is awesome! It's very cozy and seems to fit them perfectly, even though they don't feel completely unpacked and will need more furniture to fill up their house. It's such a perfectly designed house and feels so cozy already!

The kids played for a while and we ended up putting them to bed way past all their bedtimes (Jackson was asleep already when we arrived, so he was well rested). Sofia slept on a blow-up bed upstairs in Chandler's room while Olivia slept in a pack-n-play downstairs in the media room next to Jillian's blow-up bed (Connie and CK were in Jillian's room while we were in the guest room next to the media room. It was the perfect set-up!) Just before midnight while Cynthia, Jay, CK and I were relaxing in their living room, we heard Sofia crying and running down the stairs. Before we knew it, she was throwing up all over their hallway rug! It was terrible and she felt awful. Of course, we reassured her and cleaned up while Cynthia gave her Motrin. Sofia was sweaty and had chills, so we were afraid that she might have a virus. She wanted to sleep down in our room, so CK moved her bed downstairs while we made she she wasn't going to be sick again. We all went to bed, sleeping fitfully with every noise Sofia made. Luckily, she never got sick again and I'm pretty sure it was the food.

Saturday started with a "Mommy, can you get me out? I can't get out myself..." from Olivia. I got up around 7:30 to get her out of the pack-n-play while Jillian jumped up and we all headed upstairs where Chandler, Jackson and Connie already were up. Sofia continued to sleep and the four kids had cereal and muffins while Jillian talked all of our ears off! She's definitely a morning person. Olivia was very clingy and tearful and I finally gave her Advil which helped. Sofia got up around 9am and Chandler was so happy to finally get to play with her more. First, Grandma and Grandpa gave all three of the girls their own "Frozen" dresses and Barbie dolls and they were super excited about the Frozen dresses! Sofia changed into it immediately and they all headed down to the basement to play. Both Chandler and Jillian wanted Sofia's attention and Jillian always seemed to be the one trying to play with Sofia and Chandler. Once we reminder her she could play with Olivia, it seemed to work out well. However, they all really played great together and all got along.

Soon the house was in full "party preparation" mode with Cynthia heading out to get party supplies and Connie and CK Sr. going to get the chicken salad sandwiches. Jay, CK and I started to organize the basement, where the party would take place and decorate. Soon it was time for the party and Jay's Mom and stepdad showed up with their friends and their three kids arriving well into the party (they had their date mixed up). We all ate and enjoyed the outstanding chicken sandwiches and other food before singing "Happy Birthday" to Jackson who got to enjoy his very first smash cake! After cake and ice cream, all the kids played together outside. Finally it was time for Jackson to open his gifts which he wasn't particularly interested in doing, so Cynthia let the other kids open them for him. Of course they all LOVED playing with the one year old gifts! Cynthia and Jay's friends headed home around 6pm (they live a few houses away, which must be great) and we all had Connie's delicious baked ziti. I put all three of the girls in the bath and got them ready for bed before they all headed down to the movie room where they watched Frozen. Of course the girls were super excited and Chandler went along with it. After the movie they were off to bed.

On Sunday we enjoyed delicious donuts CK and Cynthia picked up and the kids played together. We headed to the airport around 1pm and headed home to Texas. It was perfectly planned since both girls were exhausted from short nights. The girls said goodbye to Grandpa and we loaded up in the rain. Cynthia made us sandwiches which we all enjoyed and I think the girls were asleep before altitude and I was close behind them. We ended up stopping in XXXX for a bathroom break and gas and continued on to Arlington, arriving around 6pm. We ate and picked up Buddy from next door before getting home and unpacking from a fun weekend!

Grandma handing out gifts - Frozen dresses! A HUGE hit!!

Sweet cousins!

All the cousins together

The birthday boy!

Jackson's Birthday cake

Ready for the party!

Mommy and her little boy

Happy Birthday, Jackson

His first cake!

Grandma and Grandpa with their little ones

The four of us

Cousins