The Lee Family: Fun with Aunt Becky!!

Aunt Becky arrived on Thursday just before dinnertime and the girls were so excited to spend a long weekend with one of their favorite aunts! Aunt Becky is fantastic with kids and is always really involved with the girls - reading to them, telling them stories, acting silly, and getting totally engrossed in their stories whenever we are all together. Sofia had school on Friday and it ended up being the first cool snap of the year with beautiful clear skies and the temperatures only in the low 70s. I thought about taking Aunt Becky and the girls to the Texas Fair over the weekend, but it's so overwhelming and crazy, that I figured going to the Arboretum on such a beautiful day would be perfect. Of course, since it's the start of October and thousands of pumpkins are decorating the Arboretum, there were a lot of visitors. In fact, we hit pretty serious State Fair traffic on the way to the Arboretum and it took us much longer to get there than it normally does. We arrived around 11:30am and had to park the furthest away I've ever had to park!

We made our way inside and went straight over to the pumpkin area. It was spectacular as usual and Aunt Becky and Olivia had fun walking around the pumpkin houses and exploring all the huge piles of pumpkins. Although there were a lot of people at the Arboretum, it didn't feel terribly overcrowded. Olivia climbed all over a pile of medium-sized pumpkins for a bit and then we decided to visit the horses and carriage. The horses are made out of corn stalks and husks and are very impressive. We had to wait in line for a few minutes, but we made it inside and took a photo.

Next, we decided to show Aunt Becky the "frog fountains" which is only a short distance from the expanse of pumpkins. Olivia didn't want to walk and kept asking for her stroller, which never would have made it over the bumpy grass. Aunt Becky gave her a crazy piggy back ride around the trees and across the field and Olivia was laughing like crazy! We arrived at the frog fountains and there weren't any kids in the water since it was fairly chilly given that it was in the 90s until just two days before. Of course, Olivia asked to get wet to which I told her to go for it. I figure you're only four years old once and before I know it she won't be interested in running around and getting soaked in her clothes. She had a ball! After a few minutes there were a few other kids there who wanted to get wet too, although not quite as drenched as Olivia got. She splashed and ran around for about 20-30 minutes and was sopping wet! She loved getting her head soaking wet and then shake her head like a dog does to get the water out of her hair.

She had a great time until she suddenly realized that she might be cold. So, we headed back over to the stroller where we striped her out of her soaking wet clothes and wrapped her in the blanket that she brought with her so she wasn't naked and so she stayed warm. I always have an extra set of clothes and swimsuit in the car, but didn't think to bring any of it with us. So, once we were back to the car she was able to change into warm, dry clothes.

We were all hungry so I took Becky and Olivia to basically the only restaurant I really visit in Dallas and my all time favorite - The Porch. Anytime we go to Dallas to meet CK for lunch, I always request meeting at The Porch. The food is just delicious and the setting is comfortable and nice. Olivia had the grilled cheese and fruit, although she didn't eat much since she'd snacked on our walk back to our car from the pumpkins on a granola bar and apple sauce I had in my purse. Aunt Becky and I both had the fried chicken cobb salad, which is CK's favorite and I now know why! Delicious!

We headed out and I thought about going to Sprinkles Cupcakes, but we were all too full for anything sweet.

Texas in pumpkins